The Shadow of the Lynx (21 page)

“You always are,” I retorted.

“Sometimes I wish I hadn’t found it for you.”

He laughed.

“Where are you going now?”

“To sit in the summerhouse.”

“I’ll join you in five minutes.”

It was pleasant to be with him, I told him when he came.

“It’s a mutual pleasure,” he answered.

“I wish there need not be this mad rush for more and more gold.”

“The mine has to be kept going.”

“Couldn’t you sell out now that you have your fortune?”

“I think that’s what my father will probably do, in due course.”

“Do you think he ever would? The more he gets the more he wants.”

Stirling rose at once in defence of his father, as I expected him to.

I wouldn’t have had it otherwise.

“He will know when the moment comes to stop. He’s making us all rich, Nora.”

“Yet what have these riches brought us? Things are the same—except that I see less of you.”

“And that’s a hardship?”

“The greatest hardship.”

He looked at me with a happy smile. I thought: He loves me. Why does he not say so? Now is the time. They have their gold; they can stop thinking of it. Let us give our minds to more important things.

“It’s too much to hope,” I said, ‘that you would share this feeling.

”

“I told you when you came out here that you would receive frankness and be expected to give it. You know very well it’s not too much to hope for.”

“Then I’m gratified. Only I must say you don’t make much effort.”

“I’m constantly making efforts which are foiled.”

“Well, don’t let’s waste the little time we have for talking together in discussing lost causes. How rich is your father now and how rich does he want to be?”

“He has plans. He wants to see them fulfilled. That’s how he looks at it.”

“He confides in you.”

“He always has.”

“And you know more than anyone what is in his mind;

“I think I do. I believe he is going to England.”

“Going to England!” I had a picture of him on the lawns of Whiteladies.

“And we shall stay here?”

“I don’t know what his plans are for us.”

“His plans? Should we make our own?”

He was staring ahead of him, a puzzled expression in his eyes. I thought: Lynx has said something to him. There is something I don’t know.

I wanted him to tell me that our future was together. I wanted him to ask me to marry him at once. It was important. I had a feeling that there was a danger in delay. I loved Stirling. I wanted the future to be as I had so often imagined it. I knew exactly what I wanted—and I wanted it now. Now! I thought. We should go to Lynx and tell him. I would say it.

“Stirling and I are going to be married. I am going to belong here for the rest of my life.” And the three of us would go to his study and drink a glass of champagne as we had on that other occasion; and I would make them realize that this was a far more worthy object of celebration than that other. My happiness would be shared with Lynx as well as with Stirling. I would say to him: “The three of us belong together.” I would make him give up his ideas of crazy

revenge. So even when I was thinking of marriage with Stirling, it was Lynx who was uppermost in my mind.

Stirling was smiling at me and I was sure that he loved me.

“Now,” I wanted to say.

“Now is the time.”

But he said nothing. I knew that he wanted to tell me that he loved me but that something was restraining him.

And that moment passed.

It was a week later before I was alone with Lynx. The heat was more intense than ever. Even Adelaide felt it and rested in the afternoons.

We longed for the nights but when they came they were so hot that it was impossible to sleep.

We had played our game and sat over the chess board on which my defeated king was held by a knight, a bishop and an aggravating pawn.

I said: “There is something afoot.”

“How would you like to go to England?” asked Lynx.

Alone? “

“Certainly not. We should all go—you, myself and Stirling.”

“And Adelaide?”

“She would stay behind to hold the fort here—unless she wished to go, of course.”

“She is allowed free will?”

He laughed at me.

“The asperity of your tone tells me that you do not altogether relish the idea of visiting your native land.”

“For what purpose?”

“To complete a little business.”

“Revenge?”

“You could call it that.”

“You are very rich now.”

“Rich enough to do everything I have ever dreamed of .. > apart from one thing.”

“And what puts that out of your reach?”

“Time. Death.”

“Not even you are a match for such adversaries.”

“Not even I,” he admitted.

“Are you in the mood for confidences?”

“Are you in the mood to receive them?”

“Always … from you.”

He laughed with pleasure.

“My dear Nora, my dearest Nora, you have done a great deal for me.”

‘l Know. i discovered gold for you. “

“And perhaps more important … I hope more imponam … my youth.”

That’s a little enigmatic. “

“Perhaps one day you will understand.”

“One day? Why not this day?”

He was silent, raising one eyebrow in the familiar gesture which used to intimidate.

“We’ll see,” he said. He leaned back in his chair and regarded me seriously.

“You know my lawyer has been to England where he has completed certain business deals for me. There has been a little buying, a little selling of certain shares. But I’ll not bore you with the details. This has put me into a position with regard to certain people which gives me a great deal of gratification.”

I said quickly: “Does it concern Whiteladies?”

“You’re a clever girl, Nora. Do you know that the only way in which I was able to live through that most terrible period of my life was by dreaming of myself at Whiteladies … not a humble drawing-master but the owner. I saw myself sitting at that table in the hall. You should see that hall, Nora. It’s grand. It’s noble. The ceiling is carved with the arms of the family; the family motto is engraved there. Service to Queen and Country. Elizabeth was the Queen referred to and the decorations are Tudor roses in honour, of course, of the royal house which gave the family its home after turning the pious white ladies out into the countryside to starve or beg. The walls are panelled; the great fireplace is of stone and there are seats carved out of that stone on either side of it. There are suits of armour there in which the men of the family lived up to their motto. There is a dais at one end and a table on it. Kings and queens have dined at that table.
wanted to dine at that table. I made a vow, Nora. I was going to be master of Whiteladies. I was going to take my revenge on the man who ruined my life. I knew there was one thing he cared for beyond all else … more than his wife or his daughter. Whiteladies!p>

So I said: One day I will take it from him. I will marry his daughter and sit at that table where kings and queens have sat. I will look over that hall and say: “Whiteladies is mine.”

“But he’s dead now. So is his daughter. And she was married, you told me. She married the fop whom you so despised.”

“I believed I would wipe away the difficulties.”

“But death and time defeated you, as you say. So what now?”

“I have sworn that Whiteladies shall be mine.”

“And you are going to England to take it.”

He smiled at me.

“You think I can’t do it.”

“I can’t see how you can if the owners won’t let it go.”

“You will, Nora.”

“You are wrong. I know you are wrong. I know that revenge brings no happiness to anyone. You have your home here. You have people who admire you and care for you. Why can’t you be content?”

His burning gaze was fixed on me.

“Does that include you, Nora?”

I answered him at once.

“You know it does.”

He leaned forward.

“Why, Nora, I could almost settle for that.”

“If you are wise, you will,” I said.

“You will drop this stupid notion of revenge. It was all very well when it was useful to get you through that unhappy period. Now it is of no use whatsoever and it is folly to continue with it.”

“You dare to scold me, Nora.”

Yes, I do. “

“No one else does.”

“Then you should be thankful that there is at least one person in your life who is not afraid of you.”

“I am thankful for that.”

“Then why do you-not rest here in your contentment?”

“Nora, all these years I have waited. I made a place for myself in this country. I was secure; I had my son; we worked together. I was a man of substance but I had made this solemn vow to myself. If you think I would give up the theme of my life you do not know me.”

“I know you well and I think that you are wrong. We grow up; we change. Because when we are young we set up goals, that does not mean we must continue to follow them when we have learned more wisdom.”

“But Whiteladies is a beautiful house, Nora. Wouldn’t you like to live in such a house?”

I hesitated.

“I like this house.”

“You know this is an imitation a poor copy. Come, admit it.”

“I do admit that the original Whiteladies is a fine old house.”

“And you would enjoy calling such a place your home?”

“Yes, if it were mine by right.”

“And wouldn’t it be, if you had bought and paid for it?”

“I suppose so. But the family who had lived in it for generations would never sell it.”

“They might be forced to. We are only just beginning, Nora. My plans are in their infancy. They could not begin until I had made a vast fortune. Now, thanks to you, that is exactly what I have done. Did I tell you the whole story, Nora? Arabella married the man her father chose for her— a weakling, he was. His name was Hilary Cardew—Sir Hilary Cardew he would be when his father died. He could trace his family back to the Conqueror—even farther than the Dorians. He had a certain amount of money. The Cardews’ place was some ten miles from Whiteladies. The families had always been friends and young Hilary was meant for Arabella right from the start.”

“And when you went away she married him.”

“I didn’t hear of this until years later, not until I was able to send someone over to find out.”

“Why didn’t you go yourself?”

“I had vowed to myself that I would not set foot in England until I did so as a millionaire. Besides, I had married Maybella. I had a son and daughter of my own.”

“You might have been satisfied with that.”

“I

am a man who always demands the ultimate satisfaction. “

“But doesn’t one always have to compromise in life?”

“I don’t.”

“But that is exactly what you have had to do.”

“Only with the idea of waiting for complete satisfaction. I always believed that if I had the money I needed I should get what I wanted. I wanted Whiteladies … and Arabella at that time.”

“But she had a husband and you had a wife.”

“My wife died with Stirling’s birth. I thought I would go back and find Arabella unable to maintain the estate. In fact, had I had the money, that was something I might have arranged. Did I tell you that Sir Henry was a man who did not believe in other people’s wasting their time? I gave Arabella a drawing lesson each day, but it was only a matter of two hours at the most. A resident drawing-master was an expense; therefore I acted also as Sir Henry’s secretary. I had a flair for business and was soon managing his investments. So I knew exactly how he was placed. He had

extravagant tastes; he was. a connoisseur of wines; he drank rather to excess; he gambled. His financial status had become a little shaky even while I was there. That was why he wanted the Cardew marriage—to bolster up the family fortunes. But Sir James Cardew was another such as himself. I used to hear them discussing their business affairs. I wrote letters from my employer to Sir James and to his London brokers.

I knew a good deal about the financial affairs of both families. “

“And you have found this of use.”

“Recently, yes.”

Recently? “

“My man in London has been working for me. I have invested a great deal of money in London. I have become richer through this … and certain people have become poorer’.

I caught my breath.

“You mean that you have deliberately arranged this?”

He spread his hands.

“Let us say that it has happened. It may be that in order to maintain a certain standard of living it will be necessary for certain people to sell their property.”

“Lynx!” I cried, and indeed he looked like that creature now, the hatred glinting in his eyes, revealing the memory of the humiliation of years.

“You have deliberately impoverished these people?”

“You don’t understand these matters, Nora. Never mind.”

“I believe that whatever you do they will never sell the house.”

“If they can’t afford to keep it up they will be forced to.”

“I wouldn’t,” I declared, ‘if I were in their place. I’d think of something to keep it. I’d take paying guests; I’d work myself—particularly if I knew that someone was deliberately trying to take it from me. “

“You would, Nora. But other people are not you. You’ll see.”

“They’ll never sell. I just know it. I’ve been there. I’ve seen that girl.”

“There are more ways of selling than by making a cash bargain and handing over the property.”

“What ways?”

“You will see. One thing I know, Nora. I am going to see my son master of Whiteladies. My grandchildren are going to play on those lawns.

They are going to be brought up in

gracious surroundings. That is my plan and I am going to see that in this I am not disappointed. “

“And Stirling … he wants this?”

“My son knows what’s in my mind. It has always been so. He more than anyone knows what I have suffered. I have seen him weep with anger when he looked at the scars on my wrists. I have seen him clench his fists and vow that the score must be settled. And when Whiteladies is mine, I shall be content. I shall be able to tell myself that everything that led to this was worth while.”