Pennyroyal (18 page)

There was no description of the wedding. She had only written:

The worst day of my life. Lewis married.

I shall never stop loving him.

After the wedding there were fewer references to Lewis and hardly any of Fiona. Alician was immersed in examinations and the prospect of training to be a nurse. She did not put any details, only made a vague note about Thomas Ridgeway lending money to Lewis Everand; perhaps she had tried to ignore the transaction knowing that it was part of Lewis’s dream to make Kettlehulme a fitting home for his bride.

Cassy rubbed her neck. She was stiff with reading and the fire had almost gone out. She had reached the last exercise book and the entries were short and terse.

Father and Lewis quarrelled this morning. I couldn’t help hearing. It’s all that woman’s fault. Lewis would not have cheated anyone.

Cassy was reluctant to read the last pages but she knew she must. A kind of tension was building up; she could feel it in Alician’s writing; the girl had sensed the impending disaster.

I keep telling father but he won’t believe me. He’s so stubborn, I don’t know what’s happening to Lewis. He looks awful. He’s not himself. Dead tired. Long weekend off soon.

Cassy was nearing the end now. The date was 22 November 1951, the day that Pennyroyal closed. Alician’s words leapt off the page like a scream from the past.

He’s dead. Lewis is dead. My beloved, my darling, the most precious person in the world. I cannot believe it. My own father. It was his fault. He would not believe Lewis. I’ll never forgive him. Never, never. He can rot in hell. Oh, my Lewis, my darling. Why did you have to go down the mine? I would not have got you the keys if I had known about the flood. It wasn’t worth dying for, a few bits of fluorspar and barytes to show to my father. I ran to the mine but he told me to go home. They had already taken you away. I never saw you again. Me, who loved you so much. I got soaked. It was pouring. The sky was weeping for you.

There was only one more entry, dated a few days later.

Lewis’s funeral. Left Ridge House for good.

I will never forgive my father, never.

Cassy began to sob. The past had caught up with a shattering reality. No wonder Alician had been so bitter and consumed with hatred for her father.

Jake found Cassy still in the chair in the early hours of the morning, sleeping awkwardly, the tears barely dry on her cheeks. He gathered up the diaries, then carried Cassy up the narrow stairs to her bedroom. She stirred in his arms as he shouldered the door open and slid her onto the bed.

“This is becoming a habit,” she sighed wanly.

“I’m a very consistent man,” he said, taking off her boots and wrapping the quilt round her slender body.

“Alician…Lewis….” she murmured softly. “Grandfather…”

Another large tear gathered under her fluttering eyelids and slowly rolled down her cheek.

“All at peace, all at rest,” said Jake steadily. He kissed her forehead, stroking back the tousled hair, and left her to sleep.

It dawned a clear fresh day with fluffy clouds scudding across the sky, chased by an errant wind along the ridges. The grass rippled in waves as the breeze swept over the fields and lost itself on the mauve slopes of the higher moorland.

Cassy came down to breakfast feeling saddened by all she had learned from Alician’s diaries, but with a sense of relief that at last she knew why her mother had insisted on that last painful promise. It was a burden lifted from Cassy’s mind, though it did not change the fact that she had unknowingly perpetuated Alician’s hatred of her father. Thomas Ridgeway had not deserved such treatment from his daughter or granddaughter.

She savoured a cup of black coffee while Mrs. Hadlow fussed around, cooking Jake an old-fashioned breakfast of bacon and eggs and potato pancakes. He was already on his second mug of tea. He grinned at Cassy across the table.

She decided not to put it off any longer. She loved both of them and they each deserved to know the truth.

“I have to tell you about my mother and at the same time explain something about myself,” said Cassy, knowing that complete honesty was the only way that she and Jake could begin a life together. And she was not even sure of that.

“You don’t have to say anything,” said Jake quickly.

“Yes, I must. I want you both to know, although part of what I have to tell you won’t come as much of a surprise to Mrs. Hadlow.”

Mrs. Hadlow turned the pancakes before answering. “Well, Miss Cassy, I must admit I’ve had my suspicions over the years. That little minx; she couldn’t take her eyes off him and was always hanging around him when he came over. It was more than childish hero-worship. But I don’t think he ever noticed. Or if he did, he never let on.”

The grin faded from Jake’s face. “Do you mean . . .?” His voice was gentle but insistent. “My father?”

Cassy found it was all she could do not to turn and cling to him. She did not want him to be hurt by the revelation and she was afraid that it would damage this new fragile feeling between them.

“Alician was crazy about him,” she said frankly. “She had been for years. It’s all in her diaries. When Lewis married Fiona, Alician must have been the unhappiest bridesmaid ever. You can see it in her eyes on that wedding photograph; she looked frozen even though it was summer-time. Then the bitterness between Thomas Ridgeway and Lewis Everand over Pennyroyal and the strain on their friendship… Poor Alician, her life seemed to be coming apart.”

“Your mother was in love with Lewis? Yes, I suppose it makes sense of a lot of things,” said Jake. He looked directly at Cassy, his mouth taut, mocking. “She had good taste in men.”

“But not a lot of sense,” said Mrs. Hadlow briskly. “She was running after a married man, and she was only a child. I tried to tell her she was wasting her young life, but it was not my place. I was only the housekeeper after all.”

“She was more than a handful for my grandfather, too,” said Cassy. “But I feel sorry for her. There’s no doubt she adored Lewis and his death was something she never got over. I suppose in a way she blamed herself, for she got the key to the mine for Lewis after my grandfather had locked up because of the heavy rainstorm.

“I think they must have had a terrible row in the office when Alician found out that Lewis had been injured. She blamed Thomas for everything.” She turned to Jake. “Do you remember seeing a pair of women’s shoes on the floor, muddy and mouldy, and certainly not suitable for walking? I think they were Alician’s shoes. I think she ran all the way to Pennyroyal in the rain when she heard of the accident.”

Mrs. Hadlow coughed, a small discreet noise, as if she did not know whether to intrude between their locked glances.

“How had she heard about the accident?”

“Your grandfather phoned here. The ambulance couldn’t get through as Winnats Pass was blocked. He wanted one of the men to bring round a tractor. Alician was like someone demented; she rushed out into the rain. I can see her now, hair streaming, skirts flying, hear her great cry of despair…” Mrs. Hadlow’s voice broke. “When she came back, hours later, she was drenched, her stockings were torn and her feet were bleeding. She couldn’t speak. I put her to bed, in the room you have now, Miss Cassy. I don’t think she ever spoke to your grandfather again.”

“How dreadful,” Cassy said desolately. “And my poor grandfather. She never forgave him. Even on her deathbed, she still hated him. She m-made me promise…she m-made me promise never to come and see him again. That’s why I never came to see him. I didn’t want to promise but she was my mother, and I loved her.”

Cassy covered her face. There, it was out at last. Now they knew why she had been so unkind to her grandfather. Her shoulders shook as she remembered all the excuses she made and his kindness and understanding on every occasion.

They could blame her; she deserved it.

“There now, don’t you fret, Miss Cassy,” said Mrs. Hadlow, putting an arm round her. “Your grandfather wasn’t daft. He wondered if your mother had put you up to it; malice beyond the grave, I heard him say once. You see, it wasn’t like you. You’d been coming to Ridge House since you were tiny; it was more like your home than anywhere in the world.”

“Do you really think he knew?” Cassy wept.

“I’m sure he knew,” said Mrs. Hadlow. “He always loved you. Those years when you were a sunny little girl, following him around the farm, wanting to be with him, chattering away; they were his happiest years and believe me I know.”

Jake saw Cassy’s torment and wanted to comfort her, to tell her she would always be safe with him. For a few seconds, Cassy was faint with weakness; all her flaming fire of independence left her. Jake saw that momentary weakness and knew he would never take advantage of it. He wanted her to find that bright spirit again.

“I would have felt bound to do the same,” he said. “It was a matter of honour, Cassy.”

She knew he was a man of honour. Everything about him told her so. She could admire that fundamental strength in him, even when it worked against herself.

“Perhaps you and I should take a walk,” he went on. “I promised to show you the most beautiful view in the world.”

Cassy smiled at him tremulously. She could tell from his voice and the smile in those dark eyes, that he understood and she was forgiven. Mrs. Hadlow was smiling too.

“That’s a good idea, Mr. Everand. A breath of our Derbyshire air is the best tonic in the world.”

Cassy ran upstairs to get ready to go out. She had read Jake’s dark eyes and their message was clear. He cared and perhaps one day he might even love her. She zipped up her padded, straw-coloured anorak and tucked her hair into a rakish tweed cap. Her eyes sparkled. It was not simply what she wore but the way she wore the clothes, an in-born elegance that was in every tilt of her head, every gesture.

Jake was waiting outside with the car and she went to him, her face trusting and happy. His kiss was deep and yearning and she felt his body shudder against her. It was too late to hide her feelings and Cassy’s lips parted, yielding to his embrace with every fibre of her being.

“I love you,” she breathed.

“And I love you, my angel, and I’ll love you for as long as I live. You’re the woman I’ve always wanted, always been searching for. It’s taken me such a long time to find you. I’m sure not going to let you go.”

“But everything that’s happened….” Cassy was still dubious. “Alician and your father…”

“Leave the past where it belongs, Cassy. You and I are what matter now; I bet Thomas Ridgeway and Lewis have made it up, wherever they are. And they’d be tickled pink to know we’re together.”

“Jake, darling, hold me tight. Am I dreaming all this?” Cassy knew what she had to do. “I want to give you Pennyroyal. It’s yours by right and I want you to have it.”

“I’m touched by your generosity,” he chuckled. “But I thought I was doing the favours by buying the mine from you.”

“Doing me a favour?”

“You wanted capital for this modelling agency you’re so keen on starting. Cassandra? I thought I was being pretty generous giving you the money to throw away.”

“Throw away!” Cassy began indignantly, then more calmly. “Is that why you made the offer? So that I could start my own agency?” Cassy could hardly believe it. Jake had been prepared to put his money into her hands, to trust her, in a world that was so alien and distant from his own. She shook her head. “I’m getting confused,” she said. “But I’m not offering you a worthless mine, Jake. It was in Alician’s diary. Lewis had found some minerals other than lead. Now what were they? Fluorspar and barytes… Do you know anything about them?”

“I’m not surprised. I was looking for them. I found crystals of fluorspar in the old workings. The old miners used to throw it away. It didn’t have much value in those days, but now it has important industrial uses…it’s used as a flux in steel making, to make aerosol propellant and nonstick plastics.”

Cassy remembered glimpses of fluorescent sparkles in the tunnel, glinting in the darkness as the boat took them smoothly through the dark water. Had she been looking at the real wealth of Pennyroyal?

“And barytes have many uses in paint and glass manufacturing, as a lubricant, and the most well-known is in the medical world, for making barium meals for X-rays.”

“And it’s all there, in Pennyroyal?”

“I aim to find out. If it’s there, I’ll find it.”

He was driving the car towards Winnats Pass, the sun streaking the High Peak with gold. He turned to smile at her with warmth and companionship. Whether she gave Jake the mine, or he bought it…it didn’t seem to matter now. There were a lot of decisions to make and things to sort out, but time was in their hands.

Cassy knew that she and Jake would work it out.

He turned the car into the parking space at the foot of Mam Tor. He loved this place. His soul was here. And now he wanted to share it with Cassy.

“What about Kettlehulme?” he asked, helping her out. “Have you thought about it? Do you think you could face living in a ruin? A picturesque ruin.”

“Are you asking me to?”

“Yes, I won’t live there by myself.”

A sigh of pure happiness escaped her lips as he crushed her in his arms. She thought she could not bear anymore as he kissed her, igniting a wild passion that spread to every inch of her body. His hands strayed to her small, soft breasts, cupping them with a delicate touch that made her head spin and long for more.