The Shadow of the Lynx (37 page)

“He was a mercer of London where he made enough money to retire to the country and build himself a house. This he did. But he never forgot his trade so he called his house the Mercer’s House.”

The family prospered,” Sir Everard carried on the story, ‘and my father built this house which was better suited to his needs and Mercer’s was occupied by aunts and cousins and any member of the family who needed it … until two years ago. A sister of mine occupied it; and since she died it has been empty. It was my son’s idea that we should let it and you will be the first outside the family to live in it.”

That’s very interesting,” I said.

“I am sure we are going to enjoy it.”

Stirling said to me: “I fancy it was this Whiteladies that we visited briefly when we were here last. We have recently arrived from Australia,” he explained to the company.

“I had a brother who went there,” began Sir Everard. I could see he was a garrulous old gentleman, for his wife, smiling indulgently at him, said quickly: “So you were at Whiteladies … briefly?”

I explained the incident of the scarf and Mr. Wakefield looked delighted. I remember the occasion,” he said.

“What an excellent memory you must have!” I told him. There was a lady in a chair . “

“Lady Cardew. She has since died. There is now another Lady Cardew.”

“And a very pretty young girl.”

“That would be Minta,” said Lady Wakefield.

“Such a dear girl!” Her indulgent smile was turned on her son. Oh yes, I thought, there will be a match between Minta and Mr. Wakefield.

“She has a little half-sister now—Druscilla—daughter of the second Lady Cardew.”

“And Minta, is she married?”

Again that roguish look for Mr. Wakefield.

“Not yet.”

The doctor, who had said very little, took out his watch and looked at it.

“I should be on my way,” he said.

“So many people needing your services,” commented Lady Wakefield.

“You will be going back to the Falcon Inn, I daresay,” said the doctor to us.

“Could I give you a lift?”

“It’s an excellent idea,” said Mr. Wakefield.

“But if you are not going that way. Doctor, I will arrange …”

The doctor said that he was in fact going that way, so we thanked the Wakefields and I assured them that we would be ready to move into the Mercer’s House the following week when all that was necessary to be settled would have been completed.

That would be admirable, said Mr. Wakefield; and soon we were rolling along in the doctor’s brougham.

“Charming people,” he said of the Wakefields.

“I hope our neighbours at this Whiteladies are as charming,” murmured Stirling.

I noticed then a tightening of the doctor’s lips and I wondered what that meant. He seemed to realize that I was studying him and said quickly: “I daresay you will be able to judge for yourself in due course.”

He dropped us at the inn and when he had gone I said to Stirling: “He was a bit odd about the people at Whiteladies. Did you notice his face when I mentioned them?”

But Stirling had noticed nothing.

I felt better than I had since the death of Lynx. I was interested in life again. I disapproved of this crazy scheme to rob its owners of Whiteladies—and indeed the more I thought of it the more crazy it seemed—but at the same time I was fascinated by these people and it was almost as though, as Jessica had said. Lynx had come back and was urging me

10 act against my will.

I was eager to live in the Mercer’s House. I liked the Wakefield family. I had heard from the innkeeper who was a gossip that Sir Everard and Lady Wakefield had despaired of having children and that they were well into middle age when their son was born. They doted on him; and he would say this for Mr. Franklyn, he was a good son if ever there was one, and it wouldn’t be many more months he was sure before there was a match between the Park and Whiteladies.

“That would be Miss Minta,” I said.

“You’d be right there. A sweet young lady, and highly thought of hereabouts.”

Then Mr. Franklyn will be lucky. “

They’ll be a lucky pair. “

“And Whiteladies? I suppose that will one day be Miss Minta’s—but she’ll be at Wakefield Park.”

“Don’t you believe it. She’ll be at Whiteladies. It’ll go to her—the eldest—and who’d have thought there’d be another. Sir Hilary at his time of life too! But a new young wife, you know how it is.”

I nodded sagely. He was a good source of information. I should miss our talks when we moved to Mercer’s.

There were two servants attached to the place—a parlour maid and a housemaid.

“We can’t say they haven’t thought of our comfort,” I said to Stirling, who agreed reluctantly. He could think of little but Whiteladies and was all impatience to approach the family.

“How?” I demanded.

“For heaven’s sake be tactful. You can’t exactly call and say, ” I’d like your house and insist you sell it to me,” you have to feel your way.”

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll know how to deal with it. But everything takes so much time.”

Two days before we were due to move into the Mercer’s House, the landlord’s wife came to my room and told me that ‘a person’ was downstairs asking to see me. She had been ‘put’ into the inn-parlour.

I went down and found a middleaged woman waiting there.

“You would be Mrs. Herrick?” she asked.

I said I was.

“My name’s Glee—Mrs. Amy Glee. I was housekeeper up at Whiteladies until Madam decided she had no need of my services.”

She could not have said anything more inclined to arouse my interest.

“Madam?”

“The new Lady Cardew,” she said with a significant sniff.

“Oh, and why have you come to see me?”

“I hear you’re taking Mercer’s, and I thought you might be needing a housekeeper.
know you’ll be needing one because I’ve had experience of Ellen and Mabel. They were both at Whiteladies at one time … and when they started getting rid of servants those two went to the Park.”p>

“I see,” I said.

“They’ll work, but only if watched. I know their type and there’s many like them. Now, madam, if you don’t want to spend all your time watching lazy maids …”

“Were you at Whiteladies long?”

“Fifteen years, and good service I gave.”

I recognized her now. She was the woman to whom Lucie had taken me when my hand was bandaged.

“I am sure you did,” I said.

“Fifteen years and then told to go. Mind you, I was all right. I had my cousin once removed … down Dover way. She died six months back and left me the cottage and something besides. It’s not for the need that I’ve come. But I’m a woman who likes to be on the go. And told to leave I was-after fifteen years. I was all right, but I might not have been.”

There was something about the pursed lips, the jerk of the head which aroused my curiosity. I decided that we needed a housekeeper at the Mercer’s House.

Two

I enjoyed settling into the house. I felt that I could be happy there in a placid way and that was what I wanted. I had had enough adventure. I had seen a man killed; I had experienced strange and not altogether understood emotions; I had been the wife of a man who had dominated me and of whom I had never known the like. That was enough.

I could never know those wild joys and fears again, and perhaps I did not want to. Lynx could never come back; and I won241

dered whether I could ever have known real peace with him. But here in this elegant country house, built by the rich London mercer nearly two hundred years ago, I could perhaps find a new way of life. He had come to live here in peace;

I sensed that. The Mercer’s House would be my refuge as it had been that of the mercer. Here I would be in charge of my own destiny; I could mould my life to my own inclination. Sometimes I wondered whether I had always known that my life with Lynx would be brief. He had been so much older than I. True, I had believed him to be immortal. Often now I could not believe that he was really dead.

One thing was certain: I was fortunate to have known him and to have been loved by him; but I had to convince myself it was over; and since I must rebuild my life, the Mercer’s House was the best place in which to do it. Sometimes I felt Jessica was right and he was beside me, guiding me, urging me in that direction where he wanted me to go. I believed that he wanted me to marry Stirling and that had he not desired me himself would have arranged our marriage before he died. So I dreamed of marrying Stirling. We would abandon the crazy idea of acquiring Whiteladies. Perhaps we would buy the Mercer’s House and our children would be born there. Minta should marry Franklyn Wakefield and our children and theirs should play in the lawns of Whiteladies.

So after all Lynx’s grandchild should play on those smooth and velvety lawns. But would Lynx ever be satised with a compromise?

So I dreamed.

We had not been a week in the Mercer’s House when Minta came to call.

She had changed little. She was very pretty and much as I remembered her. There was a certain innocence about her which I found appealing.

“Franklyn Wakefield told me you were here,” she said.

“How very interesting. Of course I remember the time you came. Your scarf blew over the wall.”

As it was mid-morning I asked if she would care for coffee or perhaps a glass of wine. She said she would like the coffee so I rang the bell.

Ellen appeared, neat and trim, and Minta smiled at her and said: “Good morning, Ellen.” Of course the girl had worked at Whiteladies before going to Wakefield Park.

When she had left us, Minta said: “I hope you are well

looked after. Mr. Wakeneld was very anxious mai you should be. Ellen and Mabel are such good girls. “

Mrs. Glee had other opinions but Minta would believe the best of everybody.

“Our housekeeper keeps them in good order.”

“Oh yes, you have Mrs. Glee.”

“I see that our actions have been well observed.”

She laughed.

“This is country life, you know. Everyone is always interested in newcomers and wonders whether they are going to enter into local affairs.”

“Is that expected of us?”

“Shall we say it might be hoped. You won’t be pestered if you show you wish to remain aloof, but somehow I don’t think you will.”

“There is my stepson,” I said.

“Oh yes.” She smiled.

“It seems so strange. You are so young to have a grown-up stepson. But I have a stepmother who is not much older than I. When we met previously I thought you were brother and sister until. “

“It is rather a complicated relationship. I married Stirling’s father and now he’s dead and I am a widow …”

My voice trembled. I was seeing him carried home on that stretcher. I was thinking of that immense vitality; that excitement which he had brought into my life and which was gone for ever.

“I’m sorry,” said Minta. I realized she was very sensitive to the feelings of others. I liked her, and thought what an admirable wife she would make for Franklyn Wakefield. I liked him, too. There was something worthy about them both. Nice people, I thought. Yes, that was the word. Nice! Unexciting but good. There would be few surprises.

They were different from people like Lynx, Stirling and myself. They were lacking in our egoism, perhaps. They seemed colourless. But perhaps that was unfair when applied to such a charming girl as Minta.

I said quickly: “It’s over. One has to learn to forget.” She nodded and I went on: “I remember so clearly the first day I saw Whiteladies.

It impressed us both so much. The lawn and the kind way in which you received us. And then of course the way my hand was bandaged. “

“That was Lucie. She is my stepmother now. You will meet her. My mother died …” A look of sorrow touched her face. She was easy to read and one of her charms was the

changing expressions of her face.

“I gathered she was an invalid,” I said.

“Yes, but …” I waited but she did not finish the sentence.

“Lucie has been wonderful. She has been so good to Papa. She helps with his work and manages the house perfectly.”

“I am so glad.”

“And we have an addition to the family. My little half-sister Druscilla. She’s a darling. She is nearly a year old.”

“It’s not really so long ago that we met for the first time,” I commented, ‘and so much has happened since then. “

I was thinking: I became Lynx’s wife and his widow. I must have betrayed my thoughts for she changed the subject quickly; “You will enjoy it here, I’m sure. It’s rather a pleasant community.”

Ellen brought in the coffee with Mrs. Glee close behind. Mrs. Glee gave Minta a triumphant: “Good morning. Miss Cardewl’ to which Minta replied how glad she was to see Mrs. Glee again and then assured me that Mrs. Glee would take admirable care of the household. Mrs. Glee’s head shook with pleasure and righteousness as she supervised Ellen serving coffee.

When she had gone Minta said: “She really is a wonderful housekeeper.

I’m glad you have her. We should never have let her go if we could have afforded to keep her. “

So it was true that they were not well off. Perhaps Stirling would succeed after all. But it was a very different matter selling a house from ridding themselves of an expensive servant.

“I daresay Maud Mathers will be calling on you soon. She’s the rector’s daughter. His wife is dead but Maud is indefatigable in parish affairs. She’s a good, sensible girl and I’m sure you’ll like her. But, please, I want your first visit to be to Whiteladies. I shall ask Mr. Wakefield to join us for dinner. Sir Everard and Lady Wakefield rarely leave the Park. They are not fit for it. Now will you promise me?”

I readily gave the promise.

I was sure, I told her, that Stirling would be delighted to accept the invitation; and at that moment Stirling came in.

I said: “Stirling, Miss Cardew has called. Do you remember?”

“But of course!” exclaimed Stirling; and I saw the excitement leap into his eyes. She noticed it, too, and she flushed prettily.

“This is a great pleasure,” he added with feeling.