‘I shan’t come next time,’ she said.
I smiled at her perfect profile – at a nostril no chisel could have rendered and half the bow of a mouth which Shakespeare alone could have sung.
She turned to see me smiling, and looked away.
‘Jill doesn’t treat me so. She tells me everything.’
‘What does Jill tell you?’ I said.
Jenny spread out her arms.
‘Oh, heaps of things.’ She shot me a sudden glance. ‘I know I’m grown up, you know.’
‘Twenty or twenty-one is not very old.’
‘You’re only thirty,’ said Jenny. ‘And Jill says a man of thirty is no more grown up than a girl is at twenty-one.’
‘I wish it was true,’ said I, and put a hand to my head.
‘It is true, William.’ She hesitated. ‘Jill says I haven’t missed much by being shut out of the world.’
‘That’s true all right,’ said I. ‘It’s been the world’s loss – but not yours.’
‘What d’you mean – it’s been the world’s loss?’
I looked up to meet her wide eyes.
‘You’re very sweet and pretty,’ said I. ‘And all the world feels better when a sweet pretty maid goes by.’
Jenny’s eyes fell, and her beautiful visage mantled and a hand went up to her heart.
‘Why, Jenny’s blushing,’ said I.
‘Don’t tease me. You made me blush.’
‘You’ve learned a lot,’ said I, ‘since I saw you last.’
‘I told you I had. Jill’s told me everything.’
I lay back and looked at the sky.
When all was said and done, now that she knew she was adult and that her dreams were no dreams, but worldly memories, Jenny’s case was much the same as that of a man who has lain in jail for ten years. Only she had gone in as a child, to come out as a maid: and so she had to be taught that the way of Nature is not always the way of the world – a highly delicate instruction, which had already begun. Of this there could be no doubt, for when I had found her that morning, she had greeted me very shyly, and my lips had but brushed her fingers before she whipped them away.
‘What are you thinking of, William?’
‘I was thinking how glad I am that you know you’re grown up. This time a week ago I was telling you fairy-tales.’
Jenny nodded thoughtfully.
‘I’ll always like fairy-tales, though. Jill loves them. She says her life is like one – and that my life’s more like one than hers.’
‘Sleeping Beauty,’ said I, sitting up.
‘I’m not like her,’ said Jenny, ‘but I did sort of go to sleep: and then – Jonathan came and woke me… I wish he’d come,’ she added, and glanced at the coppice behind.
‘So do I,’ said I, frowning.
I found her words disquieting.
God knows I wished Mansel would come. God knows I wanted to see him safe and sound. But why did Jenny wish that Mansel would come? That he was in danger she had not the faintest idea. And yet – she wished he would come.
Jonathan came and woke me – like the prince in the fairy-tale…
I considered the revelation which Mansel had made to me some twelve hours ago.
I’m not in love with Jenny, nor she with me.
I was sure that the first half was true. Mansel never pretended. If he said he was not in love, then he was not in love. More. His manner was not the manner of a man who is standing aside. But what of the second half? How could he answer for Jenny? And almost all the evidence pointed the other way. When I said as much to Mansel, he only laughed and compared me to ‘the idols of the heathen, the work of men’s hands’: by which, of course, he meant that I could not see. And though I had taken his word, as that of a wiser man, now Jenny had made me uncertain whether I had not been right, and Mansel wrong.
I determined to try to find out…
‘If you watch,’ I said, ‘he won’t come. That’s always the way. But if we don’t watch, and talk about something else, all of a sudden we shall look up to see him beside us – you know how quietly he moves… What will you do when you see him?’
Jenny was nothing if not downright.
‘Do?’ she said. ‘Why, I’ll put my arms round his neck.’
Though the sunlight was just as brilliant, the world went grey.
‘That’s right,’ I heard myself saying. And then, ‘He’s the best in the world.’
And with that, I got to my feet and began to walk over the meadow, towards the stream.
Now although I did not feel sleepy, I must have been very tired, for, while I had done a great deal, I had not closed my eyes since Lafone had brought me my tea on the day before. Then, again, I felt dazed and shaken and had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do. Because of these things, I suppose, I took no care, and before I had gone twenty paces I stumbled over a molehill and fell on my face.
No doubt because of my state, the fall seemed to buffet my wits, and I sat up very slowly, as a man who must take his time, before he gets to his feet.
‘Are you all right?’ said Jenny.
I turned to see her kneeling beside me – as once before.
I swallowed before replying.
‘Yes, I’m all right,’ I said slowly, and looked away. ‘I don’t know how I came to do such a silly thing.’
Jenny sat back on her heels and clasped her hands in her lap. ‘With that bruise on your head and your hands all swollen and cut! You promised to sit still in the shade. You know you did. You said…you wanted nothing better – ten minutes ago.’
‘I know,’ I said. I put a hand to my head. ‘What a damned-fool thing to do!’
‘Then why did you do it?’ said Jenny.
‘Ask me another,’ said I. ‘I must have tripped.’
‘I don’t mean that. Why did you get up and leave me – without a word?’
‘Oh, that?’ I managed to laugh. ‘I really don’t know. I think I wanted a walk.’
I heard her draw in her breath.
Then –
‘That isn’t true,’ she said quietly. ‘I think I made you unhappy by something I said.’
In the knowledge that her eyes were upon me, I dared not look round. Instead, I regarded my palm – in which it was somewhere written that I should love, but not marry, the daughter of Vanity Fair.
‘What nonsense, Jenny,’ I said.
‘It isn’t nonsense,’ said Jenny. ‘I’m not a child now. You did what I would have done, if you’d suddenly said something that hurt me. I’d have felt I couldn’t sit there. And so I’d have got up and gone.’
Instinct or understanding – God knows which it was. But either was equally embarrassing, as even an ‘idol’ could tell.
‘Jenny,’ I said, ‘I’m all right. And that’s the truth. But I’ve – got a good deal to think of. And – and I’d like to be alone for a little. I can’t explain.’
With my words came the chink of steel…
As I spoke, I had drawn up my leg, to get to my feet: and, with my movement, the cuff, which I was still wearing, had slid down my leg.
Till now I had been very careful to keep this sinister emblem from Jenny’s eyes: but my fall had jerked it out of the ‘turn-up’, into which it had now returned. But what remained of the chain had not so returned: and the six or seven inches of steel were trailing out of the ‘turn-up’ on to the grass.
I think we saw it together. But when I glanced at Jenny, I knew that the fat was burnt.
Jenny’s eyes were starting. The breath was whistling in her nostrils, and the colour was out of her face. That she was acquainted with fetters was hideously clear.
She pointed a shaking finger.
‘What’s that?’
Before I could make any answer –
‘You’ve been in prison,’ she flamed. ‘Someone’s been chaining you up.’ In a flash her arms were about me, and her face was pressed tight against mine. ‘Oh, William darling, what devil treated you
so?’
I should not, I think, have been human, if I had not held her close: but I did not misconstrue her outburst. Had Goliath come to her limping, he would have been used the same.
There was a moment’s silence.
Then she started out of my arms, flung herself down on her face and burst into tears.
This was too much.
I lifted her up, took my seat beside her and held her against my heart. She suffered me gently enough, with her hands to her eyes.
‘It’s all right, my beauty,’ I said. ‘What if–’
‘No, no. I shouldn’t have done it.’
I stared at her golden head.
‘Shouldn’t have done what, Jenny?’
‘Put my arms about you,’ she sobbed.
Grimly I supposed she was right. The favour belonged to Mansel. Jill, no doubt, had explained that gestures could be misconstrued, that –
‘And all the time I longed to,’ she sobbed.
‘What?’
‘Your little posy – I saw it. It’s here – all warm on my breast. And I did so long to – to put my arms round your neck.’
‘You longed to?’ I cried. ‘You longed to?’
She nodded her golden head.
I caught her hands and drew them down from her eyes.
A tearful child regarded me.
‘Then why didn’t you do it, my darling?’ I said unsteadily.
‘Jill said I mustn’t do it…till you put yours about mine.’
I was desperately uneasy.
Flaming noon had driven us into the coppice, the cool of the day had drawn us down to the stream: and now at length it was sundown, but Mansel had never come.
I had visited Carson twice and had ventured into a village to purchase food. Bell was fit for light duty, but nothing more. Jenny bore with me like an angel, accepting my continual abstraction with a patience which was not of this world. And now the day was over, and the hopes to which I was clinging were going down with the sun.
My place was, of course, at Jezreel, but until it was dark, it was hopeless for me to take it. Had Blueskin lain in Newgate, Jack Sheppard would hardly have tried to enter the jail by day. That he would have tried at nightfall, I have no doubt.
Although I still hoped against hope, I had given Carson his orders at three o’clock.
‘If you’ve still no sign by sundown, leave the loft and drive all out for the thicket, to pick me up.’
‘Very good, sir,’ said Carson, gravely.
He did not ask where we were bound for, because he knew.
I did not like leaving Jenny, but no one, so far as I knew, had discovered our lair and Bell was not fit for the duty which Marc had made him lay down. I proposed that she should stay in the Rolls, with one door locked and Bell on the opposite side…
So much I told her plainly, strolling up from the sparkling water, to the sanctuary of the trees.
‘You’ll be a good girl, my darling? I think they’ve got Jonathan down: and I must go and save him – as he saved me.’
Jenny’s clasp on my arm tightened.
‘That’s right, of course. But I’d like to go with you, William.’
‘I know, my sweet. But you couldn’t do any good.’
‘Oh, William, my very darling, you will come back?’
‘Bringing Jonathan with me, my beauty. I give you my solemn word.’
A sudden fear brushed against her. She stopped in her tracks and caught the lapel of my coat.
‘Supposing they take you again and chain you up!’
I covered her fingers with mine.
‘They won’t do that twice, my darling. And I was alone then: but now I’ll have Carson with me, to watch my back. Before I’m through, I’ll bet they’re sorry I came.’
There was no mistaking my meaning, and Jenny caught my fire.
‘That’s right. I hope you kill them.’
I could only laugh.
‘You’re very bloodthirsty, Jenny.’
‘They put a chain on your leg.’
There was a little silence.
Then –
‘You know I want to marry you, Jenny. D’you know what marriage means?’
‘Yes, yes. Jill’s married to Piers. I want you to give me a baby, but no one else.’
Her eyes, it seemed, were open: but there was still one truth which she had to be told.
I put up a hand, to push the hair from her temples. Lifting her chin, she looked me full in the eyes.
‘Listen, Jenny. Now there’s only you: but there used to be somebody else. Since she was taken from me, I’ve never mentioned her name. But she was my wife.’
Jenny nodded gravely, and I lowered my gaze.
‘I want you to know, my darling – it’s only fair – that if she hadn’t been taken, I – I couldn’t have loved you, Jenny, because she had all my heart.’
‘I wouldn’t have expected you to.’ Her hands came up to my shoulders. ‘I’d have hated you, if you had. She was – Jill’s told me about her. She saw her once.’
I could not trust my voice, but she took my face in her hands and raised it up. Her fingers were all outspread, and I could feel their pressure from temples to chin.
‘I know what she was, William: and I know I can’t take her place. Jill told me so. She said there was no one alive that could ever do that. But I’ll pray to her, William. I’ll pray to her every night – to teach me to make you happy…and I’m sure she’ll hear me, my darling, and do as I ask.’
As I wondered then, so I shall always wonder what I had done to deserve a devotion so lively and so supreme. Be that as it may, her excellence left me dumb. But she seemed to fathom my silence, for she drew down my head and kissed me and then slid an arm round my neck.
Ten minutes later the jewel was fast in its case, with Bell, like any detective, sitting with his back to the door: and I was seated by Carson, listening to the brush of our tires and the steady whisper of the engine that was whipping us back to Jezreel.
11
Beyond the Veil
Inaction feeds upon the nerves, and, now that at last we were moving, I felt a new man. I had neither hopes nor fears, but a definite resolution first to reach Mansel’s side and then to bring him and Virginia out of Jezreel. Counterfeit, masks and moves had served our turn: but now these things were done with, and the hold had got to be opened by force of arms. I would not declare our presence, for that, of course, would have been the way of a fool: but wait upon obstruction I would not, and the man who sought to withstand me could pay my price. I had not one shadow of doubt that Mansel was in the toils and, knowing those toils as I did, I was out for blood.
Here I should say that I had my own pistol again. Carson had found it that morning, and that in my car. Marc must have taken it with him, when he had set out for Anise: and perhaps because it had galled him, had taken it out of his pocket and thrust it into the pouch on the door by the driver’s side. So Carson and I were both armed, and so was Bell.
We left the Rolls in the shadows, ten minutes’ walk from the village that clung to the skirts of Jezreel. Then we climbed a path that led through the hanging meadows, over the rim of the valley and into the cobbled lane which stood for the village street. Because it served the castle, the way was pretty well lit, but the folk we met did not belong to Jezreel and what they made of our passage was nothing to us. Two minutes later the gateway was looming before us… It was easy enough to enter the kingdom of Vanity Fair.
The dusk was fast turning to darkness, as we made for the stable-yard. This was not lit, but someone was busy in the coach-house which lay beneath Mansel’s room. A light was burning there, and the doors were wide.
It was an under-chauffeur – at work on one of the cars. Beside him, a standard lamp was glaring upon the engine to which he stooped, so that even if he had looked round, his eyes could not have seen us, because they were tuned to the light.
We stole through the coach-house and so up to Mansel’s room.
> This was empty. The bed had not been lain in, and such disorder as I had left on its surface had been arranged. We left the room to try the door of the passage which led to the guard-room: but this was locked.
In silence I led the way back to the stable-yard.
There was here another door which led to the house. I had never used it and did not know what was behind: but I knew that it would be open, if only for the sake of the workman whom we had seen; for none of the chauffeurs, but Mansel, had rooms on the stable-yard. A moment later we had passed it and stood in an empty passage, not too well lit.
The passage led to swing-doors, in each of which, chin-high, was a square of plate-glass: and since the hall beyond them was brilliantly lit, we were able to take its measure with no fear of being observed.
At once I saw that we were regarding the hub of the household wheel.
The hall before us was round and boasted no less than eight doorways, each shut by swing-doors like those behind which we stood. As I looked, one of these was opened, and a scullion crossed the pavement to enter another department of this remarkable sphere. So brilliant was the light in the hall that, try as I would, I could not see through the panes of the other swing-doors, but those that were opened by the scullion let out the clash of vessels and the clatter of tongues.
Since my object was to enter the system, I sought to make up my mind which of the doorways would lead to the quarters I knew, for though I was ripe for violence, I did not want to squander the element of surprise. And I was still wishing for a footman to give me a lead, when a maid came out of a doorway, letter in hand.
It was the good-looking girl on whom Gaston had sought to impose his sweet-smelling charms.
As she stopped to read her letter, I reached her side.
If she was taken aback, I forced her hand.
‘Will you show me the way, please? I want to get to my room in “the corner suite”.’
‘Certainly, sir. This way.’
She led the way to a doorway, held a swing-door open and followed us into a lobby, less brightly lit. Here was a broad well-staircase, in the well of which was a lift. But the girl was for passing on to a pair of mahogany doors…
I touched her arm, and she stopped.
She Fell Among Thieves Page 22