Collected Stories (39 page)

The old man led me past the staircase and through a doorway situated in the far right hand corner and into a room that was an oasis in that place of dust, neglect and gloom. It was comfortably, even luxuriously furnished; fitted carpet, a settee that looked as if it might be transformed into a spacious bed, deep armchairs and a drop leaf table, not to mention several gilt framed paintings that hung on plush-wallpaper covered walls.

The old man lowered himself into a chair and after motioning me to one opposite, emitted a deep sigh. “We have retreated over the years. Closed up most of the house and concentrated our forces into three rooms. This one, the kitchen and her ladyship’s bedroom. Not counting the bathroom of course. I was trained to keep clean. But her ladyship had not bathed for sometime. There are many intimate duties that I am called upon to perform, but... That is why I engaged that woman.” He again shook his head. “A serious mistake. But it never occurred to me that – that creature would pry into her ladyship’s private papers.”

“Integrity is dead,” I murmured.

“You may well say so, sir.”

I edged my chair forward. “You are Mr Jenkins?”

“Just Jenkins, sir. Only the lower servants called me Mr Jenkins in the old days. And then only when I was elevated to the post of butler. Even my late wife called me Jenkins for the entire of our married life. No disrespect was intended, in fact you might say it was a kind of title. When her ladyship was young – or younger than she is now, – she used to say: Jenkins, you’re one of nature’s noblemen. “‘He chuckled, a low rasping sound that threatened to disintegrate into a cough. “She liked her little joke.”

He lapsed into a thoughtful silence and I waited patiently for the floodgates of memory to open. I tried to imagine what it was like living in this great barn of a house, with no one to talk to, but that old-old woman – and shuddered. Presently that harsh, cultivated voice spoke again.

“I did not know she was Caroline Fortescue until after his old lordship died. Her father you understand. In the Bramfield family, when there is no heir, the title descends through the female line. Her ladyship never married. Perhaps no man could possibly measure up to those heroes she invented. After long and deep reflection I think that was more than possible. She was a great writer, wasn’t she, sir?”

“Almost if not quite,” I answered as truthfully as I could.

“Most of the critics thought so. Did you know that some thought she was a man? True. The trouble she went to making certain no one found out who Caroline Fortescue really was. Used to ride ten miles once a week to Tuppleton to collect correspondence from her publishers and such like.”

“Did her publishers know?” I enquired.

He shook his head. “No, sir. She used another name for her correspondence. Cookham, I believe it was. It was part of her agreement with them that no one would ever try to find out her true identity.”

“But why the secrecy? Most women would revel in being a world-famous authoress.”

Jenkins actually grinned. Bared his discoloured teeth and crinkled his face into an almost impish grin.

“Why indeed, sir. I think it was this way. She wanted to share her make believe world, but she didn’t want it invaded. I’m no hand in expressing myself and that’s the best way I can describe it. For her writing a novel was a very personal business, for imagination will only go so far and she had to put a lot of herself into it. Sometimes all of herself – if you follow me. Her ladyship was every man, woman and child who walked through those dozen books.”

“The soul bared and sent forth into the world, sliced and packed?” I suggested.

“Nicely put, sir, although I’m not all that sure what it means. But I know there’s a question you’re dying to ask. How old am I? Am I right?”

Although I had not given the matter any thought, I nodded.

“Yes, if you don’t mind telling me.”

He laughed, his former reticence now replaced by a kind of senile gaiety. “Bless you I don’t mind at all, sir. I’m eighty-five. Coming up to eighty-six. Her ladyship was thirty-two when I was born. In this very house.”

“You don’t look it,” I said with all sincerity. “I would have placed you in the early seventies.”

The compliment (if such it was) pleased him and he expanded, began to regard me with an expression that suggested growing approval. Presently he leaned forward and asked in a harsh whisper:

“Would you like to have a little peep at her ladyship?”

I nodded vigorously. “I would indeed. Will... will it be all right?”

“So long as we’re quiet. Time for me to look in on her anyway. But it’s not one of her good days. I could tell that this morning. Not a movement – not so much as an eye flicker.”

Jenkins got up and together we went back into the hall, then up the great staircase and on to the landing. He stopped at the first door, the one facing the stairs, and tapped gently on the top left panel. He looked back over one shoulder.

“She can’t hear of course, but I couldn’t enter her room without first knocking. It wouldn’t be respectful.”

He had worn a deep groove in his life that made certain his route to the grave was straight and narrow. After placing a slightly tremulous forefinger to his lips, he opened the door and preceded me into the room beyond. The smell was stomach heaving. The sweet, cloying stench of body decay. It was well established as though the walls, items of furniture had become deeply impregnated, before being heated up by the coal fire that spluttered and roared from an ornate iron grate. Jenkins handed me a large red handkerchief and whispered:

“Keep that pressed to your nose, sir. You’ll become acclimatized to the smell after a bit.”

I greatly doubted if that were possible, but curiosity made me advance a few steps further into the room, for there was a distinct feeling I had slipped back in time and was now in an ill-smelling pocket of history that must be explored even if I choked in the process. I gave the room a quick glance. A large fourposter bed that rightfully belonged to a museum; ancient padded chairs with faded brocade covering; shelves that hid two walls, packed with books – and any number of bound manuscripts. The bed was neatly made – and empty. My head jerked from left to right, my eyes seeking that which my brain did not wish to see.

A chaise-longue was situated in front of the fire with its raised back towards us, concealing whosoever or whatever it supported. Jenkins tiptoed across the room and peered downwards, a gentle smile transforming his face into that of a benign male nurse. His loud whisper drew me reluctantly forward.

“As I thought, sir, she’s asleep. You can come and have a little peep, but quietly if you’d be so kind.”

I imitated his tiptoe approach, feeling like a frightened child who is trying not to awake a sleeping cobra. I kept my eyes firmly riveted on Jenkins and did not look down until I had all but bumped into him. All that remained of Caroline Fortescue was dreadful. A tiny skeleton covered with wrinkled, grey skin. At least that was the first impression. Later when I had found the courage to examine her more thoroughly I realized that ingrained dirt was responsible for the greyish hue and the skin resembled crumpled parchment that had been draped over the bones by a careless taxidermist. There must have been a veneer of flesh beneath, but one had to accept such a supposition on trust.

A few white hairs clung to an obscenely gleaming skull, a few more sprouted from the sunken chin; dark eyes were half covered by lids that appeared to have lost the ability to open or close. The hands were hideous claws, the backs ridged by black swollen veins. I could not detect the slightest sign of life. She was attired in a rusty black gown that covered her from neck to ankles, while her feet were encased in grey woollen stockings.

When I was in a condition to speak I whispered: “Do you have to attend to all of her needs? Feeding, toilet requirements...? You know what I mean.”

He sighed gently. “As much as possible. Her intake is very small. A little warm milk laced with glucose. Poured slowly from a feeding cup. There’s little discharge. Moving her is a very delicate business.”

I had to ask the question. “Wouldn’t she be better off dead? That... that is nothing more than a slowly rotting corpse.”

Jenkins slowly turned his head and I stared into eyes that glittered with sullen, old man’s rage. His harsh voice seared my brain.

“How dare you suggest such a thing, sir? Her ladyship is very much alive – possibly more than you or I. There may be a slow decay, but it has been going on for a very long time. On her good days she’s lively enough. That she is.”

A wave of excitement drove the repulsion, the body-numbing horror into temporary retirement – and I gasped:

“You mean that... she can hold an intelligent conversation?”

“When she so wishes. So mind your tongue, sir, and be respectful when you talk of her ladyship.” His anger went as quickly as it had come and he once again became the model servant, the solicitous nurse, displaying a kind of coy tenderness that was slightly nauseating. He addressed the bundle of skin-wrapped bones.

“I will come back, my lady, in about an hour. In time to serve dinner. Just finish your little snooze.”

Having delivered this final instruction he again laid a finger on his lips, then began to tiptoe back towards the door, while I followed with my normal flat-footed steps. I could see no reason for these elaborate anti-noise precautions; it was doubtful if the explosion of a ten ton bomb would awaken Caroline Fortescue before she was ready. Always supposing she ever woke at all.

We returned to Jenkins’s room, where I ventured to make a request that I had no reason to suppose would be granted.

“Would it be possible for me to stay here for a few days?”

Jenkins screwed up his face into an expression of deep concentration, before nodding slowly.

“I cannot believe her ladyship would object, sir. After all you have given your word not to reveal anything you see or hear during her lifetime. And to be frank, I will not be sorry to have some company. Lately I’ve got into the habit of talking to myself: and that’s a bad sign.”

I hastened to express gratitude. “That’s very kind of you and I promise not to be a nuisance in any way. And of course, I’m quite willing to pay...”

He raised an admonishing forefinger. “That’s out of the question, sir. You are her ladyship’s guest. I will open up one of the smaller rooms and do my best to make you comfortable. If you would care to sit with her ladyship for a few hours, I will be grateful.”

That was the entire purpose of the exercise, although how long I could stand that infernal stench was a matter for conjecture.

Jenkins insisted I share his dinner and I must say he did himself well. Roast lamb, succulent baked potatoes and Brussels sprouts, followed by an excellent college pudding. We also shared a bottle of excellent claret, a smooth gentle vintage that sent a golden glow coursing through my veins and enabled me to view the grim prospect of spending several hours in that stinking room with something akin to equanimity. Jenkins did not stop talking for the entire of the meal, his brain releasing little snippets of information, the importance of which did not register until long afterwards.

“A sheltered life,” he said, sipping from his glass. “Never went out into the world. Private tutors, a select circle of friends that was never enlarged. As each one died, no one came to replace them. His old lordship was the same. Content to vegetate here and between them they invented a wonderful country where all problems could be solved by arranging words in a certain way. By the time she was a grown woman, she could no more face the real world, than pigs can fly. Do you follow me, sir?”

I nodded happily and refilled my glass.

“Absolutely. Another Emily Bronte.”

He smiled benignly. “I am glad to learn you are a well read gentleman, sir. But whereas Miss Bronte – a rather coarse writer in my opinion – portrayed Gondal in one novel, her ladyship spread her kingdom over twelve. That’s what made them so successful. Readers without thinking much about it, recognized a familiar country. That place, sir, that we all dream about, where we can control our destinies, correct awful mistakes by a mere effort of will.” He leaned across the table and stared at me with a strange intensity. “You must understand, sir. No matter what you see or hear – you must understand. Understanding smothers fear.”

I tried to reassure him, although the effect of three glasses of that fine old wine was beginning to bemuse my senses.

“I understand. Shut up here for a lifetime, it stands to reason that the seed of genius would blossom into a flourishing flower.” I felt quite proud of this piece of imagery and repeated the last two words. “Flourishing flower.”

“You have a mastery of words, sir,” Jenkins stated. “As befits a writing gentleman. But do you appreciate the situation? The gentlemen callers never made the grade, if I make myself clear. The heroes in those books, sir, they always measured up to expectations. Any little faults could always be ironed out. Erased by a well-turned sentence, glossed over by a flow of polished adjectives. The same could be said for the rest of us. Servants are only perfect in fiction and truly loving parents can only be found in well written books. Reality is studded with nasty little rocks, fantasy is as smooth as a well mown lawn.”

“True.” I nodded. “You are a veritable well of profundity, Jenkins. But books are merely the depository of crystalised thoughts, while reality is a seething cauldron of disgusting facts. He who faces facts goes mad; he who takes refuge in the twilight of fantasy is insane. You can’t win. What about another glass of claret?”

Jenkins rose rather unsteadily to his feet and suppressed a hiccup. “Thank you, sir, but it’s time for her ladyship’s dinner. Will you do me the honour of your company?”

Her ladyship’s dinner consisted of warm milk and glucose and was served from a vessel with a long spout. This Jenkins carried, with suitable gravity, on a silver tray up the staircase and into Lady Bramfield’s room. By now I was at a loss as to how to designate the bundle of skin wrapped bones that lay on the chaise longue: Lady Bramfield, Caroline Fortescue or that horrible thing I would rather not look at. Jenkins appeared not to be bothered by any such doubts, for he bowed and announced: