Страница 71 из 76
“What…what do you think you are doing…?” she cried.
“What are you doing here?” said Na
“Get out,” cried Matilda. “Get out…both of you.”
“It is you who will have to get out of my nursery,” said Na
“What are you talking about?”
Matilda had dropped the pillow. She fell into a chair and covered her face with her hands.
“Na
“You watch then and give me that pillow.”
Matilda and I were alone and she lowered her hands and looked at me.
I said slowly: “You were going to kill him. You were going to kill Tristan. You thought it would be easy. You were going to pretend that what happened to Mrs. Pengelly’s baby happened to him.”
She did not answer.
“And the others…” I said. “Matilda, what does it mean?”
But I knew what it meant. Jowan’s discovery had made it clear. She wanted Tregarland’s for her son, hers and James Tregarland’s, and she had been ready to remove anyone who stood in his way. She, who had seemed so gentle, so self-effacing, so eager to please, was a murderess.
How thankful I should always be to Jowan. But for his warning Tristan would have died tonight.
I shall never forget Gordon’s coming into that room. He took one look at his mother. I knew that Na
He was clearly deeply shocked. He went to her and put an arm round her.
“Mother,” he murmured. “Mother…oh, what have you done?”
She began to sob tempestuously. He comforted her and turned to us.
“I’ll take her to her room. I’ll give her something to make her sleep. She’ll go mad if I don’t. Oh, my God, this is terrible. Please, let me take her away. I’ll come back. There are things I can tell you. I want you please to try and understand.”
Na
Matilda was shaking. I thought she would have some sort of fit. She began to tear at her clothes and her hair in a frenzy of madness. She threw herself at Gordon.
“It was for you,” she said. “For you…my boy. It was your right…”
He tried to soothe her. I had never witnessed such a harrowing scene.
His arm around his mother, Gordon led her away.
Na
“You were right then,” said Na
“There’s only Mr. James Tregarland. We don’t want any of the servants in this. He could have attacked us already if he were going to. As a matter of fact, I think he is a very worried man. I have misjudged him. She has been the one…and there is madness there…”
Na
“And the little mite slept through it all.”
It seemed a long time before Gordon joined us. He looked pale and anxious. Na
I thought: He loves his mother and he is afraid for her.
“I must make you understand,” he said. “I must tell you everything from the begi
“James Tregarland is my father. He and my mother met long ago. There has been a relationship of long standing. My mother came from a poor but respectable family. She worked in one of the hotels in Plymouth as a chambermaid. My father stayed there now and then and that was how they met. He was attracted by her. He was married, of course, and when my mother was about to have me her parents were deeply shocked. She had disgraced them and they disowned her. My father set her up in a house where I was born. He continued to visit her. I remember, the days when he came. He was interested in me. He used to watch me with an amused look in his eyes, as though he found our situation amusing.
“It was not amusing to my mother. She had been brought up very strictly and was always uneasy about the situation. When my father’s wife died, she thought he might marry her. He did not do so. But it was arranged that she and I should come to Tregarland’s. I know my mother thought this was a begi
“I remember the day my mother told me we were going to live in the big house. There was some story about my mother’s being a distant co
“That was the role my father had decided for me. It irked my mother. I was her son…and my father’s eldest. I had brought prosperity to the estate. Dermot would never have been able to do that, yet it was to be his because I was not legitimate. He could have married her but he would not. I don’t know why he was adamant about that. He was fond of her. I think he liked to keep her guessing. He liked to see how she would act—how we all acted. He was very conscious, too, of the family honor. Perhaps he did not think it would be fitting to marry an ex-chambermaid.
“Please understand. She has lived with this for years. Her hopes would be allowed to rise…and then be dashed. As I said, it had become an obsession. Perhaps if she had talked of it more—not tried to hide it—it might have helped. But she kept it shut away within herself. I alone knew the depth of her feeling, her suppressed bitterness. She would talk vehemently about my rights, but only to me. I have for some time feared for her.”
“You did not think she would attempt…murder,” I said.
He hesitated. Then he said: “Lately…I feared.”
“What of the first Mrs. Tregarland?”
“I know nothing of that. She went for a swim which was foolish in her condition.”
“And Dermot?”
He hesitated again. “I…I did not speak to her of that. I think I preferred to assure myself that he died by his own hand. He was very depressed and guessed he would never be able to walk properly again. There seemed reason for him to take his life.”
“And now…?”
“There is only the child left now.
Na
“What will happen now?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” said Gordon helplessly. “We shall have to wait. I will call the doctor to her first thing in the morning.”
“You will have to tell him what happened?”
“Yes, I think he will have to be told everything.”
“What do you think will happen to her?”
“They give people some sort of treatment. There have been lots of advances in dealing with it. I think she desperately needs psychiatric treatment.”
“So we must wait until the morning. I am so sorry for you, Gordon.”