The Lady and the Lake Page 7
‘Stand up, Miss, and let’s have a look at you,’ she urged, excitedly. I did as I was bid. ‘You look fit for a king, doesn’t she, Clara?’ Clara was sat quietly on the bed waiting patiently for me to prepare myself.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, perhaps it was Alice, but on opening the door I was surprised to see Thomas standing in the doorway. ‘I need to talk to you,’ he said, heedless of Maggie and Clara.
‘Tomorrow, Mr Craddock,’ I promised, ‘for you can surely see I have other things to do.’
‘Tomorrow then,’ he agreed, ‘my mother is here by the way, and I have spoken to her. I’ll see you in the dining-room.’ So saying he left us, with me curious at to what he’d spoken to his mother about.
‘Handsome gentleman, Miss,’ Maggie cut into my thoughts.
‘Yes, indeed he is. Thank you for helping me, if you could just show me to the dining-room now, please.’
I entered the dining-room with Clara clutching my hand. It was Emily dressed in a lemon dress who saw us first and came running over to us. ‘Come and see the table,’ she said to Clara, taking her hand.
I could see Henrietta Kershaw dressed in a pretty emerald green gown with lace at her throat. It was the first time I had seen her out of her sitting-room. Mary Craddock was talking to her sister, they both looked up,
Mrs Craddock smiling and indicating for me to join them.
It was then I spied Anthony Kershaw in deep conversation with the lovely Alice, who looked a picture in a violet-coloured silk gown. Neither of them noticed my arrival, but Thomas did and he came over to me.
‘Sit here Miss Sinclair while I get you a sherry.’ As he spoke, out of the corner of my eye I could see Henrietta Kershaw watching us. While Thomas went to get me a drink I sat at a table that was laden with small triangular sandwiches, jellies and iced sponge cakes, there was also a pink cake with candles on.
‘Emily,’ I called her over and she came running, Clara at her side, ‘here is a small gift for your birthday from Clara and I.’
She took the small package from me and opened it.
‘A lace handkerchief with my initial on it. Thank you, Miss Sinclair.’ And she skipped over to her father, Clara following behind. At that moment Thomas returned with my drink which I sipped delicately not being used to partaking of sherry.
‘Please meet me tomorrow morning in the rose garden at nine o’clock. Promise me, Abbey,’ he whispered.
‘I give you my promise,’ I said, equally as quietly for Antony Kershaw and Alice were walking across to us.
Alice stood back quietly with that unfathomable expression. I wondered what she was thinking as she looked me up and down.
‘I think it’s time for tea,’ said the master. I turned around to call Clara, but she’d disappeared and so had Emily, they’d obviously slipped out while the adults were talking.
‘Oh, no,’ I uttered, ‘Where would they go? I promised Mrs White I’d keep her with me at all times.’
‘Don’t fret.’ It was Thomas at my side. ‘I will go and look for them, Miss Hayward, if you could try the nursery and Miss Sinclair and I will look outside,’ he instructed.
‘I’m concerned about the lake,’ said Antony Kershaw, ‘but I can’t go out there.’ So it was that Thomas and I walked around the lake together, it was still and serene in the evening sun.
‘I can’t wait until tomorrow,’ he said, ‘now is as good a time as any to explain myself.’
‘It’s not the right time, but I will hear you out,’ I said, all the while scouring the paths of the lake.
‘I hold in you high esteem, Abbey,’ and he stopped walking. ‘I didn’t intend to call you a fool that day but the words slipped out without much thought to your reaction and I guess you heard Mother and I talking in the garden.’
‘How do you know that?’ I asked.
‘Because of your change in manner, am I right?’ His words were meant to be answered.
‘Yes you are correct, I accidentally heard you tell your mother I was a challenge,’ I said with some indignation. ‘There they are!’ I shouted as I saw the girls come out of the summer pavilion, each with a doll tucked under their arm. ‘Emily, Clara,’ I called to them, ‘don’t walk too close to the lake.’ Then I addressed Thomas, ‘We will continue this discussion in the morning if that meets with your approval.’
‘It certainly does under the circumstances, and may I say, Abbey, that this evening, you look enchanting,’ he complimented me.
When the girls reached us I hugged them both with relief, I held Clara’s hand and Emily caught hold of her uncle’s. We are like a young family I thought, out for a stroll in the evening sunshine and I knew beyond a doubt that deep in my heart this is what I longed for.
Thomas smiled at me, I’d like to have known what he was thinking. The remainder of Emily’s party went well, the two children really had taken to each other and when Clara and I left, Emily spoke to her.
***
On delivering Clara safely back to the cottage I met Mr White. He was a sullen man, but thanked me and said how he never thought he would allow a child of his to visit Kerslake Hall.
‘That’s the one thing I can’t understand about our Gladys,’ he continued, ‘she knew how I felt about it and ends up murdered in the Kershaw’s lake.’
‘I’m sure the police will find the truth,’ I said, little knowing then that I would be the one to solve the mystery.
Next morning leaving my room to go down to breakfast, I glanced at the tower door and to my amazement realised it was open. I looked around me to see if anyone was about but all was silent in the corridor.
Quickly I made my way to the open door, looking up at the curved stairway I could sense no movement.
Bravely I walked up the stone staircase picking up my skirt as I went. I was nearly at the top step when I hesitated, what would I find? I was on the top step ready to step into the room beyond and when I did I gasped with surprise for the only thing the room held was a full-length mirror on a stand.
The rounded walls of the tower were of grey stone and I shivered at the thought of being locked in here. A candle-holder containing a half burnt candle stood solitary on the deep stone window ledge, a box of matches beside it.
Swiftly I made my way back down the stairs leaving the heavy wooden door ajar as I had found it. Mrs Grafton had said that it was unsafe to go in the tower, but I now knew this to be a lie. Why should she not want me to go up there when nothing of importance was there?
Looking at my fob watch I could see it was ten to eight and that I’d probably missed breakfast. Mrs Grafton came back to mind, was it her I mused, was she the night walker?
At exactly 9 o’clock I entered the rose garden, the sun still shone but surely this perfect weather couldn’t hold out much longer I thought. Thomas was late.
Maybe he’d changed his mind, even as I thought it as if to prove me wrong, he stepped underneath the wooden rose arch and into the garden.
Quickly he came across to me and for some reason I glanced up at the window of the tower.
Someone was looking down at us and from this distance I was sure it was the housekeeper.
‘Abbey, I’m sorry I’m a trifle late, please sit with me on this bench for I have much explaining to do,’ he said, waiting for me to sit down. Then he sat next to me and again my heart skipped a beat. ‘To call you a fool was very wrong of me, but I was so concerned as...’ Here he stopped.
‘As what?’ I coaxed him.
‘I don’t know if it’s fair to tell you this, but I have suspicions about my cousin,’ he admitted.
‘Suspicions of what kind?’ I asked.
‘I’m unsure, Abbey. All I do know is that he has been seen with many of the young girls in the village and it is not for the want of romance. The subject is too delicate for your innocent ears. I was afraid that to bring Clara to the Hall would be foolish after her sister died here, but as it happened all went well and she is a charming child.’
‘And as for being a challenge, you are, but in the nicest possible way. My mother would have me marry Barbara Middleton, but it isn’t what I need. Wealth and fine things are not for me. The scene I envisage is to love someone and to have that love returned, no matter what their position in life.
‘Thank you for your explanation,’ I said quietly, ‘I am willing to accept it and forgive you.’
‘Also I apologise for the compromising position I put you in the day you came to me in the long gallery, I could not help myself.’ As he spoke I thought back to that day and could feel his hands stroking my hair.
‘I’d quite forgotten that,’ I lied.
‘And one other thing,’ said Thomas, drawing me to him, Will you make me the most fortunate of men and agree to marry me?’
9
This proposal quite surprised me and for some minutes I was lost for words, looking into Thomas’ sparkling eyes I realised what a kind, endearing man he was and I truly believed he would be loyal. So much for Antony Kershaw’s opinion that his cousin had many strings to his bow.
‘Thomas,’ I said quietly, taking hold of his hand. ‘I am most flattered by your proposal, will you please give me time to think it over? And what would your mother say if we are to be married and where would we live?’
The questions tumbled from me one after another and Thomas placed his finger gently on my lips to silence me.
‘So many questions, sweetheart. Fear not, for my mother will become used to the idea. After all she does like you and as to your question as to where we should live, at Tidwell if this would be suitable to you, for I love the place and cannot envisage living elsewhere.’ Thomas squeezed my hand as he spoke.
‘I would be happy to live at Tidwell, it is a beautiful dwelling, but will you wait a couple of days for my answer as this has come as a total surprise,’ I pleaded.
‘I shall wait with impatience and anticipation.’ Thomas agreed.
We sat for some time talking and I mulled over whether to tell Thomas of the night-time visitor to the tower. I made a sudden decision for with love must come trust.
‘Thomas,’ I proceeded to say, ‘do you know who it is that visits the tower in the early hours?’
‘The tower?’ he said, obviously somewhat taken aback at the question, ‘Why no, I don’t. Come, tell me about it for I am a good listener.’
So I told him about the steps on the stairway, the piercing scream and the shuffling sounds, ‘Also,’ I continued, ‘quite by chance I looked in the room of the tower and all that is in there is a mirror.’
‘I’m quite at a loss,’ said Thomas, ‘but the mystery needs solving for it is obviously some unhappy soul. May I come to your room tonight and maybe we could go to the tower room together? For I cannot bear the thought of some harm befalling you and I promise,’ here he laid his hand on his heart, ‘my intentions are honourable.’
We both laughed at this and I felt again the way I did on my visit to Thurston Abbey, this seemed so long ago, but yet in truth it was little more than a week. As we parted Thomas gently brushed my lips with his own. The fleeting kiss was like a feather caressing my mouth, it stirred emotions in me that I had never before experienced and at our parting I felt cheated, of what I could only imagine.
***
That afternoon I read to Henrietta Kershaw again. Since the evening that I had been locked in my room the old lady had been sober towards me in manner and in voice even when she said, ‘I’m told you are still dallying with my nephew.’
At these words I raised my eyes from the book I had been reading. ‘You could do a lot worse and certainly no better than Thomas. What his mother will say if there is talk of marriage between you I dread to think. I’m not for it or against it, but you have spirit and the demeanour of a lady, and after all what is wealth? I have lived in this rambling house all my life and hardly stepped out of it, but it has brought me no joy. I wish you well, Abigail Sinclair.’ Her words surprised me.
‘Thank you.’ I murmured and looking at her I felt compassion, after all it wasn’t her fault that Antony’s father had died. Also to have lived for years with a veil covering her face could not have been easy, especially when I recalled the portrait of her as a young woman in the long gallery.
As I opened the door of my bedroom I instinctively knew there was someone in the room. Cautiously I looked around the door and could see it was Alice. She was standing by the wardrobe, my blue dress over her arm.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked of her quite perplexed.
‘I wanted to see how you’d stitched the flowers on,’ she said quite calmly, ‘and as you weren’t about I didn’t think you’d mind me taking a peek at it.’
‘Well I do mind,’ I answered, my brain working as I spoke, ‘it was you wasn’t it?’ I said, realisation suddenly dawning on me.
‘What do you mean?’ she said, laying emphasis on the word do.
‘I mean Alice, it was you who cut the flowers from my dress wasn’t it?’ I accused her, for I was sure I was correct in this assumption.
‘Why on earth would I do such a thing?’ she said innocently. This young woman was a very good liar.
‘I have no idea why,’ I said quietly, ‘unless for some reason you are jealous of me.’
‘And why would I be jealous of you?’ she said with some sarcasm. ‘Who would look twice at you in your dour grey dress?’ At these words indignation rose in me.
‘That is very unkind Alice, you may as well just own up to it for I know I am right.’
‘You know nothing.’ she said sharply, her temper was rising and I knew I must remain calm.
‘What don’t I know, Alice? Tell me, for unless I know I cannot help you.’ My voice was level as I coaxed her for to shout now would achieve nothing. There was obviously some underlying problem with this woman, but I wasn’t to be given the chance to find out.
‘As if I’d tell you,’ she retorted placing my dress back in the wardrobe. She then brushed past me to the open door and turned back to say, ‘I wish you’d never come here.’
The words were spoken with such venom and ill feeling that I started trembling, unable to understand Alice’s dislike of me for she had seemed so friendly when I first arrived at Kerslake Hall.
For some time I lay on my bed, the curtains drawn as I had a headache. Henrietta Kershaw’s change of heart was on my mind, also Alice’s sudden dislike of me. Or had it been sudden I asked myself, maybe on my arrival she had befriended me to gain knowledge of my intentions and I recalled her saying ‘you’d not thought of marriage then?’ At this thought I sat up, who did she think I might marry, Thomas or Antony?
Which brought to mind her admission, ‘There is someone I truly love with all my heart.’ Could it be Antony Kershaw or Thomas she was in love with? This caused me to think again of Thomas’ proposal, he and his cousin had each accused the other of being a philanderer.
On the evening in the drawing-room I had been prepared to believe Antony Kershaw, now it seemed I believed Thomas, but who was right? I mulled it over for some time, it was little wonder I had a pounding head.
The fact that I’d seen Antony with Ann Anderson led me to believe he wasn’t entirely honest, for had he not spoken sweet words to me? I’d made my decision, it was Thomas I believed, but I did not get chance to think of his proposal of marriage for I slipped into a peaceful slumber.
Sometime later I was awoken by someone tapping on my door. I sat up and looked around me, the sun had moved across the sky, I must have been asleep for some time.
‘Who is it?’ I called out, getting up and drawing back the curtains.
‘It’s me Miss,’ said Maggie stepping into the room and closing the door behind her, ‘I was right worried when you didn’t appear at teatime, Miss.’
‘Please call me Abbey,’ I said to her.
‘You look awful, Miss
Abbey,’ she said.
‘Do I really?’ I asked her with some dismay going to look in the mirror. My hair had partly escaped the pins and my face was white. I poured some cold water in the china bowl splashing my face with it and pinching my cheeks to bring back some colour to my skin, then I released my hair from the pins and started to brush it.
‘I’ll do that for you, Miss Abbey,’ said Maggie.
‘Thank you, but I’ll leave it now, it’s hardly worth rearranging it,’ I said looking at the clock which showed it was nearly nine o’clock. I must have slept for hours and felt quite hungry.
As if by magic Maggie said, ‘I brought you this from the kitchen, I put it in my pocket when Ada wasn’t watching.’ As she spoke Maggie produced some bread and cheese from her pocket.
I devoured it fairly quickly thanking her for thinking of me. What I really needed was a cup of hot tea, but eating had revived me and I was to be thankful to Maggie for little did I know then that it would be a long night.
‘You could come down to the kitchen and I could make you some tea Miss Abbey, it’s Cook’s night off.’ She said when I told her I needed a drink. So without thinking I followed her down to the kitchen, my long blonde hair falling in waves down my back. It was only when we encountered Mrs Grafton that I realised and suddenly felt very vulnerable in the housekeeper’s presence.
‘My mistress wishes to speak to you in her sitting room,’ she said, ‘I was on my way to fetch you. And what are you both doing skulking around the place at this time of night.’ As she spoke she looked at Maggie.
‘I’m going to make a pot of tea for us, Mrs Grafton.’ Maggie said with spirit, almost defying the housekeeper to stop us.
‘Then make it and get back to your room. As for you, Miss Sinclair. It will not do for you to walk around the house with your hair flowing behind you.’ As she walked away I almost giggled at her words. In fact Maggie and I did laugh like a couple of naughty children.
‘Please make the tea, Maggie, while I go and see what Mrs Kershaw requires of me, and I’m sorry I was irritable just now but I had just woken up, forgive me?’ I asked.