Curse of the Kings (7 page)

Sir Ralph came to the rescue. There was a cottage on his estate which was vacant and he would allow the Misses Osmond to have it for a peppercorn rent.

They were delighted. It had solved half the problem.

Sir Ralph was determined to be our benefactor. Lady Bodrean needed a companionomeone who would read to her whenever required to do so, assist her in her charities, give the help she needed when she entertained. In fact a secretary companion. Sir Ralph thought that I might be suitable for the post, and Lady Bodrean was ready to consider me.

Alison and Dorcas were delighted.

fter our disappointment everything is working out so well,they cried. e have our cottage and it would be wonderful to have you not too far away. Just imagine, we should be able to see you frequently. Oh it would be wonderfulif er you could get along with Lady Bodrean.

h, here the rub, I quoted lightheartedly. But I felt far from that.

And not without reason. Lady Bodrean, I had always felt, had never really cared for me to join her daughter and nephew in the Keverall Court schoolroom. On the rare occasions when I had seen her I had been met by frosty stares.

She always reminded me of a ship, for with her voluminous petticoats and skirts which rustled as she walked she seemed to sail along without being aware of anyone in her path. I had never tried to ingratiate myself with her, being conscious of a certain antagonism. Now I was in a different position.

She received me in her private sitting room, a small apartments rooms went in Keverall Courtut it was about twice the size of the cottage rooms. It was overcrowded with furniture. On the mantelpiece were vases and ornaments very close together; there were cabinets filled with china and silver and a what-not in one corner of the room full of little china pieces. The chairs were covered by tapestry worked by Lady Bodrean herself. There were two firescreens also of tapestry and two stools. The frame with a new piece stood close to her chair and she was working at this when I was shown into her room.

She did not look up for quite a minute implying that she found her work more interesting than the new companion. It might have been disconcerting if I had been the timid sort.

Then: h, it Miss Osmond. Youe come about the post. You may sit down.

I sat, my head high, the color in my cheeks.

our duties,she said, ill be to make yourself useful to me in any capacity which arises.

I said: es, Lady Bodrean.

ou will look after my engagements, both social and philanthropic. You will read the papers to me each day. You will care for my two Pomeranians, Orange and Lemon.At the mention of their names the two dogs reclining on cushions on either side of her raised their heads and regarded me with contempt. Oranger it might have been Lemon arked; the other one sniffed. arlings,said Lady Bodrean with a tender smile, but her expression was immediately frosty when she turned back to me. ou will, of course, be available for anything I may require. Now I should like to hear you read a passage to me.

Opening The Times she handed it to me. I started to read of the resignation of Bismarck and the plan to cede Heligoland to Germany.

I was aware of her scrutinizing me as I read. She had a lorgnette attached to a gold chain about her waist and she quizzed me quite openly. The sort of treatment one must expect when one was about to become an employee, I supposed.

es, that will do,she said in the middle of a sentence so that I knew that engaging a companion was of greater moment than the fate of Heligoland.

should like you to start immediately. I hope that is convenient.

I said I should need a day or so to settle my affairs, though what affairs I was not sure. All I knew was that I wanted to postpone taking up my new post for I found the prospect depressing.

She graciously conceded that I might have the rest of that day and the next in which to prepare myself. The day after that she would expect me to take up my duties.

On the way back to the cottagehich had the delectable name of Rainbow Cottage although the only reason known for this was that the flowers which used to be grown in the garden were all the colors of the rainbow tried to think of the advantages of my new position, and told myself that while I was going to hate being employed by Lady Bodrean I would have opportunities of seeing Tybalt.

III The Months of Bondage

My room at Keverall Court was close to that of Lady Bodrean, in case she should want me at any time. It was a pleasant enough roomll the rooms at Keverall were gracious, even the smallestith its paneled walls and mullioned window. And from the window I could see the roof of Giza House, by which I was foolishly comforted.

I had not been in the house long when I came to the conclusion that Lady Bodrean disliked me. She would ring her bell quite often after I had retired for the night and would tell me peevishly that she could not sleep. I must make tea for her, or read to her until she dozed; and I would often sit shivering because she liked a cold bedroom, and she was comfortable enough under her blankets while I was often in my dressing gown. She was never satisfied with anything I did. If there was nothing of which to complain she was silent; if there was, then she would refer to it over and over again.

Her personal maid Jane commiserated with me.

er ladyship seems to have it in for you,she admitted. t often like that. Ie seen it before. A regular servant got a sort of dignity. There always housemaids or parlormaids or lady maid wanted. But companions and such likeell that up another street.

I suppose some natures could have borne it better than mine, but I had never been one to accept injustice; and in the old days when I had come to this house I had come on equal terms with Theodosia. It was very hard to accept the new position and it was only the alternative of banishment from St. Erno which made me stay on.

I took my meals alone in my room. During them I usually read the books I had borrowed from Giza House. I didn see Tybalt during this time for he and his father had gone away for a while on some expedition into the Midlands, but Tabitha always had books for me.

She would say: ybalt thought this would interest you.

These books, my visits to Tabitha, and the knowledge that Dorcas and Alison were happily settled provided the only brightness in my life at that time.

I saw Theodosia now and then. She would have been quite pleasant to me if her mother would have allowed it. There was nothing malicious or proud about Theodosia. She was negative; she took her color from people about her. She would never be actively unkind, but at the same time she did little to alleviate my position. Perhaps she remembered the past when I had been inclined to bully her.

When I saw Sir Ralph he would ask me how I was getting on and he gave that amused look which I had seen so often. I could not say to him: dislike your wife and I would leave her tomorrow if I did not know that however unhappy I am here I should be far more so elsewhere.

I went to Rainbow Cottage to see Dorcas and Alison as often as I could. It was an interesting little place about three hundred years old, I think, and it had been built in the days when any family who could build a cottage in a night could claim the land on which it had been erected as their own. It was the custom in those days to collect bricks and tiles and to start building as soon as it was dark and work through the night. Four walls and a roof constituted a dwelling and that was done by morning. After that, the place could be added to. That was what had happened to Rainbow Cottage. When the Bodreans had acquired the cottage they had used it for their dependents and added to it considerably, but some of the old features remained, such as the old talfat sort of ledge high up on the wall on which children used to sleep and which was reached by a ladder. Now it boasted a moderately good kitchen with a cloam oven in which Dorcas used to bake the most delicious bread I had ever tasted; then there was a copper in which they cooked the scalded milk to make clotted cream. They were really very happy in Rainbow Cottage with its pleasant little garden; though of course they missed the spacious rectory.

I used to hate leaving them and going back to Keverall Court and my onerous duties, and consoled myself by doing malicious imitations of Lady Bodrean as I paraded round the cottage sitting room brandishing an imaginary lorgnette.

nd Sir Ralph,they asked timidly. o you see much of him?

ery little. I not exactly one of the family, you know.

t a shame,said Dorcas hotly; but Alison silenced her.

hen you were having lessons there it was so different,complained Dorcas.

es, I never thought then that I wasn one of them. But then I hadn a post, and it was amazing how little I was aware of Lady Bodrean fortunately.

t may change,hazarded Alison.

I was optimistic by nature, and even at that dreary time I had my dreams. The dinner partyne of the guests, a lady, was unable to come. They could not sit down with thirteen. Very well, there is the companion. he quite presentable. After all she was educated here.And so I went down to dine in a gown which Theodosia found for meshe had looked frightful in it but it was just right for meand there I was ext to someone you know,whispered Theodosia. h!cried Tybalt. ow delightful to see you!And we talked and everyone was aware of how absorbed he was by his neighbor at the dining table and afterwards he would not leave her side. ow glad I am,he said, hat Lady X Y Z What did her name matter? ow glad I am that she could not come tonight.

Dreams! Dreams! But what else was there for me during that unsatisfactory period of my life?

I had read until I was hoarse.

our voice is not good today, Miss Osmond. Oh dear, how tiresome! One of the chief duties I look for is your reading.

She would sit there and in and out went the needle with its trail of red or blue or violet wool and I was sure she was not listening to what I was reading. If only I could have read from one of the books I brought from Giza House! Sometimes I had the mischievous thought that I would substitute one and see whether she knew the difference.

Sometimes she would lay aside her tapestry and close her eyes. I would go on reading, unsure whether she was awake or not. Sometimes I stopped to see if she had noticed. Often I caught her sleeping; but then she would catch me for she would awake suddenly and demand to know why I was not reading.

I would say meekly: thought you were sleeping, Lady Bodrean. I was afraid I should disturb you.

onsense,she would retort. ray go on and I will say when we shall stop.

She kept me reading on that day until my eyes were tired and my voice weary. I began to think of escaping at any price, but I always came back to the thought of going away and never seeing Tybalt again.

Orange and Lemon turned out to be blessings for they needed daily exercise and this gave me the opportunity to get away from the house and it was easy to slip over to Giza House and have a chat with Tabitha.

One day I called and knew immediately that something exciting had happened. She took me into the drawing room and told me that Sir Edward was planning an expedition to Egypt. It was going to be one of his most ambitious efforts. She hoped to accompany the party. ow that Sabina is married,she said, here is no need for me to stay here.

ou will have some job to do?

ot an official job, of course, but I can make myself useful. I can housekeep if that should be necessary and I have picked up quite a lot. I can be useful in a fetch-and-carry sort of way as amateurs are.

I looked at her ecstatically. ow I envy you!

She smiled that gentle sweet smile of hers. ady Bodrean can be trying I daresay.

I sighed.

Then she went on to talk about the expedition.

ill Tybalt be accompanying his father?I asked.

ndeed yes. It going to be one of the most important missions so far. I gather the archaeological world is talking of nothing else. Of course you know that Sir Edward is perhaps one of the greatest men of his profession in the world.

I nodded. nd Tybalt is following in his footsteps.

She looked at me shrewdly and I wondered whether I had betrayed the state of my feelings.

e is his father all over again,she said. en such as they are have one great passion in their lives their work. It something that those about them must always remember.

I could never resist talking about Tybalt.

ir Edward seems so much more remote. He hardly seems to see anyone.

e does come down from the clouds now and then or should I say up from the soil. One should never expect to know men like them in a few years. Theye a lifetime study.

es,I said. suppose that what makes them interesting.

She smiled gently. ometimes,she went on, have thought that it would be well for such men to live the lives of hermits or monks. Their work should be their families.

id you know Lady Travers?

t the end of her life, yes.

nd you think Sir Edward is happier as a widower than he was as a husband?

id I give that impression? I came to them as a rather privileged housekeeper. We had known them for some years and when the need arose I took this post as you have taken yours.

nd Lady Travers died after that?

es.

I wanted to know what Tybalt mother was like, and as Dorcas and Alison had often told me, I was far from tactful. So I blundered on: t wasn a very happy marriage, was it?

She looked startled. ellThey had little in common and as I said men like Sir Edward perhaps don make model husbands.

I was certain then that she was warning me.

She said brightly: ou remember Evan Callum.

f course.

e coming to visit us. I hear that Hadrian will be returning also. Theyl be here soon, both of them. Theyl be interested to hear about Sir Edward expedition.

I stayed talking although I knew I shouldn. I wanted to glean all I could. Tabitha was quite animated.

t would be wonderful if you could come,she said. am sure you would prefer it to looking after that not-very-agreeable lady.

h, if only I could.

ever mind. Perhaps some day