Murder at Mansfield Park (27 page)

They sat in silence for a long while after this, until Mary ventured to ask him, once more, if he had seen the family.

‘I saw Mrs Norris, who was intent on seeing me off the premises with all dispatch. I am heartily glad you were not there to see it—or
hear
it, given the choice turn of phrase she chose to avail herself of. The only thing that distinguishes that old harridan from a Billings-gate fishwife is a thick layer of bombazine, and a thin veneer of respectability. No, no, my conscience is easy on the score of Mrs Norris; she has never shewn me either consideration or respect, and I will requite her insolence and contempt in equal measure. But I do have cause for self-reproach on Lady Bertram’s account. You know I have always thought her a silly woman—a mere cipher—interested only in that vile pug and all that endless yardage of fringe, but she has a kind heart, for all that, and has borne a great deal of late, without the strength and guidance of Sir Thomas to assist her. I am afraid to say that this latest news has quite overcome her, and she has taken to her bed. I am heartily sorry for it, and all the more so since I discovered how ill Miss Julia had been these last few days.’

‘And the gentlemen—Mr Bertram?’ and, this with a blush, ‘Mr Norris?’

‘I saw Bertram very briefly. He left me kicking my heels for upwards of half an hour, but I had expected no extraordinary politeness, and suffered my punishment with as good a grace as I could, feeling all the while like a naughty if rather overgrown schoolboy. He was angry— very angry—but he neither called me out, nor threatened me with all the redress the law affords, which I confess, I had at times been apprehensive of, even though Fanny was of age and the marriage required the consent of neither parent nor guardian. I verily believe he did not know whether to address me as his cousin’s ravisher, her widowed husband, or her probable assassin. We none of us have the proper etiquette for such a situation as this. Norris did not appear at all, and I confess I was not sorry. I have had my fill of doleful and portentous prolixity for one day—indeed I often wonder if Norris has not missed his vocation. If Dr Grant should succeed to that stall in Westminster he endlessly prates of, our Mr Norris would make a capital replacement, and could hold forth in that pompous, conceited way of his every Sunday, to his heart’s content.’

It was, for a moment, the Henry of old, and Mary was glad of it, even if it came at such a price; but her joy was short-lived.

‘And besides,’ he said in a more serious tone, ‘I do not know what I should have said to him. My marriage has become a source of regret to me, Mary, and not least for the pain it has caused to others—a pain that I cannot, now, hope to redress.’

He sighed, and she pressed his fingers once again in her own, ‘You must tell me if there is any thing I can do.’

‘There is certainly some thing you can do—for the family, if not for me. Good Mrs Baddeley took me to one side as I departed, and begged me to ask you to go to the Park in the morning. It seems Miss Bertram is taken up with nursing her mother, and Miss Julia is still in need of constant attendance. Mrs Baddeley was high in her praise of you, my dear Mary, and I trust the rest of the family is equally recognisant. Indeed, I hope their righteous fury at the brother’s duplicity does not blind them to the true heart, and far more shining qualities, of the sister.’

Mary’s eyes filled with tears; it was long since she had heard such tender words, or felt so comfortable in another’s company. Having been alone in the world from such an early age, the two had always relied on each other; her good sense balancing his exuberance, his spirits supporting hers; his pleasantness and gaiety seeing difficulties nowhere, her prudence and discretion ensuring that they had always lived within their means. She perceived on a sudden how much she had missed him, and how different the last weeks would have been had he been there. But it was a foolish thought: had Henry been at Mansfield, none of the events that had so oppressed her would ever have occurred.

‘I will go, of course, but I meant to ask if there was any thing I could do for
you
.’

‘Nothing, my dear Mary,’ he said, with a sad smile, ‘but to take yourself off to bed and get what sleep you can.You will need your strength on the morrow. Do not worry, I will be up myself soon.’

He watched her go, and settled down into his chair, his eyes thoughtful; and when the maid came to make up the fire in the morning, that was where she found him; in the same chair, and the same position, hunched over a hearth that was long since cold.

CHAPTER XVI

Nothing but the assurance that her presence was both necessary and wished for would have reconciled Mary to calling on the Bertrams, after such revelations as her brother’s return had precipitated, but she gathered her courage, and presented herself at the Park at an earlier hour than common visiting would warrant. Mrs Baddeley received her in a rapture of gratitude, and she was glad, for once, to encounter no-one but the housemaids on her way upstairs. She had soon installed herself by Julia’s bed-side, happy to feel herself useful, and knowing that she brought comfort to at least some of the inmates of Mansfield Park. The household was slow to stir that morning, and Mary was probably the only person, besides the servants, to observe the departure of George Fraser. Hearing sounds on the drive she had stepped to the window, to see him emerge from the house, carrying a knapsack of such a size and bulk as anticipated at least one night’s absence. She was watching him mount, when the door opened, and Julia’s maid entered with a pile of clean sheets for the bed. She saw Mary at the window, and stopped for a moment at her elbow.

‘The footmen say he be heading towards London, and then to another place in the same direction. Some wheres beginning with N?’

‘Enfield,’ said Mary, her heart sinking. ‘I imagine he is going to Enfield. My brother has a house there.’

Evans’s eyes widened. ‘So it’s true, miss! Miss Fanny—she upped and went off with your Mr Crawford! I always did say he was a lovely-looking gen’leman. Always a smile for the likes of us—and a thank you, as well—you can’t say that for everyone who comes a-calling here.’

The girl’s cheeks had, by now, grown very pink, and her eyes had strayed from Mary’s face. Mary sighed; she knew her brother occasionally indulged himself in harmless gallantries with maid-servants, but she had never approved of such careless conduct, and liked it even less when it concerned girls of Polly Evans’s youth and
naiveté
. She was wondering whether it was necessary to caution her, however gently, to be rather more guarded in future, when hooves sounded on the gravel, and Polly turned to the window once again, her pretty features darkening into a frown. ‘Let’s hope that’s the last we see of that evil villain— and fair riddance. Poor Kitty Jeffries hasn’t risen from her bed since he was set loose on her. She won’t eat, and sobs as if her heart would break.’

Mary turned to her aghast. ‘What can you mean, Polly?’

Polly clapped her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh miss, I shouldn’t have said nothing! She made me promise on the Bible not to tell. That Maddox, he put the fear of God on her if she so much as breathed a word.’

‘But is she harmed—is she in need of a physician?’

Polly shook her head. ‘Not now. Mrs Baddeley took a look at her, and said there was nothing broke, and the marks would heal. Don’t fret, miss,’ she said, seeing Mary’s horrified look, ‘it’s no worse than what her pa used to do to her when he was angry and in drink. Kit’s a tough one— she’s used to it.’

Mary felt for a chair, and sat down heavily, her mind in a tumult; what justification could there be for the use of such extremes of violence on a blameless servant? What could Maria Bertram’s maid possibly know that would force Maddox to resort to such desperate measures to extort it from her? She looked up at Evans, who was wringing her hands in a state of extreme agitation.

‘Please don’t say nothing, miss. That man Maddox is still in the house, and if he were to hear of it—’

‘You have no need to fear, Polly,’ she said firmly. ‘I will see to that. But have you no idea
at all
what it was that Kitty told this man Fraser?’

Polly looked exceedingly awkward. ‘Not really, miss. Though I did hear her murmur some thing about—well, about Miss Julia.’

Mary turned involuntarily to the figure lying unconscious on the bed; the girl had not, to Mary’s knowledge, spoken a word since the day she saw Fanny’s coffin carried past her room. But
Julia
? How could such an innocent young girl possibly be involved in this dreadful affair?

Mary sent Evans away with renewed promises of silence and complicity, and closing the door quietly behind her, sat down by the bed to ponder and deliberate. As the morning wore away, however, she was obliged to put her own concerns aside; she began to perceive that though Julia’s pulse had initially been much stronger, and her condition more favourable than on her preceding visit, she was slowly growing more heavy, restless, and uncomfortable. Mary asked for Mr Gilbert to be sent for, and waited anxiously until Mrs Baddeley ushered him into the room.

‘I cannot comprehend it,’ he said, a few moments later, his face anxious, ‘every sign was growing more propitious, and I saw no cause to apprehend a relapse. Not, at least, a relapse such as this. You are sure—’ this to Mrs Baddeley ‘—that only the cordials I prescribed have been administered, and in the correct doses?’

‘I would stake my life on it, sir,’ said Mrs Baddeley, her pink face somewhat pinker than usual. ‘I have given the maids the most strict instructions.’

Gilbert shook his head. ‘Only yesterday I was offering the family my felicitations on a recovery surpassing even my expectation, but now a recovery of any kind is most doubtful, most doubtful indeed. We will have to redouble our vigilance—and our prayers. Miss Crawford, can we prevail upon you to assist us yet further?’

Mary assured him of her complete willingness to watch the rest of the day, and the night if needed. It was a period of almost equal suffering to both. Hour after hour passed away in increasing pain and discomposure on Julia’s side, and in the most cruel anxiety on Mary’s, which could only be augmented by the new sense of unease that had arisen since her conversation with Evans.

She made a hasty dinner in the housekeeper’s room, and returned to relieve Mrs Baddeley. Julia was tossing to and fro, and uttering frequent but inarticulate sounds of complaint. Her face was flushed, and she seemed to be breathing with difficulty.

‘I do so hate to see her in such a pitiable state, Miss Crawford,’ said Mrs Baddeley, with tears in her eyes. ‘I do believe she is worse even than when you went downstairs.’

Mary put her hand on her arm, and offered words of reassurance that were very far from the forebodings in her own heart.

‘Mr Gilbert has promised to call again in the course of the next three or four hours, Mrs Baddeley. Let us endeavour to support our hopes and spirits until then. We will be of more assistance to Miss Julia if we can remain calm.’

At that moment Julia started up in the bed, and in a near frenzy, cried out, ‘No! No! It cannot be! It cannot be!’

Mary was at her side in an instant, and advising Mrs Baddeley to send for Mr Gilbert without delay, passed her hand over the girl’s brow.

‘I am here, Julia. There is no cause for alarm. You are quite safe.’

‘
No! No!’
she moaned, ‘You must tell them—I can trust you—I did not mean—did not mean—an accident—an
accident
—’

‘Hush, Julia, do not distress yourself so,’ Mary said imploringly, as she attempted to persuade her to lie down again, but when she clasped the girl’s shoulders, she felt her thin frame grow rigid against her.

‘So much blood!—never knew—so
much
—her dress—her hands—never, never wished for that—let me be rid of it—let me forget it—never, oh never—no hope—no hope—’

She threw herself back on her pillows, as if exhausted, and lay for some moments neither moving nor stirring. Mary, too, was unmoving, half stupefied between horror and incredulity. Was this the explanation of the reprehensible conduct of Maddox and his associate? Was it indeed possible that Julia had been responsible, even if accidentally, for the death of her cousin? She knew the strength of her youthful passions, and the weak hold of more temperate counsels over the immoderation of youth and zeal; she knew, likewise, that Julia had been frantic to prevent the felling of the avenue, and in her high-wrought state, weakened by recent illness, the event had no doubt taken on a disproportionate enormity in her child-like mind.

As Mary sat retrospecting the whole of the affair, and the conversations she herself had witnessed, she began to perceive—all too late—that Julia might, indeed, have come to regard Fanny as wholly to blame for the disaster about to befall her beloved trees, believing her cousin could have prevented it, had she been prepared to intercede, and use her considerable influence to compel her uncle to alter his plans. Much as her heart revolted from the possibility, Mary’s imagination could easily conceive of a meeting between the two cousins in the park that ill-fated morning—the very morning that the work was due to commence. She could picture Fanny listening to her cousin’s pleas with contempt and ridicule, and Julia, provoked beyond endurance, striking out in desperation and fury, if only to put an end for ever to the scorn in that voice. She did not want to believe it, but her heart told her that it was possible, just as her mind acknowledged that it would explain many things that had puzzled her hitherto; it would render Julia’s despairing decision to chain herself to the trees more readily comprehensible; and it would account for her terror at the sight of her cousin’s coffin. Mary thought back to that dreadful scene, and recalled, with a cold shudder that carried irrefutable conviction, the actual words Julia had used. She saw her in imagination, standing in the door of her chamber, her hand to her mouth, crying out, ‘
She
is not dead,
she
cannot be dead.’ But how could she possibly have known whose coffin it was? The family had been careful to conceal the news of her cousin’s death from her.There was only one answer, only one explanation.