Marianna

by Nancy Buckingham

  ‘As though it were something to take pride in,’ said Jacinto bitterly.

  ‘Dick realizes that now, he is utterly disillusioned about the Penfolds. He has discovered a great deal to the discredit of Ralph, and as for William ... he recently learned things about the nature of the man whose name he bears which I could never have told him myself.’ Marianna briefly recounted her conversation with Cedric Kendall, and went on, ‘So now Dick is going to make a final break with Ralph. He is seeing him about it this very morning.’

  ‘That must be a profound relief to you, cara.’

  ‘Indeed, yes!’ They turned from Bond Street into the thicker traffic of Piccadilly, their cabby adroitly nipping into a space ahead of a laden omnibus. ‘Tell me, Jacinto, how is Lucia? I know through your father that she is married now.’

  ‘To an admirable young man. He is Brazilian, like her grandfather was.’

  ‘And she is happy?’

  ‘Yes, for which I thank Providence. For some months I feared that she would never again know the meaning of happiness. She had withdrawn completely into herself, and kept begging me to let her enter a convent. I insisted that she should wait a while before taking such a step, and against every inclination of Lucia’s I took her about in local society. Then, shortly after Easter, she began to respond to the attentions of a young man of our acquaintance who had recently returned home after his law studies to set up in partnership with his father. When Felipo Cortes approached me and asked permission to pay his addresses to my daughter, I gave every encouragement to the match. I felt sure he would make Lucia an excellent husband and allow her to put the unhappy past behind her. They have been married now for nearly four months, and just before I left for London she informed me that she was to bear a child. This, I think, will set the seal upon Lucia’s contentment.’

  ‘I rejoice for her, poor girl,’ said Marianna. ‘It has lain heavily on my conscience that I encouraged the friendship between her and Dick ... that I was to blame for the tragic events which followed.’

  ‘The blame was equally mine,’ Jacinto insisted. ‘But we should not condemn ourselves too harshly when fate has been so cruel to us. Twice before I have come back into your life, and twice my coming brought disaster. And now this time...’

  ‘This time?’ She was frightened by the weight of sadness in Jacinto’s voice. ‘Nothing must be allowed to separate us again, my darling. Surely, as things are now, Dick and Lucia could accept our being united without too much censure?’

  ‘It is not our children’s feelings which concern me,’ he said.

  ‘Then what?’ When he did not reply, Marianna turned her head sharply to look at him. His eyes seemed clouded, evasive. In a rush of urgency, she said, ‘It is something the doctor told you, isn’t it? Something dreadful?’

  Jacinto nodded, and said simply, ‘I am going blind.’

  ‘Oh no!’ The shock seemed to rob Marianna of her own sight. She was enveloped in a dense red mist.

  ‘It is a parasitic infection that I must have picked up from the sugar canes,’ Jacinto explained. ‘Sir Archibald holds out no hope of a cure.’

  ‘Then you must go elsewhere, my dearest. A more eminent specialist...’

  ‘There is no one more eminent. That is why I came to London.’

  Her voice was husky, dry. ‘How ... how long before...’

  Jacinto shrugged. ‘A matter of months. Sir Archibald said. Already my sight is much affected. That is why I failed to recognize you just now.’

  They were sitting close together with their fingers linked, but this contact was not enough for Marianna. She turned and clung to him with a sense of desperation.

  ‘Thank God we met again, thank God! It was mere chance that took me to see Hilda, my old maid, this morning. Mere chance that led my footsteps along Wimpole Street. I might so easily have chosen another time to visit her, or wandered in a different direction. Oh, Jacinto...’

  ‘It might have been better if our paths had not crossed,’ he said dispiritedly.

  Marianna gasped with dismay. ‘You cannot really mean that. We belong together, you and I.’

  He shook his head. ‘I have nothing to offer you.’

  ‘Why are you so foolish?’ she chided. ‘Where is the fierce pride which I always exulted to see in you? When you were just a peasant lad in Madeira, did you believe then that you had nothing to offer me?’

  ‘I was not going blind then.’

  ‘Oh Jacinto, you are truly blind already if you imagine that such a thought would deter me. On the contrary —’

  ‘From pity?’ he demanded. ‘From compassion?’

  ‘No!’ she said, with a flash of anger. ‘From love! From an utterly selfish love that needs you.’

  Jacinto did not answer.

  The clock of St Martin-in-the-Fields struck the hour of one as they traversed Trafalgar Square and turned into the Strand. Three minutes later they reached the Savoy.

  Up in Marianna’s sitting room, a coal fire was burning brightly and sunlight poured in through the windows, glowing warmly on the chrysanthemum wallpaper. Yet between Jacinto and herself a chilling constraint had developed. Laying down his hat and coat on a chair, he went to stand at a window and stared out morosely, though she knew he could see little of the river scene below.

  At length, when Marianna could bear the waiting no longer, she said in an unsteady voice, ‘Must I beg from you, Jacinto? Must I beg you to tell me that you still love me?’

  He spun round, and there was pain on every line of his face.

  ‘Oh God, of course I do, you know I do! I have never for a single moment ceased to love you from the time we were both children.’

  ‘Then if you love me,’ she said, ‘you will not fail me now. In the year since you left Madeira, my life has been a desert. To have seen you again like this, and to lose you yet once more ... I could not bear it.’

  Jacinto came towards her uncertainly, as if still disbelieving. Then slowly he reached out and held her, drawing her close against him. She laid her head upon his shoulder and let the warm joy flood through her.

  ‘For what little I am, querida,’ he whispered into her hair, ‘will you have me?’

  ‘For everything that you are, Jacinto, my own dearest love. You are all that I want, all that I shall ever need,’

  But their embrace was interrupted by a tap on the door, and they hastily stepped apart.

  ‘It is Dick, I expect,’ Marianna said. ‘You had better leave me to explain the situation. This may not be the best moment to tell him everything.’

  However, when she crossed the room and opened the door, it was not Dick, but a hotel page boy.

  ‘Genneman to see you, madam. Mr Penfold. He asked to be shown straight...’

  ‘That’s all right, young fellow-my-lad.’ Ralph Penfold, flicking a silver coin for the boy to catch, strode boldly into the room. ‘Well now, Marianna, I’ve come to —’ He broke off as he caught sight of Jacinto standing by the fireplace. ‘So you already have a visitor?’

  She closed her eyes in protest against this cruelly ill-timed confrontation. What to tell Ralph? To offer him other than a plausible and satisfactory explanation would immediately sharpen his suspicions. The answer all at once came to her.

  ‘This is Senhor Dom Joao Carreiro,’ she said, with feigned casualness. ‘You may remember, Ralph, he was visiting Madeira on the occasion of your own last visit.’

  His eyebrows went up. ‘The sugar planter fellow from Guiana?’

  ‘That’s right.’ Marianna concluded the introduction by saying, ‘Dom Joao, this is Mr Ralph Penfold — my late husband’s son.’

  With dismay she watched the expression that spread across Ralph’s florid features, not so much surprise as gratified astonishment.

  ‘Well, well, well! You’re a dark horse, Marianna, and no mistake! Young Dick hadn’t an inkling, I’m sure, that it was this which brought his mother post-haste to London.’

  She refused to be riled by the unpleasan
t innuendo. ‘Of course Dick knew nothing about Dom Joao being in London, because I didn’t know it myself. He and I met, quite by chance, only this morning.’

  ‘It was in Wimpole Street,’ Jacinto confirmed, stepping forward with his hand extended. ‘I had just summoned a cab when Mrs Penfold spotted me. An amazing coincidence.’

  ‘Amazing!’ echoed Ralph derisively. Then his eyes hardened. ‘You’re damned well mistaken if you think I’m going to shake the hand of my father’s murderer!’

  Marianna caught her breath. As Jacinto began to speak, she put out a hand to check him.

  ‘You don’t know what you’re saying. Ralph.’

  ‘It’s pointless trying to deny it, my dear. I was given the clue by your own beloved son.’ He turned to Jacinto and made an ironic bow. ‘Your son also, it would appear.’

  ‘What has Dick been saying?’ asked Marianna faintly, her hands clenched tightly together.

  ‘Oh, a great many things. He confronted me this morning like an avenging angel. He abused me roundly for being a man of business rather than a do-gooding saint. The boy grew very excited, I’m afraid, and in the end he burst out that he’d prefer to be the bastard son of a man he could respect than have to call me his brother.’

  Marianna choked back the gasp that rose to her lips. Glancing swiftly at Jacinto she saw his look of dismay and knew that her own face must be equally revealing. Oh Dick, you foolish, headstrong boy, her heart cried out. What have you done?

  ‘Naturally,’ Ralph went on, ‘I was most intrigued to know where and when Dick could have met this lover of yours, Marianna — the man who had so effectively escaped the clutches of the police and apparently vanished from the face of the earth. Young Dick was in no condition to watch his words. It soon emerged that the elusive Jacinto Teixeiro and Senhor Dom Joao Carreiro, sugar planter from Guiana., were one and the same person! I came round here hotfoot, Marianna, I confess. I couldn’t wait to see your expression when I broke the news that your ugly little secret was a secret no longer. But as things have turned out, my dear stepmama, it is almost as if Divine Providence itself led me here this morning and delivered my father’s murderer into my hands.’

  Again Marianna checked Jacinto from speaking by putting a hand on his arm.

  ‘Since you know so much, Ralph, you had better know everything. Yes, this is Jacinto Teixeiro and I am not ashamed to admit that we were lovers. But your father’s death was entirely accidental. He burst in upon us in the boathouse that afternoon like a man possessed, swearing he would kill us both, and laid about him violently with a riding whip. We did not intend his death, but during the struggle he fell and struck his head.’

  ‘You might just as well save the sordid details for the police,’ Ralph retorted.

  ‘But ... but how can you go to the police after all this time?’ ‘

  His lips curled into an unpleasant smile. ‘The police will be delighted to have a satisfactory conclusion to this long unsolved case.’

  ‘Nothing whatever could be proved,’ Marianna pointed out. ‘There is no evidence of any connection between Jacinto and myself at the time we were both in England.’

  ‘Oh yes, there is! I myself saw you together, through the telescope. You were standing on the rustic bridge, and you were in a passionate embrace. I was most intrigued, and when my father arrived home that afternoon — a day earlier than expected — I told him what I had seen. It was no more than my filial duty, was it not? The pater paused only long enough to snatch up a riding whip before storming out in search of you, to catch you in flagrante delicto.’

  This was just as Marianna had always assumed, but she adopted an air of astonishment.

  ‘How could you expect anyone to believe that, Ralph, when always before you only claimed to have seen one person on the bridge — a man? You never made any reference to seeing me there.’

  ‘Surely a forgivable omission, for the sake of our family honour? The police will be very understanding.’

  ‘But what would you achieve, by revealing all this now?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh, a very great deal. The pleasure of seeing you two in the dock, where you belong.’

  Jacinto interposed quickly, ‘Marianna, I myself will go to the police. There is no need for you to be implicated in any way.’ He glanced at Ralph. ‘Will that satisfy you?’

  But Marianna gave her stepson no chance to reply. She said, with a firmness of voice that surprised her, ‘Neither of you will go to the police. You, Ralph, had better consider very carefully before you take such a drastic step, all because of a spiteful vendetta against me. Just think what would inevitably emerge if we were ever put on trial — the twisted nature that lay behind your father’s façade of respectability. Your children’s grandfather, don’t forget.’

  Ralph gave a contemptuous shrug. ‘You won’t deter me as easily as that, Marianna.’

  ‘Think, Ralph, think. Jacinto and I are not two helpless young people, as we were in those days, with no power to defend ourselves adequately. We have the means now to fight back. You had better consider what a leading King’s Counsel would do to you in the witness box. What questions you might be asked.’

  He snorted. ‘I can handle any questions that come my way. I am a successful, highly respected man of business, don’t forget. I shall be believed over anything you might say.’

  Marianna took a deep breath. ‘I am quite aware that if you are determined to press these charges against Jacinto and myself, you could make life very uncomfortable for us. You might even succeed in having us both imprisoned. So for that very reason, Ralph, I swear to God that if you attempt to bring destruction down upon us, then I will see that you are destroyed too. Be in no doubt that I have the knowledge to do so.’

  A look of unease crept into his eyes, but still he blustered. ‘What the devil is that supposed to mean?’

  ‘It means this. Just as Dick unwittingly presented you with a weapon against Jacinto and me, he also gave me one against you.’ She closed her eyes, uttering a silent prayer that Dick was right in what he suspected and that Ralph would not just laugh away her threat, ‘What would your father-in-law say, I wonder, were he to be informed that you had swindled him? Swindled him to the tune of two whole boatloads of Christmas comforts for the troops at the Cape, which were never purchased and never delivered, though Sir Percival Rockingham paid you for them in full.’

  Ralph did laugh, but very shakily. ‘If Dick told you that, he was lying.’

  ‘Then if the story is false you have nothing to fear from my going to Sir Percival.’

  ‘D’you imagine he’d believe you? Good God, woman, he received a grateful letter from the Secretary of State for the War Department.’

  ‘But would that letter stand investigation?’ she challenged, with growing confidence. ‘Suppose your sister’s husband, Sir Cedric Kendall, were to ask a few questions among his military friends? I believe he would soon uncover the fact that it was written solely to appease Sir Percival, with no basis of truth.’

  Eyes blazing, Ralph took a threatening step towards her, so that Jacinto moved quietly between them.

  ‘This ... this is nothing short of blackmail,’ he spluttered.

  ‘You may call it what you will,’ Marianna said, facing him calmly now that she knew she had won. ‘So I shall say it again. I swear to you, Ralph, that if there is ever a threat to Jacinto and myself, I shall know it is due to you, then I shall not hesitate to bring that ugly story to light.’

  ‘It’s Dick’s word against mine!’

  ‘We shall see, shall we not, if you force my hand?’

  Ralph tried to turn his defeat against her, by abusing her son. ‘There’s one thing I’m glad about, anyhow. I’ll be rid of that sanctimonious little prig. I’ll never call him brother.’

  ‘I doubt,’ said Jacinto in a voice that betrayed his own deep anger, ‘if that will cause the young man much distress.’

  Ralph stood hesitating at the door, still searching for a thrust that would
pain her. His eyes gleamed suddenly, and he began, ‘Those photographs of you, Marianna, I think I shall—’

  ‘Oh, do what you like with the filthy things,’ she cried. ‘They reveal far more about the mind of the man who had them taken — your father — than they do about the young girl they portray.’

  Jacinto, who could have understood little of what had been said, intervened curtly. ‘You had better go now, Penfold. At once.’

  Ralph looked from one to the other of them, his face contorted with rage, then without speaking another word he turned and slammed from the room. But even when the sounds of his footsteps had receded, his hatred remained, hanging in the air like something cloying and tangible.

  For long moments Marianna stood motionless, trembling, then her strength of purpose seemed to desert her and she broke into uncontrollable weeping. Jacinto took her gently into his arms and she clung to him.

  Chapter 21

  It being Sunday, the shop was closed, so Marianna rapped with her knuckles on the glass pane of the door. A moment later Hilda’s inquiring face appeared in the doorway from the living quarters, then lit up with pleasure as she recognized her visitor and hurried round the counter to open up.

  ‘Ooh ma’am, it’s lovely to see you again. I do hope as how you can stay for a bit, ’cos my Albert’s out with the children just at present, except for the baby. He always takes them over to Regent’s Park of a Sunday morning if it’s not raining, to get them out from under my feet, like, while I cooks the dinner.’

  An appetizing smell of roasting mutton was drifting through from the back regions, to mingle with the subtle blend of cheese and bacon, tea and coffee, and all manner of herbs and spices.

  ‘I’m afraid I didn’t give a thought to you cooking the Sunday dinner,’ Marianna said apologetically, as she followed Hilda across the shop. ‘You mustn’t let me delay you.’