Страница 16 из 70
Maria
"I have promised my good friends, Carlton and Gruffstone, that I will tell you nothing until they are present. Do you feel strong enough now to receive them?"
Maria
The two gentlemen were admitted, and at the Duchess's suggestion they removed to an alcove at the far end of the room, which had been fitted up as a sitting room. The Duchess insisted that Maria
Though appreciating the kindness, Maria
Convinced by the explanation she had woven from these hints – and ignoring the many holes in the fabric – Maria
The doctor squeezed his large frame into a dainty little armchair It groaned as he shifted his weight. "Well?" he said belligerently.
"It is difficult to know how to begin," the Duchess murmured. "It will come as a shocking surprise to her."
"Allow me," Carlton said. Leaning in a negligent attitude against the window ledge, his arms folded, he viewed all of them with detached amusement. "How old are you, Miss Ransom?"
"Eighteen," Maria
"Never mind," was the reply. "The means by which I found you will be explained in due course; they are not important. You claim to be the daughter of a Squire Ransom of Yorkshire?"
"I am his daughter." Maria
"Nothing to your disadvantage, I assure you." The young lawyer's eyes narrowed. Behind his constant, disconcerting amusement Maria
"Roger, you are doing this very badly," the Duchess exclaimed. "Naturally she would not remember any other life, having been adopted at such an early -"
"Adopted!" Maria
"There can be no doubt about it." The Duchess patted the girl's limp hand. "You are the very image of my lost darling, my David."
Maria
"Your husband?" she asked.
A sharp intake of breath and a furious glare from the doctor warned her that she had made a faux pas. The Duchess merely smiled sadly. "No, my dear. David was my friend, my son in affection if not in name. I have mourned him for eighteen long years."
"It is impossible," Maria
"David was in Yorkshire nineteen years ago; the Keighley circle was particularly prominent, and he -"
"He was all over England that year," the doctor interrupted rudely.
The Duchess waved a languid hand, dismissing this criticism. "I knew he had left a child. It Came To Me." Her impressive tone invested the statement with such significance that it might have been written in capitals. She turned to Maria
Eyes alight, cheeks pink, she stared into space as if she saw a vision invisible to the others.
"Genius?" Maria
"Have you never heard," the Duchess asked, "of David Holmes?"
She might have been asking, "Have you never heard of Ludwig van Beethoven?" Or "Mr. Charles Dickens?"
A vague memory stirred in Maria
"Are you familiar," the lawyer inquired coolly, "with table turning? Spiritualism? The occult?"
"Charlatanism," the doctor added in a growl. "Hocus-pokery, paganism… Oh, very well, my dear Honoria, I will say no more."
"You have already said quite enough," the Duchess reproved him. She looked at Maria
Maria
Had she but known, her attitude was bound to inflame Maria
Thanks to this clue she was able to remember that she had read about David Holmes in a magazine article devoted to spiritualism, but she was unable to recall the details of his career. She said as much.
The lawyer replied. "Mr. David Holmes was barely nineteen when he came to this country, after considerable success as a medium in his native land. He was the son of a coal miner and his wife, from the state of Pe
"His mother," the Duchess said, "was descended from the Dukes of Argyll."
"So she claimed," Carlton said dryly.
"The second sight," the Duchess murmured. "Her Celtic heritage…"
The lawyer waited politely for her to finish, but she did not go on. After a moment he continued, "David Holmes was a delicate boy, subject to fits of- er – fits. His person was handsome, his personality engaging. He took no money for his performances, but he never lacked wealthy patrons who gave him every luxury.
"When he came to England he immediately became the rage. Moving ever upward in society, he was the darling of the royal courts of England, and the imperial court of Russia. At one time he was actually engaged to marry a young relative of the Czar's. For reasons which were never made public, that affair fell through."