The floor was of wood and highly-polished and in the centre, a large pink and white rug lay as if new. I recalled Nora Blackstone’s words that the nursery was in readiness. I thought with some hint of pity that she must have tended this room for twenty years and my heart went out to her when I thought of how her Felicity would never come back nor sleep again in one of these beds. In one corner beneath the window was a large wooden dolls’ house, the small figures and furniture still placed where my mother may herself have placed them all those years ago when she was young and carefree. Then I thought of Aunt Laura. At some time in her childhood she must have been gay and happy, too, and I set to wondering again what had changed her to the unhappy, uncivil, discourteous person she had become.
While I kneeled on the floor to look closer at the dolls’ house Robert was tapping the light wood panelling with which the walls were covered. Would he find the secret chamber where Roman Catholic priests hid in the seventeenth century? Half of me hoped our search would be fruitless in view of the governess’s words and I felt a little afraid until I looked at Robert’s tall, dependable figure and knew he would take care of me.
I joined him at some panelling on the outer wall by the high window. He was obviously interested in one particular partition.
‘See, Janie, the outer wall is five foot thick here, or thereabouts. Tap this panelling here.’
I did as I was bid.
Now tap this panelling on the other side of the window.’
I moved across and indeed it made a different sound.
‘Would you not agree the sound is somewhat more hollow on the right than on the left? And look, here the seam is thicker.’
I could sense the excitement in Robert’s voice. It was as he said and I started to tremble involuntarily as I wondered what we might find. Robert carried on tapping and deduced the panelling sounded different to a height of five feet.
‘But if this is it, how does one open it?’
I could tell frustration was creeping into his voice and manner.
‘There must be a catch somewhere, but where?’
‘What of the window recess?’ I suggested, more out of desperation to please him than anything else.
‘The window, yes, Janie, the window. Why didn’t I think of it?’
He set to feeling the stone recess carefully. A cry escaped him.
‘I think I’ve found it. Please, get me that stool Janie.’
I dragged the heavy, wooden stool over to him and he stood on it better able to see what he had discovered. Anxiously I watched him and waited.
‘This is very rusty and will not give easily, but before I try to pull it I wonder which way the panelling will go. It won’t slide, but swing, I think.’
He got down off the stool, pushing it to one side.
‘Are you ready, my love?’
I murmured my agreement as he pulled and pushed the metal lever which I could now see was hidden in a crevice in the wall. After what seemed an eternity, there was a creaking sound and we could see the panelling swinging back slowly and we both stood together in front of it, watching it with disbelief. The hidden room which was revealed was small with only space for a man to sit. In the stone behind was a small slit which provided air. I heard the piercing scream before I realised it was I who screamed. Slumped against the wall was a skeleton! The clothes, although deteriorated, hung loosely on the frame and a man’s pocket watch dazzled my horrified eyes as the light from the window opposite danced on the gold casing.
Robert pulled me to him and I laid my head on his shoulder, the comfort of his arms around me. All too soon he turned my face up to his, away from the horror.
‘Come away, Janie, come away. We will have to inform the authorities.’
He gently coaxed me from where I felt transfixed.
‘But who is he, Robert?’ I managed to ask quietly, my sluggish mind suddenly springing back into action.
‘I have a good idea, a very good idea,’ he said quietly.
As he led me to the door, we both stopped in our tracks. Nora Blackstone stood in the doorway.
‘So you’ve found him then? I saw her coax him in, you know, and shut the door on him. She’s evil, that one.’
So saying, she ran from the room. Robert and I followed, his arm gently around me.
In a daze, I was led to the drawing-room. I was trembling from head to foot. Robert thrust a glass of brandy into my hand and ordered me to drink it. I did so under his watchful gaze and then he rang the bell. Fortunately it was Mrs Dobbs who answered.
‘My, whatever is wrong, miss? You look as white as my sheets and you are quivering like one of Cook’s jellies,’ she said, aghast at how I seemed.
‘She’s had a terrible shock. I want you to stay with her while I send for the police and Jason Trehaine,’ Robert said.
‘The police, sir? My, whatever is amiss?’
‘I’ll tell you all too soon, Mrs Dobbs, but for the moment keep Miss Merriock calm.’
‘Why, yes, sir.’
By the time Robert returned, I had almost stopped shaking and felt somewhat calmer. The brandy had obviously worked. Robert ordered Mrs Dobbs to fetch my grandmother and Aunt Laura.
While we waited for them to join us, I asked Robert the question burning in my mind, as the scene we had witnessed in the nursery swam before my eyes.
‘Who do you think it was, Robert?’ There was a long silence before Robert spoke.
‘I think, my love, it is Andrew Trehaine, but that theory can only be verified when Jason Trehaine arrives.’
My hands flew to my mouth, the whole horror of it all dawning on me.
‘And when Nora Blackstone said she saw her coax him in and close the door she meant...’
I could hardly utter the next words. ‘Aunt Laura! Oh, my goodness! But why?’
‘Don’t distress yourself, dear, but it does look rather that way.’
Jason Trehaine arrived before the police and Robert took him up to the nursery. I wanted to join them but Robert wouldn’t hear of it. My grandmother and Aunt Laura joined me in the drawing-room in the meantime, but I was sworn to secrecy not to say anything. Robert wanted to tell them himself.
‘What is the matter?’ Aunt Laura complained as she sat opposite me. ‘I hate being disturbed while I’m reading in the library. What is the matter with you, Jane? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.’
‘Maybe I have,’ I couldn’t help uttering as she looked at me with such contempt.
‘Don’t start, you two,’ Grandmother interrupted. ‘My morning nap has been disturbed but I’m not complaining, nor should you, Laura. Robert wouldn’t send for us for anything other than for a good reason.’
We sat in silence, waiting for Robert and Jason Trehaine. I still felt very confused about thinking of him as my father. My thoughts kept returning to the scene in the nursery and I realised with some sense of horror and disbelief that the poor man, whoever he was, had probably been incarcerated all my life.
When Robert and Jason entered the room we all turned to look at them, all of us in expectation, for different reasons. Jason Trehaine was looking shaken and Robert poured him a brandy, telling him to sit down. He sat in a high chair by a small, polished table, quite distant from the rest of us.
‘What is this all about, Robert, and why is Mr Trehaine here? I need to get back to my nap, not that I will get back to sleep now,’ my grandmother said, leaning back in her chair and yawning.
‘I’m sorry, Mrs Pendenna, but I have some news which will shock you.’
Robert sat next to me as he spoke, opposite Grandmother and Aunt Laura.
‘There is no easy way to say this, so I will come straight to the matter in question. Jane and I found the priest’s hole this morning, in the nursery.’
Robert’s eyes shifted from my grandmother to Aunt Laura who had suddenly sat up straight.
‘I’m afraid to have to tell you that in the priest’s hole, we found human remains. Mr Trehaine has identified a
pocket watch as that of his brother, Andrew Trehaine.’
Aunt Laura stood up and went to the window, wailing. My grandmother, suddenly alert, had paled visibly but with great dignity said, ‘Thank you, Robert.’
Robert went to pour another glass of brandy which he handed to my grandmother. She sipped at it, not looking at anyone.
‘And do we know how poor Andrew came to be shut in a priest’s hole?’ she asked quietly.
‘I have an idea but would like Mrs Dobbs to fetch Nora Blackstone.’
‘You don’t think it was Miss Blackstone? Surely not.’
My grandmother found strength in her voice and she glanced around at Laura who was still stood looking out on to the terrace.
‘Laura, have you anything to say about this? Come here and talk to me.’
Aunt Laura walked slowly towards us, her face expressionless but her eyes glittered with some emotion I could not identify. When she spoke she seemed in control of herself.
‘There is no need to fetch Nora Blackstone. It was I who lured Andrew to the priest’s hole and shut the door on him for what I thought was forever.’
Her voice was rising and a sob escaped her lips. Although my grandmother must have been distraught at this revelation, she spoke quite calmly as if speaking to a child.
‘And why did you do this, Laura?’ ‘Because he was to marry me but he loved her, Felicity, my own sister.’
Laura was now losing control as she faced me.
‘She was pregnant with his child. Yes, Jane, Andrew Trehaine was your father!’
She screamed the words at me with such venom and hatred that I shrunk back in my seat.
‘This is not true, Laura,’ Grandmother said with a firm voice. ‘Why should you think this?’
Laura turned to her mother.
‘Because I saw them in the woods together. They were walking close and were laughing, laughing at me no doubt, and when she told me she was with child, I knew it was Andrew’s. How I hated her, and him, but she would never have him. I saw to that. But no-one will punish me for it for I have been punished enough over twenty years. I thought I could find love again with Robert, until she came on the scene!’
She looked at me once more.
‘You are no better than your mother, stealing my man. I have never had any happiness and never will.’
I felt almost sorry for her, but her next action took us all by surprise. She suddenly ran to the door and before Robert or I could catch up with her, she had picked up the skirts of her green dress and was halfway up the staircase.
Robert shouted after her and I followed him. To my amazement, she fled to my room and as Robert and I reached the door it was too late. She had already reached the balcony and jumped.
My heart was pounding but while Robert sped back downstairs, I stepped out on to the balcony. I could see Aunt Laura’s crumpled body lying on the ground below, her skirts spread around her. Even as I looked, Robert appeared and bent over her poor, broken body. As he looked up at me, I knew she was dead.
12
Aunt Laura and Andrew Trehaine were both buried in the family crypt in Pendenna church. It was a sad day, especially for my grandmother who had now lost both her daughters.
‘But I have you, Jane,’ she said to me after the funeral, hugging me to her.
The police were told the whole story and there were enough witnesses to verify that Aunt Laura had admitted to shutting her betrothed in the priest’s hole. How sad, I kept thinking, that she was such a jealous woman to the extent that she would murder the man she loved, and no wonder Nora Blackstone was so deranged after what she had witnessed.
She had loved her two girls, Laura and Felicity, enough to keep silent all those years. Grandmother had spoken with Nora and now coaxed her to come downstairs more. Daisy Dobbs had kindly taken the governess under her wing and they took tea together every day. When the days were warmer, it was hoped that Nora would walk in the grounds of Pendenna again, but only time would tell.
The day after the funeral, two weeks before Christmas, in no mood for riding, I asked Jack to take me in the pony and trap to Mannamead. It was time I talked to Jason Trehaine. Simms opened the door to me and offered his sincere condolences. I was dressed in black out of respect for Aunt Laura. Grandmother had told me I only need wear it until Christmas Eve.
As I stood in the drawing-room waiting for Jason Trehaine I could feel the butterflies in my stomach and I was still wondering how I was going to broach the subject, but there was no need.
As he walked through the door and looked at me he said, ‘You know, don’t you, Jane?’
‘That you are my father? Yes, I do, but how...’
‘It was your manner the evening I dined at Pendenna. You kept touching your mother’s brooch as you looked at me.’
I touched it now, for it was pinned to the neck of my dress.
‘Seat yourself, Jane, and tell me how you found out.’
‘I dropped the brooch that very day you came to dinner and I saw your picture. Everything suddenly fitted together, but I need you to tell me why my mother married John Merriock even though she was carrying your child.’
‘It is a long story, Jane, but I will try to simplify it for you. Your mother and I fell very much in love but I was engaged to be married to Charlotte Trevellyan. It was a long-standing engagement, a match secured by my parents and one just didn’t thwart one’s parents in those days. When your mother found out she was with child, we both panicked. John Merriock was a good friend of mine and had always secretly loved your mother.
‘I confided in him and he agreed to go away and marry Felicity, bringing up my child as his own. We hoped that when the child was born, your grandparents would welcome them back to Pendenna but Morgan Pendenna refused to have anything to do with his daughter, grandchild or the penniless artist she had married. I was at my wits’ end for I knew that I would probably never see my beloved or my little daughter.’
He paused, his voice breaking a little. ‘And what of the brooch which my mother wore each day?’ I queried.
‘On our last meeting, the night before your mother left Cornwall, I gave her the brooch with my image inside it so she would never forget me or the fact that I adored her.’
‘And the paintings?’
‘To make John feel better, I bought them to pay for their house and your schooling. I vowed you would be brought up in the manner I envisaged and that you and your mother would want for nothing. Jane, believe me when I say that I have lived in torment the past twenty years and when I heard your mother and John were dead, my first thought was to come and fetch you but at that time you would not have understood. I pray you understand now.’
He leaned across and took my hand.
‘Yes, I do understand. In the past couple of weeks, despite all that has been happening, I have given it all much thought and you have now made clear to me the whole story. You were going to tell me anyway, weren’t you?’
‘I was but I had to speak with your grandmother first and I never got the chance, what with Andrew being found in such a shocking way and your aunt’s death, but now you have come to me for which I am so thankful.’
‘It was because of Granny Merriock you were going to tell me, wasn’t it?’
‘Partly that and I knew you would eventually fit things together, as indeed you have done.’
‘And what of Granny Merriock?’
‘She knew. John had told her and she never forgave him for what he did. I knew that if you ever met her something would be said. Can we now forget all this and work on forming a relationship?’
‘We won’t have to work very hard at it. I liked you the very first day I met you and I feel I know you so well.’
As I spoke, he pulled me to my feet and drew me to him.
‘Ah, Jane, I thank God that I can at last call you daughter. And Jane,’ he said as he put me at arm’s length, ‘promise me that when you fall in love, you will never let him go.’
‘I prom
ise,’ and my thoughts turned to Robert.
No, I would not let him go, and after Aunt Laura’s supposition when seeing Andrew and my mother in the woods, I realised how wrong she had been and how wrong I must be also. I knew I could not jeopardise a relationship for such a supposition.
As I made my way from Mannamead, my heart was light and I knew that I must seek out Robert and tie up the last loose ends. He was in the library when I found him and my thoughts turned back to the other occasion when I found him there. It seemed so long ago now. He looked up as I closed the door behind me.
‘Jane, what a pleasure.’
‘Ask me again, Robert,’ I said and he looked perplexed. ‘Remember the day at the Dancing Damsels? Ask me again.’
He stood up and came towards me. Gently, he took my hands in his hand, bending towards me, his lips touched mine gently. What joy I felt.
‘Will you marry me, Jane?’
‘Yes, oh, yes, I will marry you. I love you with all my heart and will never let you go. I will adore you, forever.’
If you enjoyed reading Matters of the Heart, you might be interested in Where Love Takes You, also be Rosemary Smith.
Extract from Where Love Takes You, by Rosemary Smith
Chapter One
It was the second time I’d seen the apparition while brushing my hair in front of the dressing table mirror, preparing for the evening meal, and when I turned around there was nothing there. The grey lady, as I called her, was a flimsy vision of a young woman in a grey morning dress, so unlike the style of clothes we wore now that I imagined it had been a fashion from the past. The young woman had blonde hair, drawn back off her face and she had on both occasions looked me in the eye seeming anxious about something. As on the first occasion I had seen her, not long after arriving at Middlepark, I shrugged my shoulders and put the incident down to an over active imagination, but surely I thought, if it was my imagination I would not have seen her twice. But for now I must concentrate on getting dressed for the evening meal for Miss Lina would be tapping on my door at any moment to seek my advice on what she was wearing.
Matters of the Heart Page 9
