Виктория Холт - Kirkland Revels

Then my whole being seemed to come alive again, and I realised that what seemed to make the blood run hot in my veins was hope.

A voice I knew well, a voice I loved, was shouting: ” What the devil’s all this I” And there he was—the man whom I had failed to dismiss from my thoughts although I had tried—striding towards me; and I knew that he came like a knight of old, and that he had come to save me from my enemies.

” Simon,” I sobbed; and as I fell forward I felt his arms about me.

I ceased to fight the lassitude then; I accepted the darkness.

I was no longer alone. Simon had come to stand beside me and fight my battle for me.

So I did not enter Worstwhistie on that terrible day. Simon was there to prevent that. Mary-Jane had left the house with all speed while I was struggling in the minstrels’ gallery, and had gone to Kelly Grange to tell what was happening, for she had overheard what the doctor had said about taking me away, and she knew enough to guess where.

So Simon had gone straight there and, although I was not able to see how he fought for my freedom, I knew it had happened.

He had faced Deverel Smith and had accused him on the spot of the murder of Gabriel. He had threatened the Superintendent with the loss of his post if he dared take me in merely on Dr. Smith’s word. I could imagine the power of him as he fought the battle for my freedom and the life of my child.

Of course he won. Simon must always win. He was invincible when he determined on what he would have. I have grown to learn that, and I would not have it otherwise.

I often wonder what Deverel Smith had thought as he stood there knowing that his elaborate scheme had been foiled at the very last moment.

Because, if once he had had me accepted in Worstwhistle as a patient whom he certified as of unsound mind, it would not have been easy to prove that I had not suffered from insanity, even if only temporarily.

But Simon had come.

He took me back to Kelly Grange, where Hagar was waiting for me, and I stayed there until my child was born.

That happened prematurely, which was not to be wondered at, but my Gabriel soon picked up and became a strong little boy. We doted on him—Hagar and I; and I think Simon did too, but he was determined to make a man of the boy and he rarely showed the softer side of his feelings. I did not mind, because I wanted Gabriel to be the kind of boy who would appreciate being treated as a man rather than a baby. I wanted my son to be strong.

But there were other happenings before the birth of Gabriel.

I often think of Deverel Smith, of his belief in himself, and I am sure he saw himself as godlike, powerful beyond other men, of stronger intellect, of greater cunning. He had not believed that he could be defeated. He bore a grudge against life which he had determined to satisfy. He believed that he was the son of Sir Matthew and that no one should stand between him and his inheritance. If Gabriel was the legitimate son, he would reason, he was himself the elder son; and so he eliminated Gabriel.

We never learned exactly how that happened; and whether Gabriel was lured on to the balcony or went there of his own accord and was surprised there, will remain a mystery, but he killed Gabriel to make the way open for Luke, and when Luke had married Damaris he would have come to live at the Revels. In his subtle, sinister way, he would have been master of the Revels because he would have made himself aware of some weakness in the people who lived about him and used a subtle blackmail in order to dominate them.

That was his delight—to dominate. Ruth told me, much later, that he had discovered an indiscretion of hers. She had indulged in a love affair after the death of her husband which could have created a distressing scandal if it had become common knowledge. It was not that he had said: ” If you do not support me I shall tell of this matter which you are so anxious to keep secret.” But he had intimated that he was aware of it and in exchange for his silence he expected her support and an outward show of friendship. Subtly he had forced her to his side, and she had always made a show of welcoming him to the Revels and extolling his virtues whenever she had an opportunity.

Perhaps Deverel Smith had also held some sway over Sir Matthew. In any case he had no doubts about the support of both Sir Matthew and Ruth for a marriage between Luke and Damaris.

I have often wondered what would have happened in that household but for Simon. I should have been out of the way—I do not care to think even now of what my future would have been. But there at the Revels, I imagined him the master . holding his gentle but evil sway over them all.

But it was not to be so; and how could he endure to see all that he had schemed for lost . because of one strong man?

How he must have hated Simon; but Simon could return hate with hate.

He would have no mercy and Deverel Smith knew it. When he stood’ facing Simon at the portals of Worst whistle he must have realised that at last he faced an adversary stronger than himself.

So he died—as he had lived—dramatically. When Simon demanded a carriage to take me back to Kelly Grange—for he had galloped to Worstwhistle on one of his fleetest horses-and when it was brought for him and he had lifted me in and prepared to leave for Kelly Grange, Deverel Smith had already gone back to the Revels.

He went to the house and right to the top of the east wing, to that balcony which was the only one in the house from which a Rockwell had not fallen to his death. He threw himself over in a last defiant gesture, as though by so doing he proved to the world what he had always sought to prove to himself: he was of that family, and Kirkland Revels meant to him all that it ever could to any member of the family who had been born there and lived his life within its walls.

There is little else to say. Mrs. Smith—whose health improved after her husband’s death—went away with Damaris, I heard later that Damaris made a brilliant marriage in London. Luke went up to Oxford and there collected several bad debts and became involved in some trouble with a young woman. That was all part of growing up, said Sir Matthew, who had done it all before him. Ruth had changed too. Her manner to me grew warmer and, though we should never be great friends, she was contrite because of her readiness to play the doctor’s game, even though she was ignorant of his wicked est motives Sarah remained—as she always had been—my good friend Gleefully she told me she had completed the picture. I was there, with Gabriel and Friday, but I was in my own room at Kirkland Revels, not in a cell. She had wanted to warn me because she had known I was in imminent danger, but she had not realised that the monk and the doctor were one and the same, and this had baffled her. How happy she was now that the danger was past; she was as eager for the birth of my child as I was.

It was a wonderful day when Gabriel was born and it was known that he would live and that I should recover from my ordeal, which was a little more severe than it would have been owing to the upsets of the proceeding months. I remember lying with my child in my arms, experiencing that wonderful feeling of lassitude which I suppose is one of the most enviable feelings a woman can have. People had been coming to see me; and then, suddenly, there was Simon. He had already told me that he had begun to suspect the doctor; and it was he who, after Deverel Smith’s death, discovered the way into the secret chamber from the Abbey side. Mary-Jane and I had come near to finding it on that Christmas morning. Had we removed the stones which, in her exasperation, Mary-Jane had kicked, we should have disclosed the flight of steps leading down to the chamber in which she found the robe. We eventually learned that the passage connecting the house with the Abbey vaults had been constructed when the house was built.

Considering the emergencies which could so easily arise, the proximity to the house of such an excellent hiding-place would have seemed too important to be overlooked.

It was some years later when, exploring the tunnels, I discovered a secret recess hidden by a pile of stones and, removing these, came on Friday’s grave. I guessed then that Deverel Smith had poisoned him and buried him in this spot. There was nothing left but his bones.

Simon had come to the conclusion that the doctor’s motive was to prevent my bearing a living child, so that Luke should inherit, and marry Damaris.

” For that reason,” he had explained, ” I paid attention to her. I knew she was not as interested in young Luke as she pretended to be, and I wanted to see the effect on her father if someone else began paying court to her.”

” It sounds as good a reason as the other,” I told him.

” What other?” he wanted to know.

” That she happens to be one of the most attractive women either of us can ever have seen.”

He grinned at that and seemed pleased; and now that I know him well I understand that it was my jealousy-that pleased him far more than Damaris’s charms, And when he stood looking at my son I saw the regret in his face, and I said: ” What is it, Simon?”

Then he looked straight at me and said: “He’s a grand chap, but there’s one thing wrong with him.”

” What’s that, Simon?”

” He ought to be mine,” said Simon.

That was a proposal of marriage, and it was for this reason that as I lay there with the child I experienced the happiest moment of my life which I had known up to that time.

All that spring and summer we made our plans. Because my son Gabriel would one day be master of Kirkland Revels, he should be brought up between the Revels and Kelly Grange, and this would mean that to some extent the two estates would be as one.