Dorina could only agree with him and there really seemed to be no point in saying so.
When they reached the Vicarage, she jumped down from the phaeton and appreciated that Harry was tactful enough not to follow her.
Instead he sat outside while she went in search of her father.
She knew that by this time he would be back from the Church where he held Morning Service, which usually consisted of a congregation of no more than two or three elderly ladies and himself, but he considered it his duty to take it and it was an obligation he never missed, however many other commitments he might have.
She found him in his study and saw that he had not yet taken off his cassock.
He smiled as she came into the room and greeted her,
“It’s a lovely day, Dorina, and I was just thinking of going into the garden.”
“There is something vital I want you to do first, Papa.”
“What is it?” he enquired.
She hesitated before she asked a little tentatively,
“Have you ever conducted the Service of Exorcism?”
She felt as she spoke that it was very unlikely, but to her surprise her father responded,
“Often, as it happens, but not for some years.”
“You have?”
The Vicar smiled.
“When I was a young man, I had a friend who lived in Essex and in that county it is acknowledged there is more witchcraft than anywhere else in England.”
He paused as if he was thinking and added,
“The Chelmsford witches are famous and a trial in 1556 ended with the witches being the first to be hanged in England.”
“That was a long time ago, Papa,” Dorina said quickly, knowing that it would be a mistake to allow her father to start on a long discourse on events that had happened in the past.
“Well, there were witches and sorcerers and spells cast when I was there,” the Vicar said, “and, as my friend who was older than I was had exorcised many different ghosts, curses, and evil spirits, I too became, through assisting him, quite an expert at it.”
“That is exactly what I wanted to know,” Dorina said quickly. “I want you to come now, Papa, and exorcise the evil which Cousin Jarvis had planted in the old Earl’s bedroom when I heard him calling up Satan and the Gods of hatred and murder.”
Her father stared at her.
“What are you talking about, my dearest?”
“I am telling you, Papa,” Dorina said in a frightened voice, “that Cousin Jarvis is using Black Magic to try to kill the Earl!”
The Vicar found it so incredible that it took Dorina a little time to explain what she had overheard and to persuade her father that she was not exaggerating what Jarvis was doing.
Then when she explained to him that the Earl had been poisoned, the Vicar said sharply,
“This sort of outrage must be stopped at once and Jarvis arrested for attempting such a crime.”
“I doubt if anyone would believe it, Papa, just as you are finding it hard to believe me now,” Dorina answered. “First things first. We have to try first to counteract Jarvis’s devilish scheming, so I want you to come with me to Yarde to see the Earl, and exorcise the evil, which I know is still there in the bedroom and intent on putting an end to his life.”
“I will come at once,” the Vicar stated briefly.
As he spoke, he picked up his surplice which he had laid over a chair when he came back from the Church and his Prayer Book which was on the deck and, without saying any more, followed Dorina into the hall.
Harry greeted him as the Vicar climbed into the phaeton beside him and Dorina was squeezed between her father and the other side.
The phaeton was really built to carry only two people, but she knew that it would have meant a considerable delay if they had asked for one of the carriages and Harry had felt, as she did, that time was of the essence.
It took them only about ten minutes to reach Yarde and when they went upstairs to the Earl’s bedroom, the Vicar stopped in the dressing room first to put on his surplice.
Then, as Harry opened the door into the bedroom and went in, they saw that the Earl was asleep.
Because for a moment she was afraid that he might have died in their absence, Dorina hurried to the bedside and felt his pulse.
To her great relief it was stronger than it had been before she left and she knew that her mother’s antidote for the poison that Jarvis had put into the wine was beginning to work.
She also thought, and she was sure that she was not mistaken, that the Earl’s skin was no longer tinged with the blue which was so indicative of poisoning by deadly nightshade.
She was confident now, unless Jarvis should strike again, that the poison would soon be eliminated from his body.
The Earl’s valet, who was devoted to him and had been with him as his batman in the Army, had moved quietly out of the room when they came in.
As Harry closed the door, Dorina knew her father was ready to start the Service of Exorcism.
She had never heard it before and she thought that the language of the prayers was inspiring.
She thought too that there was something comfortingly strong and authoritative in her father’s voice when he commanded the evil spirit to go and for the presence of God and His Saints to drive it away.
She thought as well that, perhaps because she was personally so closely involved, it affected her more than it might have done otherwise.
She was quite certain as her father started the last prayer that the atmosphere in the room had unmistakably changed and, although the blinds were half-drawn, she felt it was filled with sunshine or rather a light that was not of the earth but came from the Divine.
She knelt down as her father gave the final blessing, making the sign of the cross to the North, South, East, and West of the room, then once again over the Earl.
As he did so, the Earl opened his eyes, but Dorina had the idea that he had been awake for some time and was aware of what was happening.
For a moment there was silence. Then, as if the Vicar felt he had in fact been battling with the Powers of Darkness, he walked from the room to compose himself.
Dorina rose to her feet.
“That was very moving,” Harry commented quietly and the Earl said,
“I feel better! Thank you, Dorina.”
Dorina felt as if she came back from a long distance, back to the everyday world, where she must be practical and do what was required of her.
She moved to the table where she had left some of the herbal medicine she had given the Earl.
There was still enough to fill a wine glass and she carried it carefully across the room and lifted it to his lips.
He drank it without comment and, as she took the glass back to the table, she knew that she must make some more to last him through the night.
The Vicar came back into the room.
Now he had taken off his surplice and in his dark cassock he looked exceedingly handsome and, Dorina knew, thanks to the food that the Earl had sent them, stronger than she had seen him for some time.
“How do you feel, my Lord?” he asked.
“A little better,” the Earl replied, “and thank you for coming and for the service you have just performed.”
“I am confident that it will be effective,” the Vicar said. “At the same time, after what Dorina has told me, I feel we should do something to prevent Jarvis Yarde from attacking you again.”
“I was thinking about that,” Harry said. “It’s obvious that if he thinks his poison will have killed you, as he intended, he will be waiting in London for news of your death.”
“Then he will be disappointed,” the Earl replied.
“I was just wondering,” Harry went on, “how we can teach him a lesson he will not forget in a hurry.”
Everybody in the room looked at him. Then the Earl said slowly,
“It might be a great satisfaction, Harry, to knock him out with one’s bare fists or –
even to challenge him to a duel, but if he is determined to be rid of me, there will be plenty of other opportunities for him to be more successful – than he has been this time.”
Dorina gave a cry of horror.
“You mean he will go on trying to kill you?”
“Of course he will!” the Earl answered. “After all, he has everything to gain by my death, apart from the ability to settle his debts, which he is apparently unable to do at present.”
“How can you bear to know that this could be hanging over your head, day after day and year after year?” Dorina asked anxiously.
“That is exactly what I am feeling – myself,” the Earl murmured.
“It is intolerable!” the Vicar exclaimed. “Something will have to be done and at once! I will speak to Jarvis.”
“I doubt if he will listen to you, Papa.”
Dorina was remembering as she spoke how she had always thought her cousin had despised her father for being a Parson. Now she understood that he had more reason for doing so than just the fact that they were poor and of no social consequence.
As a Satanist, as Jarvis obviously was, he would hate anyone who was a man of God and who believed, as her father did, in everything that was good, while he had chosen to worship Satan and all his evil.
“Then what can I do?” the Vicar asked a little helplessly.
“We must do something!” Harry chipped in firmly. “As your daughter has said, Vicar, no man would find it tolerable to live with the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, knowing that anything he ate might kill him or that he might be exterminated by a bullet or some contrived accident at any hour of the day or night.”
“You are making me feel worse than I do already, Harry!” the Earl said with a slight note of amusement in his voice.
Because he spoke almost naturally, Dorina knew with a leap of her heart that her antidote for the poison was working and she did not even have to ask the Earl if the feeling of nausea had passed.
He was obviously already much better than he had been when she first saw him.
“Is all this too much for you?” Harry asked quickly. “If you wish, Oscar, we can go downstairs and go on discussing it there.”
“As it is my life you are discussing, Harry, I would much prefer you all to stay here. I want to hear what is being said and take part in any decisions that are made.”
“Then, of course, we will stay,” Dorina said. “At the same time you must save yourself as much as possible. I know you have been finding it hard to talk and also to swallow.”
“How did you know – ?” the Earl began, then he went on, “I had no idea that you were an expert on herbs as well as so many other talents!”
“Everything I know I learnt from my mother. All the people in the village came to her when they were ill, and they believed, because what she gave them worked like magic, that she was a white witch!”
She glanced at her father a little provocatively as she spoke and the Vicar said deprecatingly,
“I am afraid that is true. I myself disapprove of witchcraft in whatever form it takes, but the people around here prefer to believe in magic rather than the fact that nature itself provides a cure for most ills.”
“Whatever it may be,” the Earl smiled, “I am very grateful for what Dorina has given me! I really thought this morning, when it was difficult to speak and even more difficult to swallow, that I was going to die!”
“That is exactly what your cousin Jarvis hoped!” Harry protested angrily. “If ever I get my hands on that young man, he will not be able to talk or walk for at least a week!”
“When he comes,” Dorina said quietly, “he will be more determined than ever that only by becoming the Earl of Yardecombe will he achieve all that he wants in life!”
There was silence as everybody was thinking about Jarvis. Then Dorina said,
“I have an idea!”
“What is it?” Harry asked.
“I am thinking of something you said just now, Mr. Harringdon.”
Harry looked puzzled and she went on,
“You said Jarvis will be waiting in London to hear the news of his cousin’s death. Supposing, just supposing, we let it be known that he is very ill, very ill indeed? I think Cousin Jarvis might then come posting down to Yarde, ready to take over. Perhaps then we could frighten him somehow by threats or even by violence, never to do such a thing again?”
Her voice seemed to die away and there was silence as all three men considered what she had said.
Harry spoke first.
“I believe you are right, Miss Stanfield. The best thing we can do is to make Jarvis realise that we know what he has been doing and if he attempts anything more that might result in Oscar’s death, he will be instantly arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and, if it is proved, hanged.”
“Do you think he will listen to you?” the Vicar asked.
“I will make him listen!” Harry said violently. “There is really no alternative, is there?”
The Earl was silent. Then, after a moment, Dorina asked,
“How will you see that he believes that the Earl is really very ill?”
“I will write him a letter,” Harry said decidedly, “in such friendly terms that he will have not the slightest idea that I suspect him in any way.”
“What will you say, Mr. Harringdon?” the Vicar enquired.
“I shall tell him that my friend Oscar is at death’s door and I feel his relatives should be informed. But since I don’t know any of them, I think it important for him to come at once to Yarde and help me to get in touch with his nearest connections.”
“That is clever!” Dorina exclaimed. “For, of course, having been abroad with the Earl, you are not likely to know any of his relatives, except Jarvis.”
“As you say, except Jarvis,” Harry agreed. “He is, in fact, the only Yarde I have been in contact with since I arrived in England and I am sure Jarvis will appreciate that and will not suspect for a moment that I have any ulterior motive in asking for his company.”
“You must be careful,” the Vicar said, “not to put yourself in the wrong, Mr. Harringdon, by doing Jarvis Yarde any physical injury, out of which he could make a good story to gain sympathy.”
“I cannot believe anybody could be sympathetic to a man who is a deliberate murderer!” Harry replied. “For I sincerely believe if Miss Stanfield had not been so knowledgeable that she knew how to treat the poison, we would not be talking here happily at the moment, but arranging a funeral!”
“Was I really as bad – as that?” the Earl asked.
He still spoke slowly, but the slur had not gone completely from his speech, but the colour had come back into his face so that he looked almost like himself again.
At the same time Dorina knew from past experience that it took time for the poison to be completely eliminated from the system and she suggested,
“I think now that our patient should sleep and we should all go downstairs so that he is not disturbed. Now that we have decided what is next to be done, we can go into the details without worrying him.”
The Earl was about to expostulate, but she put out her hand and laid it on his.
“Please, be sensible, my Lord,” she pleaded. “Although you may not realise it, you have been through a very traumatic experience and you must take things very easily. But I do promise you, there is no chance whatever now of your dying.”
She thought the Earl’s eyes were drooping, but there was a twinkle in them as he replied,
“Very well, Nurse! I will put up with your bullying for the moment, but not for long!”
They all went out of the room, leaving his valet in charge again and, when they were sitting downstairs in the comfortable study, Harry said,
“I am sure you will think I am being somewhat dramatic, but I feel that it would be a great mistake for Oscar to be left alone at any time.”
Dorina’s eyes widened,
“You mean – you think that Jarvi
s might – kill him?”
“If you want the truth,” Harry replied, “I think your cousin is mad! He should be shut away in an asylum, but while he is still at large, we have to anticipate that in his crazy desire to be the Earl of Yardecombe he will stop at nothing.”
“You mean – ?” the Vicar began.
“I mean,” Harry interrupted, “that we have to face the fact that he may shoot, stab or bludgeon Oscar to death if his plan to poison him has not succeeded.”
He paused for a moment before he added,
“I have been at war too long not to know that an enemy when he is cornered will use any means, however outrageous, to gain his objective and to defend himself.”
Remembering the wild mad note in Jarvis’s voice when she had heard him conjuring up Satan, Dorina felt that Harry was right.
“What do you – think then we ought to – do?” she asked in a frightened voice.
“It would be a mistake for you to be involved in this, Miss Stanfield,” Harry replied, “but I have every intention of keeping a watch by Oscar’s bed at night and taking it in turns with his valet for one of us to be always with him.”
“Surely I can nurse him too,” Dorina objected. “As Papa knows, I have nursed many people in the village when they have been ill and there was nobody else to help them and I nursed my mother too before she died.”
“That is true,” the Vicar agreed. “Dorina is a very good nurse and I think as well that she must be able to observe the effects of the herbs she is giving the Earl. I remember, looking back, that my wife was often afraid of a relapse in any patient she was treating for as long as the first twenty-four hours after they were on the mend.”
“Very well,” Harry conceded, “and of course I shall welcome any help Miss Stanfield can give us. But for the sake of her reputation, she should not stay here at night unchaperoned.”
“No, of course not,” the Vicar agreed.
As he spoke, Dorina thought he had not given any thought to her position from a social point of view and was thinking of her as being simply merciful to a sick man.
“I will send my letter to London with a groom,” Harry said, “and I am sure that Jarvis will not travel when it is dark. Therefore I and Oscar’s valet will be with him tonight and tomorrow. If you come as early tomorrow as you can, Miss Stanfield, with your herbs to treat him, we will keep him quiet, then we will just wait and see what Jarvis does when he thinks Oscar is on the point of death.”
The Devil Defeated Page 9
