I was aghast. All my plans for saving the Abbas were being destroyed by this slow-speaking giant.
"Nonsense," I said. "How can you know?"
"Because Ma'am, us have already made the investigation. We made 'un before Mr. Johnny was ... before Mr. St. Larnston went."
"You made it?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Us had our livings to think on. So a few on us got working on it at nights and I went down so I be certain sure there hain't no tin in the St. Larnston mine."
"I don't believe it"
"Tis so, Ma'am."
"You went down alone"?"
"I thought it was best like, there being a danger of collapse—seeing it were my idea in the first place."
"But ... I ... I shall get the experts to look into this."
"Cost you a mint of money, Ma'am ... and us tinners do know tin when we see it. Us have worked all our lives in the mine Ma'am. There hain't no fooling we."
"So that's why there's been no more agitation about opening the mine."
"Tis so. Ma'am. I and us tinners be going out to St. Agnes. There be work there for we. The best tin in Cornwall do come from St. Agnes way. We be leaving by the end of the week and we be taking the women and children with us. There be work for us there."
"I see. Then there is nothing more to be said."
He looked at me and I thought his eyes were like those of a spaniel. He seemed to be asking me for forgiveness. He would know of course that I needed the rich tin, for that all was not well at the Abbas would be common knowledge. It was Haggety and Mrs. Rolt and our servants who would now be wondering how they were going to live.
"I be sorry. Ma'am," he said.
"I wish you good fortune at St. Agnes," I answered. "You and everyone who goes there."
"Thank 'ee, Ma'am."
It was only after he had gone that I saw the double significance of this.
I knew, of course, that the men I had seen from my window were the tinners. They had been down the mine that very night and discovered it to be sterile. Then the thought hit me: that was before Johnny died. So they knew the mine had nothing to offer them. Why then should they kill Johnny? What was the point?
Then it was not these men who had killed him. Who then? Could it be that Johnny was not dead?
I discussed the future with Mellyora. She was becoming gay again; it was as though she had escaped from a spell Justin had put on her. This was the Mellyora who had championed me at the fair. Her adoration for Justin had made her meek, a patient Griselda; now she was recovering her own personality.
"You see yourself as a benevolent god, ruling us all," she told me. "The rest of us are like little kings whom you have put in charge of our kingdoms. If we do not rule as you think we should, you want to take over and rule for us."
"What a fantastic notion!"
"Not when you consider. You wanted to manage Joe's life ... Johnny's ... Carlyon's... ."
I thought with a twinge of remorse: Yours too, Mellyora. If you did but know it, I have governed your life too.
I should tell her one day because I should not be completely at rest until I did.
I decided that we must move to the Dower House. Haggety and the Salts found other employment. Tom Pengaster at last married Doll, and Daisy came with us to the Dower House. The solicitors took over the management of the estate and the Polores and Trelances stayed in their cottages and continued their work, while Mrs. Rolt remained at the Abbas as housekeeper—Florrie Trelance coming in from the cottages to help her.
The Abbas was to be let furnished, which could mean that, with care, by the time Carlyon was of age he might be able to afford to live in it himself. It seemed as satisfactory as a temporary arrangement could be. Each day I went to the Abbas to make sure that everything was being kept in order.
Carlyon was content with the Dower House; together Mellyora and I taught him. He was a docile pupil, though not a brilliant one and often I would see him looking wistfully out of the windows when the sun was shining. Every Saturday he accompanied Joe on his rounds and they were his red-letter days.
We had had only two prospective tenants. One had found the Abbas far too big; the other considered it eerie. I began to think it would remain empty, waiting for us to return.
It had always amazed me how important events burst suddenly upon one. I feel there should be some warning, some little premonition. But there rarely is.
I rose that morning rather late as I had overslept, and when I dressed and went down to breakfast I found a letter awaiting me from the agents who were dealing with the house. They were sending a client along that afternoon, and hoped three o'clock would be a convenient time.
I told Mellyora as we sat at breakfast.
"I wonder what will be wrong this time," she said. "Sometimes I think we are never going to find a tenant."
At three o'clock I walked over to the Abbas, thinking that I should be wretched when I could not go in and out as I wished. But perhaps we should become friendly with the new tenants. Perhaps we should receive invitations to dine. How strange—to go to dine in the Abbas as a guest It would be like that occasion when I had gone to the ball.
Mrs. Rolt was unhappy, sadly missing the old days and, I was sure, all the gossip round the table.
"I don't know what we are coming to," she would say every time I saw her. "My dear life, the Abbas be a quiet sad place these days. I never knew the like."
I knew she was wishing for a tenant, someone to spy on, to gossip about.
Soon after three there was loud knocking on the main door.
I stayed in the library and Mrs. Rolt went to let in the visitor. I felt melancholy. I did not want anyone to live in the Abbas, and yet I knew someone must.
There was a knock on the door, and Mrs. Rolt appeared with a look of blank astonishment on her face; and then I heard a voice; Mrs. Rolt stepped aside and I thought I must be dreaming, for it was like a dream— a long cherished dream—coming true.
Kim was coming towards me.
Those were, I believe, the happiest weeks of my life. It is difficult now to record exactly what happened. I remember his picking me up in his arms; I remember his face close to mine, the laughter in his eyes.
"I wouldn't let them mention my name. I wanted to surprise you." I remember Mrs. Rolt standing in the doorway; the distant murmur of "My dear life!" And I wanted to repeat "My dear life ... my dear dear life!" because it had suddenly become very precious.
He hadn't changed much, I told him. He looked at me. "You have. I used to say you were becoming a very fascinating woman. Now you've become one."
How can I describe Kim? He was gay, full of high spirits, teasing, mocking yet at the same time tender. He had wit but it was never used to hurt others; I think that was what made him a very special person. He laughed with people, never at them. He made you feel that you were important to him—as important as he was to you. Perhaps I saw him in a rosy glow because I was in love with him, and I knew as soon as he returned that I was in love with him, and had been ever since that night he had carried Joe to safety,
His father was dead, he told me; when he had retired from the sea, they had settled together in Australia and had bought a ranch there. They had bought it cheaply and made money raising cattle; then suddenly he had decided that he had made enough money; he sold out at a high figure and had come home with a fortune. What did I think of that for a success story?
I thought it was wonderful. I thought everything was wonderful—life, everything—because he had returned.
We talked so much that the time fled by. I told him all that happened since his departure—how Mellyora and I had worked at the Abbas, how I had married Johnny.
He took my hands and looked at me with concentration.