"Well, they're doing this wonderful job . . ."
"I do believe you'd like to be out there with them fiddling about with all these dead mummies!"
"I could imagine nothing I should like more. It would be a little different from dancing attendance on the most disagreeable woman in the world."
"Poor Judith, perhaps it won't last forever. Do you know I think we might manage here. There's quite a big garden. We might grow vegetables and sell them."
I grimaced at my hands. "I don't think I have the necessary green fingers."
"Well, who knows, something may turn up. That young man who used to teach you. He was at the ball, wasn't he?"
"You mean Evan Callum."
"I always liked him. There was something gentle about him. You used to talk about him a great deal. You were better at his lessons than any of the others."
I smiled at them benignly. They had made up their minds that marriage would solve my problems. I had failed to bring it off with Oliver Shrimpton so they had chosen Evan Callum as the next candidate.
"I daresay he will be coming down here again. All this interest about the expedition . . ."
"Why doesn't he give people the creeps?" I demanded. "His profession is the same as Sir Edward's and Tybalt's."
"He's more . . . normal."
"You're not suggesting that the Traverses are not normal!"
"They're different," said Dorcas. "Oh yes, Mr. Callum will be here again. Sir Ralph, they say, is involved in this Egyptian matter. I heard that he's helping to finance it because his daughter is going to marry Tybalt Travers."
"Where did you hear that?" I asked.
"Through Emily."
"Servants' gossip."
"My dear Judith, who knows more about a family's affairs than the servants?"
They were right of course. The servants would hear scraps of conversation. I pictured Jane with her ear to the keyhole. Some of them pieced together torn-up letters which had been thrown into wastepaper baskets. They had their ears and eyes open for household scandals.
There was no doubt that the general expectation was that Tybalt was destined for Theodosia.
I went back to Keverall Court thoughtfully.
He doesn't love her, I told myself. I should know if he did. He enjoyed dancing with me at the ball far more than with Theodosia. How could a man like Tybalt be in love with Theodosia!
But Theodosia was rich—a great heiress. With a fortune in his hands such as Theodosia could bring him, Tybalt would be able to finance his own expeditions.
To Sir Edward very little mattered but his work and Tybalt was following very close in his footsteps.
This was why the servants in the house had the "creeps."
On the day Tybalt married Theodosia I would go away. I would find a post as far as possible from St. Erno's and I would try to build a new life out of the ruins of my old one. He might be obsessed by his work; I was by him; and I knew, as surely as I knew anything that when I lost him all the savor would go from my life.
Dorcas had said: "When Judith is enthusiastic about something her whole heart's in it. She never does anything by halves."
She was right; and now I was enthusiastic as I had never been in my life before—enthusiastic for one man, one way of life.
Theodosia, as though to make up for her neglect, sought me out a good deal. She liked to talk about the books she was reading and I could see she was making a great effort to perfect herself in the subject of archaeology.
She would invite me to her room and it often seemed as though she were on the verge of confidences. She was a little absent-minded; sometimes she would seem very happy, at others apprehensive. Once when I was in her room she pulled open a drawer and I saw a bundle of letters tied up with blue ribbon. How like Theodosia to tie up her love letters with blue ribbon! I wondered what was in them. Somehow I could not imagine Tybalt's writing love letters—and to Theodosia!
Dearest Theodosia,
I long for the day when we shall be married. I am planning several expeditions and these need financial backing. How useful your fortune will be ...
I laughed at myself. I was trying to convince myself that the only thing he would want from Theodosia was her fortune. And even if he did, as if he would write such a letter!
"How is Mamma behaving these days?" she asked me idly one afternoon when she had invited me to her room.
"Very much as usual."
"I expect she has been even worse since the ball."
"Your expectations are correct."
"Poor Judith!"
"Oh, we all have our problems."
"Yes," she sighed.
"Surely not you, Theodosia?"
She hesitated. Then she said, "Judith, have you ever been in love?"
I felt myself starting to flush uncomfortably but fortunately it was not meant to be a question so much as the preliminary to confidences.
"It's wonderful," she went on, "and yet . . . I'm a little scared."
"Why should you be scared?"
"Well, I'm not very clever, as you know."
"If he's in love with you . . ."
"If! Of course he is. He tells me so every time I see him . . . every time he writes . . ."
I half wanted to make an excuse to escape, half wanted to stay and be tortured.
"I really find archaeology rather boring, Judith. That's the truth, and of course it's his life. I've tried. I've read the books. I love it when they find something wonderful, but it's mostly about tools for digging and kinds of soil and so on and all those boring pots and things."
"If you're not interested perhaps you shouldn't pretend to be."
"I don't think he expects me to be. I shall just look after him. That's all he wants. Oh, it will be wonderful, Judith. But I'm worried about my father."
"Why should you be worried about him?"
"He won't like it."
"Won't like it! But I thought he was anxious for you to marry Tybalt."
"Tybalt! I'm not talking of Tybalt."
This was singing in my ears. It was like listening to some heavenly chorus. I cried: "What! Not Tybalt. You're joking!"
"Tybalt!" she cried. And she repeated his name with a sort of horror. "Tybalt! Why I'd be scared to death of him. I'm sure he thinks I am quite foolish."
"He's serious, of course, which is much more interesting than being stupidly frivolous."
"Evan is not frivolous."
"Evan! So it's Evan!"
"But of course it's Evan. Who else?"
I began to laugh. "And those letters tied up with blue ribbon . . . and all this sighing and blushing. Evan!" I hugged her. "Oh, Theodosia, I'm so happy ..." I had the presence of mind to add: "for you."
"Whatever's come over you, Judith?"
"Well, I didn't think it was Evan."
"You thought it was Tybalt. That's what people think because that's what Father wants. He'd love to see a match between our families. He's always been a great admirer of Sir Edward and interested in everything he does. And he would have loved me to be like you and able to learn about all this stuff. But I'm not like that, and how could anybody want Tybalt when there's Evan!"
"Some might," I said calmly.
"Then they must be mad."
"So mad that they might think you're mad to prefer Evan."
"It's good to talk to you, Judith. We don't like to tell Father, you see. You know what families are. Evan's people were very poor and he's worked his way up. There was some relative who helped him and Evan wants to pay him back every penny he's spent on him. And we're going to do that. I think it's to his credit that he's come so far. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Why Tybalt inherited all sorts of advantages, whereas Evan worked for his."
"It's very laudable," I said.
"Judith, you like Evan, don't you?"
"Of course I do; and I think you and he are ideally suited."