” By wearing it,” Simon answered.
” It’s a talisman,” cried Luke.
“Do you know, Catherine, while you wear that ring nothing can harm you.
It’s the old family tradition.
There’s a curse on it. no, sorry, a blessing, The genie of the ring will protect you from the powers of evil. “
” Then it’s doubly precious,” I said lightly. ” Since it not only preserves me from evil but is so decorative. I am so grateful to you for giving me such a lovely present.”
” Puts the rest of our little gifts to shame, doesn’t it,” sighed Luke.
“But always remember, Catherine, it is the spirit of the gift that counts.”
” It is a good thing to remember,” Hagar’s voice boomed authoritatively.
Because I was afraid that I might betray the emotion this gift aroused in me, I decided to say no more before the others but to thank both Hagar and Simon privately; so I hastily turned to my soup which William had served, and by the time the turkey, with its chestnut stuffing, was being eaten I was conscious of a quiet peaceful pleasure.
The Christmas pudding was brought in magnificent with it’s wreath of holly round the base and the sprig stuck jauntily into the top.
William poured the brandy over it and Sir Matthew at the head of the table set it alight.
” Last Christmas,” said Sarah, ” it was very different. The house was full of guests. Gabriel was sitting where you are sitting now, Catherine.
” Don’t let’s talk of sad things,” said Matthew. ” Remember this is the first day of Christmas.”
” Christmas is a time for remembering,” protested Sarah. ” It’s the time when you recall the departed.”
“Is it?” said Ruth.
” Of course it is,” cried Sarah. ” Do you remember, Hagar, that Christmas when we joined the party for the first time?”
” I remember,” said Hagar.
Sarah had leaned her elbows on the table; she was staring at the flaming pudding.
” Last night,” she said, in a hollow voice, ” I lay in bed thinking of all the Christmases of my life. The first one I remembered was when I was three. I woke up in the night and heard the music and I was frightened. I cried, and Hagar scolded me.”
“The first of many a scolding from Aunt Hagar, I’m certain,” said Luke.
“Someone had to take charge of the family,” Hagar answered serenely. ” It might not have done you much harm. Luke, to have encountered a little more discipline.”
Sarah was going on dreamily: “Right through them all I went until I reached last Christmas. Do you remember how we drank the toasts afterwards? There was a special one to Gabriel after his escape.”
There was a silence of some seconds which I broke by asking: “What escape was that?”
” Gabriel’s,” said Sarah. ” He might have been killed.” She put her hand to her lips. ” Just think if he had … he would never have met Catherine. You wouldn’t be here with us to-day, Catherine, if he had died. You wouldn’t be going to …”
” Gabriel never told me about this accident,” I said.
” It was hardly worth mentioning,” said Ruth sharply. One of the walls in the ruins collapsed; he was close by and there was a slight injury to his foot. It was nothing much . a matter of bruises. “
” But,” cried Sarah, her blue eyes flashing almost angrily, I thought, because Ruth was trying to make light of some thing which she thought important, ” just by chance he saw what was about to happen. He was able to escape in time. If he hadn’t seen it…. he would have been killed.”
” Let’s talk of something cheerful,” said Luke. ” It didn’t happen.
So that’s that.”
” If it had,” murmured Sarah, there wouldn’t have been any need to”
” William,” said Ruth, ” Mrs. Redvers’s glass is empty.”
I was thinking of Gabriel, of the fear he had seemed to have of his home; I remembered the cloud which had appeared during our honeymoon when he had discovered the coastal ruins which must have reminded him of Kirkland Abbey. Was the falling of the wall really an accident?
Did Gabriel know that someone in the Revels was trying to kill him?
Was that the explanation of his fear? Was that why he had married me so that there would be two of us to fight against the evil which threatened? Had that evil caught up with Gabriel? If so, it meant that someone wanted his inheritance. That person must have been horrified when, after murdering Gabriel and I had come to the conclusion now that Gabriel had been murdered he found that there was another who might step into Gabriel’s shoes: my child.
It was all so clear; and there in the candlelit hall, while we were formally served with Christmas pudding, I realised as I never had before the certainty that the person who had murdered Gabriel was now determined that my child should never be born, in case it should be a boy.
There was one way of making absolutely sure that I did not produce a son—and that was by killing me.
There had been no attempt on my life. No, as Simon had said, that would have been too suspicious in view of Gabriel’s sudden and violent death. I began to see a pattern forming I was in danger—acute danger—but I was no longer terrified as I had been. It was not danger which could frighten me so much as the fear that my mind was tainted and that I was imagining all the uncanny occurrences. How strange it was that this actual danger was far more tolerable than something which I might have conjured up in a distorted imagination.
I found myself looking at Luke. With his long fair hair falling about his pale face I thought he looked like a cross between an angel and a satyr. He reminded me of the figures which were carved on the stonework. There was a satanic gleam in his eyes as they met mine. It was almost as though he read my thoughts and was amused by them.
We drank toasts in champagne. My turn came and they all stood, their glasses lifted. I believed that one of those people who were drinking my health might at that very moment be planning to kill me, but it must not be a violent death—it would have to appear a natural one.
The meal over, the table was quickly cleared by the servants, and we were ready to receive our guests. There were more people than I had expected. Dr. Smith and Damaris were the first arrivals and I wondered what was happening to the doctor’s wife and what she thought of being left alone on Christmas Day.
I asked Damaris and she said that her mother was resting. It was long past her time for retiring to bed and the doctor would not allow Christmas or anything else to interfere with her routine.
The Cartwrights came with several members of their family, including married sons and daughters and their families. That was the extent of the guests, and, like Sarah, I began to wonder about other Christmases—only I thought of Christmases in the future, not the past.
There was no dancing and the guests were conducted to a drawing-room on the first-floor; even the conversation was quiet. Everyone was remembering Gabriel on that day, because it was due to his death that the traditional entertaining had not taken place.
I found an opportunity of thanking Hagar for the ring. She smiled and said: “We wanted you to have it … both of us.”
” It is very valuable. I must also thank Simon for it.”
” Here he is.” , Simon was standing beside us, and I turned to him. “
I was thanking your grandmother for this magnificent ring.”
He took my hand and studied the ring. ” It looks better on her hand than it did in its case,” he remarked to his grandmother.
She nodded and he continued to hold my hand for a few seconds, his head on one side, regarding the ring with a smile of satisfaction about his lips.
Ruth joined us.
” Catherine,” she said, ” if you want to slip away to your room I should do so. You mustn’t tire yourself. That’s the very thing we wish to avoid.”