Seven for a Secret (15 page)

I soon forgot Gaston. I was waiting impatiently for the supper dance.

I was afraid that Crispin might have forgotten, but as soon as the dance was announced, he was there.

He took my arm and led me on to the floor where people were beginning to dance. We went round the room once, then he said: “We’ll go now and get the table we want. Otherwise we might have to share with others.”

He led me to the two chairs where we had sat before. A table had been set up beside them. It was laid with glasses and cutlery.

“This will do,” he said.

“Put your programme on the table to warn other people that it is already taken. Then come along with me and we’ll get some food.”

A long table had been set up on trestles in the dining

IZI

room. There were candles set at intervals and an abundance of food cold chicken, salmon, various meats and salads. It looked deliciously tempting. We were the first to arrive.

Crispin led the way and we helped ourselves to what we wanted. When we returned to the table there was a bottle of champagne in an ice-bucket standing there.

The music had stopped and people were now leaving the ballroom for the dining-room.

“What foresight!” I said.

“To be the first.”

“Indeed. We have avoided the crowd and here is our table with everything waiting for us.”

He sat opposite me. One of the servants had come to us and was pouring the champagne.

Crispin looked searchingly at me and raised his glass.

“To Frederica,” he said.

“Her coming-out. Are you pleased to have left childhood behind?”

“I think so.”

“What do you propose to do now?”

“I haven’t thought much of that.”

“Most girls want to get married. That seems the ultimate goal. What of you?”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

“Oh, come. All girls think of it.”

“Perhaps you don’t know all girls. Only some.”

“And perhaps you are right. In any case, here you are on the threshold. Your first ball. How did you enjoy it?”

“Very much.”

“You sound surprised.”

“One really doesn’t know how it will go. Suppose no one asked you to dance?”

“That would put you in an awkward position. I’ll swear you don’t like to wait to be asked. You would like to be the one to do the asking.”

“Anybody surely would.”

“Then you could ask Gaston Marchmont to dance with you.”

“I wouldn’t do that.”

“Oh? I’d forgotten that you are not as impressionable as some. Very discerning, that is you.”

“I hope … a little.”

“And then I come along and demand you leave the supper dance for me.”

He was looking at me intently.

“You and 1 have had some unusual encounters, haven’t we? Do you remember when we went and bought the doll? And then there was that affair in Barrow Wood.”

1 shuddered. Did I remember? It was something I should never forget. I could be transported there at a second’s notice. It was always ready to leap out and confront me.

He put his hand across the table and held mine briefly.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I replied.

“But it is not something I can forget.”

“It was a terrible experience. Thank God I happened to be passing!”

“He died … because of it,” I said.

“I can’t forget that.”

“It was the best thing that could have happened to him. He hadn’t the courage to face up to the fact that he had betrayed what he really was when all the time he was putting on that saintly mask to hide the man beneath.”

“He must have been very desperate when he went into the stable and hanged himself.”

“Don’t think of it in that way. Only be glad that I came along when I did. I can have no regrets.”

“Do you never feel that he died because he knew you despised him?

There in the wood I thought you had killed him. You left him there.

That did not worry you? “

“No. He was a coward … a hypocrite, setting himself up to be a saint when he could behave like the lowest animal. I can only rejoice that I came along when I did and in what happened after as a consequence. The best thing he did was to rid the world of his obnoxious presence -and,

my dear Frederica, your well-being was far more important than his miserable life. Look at it that way and you’ll have no soft feelings for the miserable creature. The world is well rid of him. I would have been justified in killing him, but it was much more convenient that he did it himself.”

There was no sympathy in his face, but I could not help telling myself that through it all Mr. Dorian had wanted to be good.

Crispin went on: “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have brought this up. I wanted to be sure that you weren’t brooding on it. You must not, you know. Life can be ugly sometimes. You have to realize this. Remember what is pleasant and cut out of your mind what is not.”

He was smiling at me now very benignly and I remembered Tamarisk’s saying once that when people had rescued someone from something horrid they liked them because they reminded them of how good and noble they themselves were.

“Would you like more salmon?” he asked.

“No, thanks.”

“Well now, tell me what you think about Miss Flora. She talks to you, doesn’t she?”

“A little. But I’ve told you, it doesn’t make much sense.” “And you think she might realize sometimes that the doll has been changed?”

“It really wasn’t very much like the old one, was it? She had had the first one a long time and they make different styles now.”

“But she hasn’t actually said … ?”

“No. She just looks puzzled … but then she often has before.”

“As though she is trying to remember?”

“In a way. But perhaps more as though she is trying not i to remember.”

“As though she is trying to tell you something?”

I hesitated and he was watching me intently.

“Yes?” he queried.

“As though she is trying to tell you something?”

“There is that picture in the nursery,” I said.

“She is always looking at it and when she does her lips move. I can see she is saying to herself, ” a secret never to be told”.”

“So it is that picture …”

“I don’t know. It’s what it stands for, 1 suppose.”

I remembered my conversation with Gaston Marchmont earlier in the evening, and I went on: “Something must have happened to her to make her lose her senses … something very dramatic. Perhaps it concerns some secret which must never be told.”

He was suddenly quiet and stared down at his plate as I went on.

“I think it must have happened a long time ago when you were a baby.

It frightened her so much that she can’t accept it. Perhaps it was her fault and she is pretending it didn’t happen . and she wants to be back in those days before it did. That’s why she wants you to stay a baby. “

He said slowly: “That’s an interesting theory.”

“I should have thought if something had happened, people would know about it. Unless it was something only Flora was aware of. It is rather mysterious. Once or twice I’ve heard her mention a Gerry Westlake.”

“Gerry Westlake?”

“I think that was the name.”

“What did she say about him?”

“She just said his name.”

“There are Westlakes in the neighbourhood. A middleaged couple with a daughter who is in service somewhere and there was a son who went abroad. Australia or New Zealand, I think. I don’t know much about them.”

“Well, I’ve only heard her murmur his name once or maybe twice.”

“I think she rather likes you.”

12. “She likes me to call, I’m sure.”

“Only when Miss Lucy is away.”

“I get the impression Miss Lucy doesn’t like people to call. Perhaps she thinks they might upset Flora.”

“But you don’t let that deter you.”

“Well, I quite like talking to Flora and I know she likes to talk to me. I don’t see any harm in it.”

“And you are naturally curious by nature.”

“I suppose I am.”

“And you are intrigued by the secret of those magpies, and you are wondering if it is at the root of what has robbed poor Miss Flora of her wits.”

“I have an idea that it might have been due to some terrible shock.

These things happen. “

“And Miss Frederica Hammond has become a part-time sleuth and is determined to solve the mystery.”

“That is an exaggeration.”

He laughed at me.

“But containing a grain of truth?”

“Well, I suppose anyone would be interested.”

“And particularly some.” He lifted his glass.

“I suppose I should wish you well in your endeavours.”

“If the cause of something is known, there is more chance of putting it right.”

“Might the truth not be too horrifying to disclose? In which case it might make everything worse.”

“I suppose that is a possibility.”

“We’ve talked about others all the time. Tell me about yourself. What do you do when you are not visiting Miss Flora?”

“It is so recently that I left school, I have not really settled to anything yet,” “There will be other occasions like tonight. They will keep you busy.

I believe several events are being planned for my sister, and I dare say you and Rachel Grey will be joining in them. “

“The three of us have been together ever since I came to live here.”

“You have been happy in Harper’s Green?”

“Very happy. My Aunt Sophie has been wonderful to me.”

“I was sorry to hear about your mother.”

“It was sad because she never enjoyed life. My father had gone and she would have liked to go back to her old home, but it had been sold. She wasn’t happy living in a small house where she could see it all the time.”

“So Harper’s Green was a happier place to be in.”

“I was very lucky to have Aunt Sophie.”

“Your father … ?”

“I have never seen him. He and my mother parted.”

He nodded.

“These things happen.”

I wondered if he were thinking of the wife who had left him.

“Well, when you marry I hope you will be as happy as you are now in The Rowans.”

“Thank you. I hope you will be happy too.”

“You know what happened. There are few secrets in Harper’s Green apart from the one which claims so much of your attention. My wife left me.

Perhaps one could not blame her for that. ” He spoke rather bitterly and I felt I should change the subject, but I could not think of anything to say, and we fell into silence.

Then I waved my arm, indicating the room.

“What a lot of trouble it must have taken to prepare all this.”

“We have a very good housekeeper and butler. They are practised in this sort of thing and were glad to have an opportunity to show their skills.” He went on: “She left me for someone else and then she was killed in a railway accident.”

“It must have been a terrible shock for you.”

“What? Her elopement or her death?”

“Both,” I said.

He did not answer. I said rather clumsily: “Never mind. You might find someone else.”

I was thinking of Lady Fiona who was said to be so suitable, and it occurred to me that the conversation was taking a rather unusual turn which was embarrassing us both.

“Oh yes,” he said.

“Had you anyone in mind?”

I had to go on.

“There was some talk about a Lady Fiona.”

He laughed.

“People do talk, don’t they? We are good friends. There was never a suggestion of marriage. She has, as a matter of fact, married recently. I was at her wedding. Her husband is a friend of mine.”

“So it was just gossip.”

“There is always gossip. Depend upon it. If people think a man should settle down they will try to find a wife for him.”

I was amazed at the relief I felt.

People were leaving the tables now and the clock was striking midnight.

“Alas,” said Crispin, ‘this pleasant interlude is coming to an end.

Thank you for talking to me. “

“I have enjoyed it so much.”

“And you did not mind my insisting that you join me?”

“It was the best part of the evening,” I said frankly.

He smiled and, rising, led me to a group who were forming a ring in the centre of the ballroom. The orchestra played “Auld Lang Sync’ and we all joined in the singing, clasping hands and shaking them with fervour.

Archie Grindle drove Aunt Sophie and me home before taking Rachel and her aunt back to the Bell House.

Lily was waiting to greet us.

“I’ve got some hot milk waiting for you,” she said.

“And how was the ball?”

“It was very good indeed,” said Aunt Sophie.

“That hot milk will be nice. It will help us to sleep after all the excitement

Where are we having it? “

“Kitchen,” announced Lily.

“Come on. It’s all but ready.” So we sat there drinking milk and answering Lily’s questions.

“I reckon they were fighting each other to dance with you,” said Lily.

“That is a slight exaggeration,” Aunt Sophie told her.

“But there were plenty of partners. And what do you think? She was monopolized by the lord of the manor.”

“Get away with you!” said Lily.

“It’s true. He doesn’t go in for dancing much, but it was the supper dance with our young lady and he booked it well in advance to make sure of it. Isn’t that right, Freddie?”

“Yes, it was.”

“Well, I’ll be jiggered,” cried Lily.

“And there he was, plying her with champagne.”

“You don’t say! Champagne! That’s heady stuff.”

“It was all very grand, I can tell you. I remember balls at Cedar Hall. At one time they terrified me. I was always afraid of being a wallflower, till I told myself I didn’t care a jot and if the young men didn’t want to dance with me, well, I didn’t want to dance with them either.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Lily.

“Silly young things. Didn’t know what they were missing, I reckon. Well, it wasn’t like that with Miss Fred by all accounts.”

“By no means. What did Crispin St. Aubyn talk about, Freddie?”