Bridget was taken out, still protesting, and I was flattered by her reluctance to leave, but all the same eager to hear what Jemima had to say.
“Well, Miss Sinclair,” she said as soon as we were alone.
“I’d like a word in your ear. I only speak because I think it’s right and proper that you should not be in the dark.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Things are not always what they seem, you know.”
“Indeed, I know that.”
She put her face close to mine, assuming an air of wisdom. Her eyes were small and too closely set together. I thought she looked like a witch.
“I think you are a good, respectable young lady and you should not be deceived.”
“It is the last thing I want,” I said.
“I should like to be enlightened in whatever way you think.”
She nodded.
“There is one who should be here now, and would be … but for what others did to her. If anyone was thinking of taking her place, I reckon they ought to think twice before they took that step.”
I felt myself flushing, and I said: “I don’t understand what you are implying, Miss Cray.”
“I think you do,” she said severely.
“All I am trying to do is drop a word in your ear. It’s for your good. She married into this place and, before a year was out, she was dead and before she came here she was a merry, lighthearted little thing.”
“You are referring to … ?”
“My Miss Laura, that’s who.”
“I understood she died giving birth to Bridget.”
“Poor mite. She never ought to have been put through it. He knew that and yet he made her. There had to be a child … a son, I suppose.
The family and all that nonsense. She knew it was dangerous. I knew.
But it had to be. It was pitiful to see her. Frightened, she was. She said to me: “Jemima, you’ll always stay and look after my baby when I’m gone, won’t you? You’ll look after my baby, just as you’ve looked after me.” And I swore I would. Oh, it was wicked. It was cruel.”
I said: “It was very sad that she died, but it does happen sometimes.”
Her face hardened.
“There’s some as would say it was murder,” she said.
“Miss Cray!” I said.
“You must not make such insinuations. It’s quite wrong. It is natural for people to have children when they marry.”
“He knew, just as she knew. But it had to be. Oh, he knew well enough and I reckon that’s the same sort of thing as murder. And nothing will make me change my mind. That’s the sort he is. And people should know it.” She rose and in a matter-of-fact voice went on: “Well, I must go and see to Bridget. You can’t trust that Mary with much.”
She turned away. I called after her.
“Come back. Miss Cray. I want to talk to you.”
She was at the door. She turned and said: “I’ve said my piece. I know what happened. I saw it all. I know just how it was.” Her face was distorted with venom and hatred, and I knew it was directed against Lucian.
I said to myself: She’s mad. But I was very shaken.
The memory of Jemima stayed with me. I found it hard to stop thinking of what she had said and the expression on her face when she had talked of murder.
She was warning me. She had seen me with Lucian in the stables.
Murder, she had said. She was accusing Lucian of that because his wife had died in childbirth. She meant:
Do not become involved with him. He knew Laura was unfit to bear a child and yet he insisted. Such a man is capable of anything . murder of any kind . to achieve his ends.
I thought again: The woman must be mad. Indeed, there was a hint of fanaticism in her eyes when she talked of Laura’s death.
Why did she stay? Because of this vow she had made to Laura, the wife who had known she faced death? It all seemed very melodramatic, and I did not believe a word of it. Jemima was a highly emotional woman. She had given all her devotion to the girl whom she had looked after; and when that girl had died she had to blame someone, so she blamed Lucian. I was almost a stranger to her, but she thought that Lucian might ask me to marry him; and she was warning me, or pretending to. When Laura had died, she must have been heart-broken and she had to blame someone for her death, so she blamed Lucian. And now she was jealous of my friendship with her charge. She did not want me here.
I suppose there was a certain amount of reason in that.
Murder, she had said. It was pure nonsense. But she had used the word and that was very upsetting.
I decided to take the first opportunity of talking to Lucian. It came next morning when he was showing me something in the garden.
I said: “Lucian. You never talk much about Bridget. She’s such a dear little girl. I have made her acquaintance and we get on quite well.”
“I don’t know much about children.”
“She seems to spend most of her time with that nurse.”
“Most children spend a lot of time with their nurses.”
“But it seems as though you and Lady Crompton are hardly aware of her existence.”
“Does it?” he said.
“I expect I have been remiss. One doesn’t talk about one’s failures. It was all rather hasty. That marriage, I mean.
A mistake from the first. The child was born and Laura died. That’s really all there is to it. It wouldn’t have been very satisfactory, even if that hadn’t happened. “
“If Bridget had been a boy …” I began.
His face darkened slightly.
“Perhaps it is as well. But it’s all over now. It was a mistake. I have made a few in my life, but that was the greatest. I meant to tell you about it, but somehow I could not bring myself to. It’s a depressing subject.”
“She was very young to die.”
“She was eighteen. It all happened so quickly. She did not like the Grange. She said it was old and full of ghosts and shadows and the ghosts didn’t want her. It was so different from everything she was used to. Her father made a great deal of money out of coal. She couldn’t understand the customs of a family like mine. And then there was the child. She was terrified of having it. She seemed to know she was going to die.
She lived in fear of death, and that woman never left her. “
“You mean Jemima Cray?”
He nodded.
“She was the only one who could calm her. It was a wretched time for us all.”
“The little girl is charming. I should have thought she would be a comfort to you and Lady Crompton.”
“That woman was always there.”
“She is certainly rather odd.”
“She is good with the child. She would do anything for her.”
“Have you ever thought of replacing her?”
He lifted his shoulders.
“We’ve wanted to, of course. But there’s some promise. In the circumstances, the easiest thing is to let her remain here. So it seems Jemima Cray is a fixture. Oh, let’s talk about something pleasant! You must come down again soon.”
I said: “This visit is not yet over.”
“No, but I can’t tell you how much I enjoy them. My mother is saying that we must entertain more. She is not well enough to do a great deal, but she did enjoy it in the old days. We have some interesting characters round about-the usual mixture of traditional country types and the occasional eccentric. I can’t tell you how we look forward to your coming-my mother as well as myself.”
“And you will come up to Town for the wedding, won’t you?”
“I must, of course.”
And I went on thinking of Jemima Cray.
Castle Folly
Gertie wanted Aunt Beatrice and Uncle Harold to give a dinner-party.
“We’ll have the Rowlands, Lawrence Emmerson and his alter ego Dorothy, you, myself and the romantic Lucian. I think it will be fun. You’ve had so much hospitality … all those weekends … and you’re our responsibility. Soon we shall be cluttered with wedding obligations, so we’d better do it soon.”