He was looking around again, now a little uncertain if he should have spoken. The Marquesa thumped her stick. ‘What news?’
‘It was brought to me. I … I won’t say how. Tomás crossed the river at Sanlucar. They took him through Doñana. Now he’s at a place near El Rocio. Shall I go and fetch him, Miss Charlie?’
I thought for a while. ‘Fetch him? I don’t know if you can do that, Andy. He’s not a child. He can’t be dragged back if he doesn’t want to come. And how would you do it? You’d need help from … from whomever brought you the news. You’d need to be met on the other side in Doñana. You couldn’t find your way through Doñana by yourself. And to go the other way, through Seville, is impossible. There are Army checks all along the road. You’d have to have a pass, and a reason for going.’ I sat down again, the first hope gone, the misery of the decision still to be made. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what to do. If he were a few years younger, you could say he was a child, and not responsible. If he were a little older, you’d say he was a man, and had made his choice, as the others did …’
‘I could go,’ Richard said. ‘It would be a lot easier for me to go than Andy. I’m carrying a British passport, and have a permit from the commander in Cadiz to travel. Juan’s married into General Queipo’s family, and I could use his name. I’d bluff my way across the bridge at Seville. Get to El Rocio somehow. Perhaps Tomás would listen to me, Charlie. I’d try to make him see sense. Try ‒ at least try! It’s not too late yet.’ He asked Andy, ‘Has the … the person who brought the message gone?’
‘The person has gone, m’lord. It was only passed along, you know. People don’t travel these days. I would have to pass the message back ‒ that is, if you wanted to go through Doñana. Through Seville …?’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know how to pass anything that way. You see, they … they didn’t mean me to know too much. They knew that Miss Charlie would be worried, and wanted her to know he was all right. But you see, m’lord, they know I’m not really for all this Republican business. They know this family is all mixed up with the military. They weren’t telling me much, you understand, m’lord. Just that he was safe with them, and the way he’d gone. Perhaps … perhaps he isn’t even at El Rocio any more …’
Richard said, ‘I still think it’s worth a try. If I left at first light … not much use to try it at night. They’re more likely to be suspicious …’
‘Richard ‒’ There was something in Elena’s tone which warned Andy. He looked quickly at me.
‘Well, if that’s all for the moment, Miss Charlie … You’ll let me know if you want a horse, m’lord. There’s Miss Charlie’s car, of course, and the Marquesa’s. Both have a full tank of petrol. But when that’s gone, who knows where you’d get more in these times? A horse would be slower, but it might be easier. You’ll let me know, m’lord. I’ll wait up. No need for Manuela or anyone else to know anything about this. Fewer know, the safer it is.’ He closed the door softly.
Elena rose and went over to Richard. ‘If you try to go, I’ll find some way to stop you. I will not have our safety, our standing with the military, put in jeopardy for this boy. Think about it, Richard. Think about it …’
She left the room almost as quietly as Andy had done. As we talked, planned, argued, I didn’t notice that my mother had left also.
* *
It was perhaps half an hour later when we heard the sound of the car outside. It was enough to alarm us, because the guards had instructions to allow no one to enter unless we told them someone was expected. We looked at one another in an agony of apprehension. I went to the door of the drawing-room and opened it. There had been no sound of a bell being pulled at the front door but Elena was already there and had opened it. We heard the voices in the hall, hers and that of a man. As he came into the light I saw that it was Colonel Rodrígues, the officer commanding the troops now quartered in Jerez. He had been a guest at Juan’s wedding.
‘I came as soon as the orderly passed along your telephone message, Lady Blodmore.’ I understood then why he had been passed by the guards at the gate. No one interfered with the movements of the military these days. They would have been admitted as soon as the Army car and its occupants had been recognised. One did not argue, either, with the military.
‘It was good of you to come ‒ at such short notice.’ She was closing the door behind him. Outside I had caught a glimpse of the car, the driver and an aide.
Elena gestured him towards the drawing-room. ‘I hope I can be of service. The Marquesa, perhaps …?’
‘It is a family matter, Colonel. A rather delicate family matter. I thought it rather better if you came here, rather than we should go to your headquarters.’
He smiled affably. I guessed that he rather enjoyed being asked to help with a family matter when the family was as important as the Marquesa’s, a family with such good military connections, a family whose money might be called on to help provide what the Army would need. ‘Good evening, Doña Carlota.’ Then he advanced to the Marquesa, and lifted her hand. ‘I trust I find you well, Marquesa. And you, Lord Blodmore. These are troubled times, are they not? But we have it well in control. The Government still refuses to hand out arms to the people, and so every day that passes we gain more territory while they vacillate. Did you know that General Franco and General Mola have set up a Junta of National Defence at Burgos? Ah, thank you, Lady Blodmore.’
He accepted the brandy Elena had poured. He had been speaking English, rather proud of the fact that he spoke it so well. ‘Please be seated, Colonel,’ she said. She waited until he had done so, even offered him a cigarette and a lighter, waited until he had taken the first sip of brandy, rolled it appreciatively on his tongue, inhaled and then blew out the smoke. None of us spoke all this time. I looked at Richard and saw that the old scars flamed on his cheek. There had to be some way to stop Elena, and yet there seemed none. The Colonel was here; he had been summoned for a purpose, and he would want to know it.
‘There is something …’ Elena began.
‘No!’ My mother’s voice sounded almost a cry in the quietness of the room. ‘You have no business bringing the military here.’
‘I must do as I think best,’ Elena said. ‘Carlota, can you not control your mother? Pray excuse this, Colonel. Lady Patricia is often not quite … quite well.’
He nodded sympathetically. Everyone who came to Jerez soon learned about my mother, learned the whole story, often distorted, about Carlos and Balthasar. But however mad this Irish lady was, she was still a member of one of the town’s leading families, who protected her. Her ‘eccentricities’ were always overlooked, even if they sometimes caused a laugh.
‘Of course, of course,’ the Colonel said soothingly. He rose to his feet. ‘There is no need for alarm, Lady Patricia. The Army is only here to preserve the peace and order of this country. To stamp out the forces of anarchy who would destroy it. There is no need for alarm at all.’
I saw it before anyone, because I recognised it. She had kept it in the fold of her long, old-fashioned skirt. She looked so strange, with her hair in disarray, and her body swaying slightly as if she had had far too much to drink, that no one paid attention to anything else about her. But she held it in her right hand, and I saw it. I sprang towards her, and the movement startled her.
‘Mother! No …!’
But she had reached Elena before I could stop her. Amelia’s little gun, the gun with which I had ended the life of my loved Pepita, was in her hand. The gun, which had lain undisturbed in its beautiful box for all these years, once again fired its silver bullet. Elena slumped in her chair. The shot had been fired at point-blank range, and it appeared to have entered her heart. I think she died almost at once. There was very little blood on the pale silk of her dress.
My mother looked down at Elena for a moment. Then she turned to the Colonel. ‘She was going to have me shut up, you know. She’d even dug up my mother’s rose garden.’
; He stared at her, incredulity making his face vacant; his mouth hung open a little. Then he recovered himself, put down the brandy and cigarette, and bent over Elena. Richard was beside him, but it was the Colonel who took Elena’s wrist to try to feel for a pulse. Richard held Elena upright in the chair while the Colonel bent to try to hear a heart-beat. A minute or more passed, and he straightened slowly. His expression was still incredulous. ‘Lady Patricia, are you aware of what you have done?’
My mother’s face twisted in a terrible parody of a smile. ‘She’s dead, isn’t she? I’m quite sure she’s dead. All my life I’ve been a crack shot, and she was so close.’ Then she laid down the little pistol on the table beside the Colonel’s brandy and cigarette. With the kind of dignity a drunken person can assume, she walked from the room. Immediately, Maria Luisa followed her.
‘Lady Patricia ‒’ the Colonel called after her. ‘Lady Patricia, I must insist ‒’
The Marquesa spoke. ‘Leave her go, Colonel, please. She will be confined in her room, I promise you that. You need have no worry that she will be permitted to leave this house …’ Very stiffly she got to her feet. ‘Colonel, may I have your arm? There are things I must say to you, things we must discuss. Will you come with me to another room? I cannot …’ She looked at Elena in the chair, Richard still bent over her. ‘I cannot talk here. Carlota, will you come?’
It was an order, not a request, and the Colonel reacted to it as people had been reacting to the Marquesa all her life. He offered his arm, and she leaned on it more heavily than she needed to. I followed them, and closed the door on Richard and Elena.
* *
We went to the dining-room. ‘Carlota, another brandy for the Colonel ‒ I will also have a little. My nerves …’ She had never displayed nerves, but she permitted her hand to tremble a little as she raised the glass. ‘This is a most terrible thing.’
‘Terrible ‒’ the Colonel repeated. For a while he dropped into Spanish. ‘Marquesa, it is inexplicable!’ He took a large gulp of brandy. ‘Being a military man I have seen many things in my lifetime but nothing quite so bizarre as this. Two ladies ‒ that little gun. Extraordinary! Was Lady Patricia fully aware of what she was doing? Did she know that that little gun, small as it is, could kill ? Do you allow her access to weapons?’
The Marquesa raised her hand. ‘No, no, Colonel. We are not so irresponsible. The guns ‒ the rifles ‒ are carefully locked away. But who would have thought of this? It is, of course, a museum piece, as you saw. Jewelled ‒ with silver bullets. It has never been used, to our knowledge. Something that Don Luis’s second wife, Amelia, took a fancy to in Vienna many years ago, and brought back here. It was never meant to be more than a work of art. I’m afraid we have been most negligent in forgetting that it was also a true weapon, and the Lady Patricia was knowledgeable enough to use it. That she would use it never occurred to any of us.’
‘But why did she use it?’
The Marquesa shook her head slowly, as if the answer was inexpressible. ‘How can we know exactly what was in her poor sick mind? You know, I think, Colonel, that Lady Patricia suffers these spells of derangement. At other times she is perfectly sane and lucid. It is all due to an unfortunate accident she suffered years ago, an accident which happened when she saved the life of my husband’s son. Because of the debt we owed her for that brave act, we had tried to be very gentle with her, and never before, I swear, has she shown any inclination towards violence. It has been a sad cross for Carlota to carry, and she has done it with grace and love. She has been a good daughter to her afflicted mother. It is a …’ Her voice broke. She pressed a handkerchief to her eyelids. ‘Forgive me, Colonel. It is a most terrible tragedy that Lady Patricia should have committed this act of violence against my niece. How shall we bear it …?’
The Colonel looked in bewilderment from one to the other of us. ‘Lady Patricia said something about Lady Blodmore threatening to have her shut up. Was that why Lady Blodmore telephoned me? To come here to take Lady Patricia away? It is, of course, entirely outside my sphere of duty.’
The Marquesa shook her head slowly. ‘None of us had any idea Elena had telephoned you. Colonel. It’s true, she’s been heard to say many times that she believed Lady Patricia should be confined, and it has been very upsetting to hear. She doesn’t … didn’t understand Lady Patricia as we did. Unhappily Lady Patricia must have taken her words far more seriously than we thought.’
The Colonel threw out his hands in exasperation. ‘But why call on me? She said a family matter. You think she wasn’t referring to Lady Patricia at all?’
I grew cold as I watched the Marquesa’s face. Tomás’s immediate safety now depended on her. With amazement I saw tears appear in her eyes, where I had never seen tears before. ‘I’m terribly afraid, Colonel, that I may have been the unwitting reason for the tragedy. It is my belief that Elena had asked you to come here to speak to me personally about the situation in the country. To explain its seriousness.’
‘It is serious, Marquesa. Everyone knows that.’
‘Ah, yes ‒ but you must understand that my niece was seeking to have me leave the country. She and her husband have been here for almost a week, and it has been Elena’s whole concern to have me convinced that we ‒ I, that is ‒ am in serious danger. Myself, I said I had perfect confidence in the Army and the forces of law and order. If people like me, Colonel, flee the country, what sort of example is that to others? We must stay to support you in this struggle, if we can.’
He coughed. ‘Your sentiments do you credit, Marquesa. In the long term I see no possible outcome to the struggle but victory for the forces of law and order, but it is true that we need every sort of support. Moral and actual.’
She nodded. ‘Quite so, Colonel. But I think Elena brought you here in a last attempt to make me feel that possibly people like myself were a burden. I can as easily contribute money to the cause from outside the country, and while I remain I place an unnecessary burden of protection on people such as yourself.’
‘If we cannot protect our supporters inside Spain, Marquesa, then we have lost already.’
‘I agree. That is the whole point. Elena could not see it ‒ would not. This has been a week of severe strain on all of us and for poor Lady Patricia I’m afraid it has tipped her delicate mental balance. She does not, cannot, understand what is happening. It is quite beyond her. But listening to these arguments all the week she must somehow have confused Elena’s arguments with her repeated statements that Lady Patricia should be confined. My niece has not always been as sympathetic to Lady Patricia’s condition as she might. She has spoken rashly ‒ perhaps cruelly, in her presence. Lady Patricia has been very depressed and nervous these last few days. I begin to think she was afraid that Elena had some sort of power connected with the military, and when she saw that Elena had brought you here she thought you had come to take her away. It is my opinion that if we question her she will be able to give no rational reason why she committed this terrible act. She may actually have forgotten that she did it.’
The Colonel was uncomfortable. ‘May I smoke, Marquesa?’ She nodded and he took his time lighting his cigarette. ‘This is no matter for me, Marquesa. It is really no business of mine or the military why this act was committed. It is obviously a matter for the doctors. But a crime has been committed.’
‘Exactly so, Colonel. It is a terrible problem. A terrible moment for me. Elena was my only close blood relative. She would have inherited the title of Pontevedra. You understand how I feel. Pity for Lady Patricia. Grief for my niece. I can hardly realise it yet …’ I listened, the sweat growing cold on my body as she embellished her role. ‘I am old … it has been a great shock. Carlota, a little more brandy, if you please, and for the Colonel.’
By the time I had poured, Richard had come to the doorway. He had an air of infinite weariness about him; the shattered face, the upward twisted mouth seemed grotesquely exaggerated. Perhaps the sight of him reminded the Colonel that h
e was dealing with a man who had been through years of a different war.
‘My profound sympathies, Lord Blodmore.’
‘Thank you, Colonel. It’s been a tragic mistake. Lady Patricia is so confused … Poor soul. She has never done harm to anyone before ‒’
The Marquesa broke in, ‘Precisely what I have been telling the Colonel, Richard. A tragic error. She has confused Elena’s concern to make me understand the seriousness of the situation, to get me to agree to leave, with her too often repeated opinions that Lady Patricia should be locked away. And the unfortunate Colonel was seen as the instrument of that policy. Indeed, if one thinks about it, the Colonel might have been Lady Patricia’s more natural target …’
‘Exactly,’ Richard said. ‘That can have been the only reason for her doing what she did. Yes, it might well have been you instead, Colonel.’
I thought the Colonel paled a little at the suggestion. He drew hurriedly on his brandy, and with the glass empty, glanced hopefully at me. I poured again, and then filled a glass for Richard. Richard said, ‘To cope with the immediate details, Colonel ‒ may I have your permission to send your car to bring Dr Ramírez? There is, of course, no hope for my wife’s life. She must have been dead a second after the bullet entered. But still there must be a medical man to examine her …’ He faltered. ‘I have left everything undisturbed …’ I brought the brandy to him. ‘I ask, Colonel, if I may send your car because it is much easier for the military to move at night than a civilian. The doctor must confirm the death and the circumstances. I’m sure you will need … need everything to be in order.’
‘Naturally, it must be done correctly. Perhaps I should instruct my aide.’ He looked as if he would have been glad to have been away from us all.
‘Let me do it. Stay with the Marquesa. It obviously comforts her to have authority with her at this time. If you wouldn’t mind?’ He took the brandy I offered and drained it. When he was gone, the Marquesa started again. ‘You are the authority now, Colonel ‒ as well as the principal witness. You must instruct the Civil Guard. There can be no question of a trial, of course. Everyone knows she has these … these spells. You cannot put a madwoman on trial.’
The Summer of the Spanish Woman Page 55