seemingly indiscriminate, applying to those of the blood but also to those brought into the family as wives or husbands, with no such heritage…’
There must be more in the way of investigation to be done. If I were to make a far more thorough search—’ Hil rose to his feet. ‘You’re exhausted, I’ve stayed too long—and said too much. We’ll meet again, another day: meanwhile, I’ll seek to discover more, something more specific.’
‘God knows whether even that is wise. To meddle with the unknown.’
‘We can’t go on with this cobweb of terrors—let me at least try to trace some thread running through it all. Meanwhile, be at peace. You may yet recover your strength, it isn’t all hopelessness and, whatever may happen, you know that I shall never, while I live, cease my love and care for the children; and the old Walloon is a tower of strength, love or unlove her as we may. And there is this excellent young woman—this—this pearl, as you have called her…’
And the cold grew terrible, grew terrible, clutching with icy hands about his heart. One day, this pearl would betray, would destroy them all.
CHAPTER 8
F REE TIME FOR THE governess was considered by Madame Devalle to be by no means a matter of necessity but Edouard had insisted, with his usual foolishness, that Miss Tettyman—no one nowadays bothered to correct him as to her name—must have regular hours of leisure and, moreover, be made free of transport if she wished to go into the village or even to town. She said, speaking in French: ‘Very well, then, today she may take the children to try their new shoes.’
‘That would hardly be a holiday for her. She must be free of them now and again. How would you like never a moment to yourself?’
‘I am not a servant, mon cher. Et plus que ça , two of them at a time, they give me the headache, it is too much for me.’
‘A governess may have a headache as well as another.’
‘If she is so delicate, she had better not take such a position. After all, is it such a penance,’ said Tante Louise, somewhat shifting her ground, ‘to sit quietly and read to two children on a wet afternoon?’
‘No, and that’s what I myself will do, on this particular wet afternoon. Owain is driving her in the dog-cart wherever she wishes to go.’
‘Yes, well you had better look out for this Owain,’ said Madame, her speech increasing in rapidity as her irritation irrationally grew, ‘and see that your treasure doesn’t go making a fool of herself. What else is she good for, poor scarred creature, with no dot to bring to a marriage, nothing but a few false pretensions to gentility? And he’s not a bad looking young lout—’
He gave her a look or sick rage, be quiet, Louise! You have an ugly mind.’
‘And she has an ugly face; and, I strongly suspect, an ugly past to go with it.’
‘Be quiet, I tell you!’
‘Oh, yes—be quiet! And let you be the one to make a fool of yourself. Better leave her to her stable boys. You would not be the first master of the house into whom she had got those little claws of hers. Oh, you never believe me; but, for example, why do you think she drives down to the village today? She goes to post a letter, one which she won’t leave on the hall table for Tomos to collect.’ As he struggled to his feet and made for the door, in his feeble haste stumbling as he went, she cried out after him: ‘With Sir Charles Arden’s name on it, my dear, and—listen to this and see how you like it!—in the care of an accommodation address.’
For Tante Louise was not without her informant in that house. She of the many grievances, and most of them concentrated nowadays upon the governess with her airs and graces and need to be waited upon, had discovered where her bread might be buttered—with however sparing a hand. Olwen the upstairs housemaid, with an ear to every keyhole and a talent for fiddling open every locked drawer.
Still—what right had a governess to
There must be more in the way of investigation to be done. If I were to make a far more thorough search—’ Hil rose to his feet. ‘You’re exhausted, I’ve stayed too long—and said too much. We’ll meet again, another day: meanwhile, I’ll seek to discover more, something more specific.’
‘God knows whether even that is wise. To meddle with the unknown.’
‘We can’t go on with this cobweb of terrors—let me at least try to trace some thread running through it all. Meanwhile, be at peace. You may yet recover your strength, it isn’t all hopelessness and, whatever may happen, you know that I shall never, while I live, cease my love and care for the children; and the old Walloon is a tower of strength, love or unlove her as we may. And there is this excellent young woman—this—this pearl, as you have called her…’
And the cold grew terrible, grew terrible, clutching with icy hands about his heart. One day, this pearl would betray, would destroy them all.
CHAPTER 8
F REE TIME FOR THE governess was considered by Madame Devalle to be by no means a matter of necessity but Edouard had insisted, with his usual foolishness, that Miss Tettyman—no one nowadays bothered to correct him as to her name—must have regular hours of leisure and, moreover, be made free of transport if she wished to go into the village or even to town. She said, speaking in French: ‘Very well, then, today she may take the children to try their new shoes.’
‘That would hardly be a holiday for her. She must be free of them now and again. How would you like never a moment to yourself?’
‘I am not a servant, mon cher. Et plus que ça , two of them at a time, they give me the headache, it is too much for me.’
‘A governess may have a headache as well as another.’
‘If she is so delicate, she had better not take such a position. After all, is it such a penance,’ said Tante Louise, somewhat shifting her ground, ‘to sit quietly and read to two children on a wet afternoon?’
‘No, and that’s what I myself will do, on this particular wet afternoon. Owain is driving her in the dog-cart wherever she wishes to go.’
‘Yes, well you had better look out for this Owain,’ said Madame, her speech increasing in rapidity as her irritation irrationally grew, ‘and see that your treasure doesn’t go making a fool of herself. What else is she good for, poor scarred creature, with no dot to bring to a marriage, nothing but a few false pretensions to gentility? And he’s not a bad looking young lout—’
He gave her a look or sick rage, be quiet, Louise! You have an ugly mind.’
‘And she has an ugly face; and, I strongly suspect, an ugly past to go with it.’
‘Be quiet, I tell you!’
‘Oh, yes—be quiet! And let you be the one to make a fool of yourself. Better leave her to her stable boys. You would not be the first master of the house into whom she had got those little claws of hers. Oh, you never believe me; but, for example, why do you think she drives down to the village today? She goes to post a letter, one which she won’t leave on the hall table for Tomos to collect.’ As he struggled to his feet and made for the door, in his feeble haste stumbling as he went, she cried out after him: ‘With Sir Charles Arden’s name on it, my dear, and—listen to this and see how you like it!—in the care of an accommodation address.’
For Tante Louise was not without her informant in that house. She of the many grievances, and most of them concentrated nowadays upon the governess with her airs and graces and need to be waited upon, had discovered where her bread might be buttered—with however sparing a hand. Olwen the upstairs housemaid, with an ear to every keyhole and a talent for fiddling open every locked drawer.
Still—what right had a governess to
Similar Books
