‘Don’t you recognise me, Luke?’ the woman replied in a broad regional accent. ‘’Tis cousin Maud.’
Luke looked closely at the woman. ‘Maud. What are you doing here? Did you hear about the wedding?’
‘We haven’t heard nothing about a wedding, have we, Godfrey?’ She glanced at the man, who was grinning self-consciously. ‘I got a letter, from the boy here.’ After pointing at Rex, she produced a sheet of paper from her formidable handbag.
Jo frowned, recognising her own stationery. She stood beside Luke.
Maud handed Luke the letter. ‘Read it. It says, “Dear Maud, Mother’s gone. Need help. From Rex Vigus.” And in brackets, “Luke’s brother”. So I’ve come looking for you to see what this meant.’
When Luke had read the letter, Jo took it from him to do the same.
‘What’s this all about?’ Luke turned on Rex, who had gone red in the face and looked guilty and defensive.
‘I remembered Mother talking about a cousin called Maud,’ Rex said in a small voice.
‘So what of it?’
‘She sent us a Christmas card once. It’s the only one we ever got. And Mother got angry about it, saying Maud was, well…’ His blush deepened.
‘Go on, Rex,’ Maud said briskly. ‘I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, by the way. I didn’t know you existed until I got your letter. I can imagine what your mother said about me, we never got on. I’m interested in what she could have said to make you write to me.’
‘She said you were a church woman. Some church people are good. When Mother went off I was afraid we little ones would be taken away and stuck in a home. I thought you might help, I…’ He petered out, snivelling huge tears, afraid he had caused terrible trouble and would be punished.
‘Well, if me and Godfrey – this is my husband, Godfrey Redstone, by the way,’ she announced for Jo’s benefit, ‘can help, we will. That’s why we’re here. I’m sorry your letter took so long to reach me, Rex. You’d addressed it to, Cousin Maud, Germoe, and you see, we’d moved four years ago to Helston. It took the Post Office a bit of investigating to catch up with me. We drove to the village first. An ugly little man, who said his name was Jelbert, directed us here.’
‘I’m so glad you’ve come,’ Jo said, smiling at Luke’s relatives, ‘but everything’s going to be fine from now on. I’m Joanna Venner, Luke’s fiancée, and we’re getting married in a few days. You’re just in time to be invited to the wedding.’
‘You’ve got a lot of news to catch up on, Maud,’ Luke said. ‘You’d better sit down.’
‘I’m glad to hear you’re settling down at last, Luke,’ Maud said when the gathering had taken seats. Unsure of his position, Rex took refuge close to Jo. ‘I’d never have thought it of you the last time I saw you. Must be nearly ten years ago.’
Jo could see Maud was the sort of staunch woman, apt to hand out well-meaning advice, that Luke would have avoided.
‘And you living in such a splendid house too, Luke,’ Maud went on, gazing appreciatively round the room.
‘The house belongs to Jo.’ Briefly, Luke filled his cousin in on the events since Jo’s arrival at Parmarth.
‘Lucky for you Miss Venner came here then. I’m not surprised Jessie would come to grief one day,’ Maud said. ‘I’m so sorry to hear I had another little cousin and I’m too late to meet her. We’ll visit Molly’s grave before we go. And call at this Mrs Wherry’s house to see the baby.’
‘Molly’s headstone’s just been put up,’ Luke said.
‘Well, Luke,’ Godfrey Redstone said, ‘you’ve got a pretty, very suitable bride. It seems all is working out. I’m happy to see Maud had no need to be alarmed.’
‘When I got Rex’s letter,’ Maud broke in, ‘I took it for granted you could look after yourself, Luke. We were thinking, if it was necessary, of offering the children a home. We can’t have any of our own, you see. A great disappointment to us. We have a grocer’s shop in Helston and live in a big house there. There’s plenty of room. But we can see their future is settled now.’
Luke was looking at Godfrey and Maud intently. The couple exchanged downcast looks; another disappointment. ‘It’s good of you to get in touch, to make this offer. The kids belong here now.’
‘I don’t want to live here,’ Rex wailed suddenly. ‘I’d still have to go to that rotten school every day where me ’n’ Molly was teased, and see the beastly place she died in. I want to get away from here, for good!’ Deserting Jo, he stood contentiously beside Maud’s chair.
‘Don’t be silly, Rex. You’ve heard what I’ve just said. You’re going to live here with me and Jo.’
‘I don’t want to live with her,’ Rex fiercely pleaded with his cousin. ‘She’s not our sort and her family don’t want nothing to do with us. She’s nice but she’ll want me to be different to the other boys. I won’t fit in nowhere. I haven’t even got Molly now.’
‘I’m sorry, Rex,’ Maud said, glancing uncomfortably at Jo. ‘You’ve asked for my help and I have a duty towards you and Marylyn but I can’t interfere. Luke is your next of kin.’
Huge tears splashed down over his cheeks. ‘But Luke doesn’t really want me. He likes his freedom too much. Nor does she, not really. She wants to stay a teacher. She’ll end up hating me for making her give it up. They never planned to get married till Molly died. I want to get away from here. That’s why I wrote to you. I hate the village and I hate this place!’
Her face weighty and troubled, Maud brought the boy’s head on to her shoulder and comforted him with soft pats. ‘Seems to me he may have made some good points, Luke, Miss Venner. I think we should chew this over.’
Chapter Forty
Jo couldn’t recall how long she had been standing on the cliff edge near the Solace Mine. She let the thundering sea hundreds of feet below continue to drown out her thoughts, her humiliation, her feelings of rejection. She loved Rex, but he did not love her in return. In fact he had very little respect for her. He had expressed the wish never to see her again, because she was part of Parmarth, part of his life in which he had lost Molly, the only person he had ever loved or needed. Jo felt guilty at how little thought had been given to the tragic boy’s loss at Molly’s death. How ironic, that it was she herself who had taught him the words of the letter that would take him and Marylyn out of her life for ever.
Lifting her hand to brush away her bitter tears, for a moment Jo wanted only to be part of the surging force of miles and miles of ocean.
Someone nudged her arm.
‘Joanna, what are you doing here?’
She did not reply but slipped her hand inside Marcus’s, and there they stayed in silence. In empathy. Staring out across the ocean. Then, glancing at his remote, pain-filled, gaunt face, Jo knew he had told the truth about his mother.
‘This is one of my favourite spots,’ he murmured. ‘I come here to watch the sky and the sea. The clouds drifting across the heavens. I look down at the rocks and the waves, and I long to be a cloud. But I’m always a helpless piece of rock, overpowered by the mightier waves.
‘So many times I’ve tried to pluck up the courage to jump off the cliff and end my life on those rocks, let the tide wash me away for ever. Now I don’t have to do it. She fell. She released me. One day I shall totally experience the reality of it. Sometimes, like today, I just feel numb, unreal. As if I’m not actually here.’
‘Nothing Eleanor did to you was worth killing yourself over, Marcus.’
‘She stole my innocence. She made me weak. Made me hate her and hate myself. I don’t know if I shall ever come to terms with it.’ He looked at Jo strangely, as if pursuing something profound. ‘Or do you think we are what we are because it’s how we would have turned out anyway? Despite our upbringing?’
‘We must be partly how people mould us and partly our own ongoing personality, I suppose. It’s how I see myself. How I see Luke. You can fall in love with what you want to see in a person, or you can look deeper and love him anyway. F
or all he is and always will be. My mother rejected me but I had Celia. Jessie rejected Luke but he had his grandmother.’ Now she hoped Rex’s new life with Maud and Godfrey Redstone would bring enough good things to prevent him from being a lifelong victim, and Marylyn the security she deserved.
‘I’ve had no one like that, Jo.’ Marcus wept softly and Jo knew he was on the edge of despair.
‘I know, Marcus. I’m so sorry. But you’ll always have me as a friend. And there’s Beth. I’ve noticed that she’s good for you. Try to look forward, not back. Eleanor’s dead and so is the hold she had on you. When times are bad cling to that.’
Jo shivered. The sun was beginning its nightward journey. The wind was buffeting them. Somehow they had crept closer to the cliff edge. ‘It’s time we were going home, Marcus, to face what the rest of our life might bring.’
They did not part hands, but walked silently until separating at the paths which would take one to the village, the other to Cardhu.
Chapter Forty-One
Grim-eyed, Luke faced his cousin on her doorstep in the wide, quiet Helston street. ‘I’ve brought these toys over from Cardhu. Jo wanted the kids to have them.’
‘At least come inside for a minute, Luke,’ Maud Redstone coaxed him, where she stood on the passage runner in a starched white apron, holding Marylyn. ‘You haven’t said goodbye properly to the children yet. Rex is playing in the back garden.’
‘No, it’s better I just go, Maud. I’ll come back and see them after a few weeks.’
‘Don’t be hurt, Luke. Rex is only a child.’
‘He’s had a terrible start. He didn’t deserve to go on suffering, Maud. I should’ve packed up the kids and moved them away the moment I stepped inside Jessie’s door. I let them carry on living in squalor and Molly her last days in misery. Now we’re split apart. It’s guilt I’m feeling and rightly so.’
‘The good Lord will forgive you, Luke. You must forgive yourself.’ Maud always spoke plainly. ‘So what are you going to do now? Let it ruin the rest of your life? Or the young woman’s who’s seeing fit to marry you?’
Reaching out Luke touched Marylyn’s hand. ‘No, Maud, but you taking the kids has changed things. Jo and I have a lot of talking to do. And in time, I’m hoping Rex will come round and we can be close. That suit you?’
He left quickly, but instead of making his way back to Cardhu, he headed off for Penzance. Before he and Jo had that long talk they both needed time alone.
Chapter Forty-Two
Katherine smiled maliciously as she put the telephone down. She had been speaking to Alistair. He had made enquiries about his sister’s wedding and discovered it had not taken place today. Luke Vigus had fobbed his brother and sister off on a relative and hadn’t been seen in Parmarth since. Joanna’s house and money and future fortune were, evidently, not such a draw. She was all alone.
It was tempting to travel to Cardhu and torment her, but Katherine’s recollection of her own humiliation by the headmaster after her last excursion there made her fume and decide against it. She had not been deceived by the maid’s story that he was not at home. On the other hand, now his clinging mother had been laid to rest and the school holidays had started, he might be more receptive to her approaches. Baiting Joanna was hardly worth the bother, but Marcus Lidgey made a most alluring quarry. He was attractive, pensive, and according to the late Mardie Dawes, his sensitive hands were as adept in intimate matters as they were accomplished on musical instruments.
Katherine’s young artist lover had learned nothing from her. She needed a master in the art of loving. It could prove a triumph to make one more advance on the elusive Marcus Lidgey, especially if Joanna was feeling vulnerable and turning to him for comfort.
She returned to the telephone, but this time she would make him come to her.
* * *
‘I’m going out, Beth.’ Marcus anxiously jangled his car keys in his hand. ‘You take some time off, there’s nothing urgent to do here. I’ll finish my packing when I return.’
‘If anyone asks, can I say where you’re going, sir?’
‘Just for a drive.’ He smiled to hide his worries. ‘It’s too lovely a day to stay stuck indoors.’
‘Good for you.’ She smiled from the kitchen table, where she was preparing a vegetable salad for his lunch. ‘You shouldn’t hide away. If you wait two minutes I’ll make some sandwiches for you to take with you.’
He sat down for a moment and watched her patient movements. ‘I can’t face people. The last days of term were hell to get through.’
‘You will say goodbye to the villagers before you leave?’
‘I know my manners, Beth.’ He grinned wryly. ‘You’re turning into a little nag since Sally’s left my employ.’
‘I’m sorry, sir. I let Mrs Lidgey down and I don’t want to do the same to you.’
Tucking the sandwich tin under his arm, he took her by the shoulders. ‘Mark my words, Beth. I don’t mind what you say to me, and I’ve told you many times that my mother died at peace with herself. She came to my room the night she died to tell me she felt Gabriella had forgiven her. It was your prayers that worked. Now, have I convinced you, my dear?’
‘Yes.’ She smiled shyly up into his eyes. ‘I wish you weren’t leaving.’
‘I have to. There’s too many sad memories for me here. My dear Beth.’ He bent forward and placed a peck on both her cheeks. ‘There are only two people I shall really miss when I leave here. You’re one of them.’
* * *
‘I came straightaway, Mrs Venner,’ Marcus said the instant he was inside Meadowsweet. He had walked the last mile to avoid his motorcar being seen outside the cottage and giving rise to gossip. He mopped up the sweat on his brow and neck. ‘Your call about Joanna left me very concerned.’
Stroking Tuppence the kitten, which she was holding against her breast, Katherine peered at the flesh revealed by his open-necked shirt. ‘I’m sorry if I alarmed you, Marcus. My son was informed that you are leaving Parmarth very soon and I’m anxious to discuss Joanna with you. She stayed on at the school and worked out the end of term, I understand. Do you happen to know her plans? I’d hate to see her burying herself away in the remote countryside like that Sayce woman did.’
‘Joanna has not talked about her personal life to me,’ he replied aloofly.
He would not tell this salacious woman anything about his close relationship with her daughter. Every word Joanna spoke to him, every smile she gave him, every moment she was near him was too precious to be defiled. He had called at Cardhu to offer her companionship over her cancelled wedding. All she would say about the cancellation was that it had been a mutual agreement between her and Vigus and they planned to discuss their future together soon. She was putting on a brave face but he could see her unhappiness. Sense her utter loneliness. He felt she trusted him. They were becoming closer.
Marcus was beginning to feel he had a future. He was leaving Parmarth and only Joanna knew his destination. He was to rent a house at St Ives. And from there he would wait and watch for what Joanna would do, and when she had decided, he would set himself up as a private music tutor, close by her. They might even have a future together. Fate seemed to be arranging things his way. He would not let anything spoil his chances. Not her damned mother, who revolted him with her designs on him.
Designs on him! Panic ripped through his mind. She had procured his presence here. Had he walked into a trap, like the ones his mother had so cleverly and cruelly laid for him?
His senses highly alert, he took a good look at Katherine Venner. Her frock was cut very low at the front, her cleavage thrusting out and upwards. She was heavily made-up, overscented. Her strappy, high-heeled sandals revealed bare painted toenails. And from the beguiling widening of her eyes, she not only wanted him, she was on to his suspicions.
‘I… I think I ought to go.’
‘But why? You’ve only just arrived, Marcus.’ Smiling alluringly, Katherine put the kitten down
and gave up all pretence of being concerned about her daughter. ‘Let me get you some iced lemon tea. You look hot and bothered, as if you need to unwind.’
‘No, thank you. I’ll see myself out.’ Marcus stepped back, his hand reaching for the door handle, but Katherine’s actions were quicker. Her hands were on him.
‘Come now.’ Her voice throbbed with desire. ‘Surely you don’t really want to go. I did not think I’d have to chase you quite so literally.’
‘Don’t.’ Marcus pushed her hands off him.
Laughing in sultry amusement, Katherine twisted a strand of her dyed red hair. ‘I don’t think you’re normally so restrained. A man like you, who I’m reliably informed is a connoisseur of delicious acts in the bedroom, must be ill or under extreme stress to decline the invitation from a lady of similar needs and expertise.’
‘Actually, I’m in love,’ Marcus threw at her.
‘What? You hardly ever leave Parmarth. Who could you have possibly fallen in love with?’ She studied his serious face, then she gave way to hysterical laughter. ‘Oh, don’t tell me you’ve fallen for Joanna? Surely not? It’s unthinkable. She’s plain and dreary. Only her money could make a man… Ah, so that’s it, is it? Your mother’s left you penniless. Well, I suppose you’re a cut above that gipsy fellow.’
Then, stung by his latest rebuff, she lowered her voice to a sarcastic hiss. ‘But not much. If she does take you on, you’ll be able to show her a thing or two the gipsy wouldn’t know about. How do you think Joanna will like being—’
‘Shut your filthy mouth!’ Marcus bellowed, turning purple with rage. He couldn’t stand the very thought of himself contaminating Joanna. ‘You bitch! You disgusting whore! Don’t you dare speak about Joanna like that.’
His body shook. His breathing came in laboured groans. His eyes seemed to swirl in their deep sockets, as cold as ice, as if devoid of balance and soundness.
Listening to the Quiet Page 33