That evening Sophie called Hannah into the parlour. ‘Sit down, Hannah,’ Sophie said. ‘We’ve got to talk.’
Hannah took the chair that Charles had been seated in earlier. It was warm beside the fire and had anyone seen the two of them through the window, they would have thought them best friends sitting together for cosy chat. The atmosphere between them was strained, however, as Hannah waited for Sophie to speak.
‘Hannah, I wish you’d told me about that man who came to the door about Nicholas,’ Sophie said at last. ‘Rather than go straight to my cousin.’
‘I’m sorry, Miss Sophie,’ Hannah answered, ‘but I did what I thought was best. I didn’t know if what that man told me was true. I knew I couldn’t find out but I thought Mr Charles might.’
‘I know,’ sighed Sophie, twisting her engagement ring round and round her finger. ‘And it does seem to be true. Oh, Hannah, what am I going to do?’
‘Well, I think you should give him his ring back and say that as there is no question of marriage between you, you’d prefer not to see him again.’
‘What will everyone in the village say?’ wondered Sophie dismally.
‘It doesn’t matter what they say. It’s none of their business, and as soon as something else happens it’ll all be forgotten. No one will know why the engagement was broken off. They may speculate, but Mr Charles isn’t going to tell them the reason, is he? Nor are you and I, and you can be sure Dr Bryan isn’t. They will just think you changed your mind, which I might add you are quite entitled to do.’ She smiled across at Sophie. ‘Be brave, Sophie. Chins are being worn very high this year!’
That brought a faint smile to Sophie’s lips before she said, ‘But poor Nicholas will have everyone wondering why.’
‘Poor Nicholas has only himself to blame, Miss Sophie.’
‘You’ve never liked him, have you?’
‘I’ve never trusted him,’ Hannah answered honestly. ‘And this has proved me right. He’s a liar. If he’s been lying to you about this, what else has he lied about? What other secrets is he hiding?’
‘Hannah,’ Sophie began and then stopped. She knew another secret Nicholas was hiding but could she, should she, finally confide in Hannah about his parentage? It would mean explaining how she had broken into Jocelyn’s room and found his letters, leading her on to searching her mother’s bureau for the replies, and then the meetings with Nan Slater. She thought of the old woman lying there dying, in the cold of winter, when she’d gone out to fetch firewood. Would she still be alive, Sophie wondered, if I hadn’t taken her that firewood? But that was ridiculous speculation; it was simply dreadful misfortune that she had slipped on the icy surface of the yard while fetching some wood indoors.
All these things flitted through her mind as she sat by the fire, and Hannah, seeing that she was having some sort of battle with herself, simply waited.
At length Sophie said, ‘Hannah, if I tell you something, you have to promise me that it goes no further. Will you promise?’
‘It rather depends on what you’re going to tell me, Miss Sophie. Of course I want to help you in whatever way I can, but please don’t burden me with a confidence that I can’t keep.’
Sophie stared at her for a moment. In the months since her mother had died, Hannah had changed. She had been there all Sophie’s life, a friend and comforter, offering sensible counsel when she was asked; occasionally speaking her mind, but always softening her comments with a smile or a word of affection. Recently, however, she had been a good deal more forthright, criticizing Sophie for her behaviour when she thought it justified, and Sophie recognized a difference in their relationship. She knew Hannah loved her just as she always had, but as an adult not as a child. She could see the sort of love she’d received as a child was now given to AliceAnne, but she also realized that neither of them was actually the centre of Hannah’s world.
Still, she needed Hannah’s no-nonsense counsel now, so she said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you anyway, but I hope you’ll feel able to respect my confidence.’
Hannah nodded and waited while Sophie composed herself.
‘You remember when you found me moving the wardrobe in my bedroom at Trescadinnick?’
Hannah laughed. ‘Indeed I do, Miss Sophie. What you thought you was up to I do not know!’
‘I wanted to explore my Uncle Jocelyn’s room. I wanted to know why it had been locked up for so long, why he had been shut away for all those years, rather than being remembered as a loved member of the family who had died young.’
‘I recall you said something of the sort,’ said Hannah.
‘Well, I did manage to get into his room and it was just as he had left it the day he died. There was a half-written letter in his desk, but more than that, there were letters from my mother and also from a girl he was in love with and wanted to marry. She was carrying his child.’
‘You never read his letters, Miss Sophie.’ Hannah sounded shocked.
‘I did,’ admitted Sophie, ‘and I discovered a great deal about him and his fiancée, Cassie. She was expecting Jocelyn’s child and as far as I can tell his father, my grandfather, refused to give his consent to their marriage.’ Sophie looked up. ‘Just as he did with my parents.’
‘Not quite the same,’ Hannah interposed. ‘Your mother and father simply wanted to get married. There was no question of illegitimate children.’
‘No, but listen, Hannah, till you’ve heard the whole story.’ And Sophie went on to tell her everything that she had discovered, including her conversations with Nan Slater, culminating in the revelation that Nicholas Bryan was the fruit of that relationship.
‘He’s my grandfather’s grandson,’ Sophie said. ‘If Jocelyn hadn’t fallen to his death in the fog, they’d have married and my grandfather would have had a legitimate heir.’
Hannah was silenced for a moment as she tried to take in what Sophie was telling her. Then she said, ‘So he came back to Trescadinnick to try and claim his inheritance? Is that what you’re saying?’
‘That’s what I thought, but when I told him what I’d found out, he denied it all. He admitted he was an illegitimate child, brought up by his aunt and uncle when his mother died giving birth to him, but obviously he didn’t want that known. He said he loved me and he wanted to marry me. I believed him, but now? I don’t know. Was everything a lie? Everything has changed and now I have to confront him with the fact that he’s already married. I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. Ever since I first met him, he’s paid me special attention, made it clear that he wanted to be more than just a friend. I fell in love with him and he loved me. At least I thought he did. Oh, Hannah, why has he led me on when he knew we could never marry?’
‘He didn’t think anyone would find out, Sophie, and it was pure chance that we have. If we hadn’t he’d have married you.’
‘Would he? Do you really think that?’
‘I know it, Sophie,’ Hannah replied gently.
‘But why? It would be no marriage at all.’
‘No.’
‘So why?’
‘You’re asking what I really think?’
‘Yes,’ Sophie replied. ‘Of course I am.’
‘He was marrying you to get his hands on Trescadinnick. Now I know he’s an illegitimate Penvarrow, I’m certain.’
‘You think he doesn’t love me,’ Sophie said.
‘That I don’t know. Perhaps he does in his own way, but from what you’ve told me it seems to me that he came to Trescadinnick, not to claim an inheritance that would never have been given to him, but to have some sort of revenge on the family. They’d refused to accept his mother, which made him a bastard.’
‘You don’t know that!’
‘No, I don’t, not for sure, but why else would he come? He must have known Thomas Penvarrow would never acknowledge him as a grandson.’
‘What sort of revenge?’
‘I don’t know,’ confessed Hannah. ‘But whatever it was, I think it changed when
he met you. Once you arrived on the scene, young, beautiful, available as a wife, what better revenge than to marry you, and claim what he considered as rightfully his?’
‘But he didn’t know I was the heir!’ cried Sophie.
‘Sophie,’ said Hannah patiently, ‘everyone knew, or at least they guessed. Once that lawyer had been, it was clear that old Mr Penvarrow had changed his will and that you, a true Penvarrow, would inherit Trescadinnick. Didn’t Dr Bryan witness his signature?’
‘Yes, but he couldn’t have known what was in the will.’
‘Your grandfather didn’t like him, did he? Maybe he saw which way the wind was blowing. He may not have known exactly who Nicholas was, but he made very sure that whoever you married couldn’t get his hands on the Trescadinnick inheritance.’
‘He wanted me to marry Charles.’
‘I know,’ said Hannah. ‘And if he had left well alone, that might have happened.’
Sophie gave a short laugh. ‘I don’t think so, Hannah. Charles made it quite clear that he wouldn’t consider the idea. He said if he wanted a wife he would choose his own, and it wouldn’t be a chit from the schoolroom. He really was most clear on the subject.’
‘So I heard,’ said Hannah wryly. ‘But maybe he’s had time to change his mind. You seem to get on very well.’
‘That’s because there’s absolutely no expectation of anything more than friendship between us,’ declared Sophie. ‘Charles doesn’t want me, even if I wanted him.’
‘But he does protect your interests,’ pointed out Hannah, ‘which brings us back to this question of Nicholas already being married.’
‘Charles is coming again tomorrow, and I shall tell him I’m going back to Trescadinnick to have it out with Nicholas.’
‘Sophie, I think you should tell Charles everything else you’ve found out about Nicholas,’ Hannah advised. ‘I think that is all part and parcel of why he came to Trescadinnick in the first place.’
Sophie sighed. ‘Maybe,’ she conceded. ‘I’ll sleep on it and decide in the morning.’
39
When Charles arrived back in Hammersmith next morning, Sophie led him into the parlour and asked him to sit down.
‘I’ve been thinking about all you told me yesterday,’ she said, ‘and we need to talk. But first I have to tell you something else about Nicholas and you have to promise to listen and say nothing, no interruptions, until I’ve finished. Can you do that?’
Charles smiled at her earnest face and said, ‘Yes, I should think so. What’s on your mind?’
What was on her mind? Everything. She had hardly slept as everything she had heard the previous day churned around in her head. How could Nicholas have proposed to her when he was already married? He must have counted on the fact that no one would ever discover that he already had a wife, and why should they? This Dolly lived in London and if Nicholas had left her and moved to Cornwall, it was unlikely that she would learn that he’d got married again.
If we had married, Sophie thought, Nicholas would have been betraying both of us. Me and Dolly. How could he? He’d said he loved me and all the time he was married to someone else.
Tears of misery and rage filled her eyes and her throat ached with wanting to cry, but she would not. She would not cry for someone who had told her nothing but lies! He was a liar and a deceiver and she’d never forgive him!
And was Hannah right about his motives for coming to Port Felec in the first place? She was right that he could have expected nothing from Thomas Penvarrow. He was not the man to welcome a bastard grandson into the family. But if Nicholas had no ulterior motive, surely he wouldn’t have denied it so violently when she’d taxed him with being Jocelyn’s son.
All Nan had told her whirled round in her head, forcing her to accept that Nicholas had been quite happy to deceive her and had intended to go on doing so. Has a right temper on him, Nan had said. You don’t want to cross him or he’ll make you pay. And Sophie remembered the marks of his fingers when he’d gripped her wrist, angry that she had ridden alone with Charles. Yes, Nicholas had a temper, but she had excused it because she loved him.
She lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, seeing the dark familiar shapes of her bedroom furniture, the shadows cast by the street lamp beyond her window. She closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep, but her brain wouldn’t relax, couldn’t relax, and it wasn’t until the first grey fingers of a false dawn crept into the eastern sky that she finally drifted off into a fitful doze, bedevilled with muddled dreams of Nicholas, Nan, her mother, her grandfather.
She awoke pale and unrefreshed when Hannah brought her tea in the morning, but as she slept her decision had been made. She would tell Charles everything.
Now, sitting by the fire in the parlour, she did just that. She told him everything from the moment when she had broken into Jocelyn’s room and found the letters, to the last time she had seen Nan Slater and been told that Nicholas Bryan was Jocelyn’s illegitimate son. She left out no detail, including Nicholas’s reaction when she had faced him with what she had learned from the letters and from Nan.
‘He denied it completely,’ Sophie said, ‘and he was angry, so angry. Nan had warned me that he had a temper, but that was the first time I had really seen it.’
Charles, good as his word, listened to her without interruption, but his expression was a mixture of incredulity and anger. When Sophie at last lapsed into silence, he said quietly, ‘Is that it?’
‘Isn’t it enough?’ cried Sophie.
‘More than enough,’ Charles said. ‘And when we add it to what else we’ve found out about him, it takes on an even more serious aspect.’ He shook his head reproachfully. ‘Sophie, why on earth didn’t you tell us what you’d discovered? About Jocelyn, I mean?’
‘Aunt Matty made it clear that I was never to mention Jocelyn or ask any questions about him. She said his death had been an accident when they actually thought he’d committed suicide. Having read those letters, Charles, I am quite sure it wasn’t suicide. Jocelyn was planning to marry his Cassie as soon as he was of age. But if I’d told anyone what I had found out, I’d have had to admit breaking into Jocelyn’s room and everyone would have been furious with me.’
Charles gave a grim smile. ‘You’re right there.’
‘So I said nothing. I thought it was better to leave things as they were. It’s only since I found out that Nicholas is their child that I’ve told anyone. Hannah thinks he’s taking some sort of revenge by marrying me,’ Sophie went on. ‘Using me to get his own back on the Penvarrows. Getting his hands on Trescadinnick.’
‘Hannah’s almost certainly right,’ Charles said. ‘And the only person who might have stopped you marrying him was our grandfather.’
‘And he died.’
‘And he died.’
‘Well, I shan’t be marrying him, shall I? Not now we know he’s already married. So he won’t get his revenge, if that was really what he was after, and he won’t get Trescadinnick.’ She thought for a moment and then asked, ‘Are you going back to Trescadinnick today?’
‘Yes,’ replied Charles. ‘I have to. I’m catching the late-morning train to Truro.’
‘Then I’m coming with you,’ announced Sophie. ‘I need to face Nicholas with this and the sooner I do, the better.’
‘But not on your own,’ said Charles. ‘He’s a man with a temper.’
‘I told you, I’m not afraid of him.’
‘Maybe not,’ Charles said. ‘But there’s no knowing how he’ll react and no point in taking chances.’
‘If I see him at Trescadinnick, with other people in the house...?’ suggested Sophie.
‘If you see him in the drawing room and I’m in my study,’ Charles said reluctantly, ‘I suppose you can come to no harm.’
Before they left for the station Charles wrote an account of everything Sophie had told him and sent it to Mr Staunton. ‘I think it best if we have this account kept safe,’ he wrote.
...and perhaps
Hawke can make further enquiries based on this information. It strikes me that it is possible that Bryan may have had a hand in two deaths, that of my grandfather, Thomas Penvarrow, and possibly also that of Nan Slater who was found dead of cold in her backyard soon after Sophie had told Bryan what she had learned from her. I have made no suggestion of these thoughts to Sophie and I doubt anyway there would be any way of proving that Bryan had a hand in either death, but I am concerned for Sophie’s safety. I think Bryan will be a man bent on revenge.
When they arrived at Trescadinnick, late that evening, Sophie went straight up to her room, exhausted. As he had promised, Charles said nothing of their discoveries about Nicholas Bryan to anyone else. They had agreed that Sophie would send a note to Nicholas to say she was back at Trescadinnick and then wait for his visit. Until she had challenged Nicholas about his marriage to Dolly, there would be no mention of Sophie breaking off the engagement, and even then no reason would be given, simply change of heart.
Next day Ned was dispatched with a note, and he returned with a message saying Dr Bryan would call that afternoon. Sophie spent the morning with AliceAnne, helping her with her schoolwork, trying to keep all thoughts of the impending interview with Nicholas out of her mind, but it was impossible, and several times AliceAnne had to recall her attention to what they were supposed to be doing.
At the midday meal Sophie ate almost nothing, causing Louisa to ask, ‘Are you not well, Sophie? You’re very pale and you’ve eaten nothing.’
Sophie managed to smile and answer, ‘No, Aunt, thank you. I am quite well, just a little tired after the journey yesterday.’
‘Well, your Aunt Matty is coming over this evening, so I hope you’ll look a bit brighter for her.’ Turning to Charles, she said, ‘What are you doing this afternoon, Charles? I have nothing planned and I wondered if you could take me to see this house you’ve found. Matty’s sure to ask about it when she gets here.’
‘I’m sorry, Mama,’ Charles replied, ‘but I shall be working in my office this afternoon. I have several letters to write.’
Miss Mary’s Daughter Page 38