The Devil on Horseback
Page 10
“Of course both of them were blessed with clever ministers.”
“Well, do you want to give a history lesson or hear about my family?”
I shall be interested to hear about your family. ” :
“I have told you about my father and mother and you know how ill-assorted they are. It was an arranged marriage when my mother was sixteen and my father seventeen. They saw very little of each other before the wedding. That’s how things are arranged in families like ours, and it was considered a most suitable match. Of course it was as unsuitable as it possibly could be. Poor Maman! She is the one I am sorry for. My father would naturally find consolation else-” J where. ” , ” And that is what he did? “
“Naturally. He had had his adventures before marriage. I;
wonder why he can be so shocked over me. Not that he really was. As I said, it wasn’t what I had done but that I i had been found out. It’s all right for serving girls and members of the lower classes generally to have a bastard, or two (in fact it is often their duty if the lord of the castle takes a fancy to them) but not, oh certainly not, for the daughter of the great family. So you see there is one law for the rich and one for the poor and this time it works against us. “
“Be serious, Margot. I want to learn something about the people at the castle before I go there. ” ” Very well. I’m leading up to that. I was going to tell you, about Etienne-the crop of my father’s earliest wild oat; Etienne lives at the chateau. He is my father’s son. “
“I thought you said there was no son.”
“Minelle, you are being obtuse. He is my father’s illegitimate son. Papa was only sixteen when Etienne was born.
How hej can dare Sit in judgement on me I don’t know. Not only is!
there one law for the rich and one for the poor, but one for men and one for women. I was born a year after my parent’s marriage. My mother suffered terribly and nearly died. However, both she and I managed to survive the ordeal of my getting born but the result was that to have another child would endanger her life. So there was my father-who had had everything he wanted in life up to that time-at the age of eighteen, head of a noble house, faced with the fact that he would never have a son. And of course what every man wants especially one who has a great name to preserve -is a son, and not only one, for he must be doubly sure. “
That must have been a great blow. “
“It was not as though he loved my mother. I always thought that if she had stood up to him a little he might have thought more of her. She never did, though. She always avoided him and they saw very little of each other. She spends most of her time in her rooms waited on by NouNou, her old nurse, who defends her like a dragon breathing fire, and even daring to stand up to Papa. But I must tell you about Etienne.”
Yes, do tell me about Etienne. “
Naturally I wasn’t there at the time but I have heard servants talk.
It was considered amusing that my father should have shown his virility at such an early age. Etienne came into the world to a flourish of trumpets metaphorically speaking-and has had a very high opinion of himself ever since. He is cast in the same mould as my father-which is not surprising since he is his son. Well, when it was known that my father could have no more children and the hopes of a legitimate son were no more, my father brought Etienne to the chateau and he was treated like a legitimate son. He has been educated as such and is often with my father. Everyone knows that he is a bastard and that infuriates him, but he hopes to inherit the estates if not the title. He can be very moody and has outbursts of temper which terrify people. If my mother died and my father married again I don’t know what Etienne would do. “
I can see how unfair he would consider that. “
“Poor Etienne! He is my father all over again … but not quite. You know how it is with people who are not quite what they wish to be. Etienne flaunts his nobility, if you know what I mean. I have seen him whip a young boy who called him the Bastard. But he is very attractive. The girls in the servants’ quarters will verify that. Etienne is a Count in a ways except that his mother was not married to his father and he is so determined that no one shall remember that that he can’t forget it himself. Oh and then … Leon.”
“Another man?”
“Leon’s case is very different. Leon has no need to whip sma boys. He is no bastard. He was born in holy wedlock. H parents were peasants and it would be no use his trying t pretend otherwise, even if he wanted to, for everyone know it. Leon, though, has received the same education as Etienn and no one would guess he was the son of peasants if the did not know it. Leon therefore has an air of nobility which sits easily on him and he would laugh if anyone called nil Peasant. To see Leon in his fine velvet jacket and buck ski breeches you would say he was an aristocrat. Which prove of course, that where a man is brought up can have fa more effect on him than who his parents were. “
I have always been inclined to believe that. But tell m more of Leon. Why is he at the chateau?
“It is rather a romantic story. He came to the chateau when he was six. I was too young to remember. Actually it was soon after I was born and my father had just realized that m mother could have no more children. He was very angry . bitter against a fate which had married him to a woman will had become barren after the birth of her first child . daughter . and then had had the temerity to go on living “Margot!”
“Dear Minelle, are we speaking the truth or not? If m mother had died when I was born my father would have married again after a suitable interval and I might have had numerous half-sisters and what is all-important, brothers Then my little peccadillo might not have been so important But Maman went on living … most inconsiderate of the . and Papa was a prisoner of a kind … caught by a crue fate, trapped, married to a woman who could be of no use ti him.”
This is no way to talk of your parents. “
“Very well. I will tell you they are devoted to each other. He never leaves her side. All his thoughts are for her. I that what you want?”
“Don’t be silly, Margot. Naturally I want the truth, bu tempered with respect.”
“How amusing you are I It is not a matter of respect but to tell you how things stand. That’s what you asked for, did you not? Do you want to hear or don’t you?”
“I want to know as much as possible about the chateau before I go there.”
“Then don’t expect to hear fairy tales. My father is no charming prince, I do assure you. When he knew that he was saddled with a barren wife he was so angry that he took his horse and rode it till it dropped with exhaustion. Riding madly like that seemed to be the way he gave an outlet to his fury. The household was glad to get him out of the way for woe betide any of them who angered him. The people used to call him the Devil on Horseback and when they saw him kept out of the way.”
I was startled because that was the name I had given him when I had first seen him. It fitted him absolutely.
“Sometimes,” went on Margot, “Papa travelled in his cabriolet which he drove himself using the most spirited horses in his stables. This was more dangerous than when he rode his horse, and one day he was riding in this wild and reckless fashion through the village of Lapine, which was about ten kilos from the chateau, when he ran over a child and killed it.”
“How dreadful!”
“I think he was sorry.”
“I should hope he was.”
It brought him to his senses, I think. But let me tell you about Leon. He is the twin brother of the boy who was killed. The mother was nearly demented. She so far forgot what she owed her overlord that she came to the castle and tried to stab him. He overpowered her easily.
He could have had her executed for attempted murder but he didn’t. “
“How good of him!” I said with sarcasm.
“I suppose he realized that she was merely attempting to do to him what he did to her child.”
“Exactly. However, he talked to her. He told her he deeply regretted his action
and he understood her desire for revenge. He would try to atone. The dead boy had a twin brother. And she had … how many children was it? I forget. About ten. He would recompense her for the loss of the child by giving her a purse which would be commensurate with what her ;
would have earned for her had he lived for sixty years. T was not all.
He would take the boy’s twin and he should brought up in the chateau as a member of the household. This the terrible accident could be turned into a stroke of go fortune for the family. “
I don’t see how anything could make up for the loss the child. “
You do not know these peasants. Their children mean much money to them. They have so many that they ci spare one without too much regret. particularly when I loss is going to bring great rewards. “
I am unconvinced. “
“Then, dear Minelle, you must remain so. The fact is this besides Etienne the Bastard we have Leon the Peasant, acfl let me tell you this: If I had not explained the situation you would never have guessed the origins of either.”
“It is an unusual household.”
That made Margot laugh.
“Until I came to England and I the orderly manners of Derringham Hall and how that whitj is unpleasant is never mentioned and therefore presumed n
“You saw only the surface. We all have our problems. l that easy-to-live-in schoolhouse there was often the question of whether we should be able to pay our way and that question became acute during my last weeks there.”
“I know, and to that very state of affairs perhaps I owe void presence here, so does it not show that there is always goof in everything that happens? If the school had been flourishing you would not have left it and I should be alone. But f< my father’s youthful indiscretion Etienne would not be the chateau and if he had not ridden in fury through Lap Leon would have been trying to grub a living out of earth and often going to bed hungry. Isn’t that a com for thought?”
“Your philosophy is a lesson to us all, Margot.” I pleased to see her in such good spirits, but talking of chateau had tired her and I insisted that she drink her time milk and talk no more that night.
II
At the beginning of August Madame Legere moved in. She occupied a small room close to Margot’s and her coming reminded both Margot and me vividly that the interlude was nearing its end. I think neither of us wanted it to be over. This was a strange feeling but these waiting months had been important to us both. We had, as was to be expected, grown closer together; and I think she was pleased, as I was, that when this was over we were not going to part. How she would react to giving up her baby I could not imagine, for as its birth became imminent she had taken a great interest in it and I was afraid was beginning to be stirred by maternal love. It was natural enough, but since she was to give up the child, rather sad.
During those waiting months I had looked back over the past and yearned to be able to talk of the future with my mother. When I contemplated what my life would have been if I had stayed in the schoolhouse I could feel no regret for what I had done. I could see myself becoming more and more uneasy and perhaps in desperation turning to the Mansers and marrying Jim. At the same time I felt I had plunged into a dark passage and was heading towards a future which I could not envisage. Adventure lay before me-the chateau, the Comte and his unusual household. I could only look forward to that with a tingling excitement while I was glad of the waiting period.
Madame Legere had taken Margot over completely. She was always with her and even when we endeavoured to be alone for a brief respite it would not be long before the plump little creature would come bustling in wanting to know what “Petit Maman was doing.
“Petit Maman’ was amused at first by the appellation but after a few days she declared she would scream if Madame Legere did not stop it.
But Madame Legere went her own way. She made it clear that she was in charge, for if she were not how could we be sure that Baby would make an easy entrance into the world and “Petit Maman’ come through without disaster?
It was obvious that we had to endure Madame Legere.
She liked a glass of brandy and kept a bottle handy. I;l suspected she had frequent nips, but as she was never the, worse for it, that seemed nothing to worry about. “If I had as many bottles of brandy as I’ve brought babies into the world,” she said, “I’d be a rich woman.”
“Or a wine merchant or a dipsomaniac,” I could not help adding, ‘y She was unsure of me. I had heard her refer to me as The English Cousin’ as though I were an enemy. I would sit in my room sometimes trying to read but l could always hear Madame Legere’s penetrating voice, ant having by this time grown accustomed to the accent of the neighbourhood I could follow conversations with ease. g Jeanne was always in attendance and she and Madam Legere vied with each other in talking, although Madame Legere was very often the winner, in view, I imagined, of her superior position in the household. I told Margot that she should send them away but she said their chatter amuse
“Oh Madame Legere,” squealed Jeanne.
“Do tell.”
“If I was to tell I’d be breaking my trust, wouldn’t I? It was to keep secrets that I got my little nest-egg together … as well as for bringing the little darlings into the world. It wasn’t an easy birth, that one … not the sort I like. But of course I was there and I used to say to her: ” You’ll be all right. Petit Maman, with old Legere beside you. ” That was a comfort to her, that was. Well, when the baby was born, a carriage comes and there’s a woman in it who takes the child. Poor Petit Maman, she nearly died. Would have, if I hadn’t been there to take care of her. Then I had my orders. Tell her the baby died, and that was what she was told. She was heartbroken, but I reckon it was better that way.”
“And what happened to the baby?” asked Margot.
“You needn’t have any fear about that. It was well cared for, you can be sure. There was money, you see. Lots of it. And all they wanted was for Petit Maman to be sent back to them, slender as a virgin, which was what she would have to pass herself off to be.”
“Did she believe the baby was dead?” asked Jeanne.
“She believed it. I reckon she’s a great lady now, married to a rich lord of a husband, with lots of children running about the grand house only she wouldn’t see much of them. They’d be with nurses.”
“It doesn’t seem right,” said Jeanne.
“Of course it’s not right but it’s what is. ” But I would like to know what happened to the baby,” put in Margot.
“You set your mind at rest on that,” replied Madame Legere soothingly.
“Babies born like this are always put in good households. After all, they’ve got this blue blood in them and these aristocrats think a lot of that sort of blood.”
“My Gaston says that one day the people will have proof of that.”
“You’d better not let Madame Gremond hear you talk like that,” warned Madame Legere.
“Oh no. She thinks she’s one of them. But the time will come when she will have to show whose side she’s on.”
“What’s the matter with you, Jeanne?” asked Margot.
“You’re getting fierce.”
“Oh, she has been listening to Gaston, that’s what. Te Gaston he’d better be careful. People who talk too much might find themselves in trouble. What’s wrong with aristocrat crats? They have bonny babies. Some of my best babies were aristocrats. I remember once. ”
I had lost interest. I could not stop thinking of the story of the baby which had been born to the aristocratic lady and taken away at birth. I wondered how much she knew of this case. She was certainly probing. And how much had she guessed? Then there were Jeanne’s comments to ponder on. It seemed the theme of life here was one of rumbling discontent.
III
It was about a week after that when I was awakened noises in the adjoining room. I could hear Madame Lege giving orders to Jeanne.
Margot’s child was about to be born.
Her labour was neither long nor arduous. She was we: lucky in that and by mid-morning her son was born.
I went to see her soon afterwards. She was lying back bed very sleepy, exhausted, yet in a way triumphant, looking very young.
The baby was wrapped up in red flannel and lying i cot.
It’s over, Minelle,” said Margot wanly.
“It’s a boy .. lovely boy.”
I nodded, feeling too moved to speak.
“Petit Maman should rest now,” said Madame Legere. “. got some beautiful broth for her when she awakes … sleep first.”
Margot closed her eyes. I was very uneasy, wondering t she would feel when the tune came to part with the baby as she surely must.