“I could take it tomorrow.”
“Well, so we could. But in view of the people in that house … I mean the kind of people they are … the will should be in the solicitor’s hands and I don’t like the idea of your having it in that house.”
“Do you think they would come and murder me to get possession of it?”
“Gad!” he said. “That would be monstrous. I couldn’t let that happen. I would never be happy again for the rest of my life.”
I laughed. “You do make the most extravagant statements.”
He was silent. Then he said: “Seriously, I am uneasy. Let’s try it.”
He whipped up the horses and we rattled along to Enderby.
It all happened quickly from then on. It seemed to me a breathtaking mad sort of adventure—different from anything that had ever happened to me before. Gerard took charge and I couldn’t help admiring the speed and efficiency with which he arranged everything.
“You are making a diplomatic incident of it,” I said.
“I am, after all, a diplomat. But I assure you … this is the best and safest way to get this matter settled.”
It was still a quarter of an hour to four o’clock when I took the two men to my uncle’s bedroom. He expressed little surprise when I introduced them and explained why they had come. I produced the will and the necessary signatures were affixed. Gerard rolled the paper up and put it under his arm.
Uncle Carl patted my hand and said: “Clever girl!”
“And now,” said Gerard, “it is for us to get this into town.”
“We must go,” I said, “quickly.”
“Yes,” said Uncle Carl, “before Jessie wakes up.” He was smiling and his eyes danced with excitement. There was a certain mischief in him and for a fleeting moment I wondered whether he had conjured up the whole thing out of a fairly ordinary situation. In the moment I couldn’t believe that even Jessie would hope for an instant that she could inherit Eversleigh Court.
It seemed then that we were all playing a part in some sort of farce which the old man had contrived to make his dull life more exciting.
However, we must continue with it, so we took our leave and went silently down the stairs.
As we came into the hall there was a movement on the stairs. I turned sharply. Evalina was coming down.
“Oh?” she cried. “Have we visitors?”
“This is the housekeeper’s daughter,” I said to Gerard.
Evalina had run up to us and was smiling innocently at Gerard.
He bowed and turned away and I led them out of the house.
I saw them into the carriage and went back into the house. Evalina was still in the hall.
“I didn’t know we had callers,” she said. “I know who they are. They’re from Enderby.”
I went past her. She was looking at me curiously, as though she was waiting for an explanation. I was determined not to give her one. It was so impertinent for the housekeeper’s daughter to interrogate me about callers.
I went to my room and to the window. I saw that Jessie was just returning to the house. Evalina would tell her about the callers. She might be suspicious because she was very shrewd. But by this time Gerard would be on his way to the solicitors.
At supper that night there was a faint atmosphere of suspicion which I detected immediately. Jessie ate with her usual gusto then she smiled at me ingratiatingly and said: “Evalina said them people from Enderby called today.”
“Just being neighborly,” I said.
“They never called before.”
“Oh?”
“I reckon they heard you was here. They never called on Lordy before.”
I lifted my shoulders.
Evalina said: “One of them was a fine-looking man.”
“H’m,” I murmured.
She was wary: she was watchfuclass="underline" I could see she was puzzled and did not like the idea of callers.
I escaped to my room immediately after the meal. I wondered whether Gerard had deposited the will with Messrs. Rosen, Stead and Rosen. If he had my mission was accomplished. It was a comfort to think that the documents would be safe at the solicitors’ and my responsibility was over.
But I couldn’t rest. I had an eerie feeling that there was something rather sinister building up in this house, that Uncle Carl was aware of it in a way and that he encouraged it. Perhaps he found life dull, confined to his room as he was; perhaps he wanted dramatic things to happen.
I was getting fanciful, and I felt an irresistible desire to get out of the house. I put on my cloak and went out. My steps took me toward Enderby. I wanted to see Gerard, to make sure that he had deposited the will at the solicitors’. If I had his word for this I would sleep more easily.
I paused awhile at the haunted patch looking beyond the broken pales to that spot where he had seemed to rise up from the earth before I went on toward the house. There was definitely something eerie about it. It had such a repelling air that I almost turned and fled. The wind in the trees seemed to be moaning something. If I listened and let loose my imagination I could believe they were saying Go away. I had a feeling then that I should go away and I could go into town tomorrow morning and see Mr. Rosen. I could ascertain whether the will had been deposited with them and if it had been, plan to go home at once, my mission accomplished. Should I feel sorry for Uncle Carl in such a situation? I thought not. After all it was of his own making and he clearly wanted it as it was.
He could turn out both Jessie and Amos Carew if he wanted to. The agent could be replaced; and as for Jessie, well, I am sure it would not be difficult to find a good hardworking housekeeper who would run the house and servants as it used to be in the days of my great-grandparents.
While I was musing thus the door opened and a man came out.
He looked surprised to see me and I said quickly: “I wondered if Monsieur Gerard d’Aubigné was at home.”
He said he would inquire and, taking me into the hall, went away.
Enderby certainly had what people called atmosphere. One was aware of it on taking the first step inside the place. The great hall with its vaulted ceiling and minstrels’ gallery at one end and the screens to the kitchen at the other seemed full of shadows. I remembered that it had always looked like that. It was as though there were ghosts waiting to spring out. One was aware of an impending sense of doom in the house. Happiness never stayed there long, I had heard someone say. I knew my mother’s childhood had not been an unhappy one; but that seemed to be the only period when people seemed to live normal lives within those walls.
While I brooded thus Gerard came down the stairs. He ran when he saw me and came toward me, his hands outstretched. He took mine and kissed first one then the other.
“I was expecting you,” he said.
“Expecting me?”
“Yes, you wanted to make sure, didn’t you? You were tormented with doubts. Should you have trusted me with such a mission? Oh … Zipporah, have I not shown you that I will serve you with my life if need be?”
“How you do love to make everything dramatic. Did you deliver the will?”
“To Mr. Rosen senior himself. He studied it, approved and has it in his safekeeping.”
“Oh …thank you.”
He smiled at me quizzically. “You can trust me, you know.”
“I know it really. I am just a little anxious. I know we were laughing about it all … but I’ve suddenly felt that it is not such a laughing matter.”
“You will have some refreshment?”
“No. I have just had supper. I must get back now.”
“Oh, stay awhile.” He had taken my hand and was drawing me toward him.
I felt the house beckoning me … almost as though it were waiting, drawing me in … and I was afraid. All I had ever heard about Enderby seemed to be warning me. Was it a premonition? Perhaps.