Lady Mislaid

by Claire Rayner

  Yes, she remembered very well.

  Miles settled back in his chair again, and went on talking. “I suppose I should have realized it might happen – but I was too besotted with love, too deep in bliss at being alive again, with you, to think of anything or anyone. We moved into the house with Cecily and Daniel, and I never thought how she might be feeling–”

  “She was very kind to me, you know,” Abigail said. “But I – I never felt I knew her. We were always just – polite acquaintances, you know? But I didn’t care either. There was you, and there was Daniel – it was all so wonderful–”

  “Yes,” he said soberly. “And all the time Cecily was eaten up with hate for both of us. And her feelings for Daniel – that turned itself inside out too. I know now – I can see it all, with hindsight. And I’ve talked to that bastard Michael, too, and got a good deal out of him. They saved him, you see. She – didn’t make it.”

  She stared at him, suddenly alarmed. “Cecily?”

  He nodded. ’she died in the fire, darling.”

  Abigail closed her eyes in sick horror, and his voice came from a long way away. “Darling – I’m sorry – have I upset you? Please, don’t. The firemen say she couldn’t have felt pain – it was the smoke that killed her. She was dead before – before the fire took complete hold and gutted the house.”

  She opened her eyes. “Go on,” she said drearily. “Go on explaining.”

  “Well, Cecily developed a hate for both of us – because Daniel who’d always been hers, like some piece of property, in his childlike way made no attempt to hide his preference for us. He turned away from her completely – not that he’d ever cared that much for her, but she didn’t realize this. She saw us as thieves of his affection. And hated him for being so attached to us. And there was something else.”

  “What more could there be?”

  “Money,” he said succinctly. “Daniel is a rich little boy. His mother left all the money to him – and Cecily never really forgave Constance for that. The money had been their father’s and he’d left his house propert to Cecily, but the cash to Constance. And when Constanc died, Cecily thought the money should have feverted to her, but she acceptrd Daniel as the inheritor since I so obligingly handed him over to her. But you can imagine how she felt when I came back – with a lovely girl like you in tow – making it clear that Daniel was my son, and would leave Cecily eventually, taking his inheritance with him.”

  Miles looked sick suddenly, and then said awkwardly. “And there was one other factor in this whole sick and sorry mess – which I, in my arrogance and self-centred happiness, completely forgot. Constance was the sister I’d married – but Cecily was the one who loved me. I – I knew that, but I thought – as men do – that she’d get over it. But apparently she never did. She always hoped I’d come back one day and marry her. Instead of chih I came back and married – you.”

  “I can’t blamer her, Abigail said softly. “Poor Cecily.”

  “Poor stupid Cecily – for loving me was stupid, wasn’t it? Anyway, this is where Michael comes in. I know Cecily was somewhat faded and looked older than her age when you met her for the first time, but she wasn’t forty – only two or three years older than me. And she had been attractive once.”

  Abigail nodded. “I think – I can imagine that. If she hadn’t looked so – petulant, I think it was, she could have been much nicer to look at. But what about Michael?”

  “I don’t know where she found him, but he came to work as general factotum at the house. And developed a big thing for Cecily. I think it was partly genuine – not entirely a self-seeking attempt to get money out of an obviously well-off woman. She had quite a lot in her own right you see, for there was the other house property she owned and earned rents from, and of course she had full use of Daniel’s income. She may have seemd richer than she was. Anyway Michael fell for her, not the money, though I daresay it helped push him into feeling as he did.”

  “I hardly ever saw him,” Abigail said, memory glazing her eyes as she stared back into those months following her marriage. “He was always slithering out of sight when I got a glimpse of him. And though Cecily said she’d take a back seat and let me run things, as a married woman, I didn’t want to. I was happy to let her run the house and leave me just to be with you, watching you work, or being with Daniel. Bu she was – she tried to be nice to me, didn’t she, Miles? The way she let me decide about the repainting of the house. I remember that. And it was her house, after all.”

  Feeding the flames, that was,” Miles said, and at her puzzled look added, “Encouraging you to usurp her place,as she saw it, even more – so that she could hate you more virulently and with more just cause. I should have realized, I suppose, should have warned you, but I didn’t think. I’d told you nothing of the past – just that I’d been married once. That was all. You knew nothing of the tangle of the relationships, and in a stupid attempt to keep myself – honourable – in your eyes, I mislead you. Forgive me, if you can–”

  “Of course I can. And I never thought about your past marriage because it was irrelevent to me. I mean, I assumed you’d once loved Constance too much to talk about it at all. And as long as you loved me now nothing else mattered–”

  “And I do love you now – very much, my darling,” he said, and kissed her again.

  The door of the room opened sharply and the nurse came in, smiling benevolently at the way they jumped and sprang apart.

  “Obviously feeling much better, Mrs. Tenterden,” she said, and laughed as Abigail’s sudden blush. “But enough is enough. Sleep now. You’ve had a stormy passage, you know, and you can’t keep on improving like this without plenty of rest. Your husband can come back in the morning–”

  And Abigail, with the story still half told, had to let Miles go and sumbit to sleep even though she was sure she couldn’t rest without knowing the whole story.

  But the nurse put out the light firmly, and left her to the silence and the little voice deep in her own mind.

  What do you suppose, she asked it, what do you suppose Michael–

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  They let her get out of bed the next morning, after the doctor had come to see her and looked complacent about the way she had improved.

  “A few days here, and then a good long holiday, and you’ll be like new again,” he said. “Daniel? No, not yet, my dear. He needs time to rest, too. He’s been damanged more in a psycholigal sense than a pysical one, so he’ll need time to get over things. Make haste slowly, my dear, make haste slowly.” and he nodded and went away.

  And when Miles came, bearing a huge sheaf of spring flowers to fill her room with a drift of narcissus and daffodils and mimosa, she was sitting in an armchair, rug enveloped, and looking far more like the person she remembered as herself. And he kissed her lingeringly, and sat beside her with one of her hands cradled in both of his.

  “Tell me the rest of it, Miles,” she said. “Once we’ve got it all straight and out of our system, we can forget all about it, and start new. Can’t we?”

  “Yes,” he said, and kissed her again. “Well, you’ve got all the background clear now. So all that’s left is what happened as a – climax to it. I’ve got it all pretty clear, now–”

  “I’m listening,” she said, and settled herself more comfortably.

  “I had to go back to Normandy to settle things there – sell my cottage, arrange to ship my canvases home–”

  “I remember!” she said eagerly. “And I missed you horribly, and suddenly thought of trying to buy a present for you, because you’d given me so much, and I – I’d given you nothing.”

  “Nothing? Oh, Abigail, if only you knew –” he said, and she shook her head.

  “You know what I mean. And I bought that cottage near Cirencester with the money Daddy left me–”

  “And told me nothing about it in your letters.”

  “It was to be a surprise.”

  It was certainly that,” he said grim
ly. “Anyway, this is what happened, as far as I can work it out. Cecily started to talk to you – to hint things about me–”

  She nodded, her face clouding. “Yes. She told me you didn’t care about Daniel at all – only wanted his money. Oh, I didn’t believe her – at least I didn’t think I did–”

  “But poison like that leaves a mark – of course it does. She did the same thing to me. Wrote and hinted that you – you were – Oh, God, I’m sorry to say this, darling, but she made me suspect you were having an affair with Michael. And I knew so little of you, you see, only that I’d fallen head over ears in love with you–”

  “I was in the same boat,” she whispered. “She – she had a way of saying things that made them stick in one’s mind, like – like a broken tooth. You know it hurts, yet you keep exploring it with your tongue–”

  “Exactly. Anyway, as far as I understand it, she came to you one night and said–”

  “I can tell you,” Abigail cut in. ’she came to my room, just as I’d finsihed writing a letter, to you, and said you were in the house. That you’d come back unexpectedly and secretly, and were downstairs. That she’d heard you come to Daniel’s door, and call him out, and take him downstairs with you – and that she was afriad you were – were going to hurt him in some way. That if Daniel died, you’d be rich and – and–”

  “And you went downstairs to see–”

  “I didn’t believe her, darling – not really. But I went into the drawing room, and the – the mess was awful. Furniture pushed out of place, and – and Daniel lying there–”

  “It was Michael, you see,” Miles said. “He was very deeply involved with Cecily. They’d planned the whole thing. He was to – to kill Danny, and you, and then incriminate me. That would ger rid of all three of us. They sent me a telegram – Cecily did. Said you’d gone away with Michael.” He shivered. ’the journey home was sheer hell. I didn’t believe it, you see, but I wondered – couldn’t help wondering.”

  “Look, Mikes – let’s clear one thing up here and now. No recriminations, no guilt about what we were both led to believe. All right? We were manipulated – and we couldn’t help it. Is that a deal?”

  “I love you,” he said simply, and bent his head to kiss her again. “Fair enough. No recriminations – as if I could – and no guilt – if I can prevent yself from feeling it, which is doubtful.

  “Now, to sort things out more clearly. It was Michael who’d beaten up poor Danny. But thank God he was an inefficient murderer, because he didn’t succeed in killing him, or you. It was he who knocked you out as you bent over Danny–”

  She nodded, bleakly. “It all makes sense now. I woke up, I remember – I felt dreadful, but Danny was stirring, and I knew I had to get him away to safety, somehow. I – I thought it had been you who’d tried to kill us – I’m – sorry, darling–”

  “No guilt, no recriminations. Remember?”

  “No guilt. All right. I thought it was you, then, and that you would come back and – and finish the job. So I had to get away with Danny. I was too – confused, I suppose, to do the sensible thing. Or still loved you too much. Anyway, I didn’t got to the police. I wrapped Danny in a blanket, and went and grabbed some clothes – I don’t know where Cecily was–”

  “She and Michael left the house – to establish an alibi, I gather that was the idea.” Miles said.

  “I was so frightened,” she said, painfully dredging up the memory. ’so frightened. But I got out of the house with Danny, carrying him like a baby, and took him in a taxi to Paddington, and got on a train to Cirencester. It was the only place I could think of – I was so glad I’d managed to keep the fact I’d bought the cottage a secret. And when we got there, Danny was fairly fit. He seemed to have recovered from his walloping pretty well. Children do, don’t they?”

  “Anyway, I then realized we couldn’t hide there for ever, in the cottage. We’d have to come out some time. But I was so past things, then. So worn out I couldn’t think straight. I remember telling Danny I had to got out for a while – I think I was going to the police. I left him with some sandwiches and milk I’d bought on the way, and I can remember walking down the path in the morning light – the sun was shining right in my eyes, so I couldn’t see, and – and–”

  She struggled to remember, but then shook her head. “And then I woke up in that hotel bedroom.”

  “I think that was when the amnesia really hit you. The doctor said there’d still be some gaps, and it seems he’s right. I can fill in a bit now, anyway.

  “I got to the house late the same night it all happened. I was supposed to find two – dead bodies and then the police would think I’d killed you. No one else in the house, you see. And Cecily was to deny ever sending me a telegram. All I found was the drawing room looking like – like an abattoir, almost. Obviously, something grim had happened. I nearly went mad. Searched the house, but there was no one there – and then Cecily and Michael came in. She said she’d been to a theatre, and Michael had gone with her to be chauffeur, and she’d treated him to the play as well. They both looked thunderstruck when they saw the drawing room, I remember. I thought it was because of the mess, but of course it was because you two weren’t there – stupid conspirators, weren’t they? Thank God for it – their not making sure you were both – dead–”

  “It’s quite difficult to kill people. Difficult to recognize death, too. I know that for certain.”

  “It was I who called the police,” Miles said soberly. “And the fuss and the questioning – it was hell. And when they’d finished with us it was the middle of the night. But I had to do something – couldn’t just sit there gnawing my heart out. So I started doing some – detecting – myself. I took the car and went to every mainline station there was – I couldnt bring myself to believe you were bad, though the police clearly thought you had killed Danny, and gone off with – with his body, after they’d finished taking to Cecily, and she’d told them her version of your behaviour – which was that you’d lost interest in Michael and gone off with some other man. And Michael, rot his soul, said the same thing.

  “But I couldn’t believe it. So I went out asking – and at Paddington I found someone who remembered you – the man who sold you your ticket. He remembered a frantic girl with a child wrapped in a blanket, buying tickets to Cirencester. So I toook the car and followed you. And looked at every hotel register until I struck oil. Your handwriting, and Mrs. Miles – it was all I needed.

  “And when I came down the day and saw you–”

  He looked embarrassed. “I – I thought it was an act on your part – a brilliant act, but an act all the same. And on the spur of the moment, invented the journalist Max Cantrell. I had to, you see, I had to. I couldn’t think of any other way to play it. If you were acting, you’d have to accept me, to avoid giving yourself away. If it were true – that you’d lost your memory – well, it was the only way to find out what had happened to Danny. I realized very quickly it was real – your amnesia. And didn’t dare give up my – alias, in case I shocked you into an even deeper amnesia. And the rest, you know–”

  “Noy quite. Why did Michael follow me to Cirencester, too? He saw me across the square, you see – it was him. How did he know where to–”

  “Did what I did,” Miles said crisply. “Asked at railway stations till he picked up the trail. It wasn’t difficult. Not many distraught girls carrying largish children buy railways tickets at that hour of the night and then have equally frantic men asking questions about them. He found us easily. I imagine he too wanted to know where Danny was – he won’t say why he followed us, but it seems pretty obvious. He still wanted to kill you and Danny, and frame me. Then, and only then, would Cecily inherit, and he share the results. Because he had every intention of marrying her.”

  “And what about that Inspector – did he follow us too, in the same way?”

  “No. You were right, up to a point. He was a CID man. I’d told them what was up before I left tow
n. And deeply regretted it once I’d caught up with you. I was trying to persuade him you’d gone back to London, when you overheard us. I think he must have believed it eventually, even after you shot off as you did. He turned up at the London house just before I got you out–”

  “Darling,” Abigail said, with sudden contrition. “What did happen when I shot off after Michael, from that café , and left you? I had to do it – I’m sorrier than I can say–”

  He laughed then. “God, but that was hell. As I walked into the café , I realized the man had just left – I had no idea who he was – for a while I’d even suspected he was a – a figment of your imagination. But I got out in time to see the two of you drive out – and got a glimpse of Michael, and realized the danger. The whole thing suddenly made sense. I was frantic – nearly went mad with fear for you, in case he spotted you, and got at you. It took me more than an hour to get at the police, and convince them of the danger – but then we followed you, two burly coppers and me in a screaming police car. And got to the house too late to stop you going in. The traffic – the early morning rush-hour – was so thick that in spite of that screeching siren we were held up all the way. And when we got there, the fire engines were out and the house was blazing – and I saw the car parked by the square, and I – I think I died a little in that moment,” he finished simply.

  She put her up arms, and held him close. “But you got there. That’s what really matters–”

  “I got there,” he said against her hair. “And you, you bloody marvellous woman, got that child out. You’re more than a heroine, my angel. You’re – I don’t know a word that could describe you. You got that child out of the fire Cecily and Michael started – to finish their horrible job. Dear Abigail, have I told you how much I love you?”