The Shadow of the Lynx (41 page)

(t was only a few weeks later that we heard about the copse. Stirling came in in a mood of great excitement. The Cardews were putting up for sale the copse which was on the edge of their grounds.

“They’re obviously being forced to raise money,” he said.

I heard about it from Franklyn. When he said he would buy the copse I asked if he planned to cut down the timber and build on it. He shook his head.

“No. I’ll leave it as it is.” I guessed he was thinking that when he married Minta it would be as though the land had not changed hands.

I was astonished when I saw him next to learn that he hao not bought the copse. Someone had made a very big offer for it. I began to feel uneasy when I heard this. I couldn’t wait to see Stirling.

I knew before I said anything. It was what he would call making a move.

“So you’ve bought the Whiteladies copse,” I said.

“How did you know?”

“And,” I went on, ‘you’ve paid about twice as much as it’s worth. “

“What does that matter?”

“Not at all to our golden millionaire. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You’ve become very odd lately, Nora. You’re getting more like Them and less like Us.”

“If you mean I try to act tactfully …”

“Oh, come now. What’s tactless about paying a high price for something to help people out.”

“When they know it’s you they’ll be embarrassed.”

“They weren’t embarrassed to take my cheque and get twice as much as the land’s worth.”

“Sir Hilary …”

“Knows nothing about business.”

Well, Minta . “

“She knows even less. It’s Lady Cardew who has the business head in that house.”

“So you arranged it with her.”

“I arranged it with my man of business.”

“I don’t think you should have done it, Stirling.”

“Why not?”

“Because Franklyn Wakefield was going to buy that land and if he had it would have remained in the family.”

“I don’t follow your reasoning.”

“Then you must be blind. Franklyn is going to marry Minta, and when he does he’ll be able to deal with Whiteladies.”

“It’s going to take more than he’s got to put that place to rights.”

“How do you know?”

“I make it my business to know. It needs thousands spent on it.

Wakefield’s comfortably off but he’s no . “

“Millionaire,” I added.

He nodded, smiling. He was certainly a man with an obsession.

Minta spoke to me about the copse.

“I know now that it was Mr. Herrick who bought it. He paid far more than it was worth.”

“He can afford it,” I said rather tersely.

Her eyes shone warmly.

“It was very kind of him.”

“I think he wanted it rather badly.”

“He couldn’t have wanted it. There is plenty of land about which is far more valuable.”

But not Whiteladies, I thought. And I could see by Stirling’s manner that he believed be already had a foot in the door.

You’re wrong, Stirling, I thought. It isn’t going to work out your way. You’ll settle in at Mercer’s or we’ll go back to Australia. I knew then that it wouldn’t have mattered to me either way—as long as I was with Stirling.

Christmas was almost upon us. During the week before, Stirling and I with Maud, Minta and Franklyn accompanied a party of carol singers round the village to collect money for the church. We went to Wakefield Park afterwards where hot soup was served to us. I gathered it was a custom and that long ago Whiteladies had been the setting for it. Franklyn appeared to be taking over Whiteladies’ duties, and when he marries, I thought, he’ll go and live there and old customs will revert to what they once were.

Seeing his father seated in his chair with the tartan rug over his knees and his mother hovering close, it occurred to me that he had delayed asking Minta to marry him because of his parents. When he was married he would be expected to live at Whiteladies and he wished to remain with his father for what time was left to him.

We all met again on Christmas morning at church and in the late afternoon went to Wakefield Park where we were to dine. The place looked festive hung with holly and mistletoe and I was reminded of Adelaide’s attempts to bring an English atmosphere into our home on the other side of the world.

It was the traditional Christmas—turkey and plum pudding blazing with brandy, and gifts for everyone from a Christmas tree in the centre of the drawing-room. Toasts were drunk to our hosts, to their guests and particularly to newcomers. There were several guests besides ourselves and after dinner more called in. In a large ballroom we danced, to the music of two violins, the old country dances—Jenny Pluck Pears and Sir Roger de Coverley—and afterwards we waltzed and some of us tried the minuet. I enjoyed it all and tried not to think of Christmases spent in Australia. Franklyn’s parents stayed up until the end and I noticed the old man nodding and beating time to the music, and how his eyes and those of his wife followed Franklyn all the time.

“It was a lovely Christmas,” I told Franklyn; and he replied in his stilted way how pleased he was that I had not been bored by their old customs.

On the way home Stirling admitted it had been an enjoyable

-W

day and told me he had invited them all to the Mercer’s House for the New Year.

“We must put our heads together,” he said, ‘and plan something equal to Mr. Franklyn Wakefield’s entertainment. “

( was a little ashamed of that New Year’s party. Stirling had sent for a firm of London caterers to come down and manage the whole thing. He scattered invitations throughout the place. Special plate was brought down; expert chefs came to do the cooking; and he even decided that we should have footmen in blue velvet livery wearing powdered wigs.

I laughed aloud.

“It’s ridiculous,” I said, ‘for a small country house like this—and appalling bad taste. “

“I wish we could have it in Whiteladies,” he said wistfully.

“Imagine that hall …”

“This is not Whiteladies, and what are these people going to think when they see your hired flunkeys.”

But I could not dissuade him.

Mrs. Glee was inclined to be indignant.

“I could have managed very well, Mrs. Herrick, with an extra maid or two and [ would have known where to get them,” she scolded reproachfully.

“I hope Mr. Herrick is not dissatisfied with my cooking.”

I assured her that this was not the case and that Mr. Herrick had acted without consulting me. I should have planned a very different sort of party—with Mrs. Glee’s help, of course.

She was mollified and when she saw the decorated dining-and drawing-rooms and all the preparations, she began to take an immense pride in them. We were going to outshine Whiteladies and that meant something to her. She became quite excited, especially as she would take an authoritative part in the proceedings.

I don’t know whether I could call that evening a success. At least it was memorable. Fancy lamp-posts had been fixed outside the house and red carpet laid down on the steps of the portico. Stirling had hired a band which was set up in a little room between the dining-and drawing-rooms and the players wore red breeches with white Hungarian blouses. The table decorations were a masterpiece of roses which were very expensive at that time of the year. The guests were duly impressed and faintly embarrassed in the midst of such grandeur;

consequently it was not such a merry party as we had had at Wakefield Park. Stirling had arranged for a

pianist to entertain us ana afterwards we danced in the drawing-room which had been made ready for this purpose. It was not a ballroom such as they had at Wakefield Park, but it was when the dancing started that the party became enjoyable. We danced folk dances which Maud led because she ran a class for them, and then everyone became more natural. At a quarter to twelve we sat down waiting for midnight to strike; and when it did we joined hands and sang “Auld Lang Sync*. I had Franklyn on one side of me, Minta on the other; and I felt happy because I knew them.

When the last of the guests had gone Stirling and I sat down in the drawing-room and talked about the evening.

“You have made your point admirably,” I told him.

“Your friends and neighbours will no longer doubt that they have a millionaire in their midst.”

“It’s rather a pleasant thing to be.”

“When it gets you what you want; but do remember money won’t buy everything.”

“Name a few things it won’t.”

Those things which are not for sale. “

“You’ll see. I’ve made up my mind I’m going along to have a talk with Sir Hilary.”

“When?”

“In a few days’ time.”

“So you’re waiting a few days! Tactful of you but I marvel at your sloth. Why not go along tomorrow and say:

“Sir Hilary, I’ve made it clear to you that I am a millionaire, an ostentatious fellow who likes to stress the point. I’m ready to pay what you ask.” “You’ve changed, Nora. Sometimes I wonder whether you’re on my side.”

“I’m always on your side,” I said.

He smiled, understanding. That was love between us, unshakeable, inevitable. I could criticize him; he could mock me; it didn’t matter.

We were meant for each other and it would always be like that. True, I married Lynx; but then Lynx had decided that. And I was so close to Stirling that I shared his adoration of the strange man who had been his father. Stirling had had no choice but to stand aside for Lynx;

and I had no choice but to stand aside for Whiteladies . which after all was for Lynx. But we were one-Stirling and I. After a year of widowhood I would become his wife.

im As he smiled at me that night I was as certain of this as [ had been during that time in the cave when we had lain close together while a forest fire raged over our heads and we thought never to come out alive. There was the same understanding between us now.

By the end of January Stirling’s patience gave out and he went to see Sir Hilary. I was in the library when he came in, his face white, his lips tight and a look of blank despair in his eyes.

“What’s happened?” I cried.

“I’ve just come from Whiteladies.”

“Is something terribly wrong there?”

He nodded.

“I’ve made an offer to Sir Hilary.”

“And he refused. Is that all? I could have told you it would happen.”

He sat down heavily and stared at the tip of his boot.

“He says he can’t sell … ever. No matter what offer he had, he couldn’t.

“I’m saddled with the house and so is the family,” he said. Those were his words. Saddled with it! There’s some clause that won’t allow them to sell. It was made by some ancestor who had a gambling son. The house remains in the family . whatever happens. “

I felt as though a burden had been lifted from my shoulders.

“That’s settled it. You’ve done all you can and there’s an end to the matter.”

“Yes,” he said, ‘it would seem so. “

“You tried. No one, not even Lynx, could have done more.”

“I didn’t expect this.”

“I know. But I told you there are some things which are not for sale.

Now you can put it out of your mind and start planning for the future.

”

“You’re glad, I believe.”

“I think it’s wrong to try to take from people something which belongs to them.”

“He used to talk so much about it. He was determined that we should be there.”

“But he didn’t know of this clause, did he? And I never agreed with him. He could be wrong … sometimes. His firm intention was to be revenged and revenge is wrong. There is no happiness in it.”

He was silent and I knew he wasn’t listening to me. He was thinking of

all his wasted efforts. 2M I went to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

“What shall we do now?”

I asked.

“Shall we go back to Australia?”

He didn’t answer, but he stood up and put his arms round me.

“Nora,” he said. He repeated my name and kissed me as he never had before. It was a lover’s kiss—and I was happy.

I thought we would talk freely after that because we had made a tacit admission of our feelings; but this was not the case. Stirling was more withdrawn than he had been before. He was silent—almost morose;

he went out riding alone. Once I saw him coming back, his horse sweating.

“You’ve been overworking that poor animal,” I accused, hoping he would tell me what was on his mind.

I thought I knew. He loved me, but Lynx was between us. Lynx, his father, had been my husband; and that made a strange relationship between us.

It will pass, I assured myself. What Lynx would want more than anything would be for Stirling and me to marry. We were the two he had loved best in the world; he would want us to be together. We shall call our first son Charles after him. We will never forget him. So I was unprepared for what happened next. Stirling came in one late afternoon just at dusk. Ellen had brought in the lamps and drawn the curtains and I was alone in the drawing-room. There was a strange expression on his face as though he were sleepwalking.

“I’d better tell you right away,” he said.

“I’m engaged to be married.”

I could not believe I had heard him correctly.

“I’ve just asked Minta to marry me,” he went on. I heard my voice then, cold, terse, indifferent almost.

“Oh … I see.”

“You do see, don’t you?” he said almost imploringly.

“Of course. It’s the only way to buy Whiteladies.”

“It was the only way … in view of the fact that it can’t go out of the family.”

“Congratulations,” I said harshly.

I had to get out of the room or I should rage and storm at him. I should lay bare my hopes and longings. I couldn’t stay in that room trying to speak to him calmly. So I pushed past him to the door. I sped up to my room and locked myself in.

Then I lay on my bed and stared at the Mercer’s coat of arms on the ceiling and I wished that I were dead.

How I lived through the weeks which followed I am not sure. I had to look on at Minta’s bliss. How she loved him! I could understand that.