Redvers was not in the salon. Monique said that he had business to attend to on the ship and would be away for a while.
Dick talked to me of the voyage and how dull it had been.
“I missed you,” he said. “I thought of you often. It’s hot in here. Let us walk in the garden.”
I asked if he would excuse me as I was very tired; he seemed disappointed.
I sat by my window. There would be some sign from Redvers, I knew. Sure enough it came. I heard the light rattle of pebbles against my shutters.
I went down to him to that spot among the bushes which we had made our meeting place.
Redvers was there. He was elated. It was wonderful, he said. I was right. I had made this great discovery. I, Anna, whom he had loved from the moment he had seen her!
I was caught up in his excitement, and once again I experienced the ability to shut out everything past and future and live entirely in the moment. For years he had been under suspicion and I had dispersed that cloud almost effortlessly and by chance. What did it matter now? I had done it!
It was a wonderful moment. “It’s significant,” he said. “It proves that your affairs are mine and mine yours.”
“I must know what happened,” I said. “How did you persuade them to show you the figure and give you the diamonds?”
“It was not difficult,” he explained. “There was great shame in the house of the Flame Men. One of them had failed. They waved aside the fact that he was only a boy not so skilled in his art as they, and looked on it as the sign of some divine wrath. This gave me my opportunity and I took it. I had to. I suggested that there was an evil influence on the house and I talked of the ship that had been blown up in the bay. I took a pencil from my pocket and drew the figurehead. ‘You took this goddess from the sea,’ I said, ‘and she is an alien goddess.’ They told me that they had been promised good fortune if they destroyed the ship. I knew this already because Dick had told me. And when the ship blew up, the figurehead, as they said, leaped from the ship and floated on the water and came to rest near the rock of the Woman of Secrets. They took that as a sign. So they brought in the figurehead and set her up as they set up their own gods. They told me that in the figurehead was a concealed cavity and in this had been the bag of stones. This convinced them, because their custom is to surround their statues with stones and shells. And these were such bright and beautiful stones. They set her up and waited for the good fortune. But it did not come. Instead there was great misfortune for nothing could be worse than for the fire to cease to be a friend of the Flame Men.
“I have the diamonds,” he went on. “I told them that there would be no luck until they were taken to those to whom they belonged. Ta’lui will destroy the figurehead and I told him that there will be a reward for finding the diamonds which will enable him to set up a new statue. He is completely satisfied. I will take the diamonds to England and the matter which began when Fillimore died of a heart attack will be settled. If only he had told someone that he had hidden the diamonds in the figurehead a good deal of trouble would have been saved.”
“But at last it is over.”
“No one can talk of the fortune I have salted away in some foreign port now. And Anna …”
But I could hear voices and I believed that we were closely watched and it might even be that now it was known that I was in the garden alone with him. I could hear Monique’s voice. She was on the porch and Chantel was with her.
Chantel was saying: “You should come in. Come in and wait.”
“No,” cried Monique. “He is here. I know it. I will wait here for him.”
“Go quickly,” I whispered to Redvers.
He went toward the house while I cowered among the bushes, my heart beating wildly.
“What did I say? Here he is. So you are back.”
“It appears so.” His voice was cold when he spoke to her. How different when he addressed me!
“You look as though you have been having an exciting adventure,” said Monique, her voice shrill.
“I should go in,” said Chantel firmly. “I am sure the Captain would like that coffee you said you would make for him. No one makes it quite as well as you do.”
“Yes, I will,” she said. “Come on, mon capitaine.”
The silence was broken only by the hum of insects in the garden. I waited for some minutes then went swiftly into the house.
There was a tap at my door and Chantel came in. She looked excited. Her eyes were enormous.
“I had to tell you, Anna,” she said. “She has the letter.”
I put my hand over my heart, and half-closed my eyes; I felt as though I was going to faint.
“Sit down,” said Chantel.
“When did you see it?”
“Not till tonight. She was reading it and when I came in she put it on the table and pretended it was nothing. I had a quick glance and saw your name on it. Then she picked it up and put it inside the neck of her dress.”
“Chantel, what do you think she intends to do?”
“We can only wait and see. I was surprised how calm she was. And she has said nothing.”
“She will.”
“I think she will say something to him tonight.”
“But she calmly went up to make coffee for him.”
“I don’t understand this calmness; but I thought you should be prepared.”
“Oh Chantel, I feel terrified of what may happen.”
She stood up. “I must go back. I may be called in. But don’t worry. I promise you, Anna, that it’s going to be all right. We have nearly finished with this place, with all of it. You’ve always been able to trust me, haven’t you?”
She came up to me and kissed me coolly on the forehead.
“Goodnight, Anna. Only a little while now.”
She went out and left me.
I knew that sleep was impossible. I could only think of Monique reading that letter which had been intended for me alone.
A night of strange emotions. This tremendous tension had to break sooner or later. It could not last. That was my only consolation. I must get away, get away from them all. Perhaps even Chantel for she was bound irrevocably to the Creditons. A few weeks now and I should be in Sydney, and there I must find the courage to break away, to start a new life of my own.
I heard Monique’s voice raised in anger and tried to shut my ears to it. A little later I heard footsteps in the garden and looking through my shutters I saw Redvers striding across the garden. I gathered he must have been called back to the ship and that Monique was protesting. Had she shown him the letter? What was she planning to do with it?
I undressed and got into bed but sleep was naturally impossible; I lay as I had often lain in the Queen’s House listening to the sounds of the house.
As I lay there my door was opened silently and a figure stood in the doorway. I leaped up. I cried out in relief when I saw that it was Chantel.
She looked strange; her hair was loose and she wore a soft silk dressing gown of her favorite shade of green; her eyes were dilated.
“Chantel,” I cried, “what’s wrong?”
Her voice sounded high pitched and unlike itself.
“Read this,” she said. “And when you have read it come to me at once.”
“What is it?”
“Read it and see.”
She threw some papers onto the bed and before I could pick them up had glided out.
I jumped out of bed and lit my candles; then I picked up the papers and read.
Dearest Anna,
There is so much you don’t know, so much I have to tell you. I don’t think there is much time so I must be brief. You remember I told you that there were so many facets of truth and that I had told the truth but not the whole truth. You don’t know me, Anna; not all of me. You know only one little bit of me; and you are very fond of what you know, which pleases me. You read my journal. As I said it was the truth but not the whole truth. I would like to have read it through so that I could have rewritten pieces for you, but that would take too long. You see, I didn’t tell you that Rex fell deeply in love with me. You knew that he was attracted by me but you thought it was mild flirtation on his part. You were sorry for me, anxious for me. I loved you for that, Anna. You see as soon as I entered the Castle I wanted to be mistress of it. I saw myself as the future Lady Crediton and nothing else would satisfy me. I am insatiably ambitious, Anna. In almost all of us there is the secret woman who does not appear for her friends and acquaintances, perhaps not even for the man she marries. But Rex must know me fairly well now. It has not changed his devotion to me. You will remember that I was interested in Valerie Stretton; there was the occasion when she came in with her muddy boots. There was the letter in her bureau. I wrote that Miss Beddoes came in and found me with it in my hands. That was not all the truth. I had read the letter; I had read other letters; I had discovered that Valerie Stretton was being blackmailed. I married Rex and when he was to go to Australia I was determined to go with him. He wanted me to go openly as his wife. I was not going to alienate Lady Crediton at that stage. She could have diverted a large part of her fortune from Rex and I wanted him to have complete control. I knew it was better to keep our marriage secret for a while so I put the idea into Dr. Elgin’s head that our climate was killing Monique. Then I made Monique decide that she wanted to go to see her mother. As this meant sailing on the Captain’s ship she didn’t need a lot of persuading. But I had to have you with us, Anna, and poor old Beddoes was very incompetent. I helped to get her moved on. She sensed it. Who would have believed that? But adventuresses learn to watch for opposition in the most unexpected quarters.