“Dear Caroline,
“It is all over now. I am the happiest woman in the world. I have my baby. A little girl. Just what I wanted. Jeremy is delighted. He’s forgotten all about wanting a boy. She’s perfect in every way … the most beautiful little girl that ever was.
“I have decided on the name. Jeremy wanted to call her after me, but I said it would be difficult with two Olivias. So we’ve compromised. She’s to be Livia. And of course she must be named after her important godmother, Livia Caroline. What do you think of that?
“I did not know there could be so much happiness in the world. I long to see you and show you my treasure. The christening is going to be at the end of September.
“Oh, Caroline, I do so look forward to seeing you.
“With my constant love.
“Your sister, Olivia.”
I was relieved that she had come through the ordeal safely. She had always seemed fragile to me. I thought a great deal about Olivia and her baby. I wanted very much to see her and the child. I wondered what it would be like meeting Jeremy again. I was sure he would be discreet. Perhaps I need not see much of him.
I called on Miss Gentle, who lived in one of the cottages on the Landower estate and who sewed for the two houses. She made some beautiful baby garments for me to take to London with me when I went, and for the weeks that followed my thoughts were completely occupied with what was to me a strange mixture of pleasure and apprehension.
I made my preparations, growing more and more uneasy as time passed and wondering what I should say if I came face to face with Jeremy. I would try to appear indifferent, but I wondered if my anger towards him would allow me to do so.
On the morning of the twenty-eighth, Joe drove me to the station in the trap and Cousin Mary came with me. She saw me into a first-class compartment, kissed me briskly and told me not to stay too long.
“I shall soon be back,” I promised.
She stood on the platform waving as the train moved out.
I settled down. Always on this journey I would remember that one when I had sat opposite Miss Bell and had had my first sight of Paul Landower and Jago, who had come to play such a big part in my life.
I watched the scenery slipping past and was glad that I had a compartment to myself.
I was thinking how much the trains had changed since that first journey. Corridors had just come in and it was a great convenience to be able to walk from one compartment to another in certain sections of the train; there were now hot pipes running under the floor to take the place of footwarmers, which had been in use at the time when I had travelled with Miss Bell. So much change everywhere in such a short time. I was looking out of the window when I heard the door leading to the corridor open. I turned sharply. A man had opened the door and was standing there. I stared disbelievingly.
“Good day, Madam,” he said. “Would you have any objection to my sharing this compartment with you.” “Jago! What are you doing here?”
He laughed. He looked exactly like the boy who had suggested we play ghosts to frighten prospective buyers away from Landower. “I’m going to London,” he said, sitting down opposite me. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, I thought I’d make the most of the opportunity.” “Jago, you really mean …”
“I mean that I wanted to go to London. It is such a bore travelling on one’s own. How much wiser to find a pleasant companion.” “Why didn’t you say you were going to London?” “I thought I would give you a nice surprise. I love surprising people … and particularly you, Caroline. You’re so worldly nowadays, so knowledgeable, so learned that it is wonderful to present you with something you hadn’t thought of first.”
“You must have got on the train at the same time as I did. I didn’t see you.”
“I was holding aloof while you made your fond farewells, and then … when you weren’t looking, I slipped on … and at the earliest possible moment I decided not to keep your pleasant surprise from you any longer. So here I am. Your travelling companion. Are you pleased?”
“You are so ridiculous,” I said.
“Yes. Isn’t that charming? I have a delicious luncheon basket.”
“Where?”
“In the compartment where I have my seat. I am going to transfer it to here. I will leave you for a few moments.”
I found myself laughing. I felt better already.
In a short time he was back with the basket.
“I told them to make it a deux.”
“So you planned all this.”
“Every operation needs careful planning if it is to achieve the maximum success.”
“I still can’t see why you couldn’t have told me.”
“Don’t you think there might have been objections? A lady of your renowned virtue travelling to London with a man of slightly less moral rectitude?”
“There might have been.”
“Well now, no one knows.”
“I suppose they know you are going to London.”
“Oh no. I’m a diplomat at heart. They think I am going to Plymouth.”
“Why the subterfuge?”
“Because I could not think of a reason to tell them I was going to London. Of course, I have a perfectly good reason.”
“I can’t think why you involve yourself in all that subterfuge just to be in London when I’m there. I shan’t see you. I shall be with my sister.”
“I shall call … as a friend of the family.”
“You are incorrigible.”
“Yes, but you know you like that.”
I began to laugh and we were laughing together.
“That’s better,” he said. “Now you look like the young Caroline. You’ve acquired a touch of asperity in later life. Is it due to the laggard lover?”
“What do you know about that?”
“What everyone knows. You didn’t think you could keep such a piece of life in the raw from being circulated in Lancarron, did you? You couldn’t have a better messenger service than that which is run by our servants. They listen at doors; they store their news; they impart it to their fellow minions—and it gets around to us in time. I can tell you they know that I am the neighbourhood’s Don Juan, Apollo, Lothario, whichever you care to name. This means that I have a greater appreciation of your sex than most men—and of course the feeling is reciprocated. They know that you had an unfortunate love affair and they say you came down here to get over it. They know that Paul married poor Gwennie to get the house and he has regretted it ever since. It is no use imagining your life is a closed book. By no means. It’s wide open and printed in large letters and lavishly illustrated so that all may look and learn.”
“So none of us is safe.”
“Alas none! The only defence we have against this very efficient detective agency is not to care. After all, they doubtless have their secrets. They have their amours, jiltings, mesalliances. It makes us all human—all the same under our skins—the rich man in his castle, the poor man at the gate. That’s what they like to see. Who wants to be other than human? I think it’s a very pleasant state to be in. Better a human being than say … a butterfly or a grasshopper—though there are some of us who resemble these feckless insects.”
I was laughing again.
“That’s better,” he said. “Now tell me what are we going to do when you reach London?”
“I know what I am going to do. I am going to say goodbye to you and go to my sister. I shall be with her all the time. I have my duties to perform as godmother.”
“You’ll be a real fairy godmother, I don’t doubt.”
“I shall try to do my duty by the child.”
“I’ve no doubt of that. I only hope you don’t get too enamoured of her and London life that you decide to desert us. I don’t want to have to make constant trips to London.”