Fragile Mask (28 page)

But it was very difficult to maintain even a vestige of
calm in his presence, now he knew her mask for what it was. Long
habit reasserted itself, however, and although she could not abate
one jot of her defiant hatred, she did manage to bring her face
under control.

‘
Whatever your personal feelings, Verena,’ he was saying, in
a voice of persuasive calm, ‘you must surely see that you have no
right to encourage a man’s wife to run away from him.’

‘
We are not talking of a man’s wife,’ she responded, her
voice cold. ‘We are talking of my mother.’

‘
There is no tie more binding than the marriage contract.
Not even the blood tie. It is sacred, you see, and you, Verena,
have come between us. You do not seem to realise the extreme
seriousness of what you have done.’

‘
Do I not?’ Verena asked, and a contemptuous smile curled
her lips. ‘You mistake me, sir. You should be glad of this
misdemeanour of mine. For if I had been obliged to remain at home
and watch my Mama suffer, I would have taken a pistol to your
head.’

Nathaniel blenched. ‘You cannot know what you are saying.
Shoot your own father?’

‘
My father is already dead.’

‘
Oh, very well, your stepfather, then. It makes it no
better. I think you must be mad indeed.’

‘
If I am, then lay it at your own door. Whatever I am, sir,
your misconduct has made me.’

‘
Poppycock!’ snapped Nathaniel, moving as if he would shift
away from her. ‘Enough of this. Where is Abigail? I wish to see her
at once.’

‘
You need not take this high-handed tone, sir. You may see
her, for she has expressed a desire to meet with you. But mark
this. If you harm one hair of her head, if you so much as make a
move in that direction—’

‘
But this is insane,’ he interrupted. ‘Do you think I have
come all this way to—?’

‘
I know why you have come all this way,’ she cut in,
‘because Adam told me. You have vowed to take Mama back. If you
imagine I will permit it, however, you are wrong.’

Nathaniel uttered a short laugh. ‘And how do you propose to
stop me? Come, Verena, you are being extraordinarily
foolish.’

‘
Am I?’ Hard and cold.

‘
Verena,’ he began, and stopped, turning as the door opened
behind him.

Mrs Peverill stood on the threshold, Adam close at her
back. She was almost pretty again in her lilac cambric gown, Verena
realised with a start of fear. Her glance flew back to Nathaniel’s
face, alert for any danger. Into his eyes she saw enter an
expression of appreciation, succeeded by one of intense
hurt.

Her gorge rose. Dissembler! Worse still, Mama’s eyes
softened at the sight.

‘
Oh, Nathaniel,’ she sighed, and moved forward.

‘
Adam!’ Verena cried, running to intercept a meeting. ‘Don’t
let him near her!’

Mrs Peverill stopped as her daughter came between her and
her husband. Adam shifted to one side, ready to intervene. But, to
Verena’s surprise and acute suspicion, Nathaniel threw up his hands
and backed away, in a gesture of surrender.

‘
Do you think I have come to bully?’ he cried, in a voice
that she could almost believe sincere in its distress. ‘No,
Abigail—I have come to beg.’

There was a short silence. Verena stared at her stepfather.
What an alteration in his features when he was confronted with
Mama. Yet he had dealt with Verena in a manner that showed all too
clearly how little he had truly changed. She turned urgently to Mrs
Peverill.

‘
Mama, do not believe him. He is determined on forcing your
return, by whatever means. He will play upon your conscience, as he
has tried to play upon mine. If he may speak of begging, then let
me beg, too.’

‘
Verena, my darling, don’t,’ pleaded Mrs Peverill, tears
starting to her eyes.

‘
I
must,
Mama—’ She
lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘I am so afraid that he will
succeed with you, as he so often has before, and I cannot
bear
to think of it.’

Her mother released her hands and clasped Verena in her
arms, hugging her close.

‘
My dearest love! You have been a most diligent guardian,
but you must let me stand on my own feet now.’

Verena drew away, looking down into her mother’s set face.
Heaven help her, was everything to go for nothing? Mama thought
herself strong, but was she proof against Nathaniel’s wiles? Verena
did not think so.

What to do? Where to seek for help? She looked at Adam, and
saw uncertainty in his face. There was nothing to be got from that
quarter. Then it was all squarely back on her own shoulders. She
turned again to Nathaniel, convinced he was waiting only for the
opportunity to get Mama alone.

‘
Be warned, sir,’ she said, her tone hard. ‘Mama has too
soft a heart, and she will hear you. But do not forget you have me
with whom to deal.’

A sad smile entered his face, and he directed his remarks
towards his wife rather than Verena. ‘I have come with a humble
heart, and if Abigail has compassion enough to soften to my pleas,
then shall I be satisfied. You will find me a good deal changed,
Abigail.’

Verena’s eyes flashed at him. ‘Oh, you may offer lies,
Nathaniel Peverill, enough to cozen Mama. But you will not take her
home again, trust me.’

Nathaniel ignored her. His gaze remained fixed on his
wife’s face. ‘I need you, Abigail. I have had time to learn that I
cannot live without you. You know how I love you.’

‘
Love? You call it love to batter with your fists until your
helpless victim lies almost senseless at your feet?’

‘
That is in the past!’ he said with vehemence. ‘I confess my
faults, Abigail. Freely I confess them. I have wronged you, but I
will never do so again.’

‘
No, for you will never have power over her again,’ Verena
threw at him. ‘Not while I am alive to prevent it.’

Nathaniel turned on her. ‘Oh, leave me be, girl! What in
Hades has it to do with you? Haven’t you caused enough unhappiness?
In any event, you are wasting your breath. I swear to God, I will
not leave here without my wife!’

‘
There, I knew it,’ Verena slammed back. She might
have laughed if she had not been so angry.
She
had caused
unhappiness, he dared to say, himself author of all
this.

She turned to her mother. ‘You see, Mama? You hear him?’
Then she whirled back on Nathaniel. ‘Try what you can. Force her,
persuade her, drag her home. But mark this: I will come to
Fittleworth and fetch her away again—at whatever cost.’

Nathaniel’s brow grew black, and Adam started forward,
seizing his sister’s arm.

‘
Verena, you are distressing Mama.’

She wrenched her arm out of his hold. ‘Then why do you not
say something to support me, instead of standing there like a
stock? This is your fault, Adam!’

‘
I know it,’ he answered, ‘but I still say it is a matter
between my father and our mama. You agreed that Mama might speak to
him. Then let be, and do not be stirring the waters so that even
discussion becomes impossible.’

His words struck home. Verena hesitated. Yes, she had
agreed—perforce. And she had stirred the waters purposely, pushing
Nathaniel to reveal his true colours, desperate to deflect Mama’s
intention to meet him alone.

But she had reckoned without Mrs Peverill’s own new
strength of mind, until she felt her mother’s hand on her
arm.

‘
Adam is right, dearest. Leave us alone for a
little.’

Verena stared at her, breathless with dread. ‘Alone? You
and he?’

‘
I will be safe enough,’ she said gently. ‘Go with your
brother, I pray you.’

Mrs Peverill passed her daughter and went to stand behind
one of the armchairs, facing her husband and looking him boldly in
the face. Watching her, Verena was conscious of a measure of
realisation penetrating the blanketing fear. Mama had changed. She
was stronger. Perhaps, after all, she might stand up to him. If
only Verena could be sure that she would not agree to return with
him. She hesitated.

‘
Nothing will happen, Verena,’ Adam said, adding his
persuasions to his mother’s. ‘Mama has a right to this privacy, and
you know it.’

‘
I thank you, Adam,’ said his father, nodding in his son’s
direction. He added on a faint note of sarcasm, ‘And if your sister
wishes it, do you remain within call to prevent me spiriting your
mother away.’

Adam nodded, and taking Verena’s arm, pulled her to the
door. She turned there, casting one last threatening look at her
stepfather.

‘
If you so much as lay one finger on her...’

Mrs Peverill looked across at her. Her tone was both
dignified and firm. ‘Go, Verena.’

The next moment she found herself outside the parlour, her
brother moving her off towards her own chamber next
door.

‘
We can wait in your room,’ he said.

But she was too much on the fidgets to wait anywhere. She
paced her bedchamber, while Adam sat on the one chair the room
held, regarding her worriedly.

‘
Verena,’ he said, ‘be still!’

She continued to pace. ‘How can I be still?’

‘
They must come to an understanding by themselves. We cannot
interfere.’

She halted then and turned to him, repeating, ‘We cannot
interfere. How often have I agonised on that question? Adam, do you
know what this feels like?’

He frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

‘
Waiting here in this room,’ she uttered, in a tone of
anguish, for the memories were crowding in, ‘prohibited from going
in, knowing that at any moment the shouting may erupt into
violence.’

‘
Verena, there is no shouting,’ Adam said, rising and going
to her. ‘Listen! They are talking—in a civilised
manner.’

She shook her head, for the visions were too strong.
Visions of hateful days, when she had crouched, listening, not
daring to move for fear of discovery, for fear of bringing about a
worse punishment than that which she could hear—blow after blow,
cry after cry, until she must cover her ears and weep those stifled
silent sobs into her upraised knees, soiling her gown.

‘
Civilised?’ she uttered in a shaking voice. ‘How
can it be civilised? He is an
animal—
a brutish
animal!’

Adam’s arms went round her and he held her close. But the
embrace was too stifling and she struggled free.

‘
I cannot bear this,’ she said, crossing to the
door.

Adam was before her, holding it fast. ‘You will not
interrupt them. I won’t let you.’

Verena shifted, pushing back and forth. ‘Let me go, Adam. I
cannot stay in this house.’

He frowned. ‘You want to go out?’

‘
I don’t care where I go, but I cannot remain
here.’

‘
Very well,’ he said, and opened the door with
caution.

She went through it, hesitated an instant or two, looking
towards the parlour door. Then she saw Betsey standing guard
outside it.

‘
Oh, thank heaven!’

The maid came up to her, whispering. ‘All’s quiet, Miss
Verena. Murmuring voices, that’s all.’

‘
Betsey, I am going out.’

‘
That’s the way, my dove. You can go as you are, it’s warm
enough. Don’t you fret now. Mr Adam and me will see all’s
right.’

Verena nodded, and then Adam was ushering her down the
stairs, saying, ‘Do you want me to come with you?’

‘
Dear heaven, no, Adam,’ she replied, halting in the middle
of the flight. ‘If you fail me on this occasion—if he removes Mama
from this refuge—’

‘
He won’t, trust me,’ Adam promised. ‘Or trust in Betsey, if
you prefer.’

Verena did prefer it. But she knew Betsey alone could not
prevent Nathaniel from taking Mama away.

She reached up and touched Adam’s hand. ‘I trust
you.’

Then, before she could change her mind and rush back
upstairs to burst in on the conference in the parlour, she hurried
down and let herself out of the house.

She walked on an automatic course towards the Common,
hardly looking where she went, her mind filled with distressing
pictures of the past. She did not hear her name called, nor the
footsteps running after her, and she was already on the Common,
taking a well-worn path, when Denzell caught up with
her.

‘
Verena, wait!’ he called, seizing her arm to halt
her.

She stopped, unable to take in that she was waylaid. She
saw the face, and knew it, and spoke its name without thinking,
blurting out the confusion of her brain as if she was fully
conscious she might safely do so.

‘
Oh, Denzell, she is alone with him! He says he
will not hurt her, and perhaps he will not. But he will
say
such things…and she will believe him. She always did. And
it will be nothing but black lies.’