Cousin Kate Read online

  ‘Suspected it. He told me that he had asked Delabole for the truth more than a year ago. Delabole reassured him, just as he tried to reassure me. Delabole is very plausible, you know. I think my uncle wanted to believe him, perhaps because he felt helpless, perhaps because the thought that his only son was not of sound mind was so repugnant that he couldn’t bring himself to face it.’ He stopped, and said, after a moment: ‘You know how it is with him – I told you once! His nature is too gentle – too yielding! He can never have been a match for Minerva, and after his health broke down he only wished to be left in peace.’

  ‘I know, I know!’ Kate said quickly. ‘And, indeed, Philip, it is hard to see what he could have done for Torquil, when his health is so precarious, and my aunt was determined that she, and she only, should rule the roost here!’

  He smiled gratefully at her, and said: ‘You do understand, and I needn’t beg you not to think harshly of him.’

  ‘No, that you need not! I couldn’t think harshly of him! But go on! Did he guess that Torquil had murdered his mother? Or had Tenby told him – prepared his mind for the shock?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so. If that had been so, he must have known that Torquil had strangled her, and he didn’t know that. When I told him that Torquil had strangled her, in a fit of mania, he changed colour – looked so ghastly that I obliged him to swallow some of his cordial. He was greatly distressed – far more than by the news that Minerva was dead! He said – oh, in an aching voice! – “Poor boy! poor, unhappy boy!” Then, when he had a little recovered, he asked me if I realized what it must mean: that Torquil would have to be put away in some asylum. That was what upset him more than all the rest. When I told him that Torquil was dead, too, he was merely thankful. He said, very frankly, that he had never been able to care for Torquil, as he had cared for little Julian, but that to have been obliged to condemn him to spend the rest of his life in a lunatic asylum would have left him with nothing more to do than to have put a period to his own life. Then, after a little while, he asked me if you were still here, and when I told him, yes, and that you had refused to leave Staplewood, he instantly became more cheerful, and said that you were the silver lining to a very black cloud, and that he need no longer be afraid that he wouldn’t see you again. When I left him, he was quite happily making plans for our wedding! He seems to have set his heart on leading you to the altar, and bestowing your hand on me himself – here, in the Church, as soon after the funerals as may be possible. I told him that I couldn’t answer for you, and if you dislike the idea you mustn’t hesitate to tell me so. It would be a private ceremony, of course: just ourselves, my uncle, Mrs Nidd to support you, and, if I can lure him back from his London dissipations, Gurney Templecombe to support me. Would you like it, or would you prefer to be married in London?’

  ‘Oh, I should much, much prefer to be married here!’ she exclaimed, flushing with pleasure. ‘And for Sir Timothy to give me away! How kind, how very kind of him!’

  He turned his head to look at Sarah, a question in his eyes. ‘The decision must rest with you, Mrs Nidd. It won’t do for Kate to remain at Staplewood without you to lend her countenance: I know the sort of scandal-broth that all the tattle-boxes brew! Can you stay with us until you’ve seen us buckled, or am I asking too much of you? I know you have your own home to manage, and perhaps your husband might object to it, if you were to extend your stay? Not to mention your father-in-law!’

  ‘Joe knows Miss Kate must come first,’ responded Sarah. ‘And as for Father, I don’t doubt he’ll cut up stiff, and make a great grievance out of it, but you don’t need to worry about him, sir! He don’t mean all he says: he’s just naturally full of crotchets! I’ll write a letter to Joe, explaining how it is.’

  ‘Thank you!’ he said, holding out his hand. ‘I’m very much obliged to you! Kate, my uncle wishes us both to dine with him, in his own room: may I tell him that we’ll do so?’

  ‘Yes, indeed, you may!’ Kate answered. ‘I – I was dreading having to sit down to dinner in that huge, sombre room, trying to be civil to Dr Delabole! It is so much cosier in Sir Timothy’s room!’

  ‘Dr Delabole,’ he said, ‘will be eating his dinner in the breakfast-parlour! But you are very right: the dining-room was never used, in my aunt’s day, except for large parties. If we find ourselves obliged to take up our quarters here, I shall ask my uncle if we may revert to the old custom of dining in the Red saloon when we are alone.’

  ‘In the meantime, Mr Philip,’ interpolated Sarah, edging him towards the door, ‘I’ll thank you to go away! If Sir Timothy wishes Miss Kate to dine with him, she must change her dress! And if you’ll pardon me for venturing to give you the word with no bark on it, I’ll prefer your room to your company, sir!’

  He laughed, but said: ‘Must she change her dress? She looks very becoming to me!’

  ‘Well, if you think she looks very becoming, with her hair in a tangle, and her dress all creased and rumpled, you must be nutty on her!’ retorted Sarah acidly. ‘She looks like a hoyden, and let her go down to your uncle like that I will not – not if you was to ask me on your bended knees! Get along with you, do, Mr Philip!’

  She then thrust him out of the room, firmly shutting the door on him, and uttered, in accents of loathing: ‘Men!’ However, she added grudgingly, as she passed Kate’s wardrobe under rapid review: ‘Not but what it looks to me as though Sir Timothy knows a point more than the devil, as the saying goes. That’s a very shrewd notion of his, Miss Kate! Once it gets to be known that it was him gave you to Mr Philip, in Church – and it will get to be known, make no mistake about that! – you’ll have everybody that is anybody coming to pay you morning-visits. And as long as you don’t get to thinking yourself first in consequence, and setting people’s bristles up by condescending to them, which Mr Pennymore has told me your aunt was used to do, you needn’t fear they won’t like you. So just you sit down there, Miss Kate, while I brush your hair for you, and see if you can’t pluck up a bit!’

  ‘I’ll try,’ Kate said, sighing. ‘But – oh, Sarah, it seems so fantastic that you should be dressing me for dinner when my aunt and Torquil are – are lying dead! It – it is almost indecent to wish to swallow a mouthful!’

  ‘And when, miss, according to your calculations, will it be decent for you to eat your dinner again, like a Christian?’ demanded Sarah somewhat tartly.

  That made Kate laugh, and did much to lighten the oppression that weighed down her spirits. When she went down the Great Staircase, she found Pennymore hovering in the hall, with the very evident intention of conducting her into Sir Timothy’s room. He smiled benignly upon her, saying that, if she would not think it presumptuous of him, he would venture to make so bold as to say that the sight of her would do Sir Timothy all the good in the world. ‘It’s a long time since I’ve seen him take such a fancy to anyone as he has to you, miss, and Tenby says the same. If you’ll come this way, you’ll find him and Mr Philip waiting for you.’

  He preceded her to Sir Timothy’s room, but although he opened the door for her, and bowed her in, a discernment which she recognized as being extremely nice made him forbear to announce her. She went in unheralded, smiled shyly at Philip, who had risen quickly, and had taken two steps forward to meet her, but went past him, to bend over Sir Timothy, softly kissing his cheek.

  He took her hand, and patted it. ‘Well, my pretty!’ he said fondly. ‘So here you are! Pour her out a glass of Madeira, Philip! Sit down beside me, my dear! I’m afraid you have had a very uncomfortable day.’

  She could not help feeling, as she recalled the events of the day, that this was a masterpiece of understatement, and she replied, rather faintly: ‘Yes, sir. It – it has been a little uncomfortable!’

  He went on patting her hand. ‘Pennymore has been telling me that he doesn’t know what we could have done without you. Thank you, my dear! Your nurse, too! You must brin