At the top of the flight of stairs was a door and Gabriel said: “
That’s the door to the minstrels’ gallery.” I hoped he would throw it open and that I should see whether someone were there, because I was certain that I had seen a movement in the gallery, and I wondered what member of the household had preferred to hide there to take a glimpse of me instead of coming down to welcome me.
It was a wide staircase of great beauty, but in the light of oil-lamps it seemed full of shadows. I had an uncanny feeling as I went up that all the members of this family who had lived in the house over the last three hundred years were watching me with disapproval the girl whom Gabriel had brought into the house without consulting his family.
” My rooms,” Gabriel told me, ” are at the top of the house. It’s a long climb.”
” Will you keep those rooms now that you have a wife?” asked Ruth from behind me.
” I certainly shall. Unless of course Catherine does not like them.”
” I feel sure I shall.”
” There are others to choose from if you are not satisfied,” Ruth told me.
We had climbed to the second floor when a young man appeared. He was tall and slim and very like Ruth. He had cried: ” Are they here yet.
Mother? What’s she . ” before he saw us. He paused, not in the least embarrassed, laughing at himself, while his eyes went to me.
” This is Luke … my nephew,” said Gabriel.
” My son,” murmured Ruth.
“I am delighted to meet you,” I said, and held out my hand.
He took it and bowed over it so that a lock of his long fair hair fell forward over his face.
” The delight then is mutual,” he said with a faint drawl. ” It’s amusing to have a wedding in the family.”
He was very like his mother, and that meant that he was like Gabriel too. The same rather prominent, aristocratic features, the delicate fairness, the almost languid air.
” What do you’ think of the house?” he asked eagerly.
” She has been in it less than ten minutes and has not seen a tenth of it and what she has seen has not been in day light,” his mother reminded him.
” To-morrow I will take you on a tour of inspection,” he promised me, and I thanked him.
He bowed once more and stood aside for us to pass; but when we went on he joined the procession and accompanied us to the rooms on the third floor which I gathered had always been Gabriel’s.
We came to a circular gallery, and the feeling that I was being watched was stronger than ever; for here were the family portraits, life-sized; three or four roze-quartz lamps were burning and in this dim light the figures had the appearance of reality.
” Here we are,” said Gabriel, and I felt the pressure on my arm; I heard Friday in his basket then; he whimpered faintly as though reminding me of his presence. I believed that Friday sensed my moods and knew that I felt as though I were being enclosed in an alien prison, and that I was resented here. Of course, I reminded myself, it was due to the fact that we had arrived in the twilight. It would have been quite different if we had come on a bright and sunny morning.
There was too much atmosphere in these ancient houses ; and at nightfall the shadows came to plague those whose imaginations were too vivid. I was in an extraordinary position. I was eventually to be the mistress of this house, and three days ago no one in it had been aware of my existence. No wonder I was resented.
I shook off the uncanny feeling, turned my back on the portraits and followed Gabriel through a door on the right and into a corridor. We went along this until we came to a door which Gabriel threw open. I gave a gasp of pleasure for I was standing on the threshold of a charming room. The heavy red damask curtains had been drawn across the windows; a fire was burning m the big open fireplace and, on the mantelpiece which was of beautifully carved white marble, candles in gleaming silver candlesticks were burning and throwing a soft light about the room. I saw the four-poster bed with the curtains to match those at the windows, the tall boy, the chairs with tapestry backs worked in gold and red; there were red rugs which seemed to be flecked with gold, and the general effect was of warmth. On a table was a bowl of red roses.
Gabriel looked at them and flushed. Then he said: ” Thank you, Ruth.”
” There was too little time to do much.”
” This is a beautiful room,” I said.
She nodded.
“It’s a pity you, can’t see the view from the window.”
” She will in an hour or so,” put in Gabriel. ” The moon will be up then.”
I felt my fears evaporating.
” I’m going to leave you now,” said Ruth. “‘I'll have hot water sent up; and could you be ready to dine in three- quarters of an hour?”
I said we could; and she and Luke left us. As the door shut on them Gabriel and I looked at each other in silence.
Then Gabriel said: “What’s wrong, Catherine? You don’t like it, do you?”
” It’s so magnificent,” I began. ” I didn’t imagine …” Then I could not restrain my resentment. ” Why on earth didn’t you tell them you were getting married?”
He flushed and looked distressed, but I was determined to know the truth.
” Well, I didn’t want any fuss….”
“Fuss!” I interrupted.
“But I thought you went back to tell them.”
” So I did.”
” And you found you couldn’t … when it came to the point?”
“There might have been opposition. I didn’t want that.”
” You mean they wouldn’t have thought me worthy to marry into their family?” I knew that my eyes were flashing;
I was both angry and miserable; this was such a disappointing beginning to my life in this house. I was hurt with Gabriel, and very depressed because I was realising that the fact that my marriage had to be kept a secret until it was a fait accompli meant I was not going to live on very easy terms with my new family.
” Good heavens, no!” cried Gabriel emphatically. He caught me by the shoulders, but somewhat impatiently I freed myself. ” They’ll be delighted … once they know you. They don’t like change, though.
You know what families are. “
” No,” I retorted, ” I don’t. And they are distressed, which is natural. The idea of having me suddenly produced as a new member of the family! I can understand how they feel.”
” But you don’t understand, Catherine,” Gabriel said pleadingly.
“Then tell me,” I flashed at him.
“Explain. Why does there have to be this mystery?”
He looked very unhappy. ” But there is no mystery. It’s simply that I didn’t tell them. I didn’t want fuss and bother. I wanted to marry you as quickly as possible so that we could be together and make the most of all the time that’s left.”
When he spoke like that all my anger disappeared. Thai softness, that desire to make him happy because he was afraid of something in life (perhaps it was of death) enveloped me. It was because of this desire that I had married him. I vaguely understood then that he was afraid of something in this house, and that he wanted an ally. I was to be that ally. I knew because, although I had been in Kirkland Revels less tuan half an hour, I was catching that fear.
” Friday’s still in his basket,” I said.
” I’ll take him outside.” He opened the basket and Friday jumped out, barking his pleasure to be free. There was a knock and I turned sharply for the sound did not come from the door by which we had entered. I noticed then that there were two doors in this room.