We're going to take care of you. I don't know whether you will want to stay in Cornwall ... but you need time to sort things out. You have the house here ... the one you had when you married."
"It's not mine really," I said. "Uncle Peter has it as a security against the money he lent to Gervaise so that he could pay his debts and go to Australia. That house will belong to Uncle Peter now."
"He has told us about this and has said that he will waive the debts and the house should be yours when you returned."
"Oh no ... the debts should be paid ... to him."
"Well, your father wouldn't have it. He has insisted on paying Peter what was owed to him and the house is now yours. You need have no qualms because it is part of the money which would have been yours in any case. But it was generous of Peter to offer. He is a strange man. He has always been kind to me. My mother hated him. There are shady aspects of his life, but he has good points."
"Most people have two sides to their natures. No one is entirely good ... no one entirely bad, it seems to me."
"Perhaps so. I thought you would like to know about the house. I think Morwenna will probably be coming to Cornwall. The Pencarrons have been talking to us about the future. They have been so wretched ... missing Morwenna so much, Mr. Pencarron will make a very tempting offer to keep Justin down there."
"You mean to work with him?"
"After all, it seems sensible. All they have will pass to Morwenna one day and that will mean Justin. I am sure Mr. Pencarron wants it all for the generations to come and young Pedrek to take over in due course. That's the sort of man he is. I thought it would be nice for you to have Morwenna near. It will be like old times. Oh, Angelet, I am so happy to have you back. It is desperately sad that Gervaise is not with you ... but let's be thankful for what we have."
Thankful for what we had! That was what I intended to be.
Morwenna told me that Justin had agreed to go to Cornwall and work for her father.
"It has made me so happy," she said. "I hated being away from Pa and Mother ... and they adore Pedrek. It has all worked out so well for me. If only it could have for you, Angelet."
"I'll be all right," I said. "I have my family around me ... and wasn't it a wonderful welcome home? And there is always Rebecca."
So I came back to Cador.
Everything had been done to make me happy. There was my old room looking as though I had never left it.
There was a cradle in it. "I thought at first," said my mother, "that you would like to have Rebecca with you. We'll get busy when you like, fitting up the nursery. Several of the girls are hoping to be the one selected to look after her. I thought about getting in touch with Nanny Crossley. She was very good with you and Jack."
"Could we have a little time for a while to think about it?" I asked. "Rebecca is very young yet. I looked after her in Australia ... with the help of the local midwife at first ... and with all the assistance I get here ... I can manage. And later on, we'll decide."
"You feel unsettled as yet, I know," said my mother. "It's natural. Your father says you need time to settle after all you have gone through in Australia."
My brother Jack seemed to have grown up while I was away. His welcome was no less warm, if less emotional, than that of my parents. He was now helping a great deal on the Cador estate which would one day be his.
He was very interested in Australia and asked all sorts of questions while my parents listened anxiously, afraid that so much talk would open up old wounds.
Morwenna came to Cador often and I went over to Pencarron. She was very happy. Justin was settling in and her father thought that he was quite an astute business man. Pedrek was an adorable two-year-old ... a year older than Rebecca; and they played together happily.
I could not resist going to the pool. It still seemed eerie and the memory of what had happened there was as vivid as ever. I stood on the brink of those dark waters and tried to probe their mystery. All this time he had lain down there at the bottom of the pool which was said to be bottomless.
I rode along the shore to the old boathouse; I went to the town and down to the quay. Nothing seemed to have changed much. The fishing smacks were dancing on the waves; the men were gutting fish and one of the older men was sitting on the stones mending his nets. Mrs. Fenny was at her door. "Good day to 'ee, Miss Angel. So you be back eh? And brought a little 'un with 'ee. It were a terrible thing what 'appened to that 'usband of yours. Don't 'ee fret, me dear. 'Tis well you'm back. Going to foreign parts never done no one no good." There was Miss Grant, crocheting away in the wool shop, coming to call a greeting as I passed. "Nice to see 'ee back, Miss Angelet." There was old Penny leg and his barman rolling barrels down to his cellar. "Welcome 'ome, Miss Angelet." There were furtive looks of commiseration for the widow who had lost her young husband so tragically, and nobly.
I said to my mother, "Nothing changes in the Poldoreys. Here it seems just the same as it ever was."
"Yes. People die and get born... . You remember old Reuben Stubbs in the cottage near Branok Pool?"
I started as I always did at the mention of that place.
"Old Reuben, of course. He was quite a character, and what of his daughter? Jenny, wasn't it?"
"That's what I am going to tell you. Reuben died before you were married."
I remembered him. An unkempt old man who always seemed to be collecting the wood or beachcombing. I had always felt there was something uncanny about him. He glared at all who came near his cottage as though he feared they would take something from him. Jenny, his daughter, was what they called in these parts "piskymazed."
"I was going to tell you about Jenny," went on my mother. "She was always a little strange, remember ... going round talking to herself ... singing, too. If you spoke to her she'd look scared and turn away. Well, she went very strange after her father died. She lived on in the cottage. Your father said we should just leave her alone. She was harmless. She kept her place clean. She always had and after her father died it was quite sparkling. She does a little work at the farms when they want extra help. She'll give a hand at anything. There was nothing wrong with anything she did. It was just that she was a little strange. Well, what do you think? She had a baby."
"She married?"
"Oh no. Nobody knows who the father was. There was a man who came to do hedging and helped the farmers. He was one of those itinerant laborers ... so useful at haymaking and harvest and planting and so on. He used to talk to her and she didn't seem to be scared of him. We think it must have been this man. Well, he went off and later she had the baby. Born about the same time as Rebecca. We all wondered what would happen, but we need not have done. It changed her completely. It brought her back to normality. No mother could have cared more for a child than she did hers. The change is miraculous. Did you see her cottage when you went to the pool?"
"I ... I don't go down there very much."
"You might see her about the town ... always with the baby."
"I'm glad she's happy," I said. "What was the verdict of the town? I can guess Mrs. Fenny's."
My mother laughed. "Sitting on the Seat of Judgment, of course. Well, that's her way. And it doesn't make much difference to Jenny."
I could understand how Jenny's life had changed. I had my own child.
The summer passed; it was autumn. Christmas came. The Pencarrons spent it with us.
My parents tried to make it a very special Christmas because I was back and there was now a new member of the family and it would be the first Christmas she was really aware of.
She was nearly two years old now. I could hardly believe it was so long since I had seen Ben. I still thought of him constantly. In fact, more than ever. There had been the excitement of coming home and being reunited with my family; and now that I had settled into this routine, memory was more acute. I had judged him harshly. He was ambitious. I had always known that. He wanted money and power. It was a very common masculine trait. He had to win. My refusal of him must have been the first real defeat he had ever suffered. I could see it all so clearly now. He was determined to fail in nothing else. His search for gold would be successful for he had already found it on another man's land. And because of Lizzie that land was not out of reach. I could understand it all so well. I knew that I could never be really happy without him. I should always be haunted by the thought of what I had missed. I accepted what he had done for when one loved one loved for weakness as well as strength. I tried to throw myself into the Christmas spirit.