” It seems to mean so much to the people who’ve lived in it.”
” It’ll mean a great deal to you one day perhaps. If your child is a boy he will be brought up at the Revels, brought up to love and revere the house. That’s tradition.”
“I understand that.”
” I am certain the child will be a boy. I shall pray for it.” She spoke as though even the Deity must obey her commands, and I smiled.
She saw the smile and she smiled with me.
” If it were a girl,” she went on,” and Luke were to die …”
I interrupted in a startled way: “Why should he?”
“Some of the members of our family enjoy longevity; others die young. My brother’s two sons were extremely delicate in health. If Gabriel had not died in the manner he did he could not have lived many more years. His brother died at an early age. I fancy I see signs of the same delicacy in Luke. “
The words startled me; and as I looked across at her I thought I detected a gleam of hope in her eyes. I was imagining this. She had her back to the light. I was letting my thoughts run on.
Luke and my unborn child, if it is a boy, will stand between Simon and the Revels. By the way she spoke of the Revels and of Simon I knew they meant a good deal to her . ; perhaps more than anything else in her life.
If Simon were the master of the Revels, then she would return there to spend her last days.
I said quickly as though I feared she would read my thoughts: tt And your grandson’s father . your son . was he also delicate? “
” Indeed no. Peter, Simon’s father, was killed while fighting for his Queen and country in the Crimea. Simon never knew him; and the shock killed his mother, who never really recovered from his birth. She was a delicate creature.” A faint scorn came into her voice. ” It was not a marriage of my making. But my son had a will of his own…. I would not have had him otherwise, although it led him into this disastrous marriage. They left me my grandson.”
” That must have been a great consolation to you.”
“A great consolation,” she said more gently than I had heard her speak before.
I asked if she would have more tea; she declined and as we had both finished she said: ” Pray ring for Dawson. I do not care to see used cups and plates.”
When the tea things had been taken away she began to talk about Luke.
She wanted to know my impressions of him; did I find him attractive, amusing?
I found this embarrassing, for I was not sure what I really thought of Luke.
“He is very young,” I replied. ” It is difficult to form an opinion’ of young people. They change so quickly. He has been pleasant to me.”
“The doctor’s beautiful daughter often visits the house, I believe.”
” I have not seen her since my return. We have so few visitors now that we are a house of mourning.”
” Of course. And you are wondering how I hear so much of what goes on at the Revels. Servants make excellent carriers of news. My gatekeeper’s wife has a sister at the Revels.”
” Yes,” I said, ” she is my maid, -a very good girl.”
” I am glad she gives satisfaction. I am pleased with Etty. I see a great deal of her. She is about to have her first child’ and I have always taken an interest in our people. I shall see that she has all that she needs for her confinement. We always send silver spoons to babies born on the Kelly Grange estate.”
” That’s a pleasant custom.”
” Our people are loyal to us because they know they can trust us.”
We were both surprised when Simon arrived to take me back to the Revels. The two hours or so I had spent with Hagar Redvers had been stimulating, and I had enjoyed them.
I think she had too, for when she gave me her hand she was even gracious. She said: “You will come and see me again.” Then her eyes twinkled and she added, ” I hope.” And it was as though she recognised in me one who could not be commanded. I knew she liked me for it.
I said I would come again with pleasure and should look forward to the visit.
When Simon took me home we did not say very much; but I could see he was rather pleased by the way things had gone.
During the next weeks I walked a little, rested a good deal, lying on my bed in the afternoons reading the novels of Mr. Dickens, Mrs.
Henry Wood and the Bronte sisters.
I was becoming more and more absorbed in my child and this consoled me.
Sometimes I would feel afresh the sorrow of Gabriel’s death, and the fact that he would never know his child seemed doubly tragic. And each day, it appeared, there would be something to remind me poignantly of Friday. We had taken so many walks in the grounds about the house, and when I heard the distant bark of a dog, my heart would begin to beat fast with hope. I made myself believe that one day he would come back.
Perhaps this was because I could not bear to believe that—as in the case of Gabriel—I should never see him again.
I tried to take an interest in the life of the neighbourhood. I had tea with the vicarage family; I went to church and sat in the Rockwell pew with Ruth and Luke. I felt that I was settling in as I had not begun to do while Gabriel was with me.
Sometimes I would be taken to the nurseries by Sarah- she never seemed to tire of taking me there. I was introduced to the family cradle which was a beautiful piece of workman ship on rockers and was about two hundred years old. tiarati was making a blue padded coverlet for it, and her needlework was exquisite.
I visited Hagar once more and we seemed to grow even closer; I assured myself that I had found a good friend in her.
We did no entertaining at Kirkland Revels on account of being in mourning, but close friends of the family visited us now and then.
Damaris came, and I was certain that Luke was in love with her, but I was not at all sure of her feelings for him. I wondered idly whether Damaris had any feelings. I had noticed that even with her father she seemed sometimes unresponsive, although she was docile enough. I wondered whether she had any real affection, even for him.
The doctor was often in and out of the house, to keep an eye on Sir Matthew and Sarah, he said; not forgetting Mrs. Rockwell, he would add, smiling at me.
He made out a little schedule for me. I was not to walk too far, I must give up riding. I must rest whenever I felt so inclined; and take hot milk before going to bed.
One day when I had gone for my morning walk, I was about a mile from the house when I heard the sound of carriage wheels behind me and turning saw the doctor’s brougham.
He instructed his man to pull up beside me.
” You’ve tired yourself,” he accused me.
” Indeed I have not. And I am nearly home.”
“Please get in,” he said.
“I’m going to give you a lift back.”
I obeyed, protesting that I was not ,in the least tired. In fact, he looked much more tired than I, and in my somewhat forthright manner I told him so.
” I’ve been up to Worstwhistle,” he said. ” That always tires me.”
Worstwhistle! The mention of that place saddened me. I thought of those people with their poor clouded minds, shut away from the world.
How good he was to give his services to such a place!
” You are very good to go there,” I told him.
” My motives are selfish, Mrs. Rockwell,” he answered.
“These people interest me. Besides they need me. It is a pleasant thing to be needed.”
” That is so, but it is good of you all the same. I have heard from others how you comfort them, not only with youi medical skill but with your kindness.”
“Hal” He laughed suddenly and his white teeth flashed in his brown face. ” I have a great deal to be thankful for. I’ll tell you a secret about myself. Forty years ago I was an orphan … a penniless orphan.