Curse of the Kings (14 page)

here was an accident,I said. he was killed and I survived.

nd what was going to happen to you was a problem. So we said you were a cousin child and brought you here to adopt you, as it were.

ell, you are in fact my aunts! Aunt Alison! Aunt Dorcas! But why did you tell me that story about being unclaimed?

ou were always asking questions about the distant cousins who, you thought, were your close family, so we thought it better for you to have no family at all.

ou always did what you thought best for me, I know. Who was my father? Do you know that?

They looked at each other for a moment and I burst out: an it really be? It explains everything. Sir Ralph!

Their faces told me that I had guessed correctly.

e was my father. I glad. I was fond of him. He was always good to me.I went to them and hugged them. t least I know who my parents are now.

e thought you might be ashamed to have been born out of wedlock.

o you know,I said, believe he really loved her. She must have been the one love of his life. At least she gave him the great solace he needed married to Lady Bodrean.

h Judith!they cried indulgently.

ut he has been kind to me.I thought of the way he looked at me; the amused twinkle in his eyes, the shake of his chin. He was saying to himself: This is Lavinia daughter. How I wished that he was alive so that I could tell him how fond I had grown of him.

ow, Judith,said Dorcas, ou must be prepared. The reason you are expected to be at the reading of the will is because he has left you something. It may well come out that you are his daughter and we wouldn want it to come as a shock to you.

will be prepared,I promised.

They were right. I was mentioned in Sir Ralph will. He had left a quarter of a million pounds to Archaeological Research to be used depending on certain conditions, in whatever way Sir Edward or Tybalt Travers thought fit; he had left an income for life to his wife; to Hadrian an income of one thousand a year; to Theodosia, his heiress, the house on the death of her mother and one half of the residue of his income; the other half was to go to his natural daughter, Judith Osmond; and in the event of the death of one of his daughters her share of his fortune would revert to the other.

It was astounding.

I, penniless, unclaimed at birth, had acquired parents and from one had come a fortune so great that it bewildered me to contemplate it.

Dramatic events had taken place during the recent weeks. I was to be married to the man I loved; and I should not go to him, as I had thought, a penniless woman. I should bring with me a great fortune.

I thought of Sir Ralph taking my hand and Tybalt and placing them in each other. I wondered if he had told Tybalt of our relationship and of what he intended to do.

I then felt my first twinge of uneasiness.

The truth of my birth was now known throughout the village. That I was Sir Ralph daughter surprised few; there was a certain amount of gossip among Oliver parishioners who recounted how I had been educated with his legitimate daughter and nephew and afterwards taken into Keverall Court, albeit in a humble position. They had guessed, they said, being wise after the event. Alison and Dorcas were alternately pleased and ashamed. Alison said that she was glad her father had not had to face this scandal; their sister, the rector daughter, the mistress of Sir Ralph who had borne him a child! It was rather scandalous. At the same time I, who meant far more to them than their dead sister reputation, was now a woman of means whose future was secure. I had also so charmed my father that he had shown the world that I was almost as important to him as his legitimate daughter.

The scandal would die down; the benefits remain.

They had been so anxious for me to marry but now I was about to do so they were, I sensed, not so pleased. As a young woman of means I no longer needed the financial support a husband could give me, and it was for this support that they had selected first Oliver and then Evan for me; and now, before I had known of my inheritance I had become engaged to that rather strange man whose father had recently died mysteriously. It was not what they had planned for me.

When I went to them after the reading of the will they looked at me strangely as though I had become a different person.

I laughed at them. ou foolish old aunts,I cried, or aunts you have turned out to be, the fact that I going to be rich doesn change me at all! And let me tell you, there is going to be no cheeseparing in this house again. You are going to have an income which will enable you to live in the manner to which you have been accustomed.

It was a very emotional moment. Alison face twitched and Dorcas was actually wet. I embraced them.

ust think of it,I said. ou can leave Rainbow Cottage. Sell it if you wishfor Sir Ralph had left it to themand go and live in a lovely house, with a maid or two

Alison laughed. udith, you always did run on. Wee quite happy here and it our very own now. We shall stay here.

ell, you shall never worry about making ends meet again.

ou mustn go spending all the money before youe got it.

That made me laugh. believe there quite a lot of it, and if you think my first thought wouldn be to look after you, you don know Judith Osmond.

Dorcas dabbed her eyes and Alison said seriously: udith, what about him.

im?

his er this man you plan to marry.

ybalt.

They were both looking at me anxiously.

ow that er began Alison. ow that you have this fortune

ood Heavens,I cried, ou don think

e we wondered whether he knew

new what?I demanded.

hat you er were coming into this money.

unts!I cried sternly. ou are being very wrong. Tybalt and I were meant for each other. I passionately interested in his work.

Alison said with a touch of asperity quite alien to her: hope he not passionately interested in your money.

I was angry with them. his is monstrous. How could he be? Besides

ow, Judith, we are only concerned for your good,said Dorcas.

My anger melted. It was true. All their anxiety was for my welfare. I kissed them again. isten,I said, love Tybalt. Do you understand that? I always have. I always will. And we are going to work together. It the most ideal match that was ever made. Don dare say anything else. Don dare think anything else

h, Judith, you always swept everything along with you. I only hope

ope. Who has to hope when one knows.

o you really love him?

o you doubt it?

o. We were wondering about him.

f course,I said, e doesn show his feelings as I do. Who does?

They agreed that few did.

e may seem aloof, remote, coolut he not so.

t would break our hearts if you weren happy, Judith.

here nothing to be afraid of. Your hearts are going to remain intact.

ou really are happy, Judith,said Alison.

in love with Tybalt,I said. nd he wants to marry me. And that being so, how could I possibly be anything but happy?

It was different at the rectory. Sabina welcomed me warmly.

h this is fun, Judith,she cried in her inconsequential way. ere we are, the old gang all happily tied up together. It is interesting, isn it? The only one left out is poor Hadrian. Of course we were uneven weren we. Three women and four men. What a lovely proportionnd a rare one. Tybalt wasn really one of us though. In the schoolroom I mean. And dear old Evan and darling Oliver well they were the teachers. I so pleased. After all you did bully us, didn you, Judith, so Tybalt is just right for you. I always say to Oliver you need someone to bully you. And now youe got Tybalt. Not that hel bully in the way you did but hel keep a firm hand. You can imagine anyone bullying Tybalt, can you? Oh, Judith, aren you lucky! And I can think of anyone I rather have for my darling perfect brother.

This was more comforting than the views at Rainbow Cottage.

And she went on. t was all so exciting. Sir Ralph and all thatand the money! Youl be able to go everywhere with Tybalt. My father was always having to get people interested, to back his trips you know. Not that he didn spend a lot on it himself. We have been fabulously rich, my mother used to say, if it hadn been for my father obsession.

So it seemed that whenever my coming marriage was discussed, my recently acquired fortune always seemed to come under consideration.

I couldn help enjoying my interview with Lady Bodrean.

After the will had been read I presented myself to her. She regarded me as though I were quite distasteful, which I suppose I was.

o,she said, ou have come to hand in your notice.

ertainly I have, Lady Bodrean.

expected it would not be long before you did. So I am to be inconvenienced.

I replied: ell, if I was so useful to you, a fact which you very carefully concealed, I would be willing to stay for a week or so until you have replaced me.

ou know by now that you were forced on me. I had not employed a companion before you came.

hen you will have no objection to my leaving immediately.

She had obviously come to the conclusion that the new turn in my fortunes meant that I would no longer be a good object for oppression and she decided I should go at once, but she pretended to consider this.

That I was Sir Ralph daughter was, I am sure, no surprise to her. In fact I think his behavior towards me had convinced her of our relationship and it was for this reason that she had been particularly unpleasant to me. But that Tybalt should have asked me to marry him was something which puzzled her. She had wanted Tybalt for her own daughter and the fact that Theodosia had married Evan Callum and I had won the prize was galling to her.

hear you are shortly to be married,she said, her lip curling.

ou have heard correctly,I told her.

must say I was surprised until er

ntil?I said.

know that Sir Ralph confided a great deal in Sir Edward. They were close friends. Ie no doubt he told him the position and it was for this reason that er

ou have always been very frank in the past, Lady Bodrean,I said. here is no need to be less direct now that we meet on an equal footing. You are suggesting that Sir Tybalt Travers has asked me to marry him because I am Sir Ralph daughter?

ir Ralph was eager for a union with that family. Of course he would have preferred his true daughter to have made the matchnstead of which she must go off with this penniless schoolteacher.

s I may now presume to correct you, something which was beyond my range before my true identity was discovered, I must remind you that Professor Callum is far from penniless. He holds a good post in one of the country foremost universities and the term schoolteacher is hardly the correct one to apply to a lecturer in archaeology.

e was not the man Sir Ralph wished his daughter to marry. She was foolish and flouted usnd it seems to me that Sir Ralph then decided that since Theodosia had been so foolish he would offer her chance to you.

y future husband is not a prize packet on a dish to be offered round.

ne might say that there was quite a prize to be offered to him. I am surprised at the manner in which my husband has left his fortune. I would say it is a victory for immorality and extravagance.

I would not let her see that she had scored. This suggestion that I was being married for my money was not a new one.

However, I said goodbye to Lady Bodrean and left her with the understanding that our association as employer and employee was terminated.

I went back to Rainbow Cottage which would be my home until my marriage.

We were to be married very soon. Tybalt insisted. Dorcas and Alison thought it was somewhat unseemly to have a wedding so soon after a funeral; and I had to remember that that funeral had turned out to be my father.

When I put this point to Tybalt he said: hat nonsense! You didn know it was your father until afterwards.

I agreed with him. I was ready to agree with him on anything. When I was with him, I forgot all my misgivings. He was so eager for our wedding, and although he was by no means demonstrative he would look at me in a way which sent me into a state of bliss, for I knew that he was contemplating our future with the utmost pleasure. He took me into his confidence completely about his plans. This bequest of Sir Ralph was a boon. Such a large sum of money suitably invested would bring in an income which could be entirely devoted to those explorations in which Sir Ralph had always delighted.

He talked a great deal about that other expedition which had ended abruptly and fatally for Sir Edward. He made me see the arid countryside, feel the heat of that blazing sun. I could visualize the excitement when they had found the door in the mountainside and the flight of steps leading down to corridors.

When he talked of ancient Egypt a passion glowed in him. I had never seen him so enthralled by anything as he was by his work, but I used to tell myself that our marriage was going to be the most important thing that ever happened to either of us, even more so than his work. I would see to that.

I was often at Giza House. It seemed different now that it was to be my home. Tabitha welcomed me warmly. She told me at the first opportunity how pleased she was that Tybalt and I were to marry.

t one time,she whispered, greatly feared that it might be Theodosia.

hat seemed to be the general idea.

here was a great deal of talk about it. I suppose because of the friendship between Sir Ralph and Sir Edward. And they died within a short time of each other.She looked very sad. am sure you are the one for Tybalt.She pressed my hand. shall never forget how you used to come and borrow the books. Those were not very happy days for you I fear.

I told her that nothing that had gone before was of any more importance. In the last weeks life had given me all that I had ever hoped for.

nd you dreamed your dreams, Judith!she said.

was a great dreamer. Now I am going to live.

ou must understand Tybalt.

think I do.

t times you will feel that he neglects you for the work.