“About the letter-it was in that little chest of drawers. It’s there still -I put it back-I didn’t want to read it. But you’re their daughter-you have the right. It was the only letter she had from him, because they were together. She was in the W.R.A.F.’s-you know that. He was killed before he could write again. His plane was lost. He went out on-what do they call them-a reconnaissance or something like that-and he didn’t come back. He didn’t come back-” There was a pause. The eyelids fell. The room was very quiet. The minutes went by.
Then very suddenly the eyes were open again.
“I only saw the one sentence-just the one-but it made me think. I couldn’t get it out of my head. You see, he called her ‘My wife-my precious wife’-there, at the end of the letter. I couldn’t help thinking if they were married, then the house was yours-it was all yours.”
It didn’t penetrate. It was just something that the pale lips were saying. Jenny couldn’t believe it. The hand which held Miss Garstone’s was steady. Her mind shut all its doors. She couldn’t believe it at all. She said,
“If they were married, she would have said.”
“I thought of that-I thought he felt that way about her. But it couldn’t be true-it couldn’t really be true-”
The thought came into Jenny’s mind, “Why couldn’t it?” Before she knew what she was going to do she heard herself saying,
“Why couldn’t it be true?”
Miss Garstone looked at her. She made an effort that moved her head a little, and she looked at Jenny.
“I knew you would ask me that some day.”
All at once there seemed to be a tingling in the air between them.
“I knew it. Now it’s come. I wasn’t brave enough-I couldn’t face it. I can’t die without telling you-I never went to Somerset House-I was afraid-”
“Why were you afraid?”
“I loved you so much.”
Jenny’s heart melted in her.
“Oh, Garsty!”
“I thought-it was all wrong-I can see now. I thought if I said-and if it was true-that they were married-I thought-”
“Don’t trouble now, Garsty.”
“I must-there’s so little time-”
“Tomorrow-”
“I haven’t got any tomorrow. I never went to Somerset House-they would have taken you away from me. I couldn’t bear it-it was because I loved you so much-” The lids came down again. There was a long silence which gradually became peaceful. Then suddenly the hand under Jenny’s twitched and pulled. The eyes opened.
“You were born-here in this room. She came back-Jennifer came back. She never spoke. They weren’t here then, you know-Mrs. Forbes and the boys. The house was empty-because of course it belonged to him, and if she was his wife and he was dead, then it belonged to Jennifer and to her baby. Only she never said-she never said anything. She would sit all day by the window. What I told her to do she did. She wasn’t ill -not in body-but she was like a person in a dream. I had this cottage and we stayed here. The Forbeses came-because he was the heir. Mrs. Forbes came down and had a talk with me. She said it was stupid to stay on here-but I said, ‘Jennifer has no people and she has no money- but I’ve got this cottage-it’s my own-no one can turn me out.’ She saw I meant it, and she didn’t say any more. Jennifer never roused at all. When her time came and you were born it was all easy. But she died that night-”
There was a long pause. When Miss Garstone spoke again there was a difference in her. She did not speak to Jenny. The eyes that she opened did not see her. They were fixed on someone else. Jenny had the feeling that if she could turn her head she would see who that someone was. She could not see, but she knew what Garsty saw. There was a presence in the room. She didn’t know whether it was the presence of death or of life. She saw Garsty smile and say something, but she did not know what she said. And then in a moment it was over and Garsty was gone.
Chapter II
Miss Adamson was away for an hour. She would not have been so long, but she met a number of people, and of course they all wanted to know about the accident and about how Miss Garstone was, and what with telling them and their saying how dreadful it was, and how shocking to think that anyone would run a woman down and not see if they had killed her, the time just slipped away. Then she had to let herself into her cottage and feed her cat and get what she wanted for the night, and it all took time. She hurried all she could, and then she made haste back along the lonely stretch of road where the accident had happened, and round the corner past the gate into Mr. Carpenter’s farm, and then on to where the light shone from the window of the room where Jenny was watching. On the other side of the road was the empty lodge of Alington House where the Forbeses lived.
Miss Adamson felt a momentary twinge of resentment. She wouldn’t have said that she got on well with Mrs. Forbes. She made it her business to get on well with everyone, but try as you will, if you’ve got a feeling you’ve got a feeling, and in her inmost heart Miss Adamson knew that she had a feeling about Mrs. Forbes. She didn’t stop to think about it, but it was there as she put away her bicycle in the shed and walked up the dark garden path to go in by the kitchen door. Put into words, it would have been something of this kind-“She’s always here when she’s not wanted, and come the time when she might be some use she’s away. Not that I suppose she’d have put her hand to anything if she’d been here.” The thought was in her mind, if words did not clothe it.
She opened the door into the kitchen. There was a lamp burning here. She went through. There was no light in the front passage or on the stairs. The house was very still-it was very still indeed. There ought to have been some sound. The thought went quickly through her head. A little shiver went over her. She called up the stairs, “Jenny, I’m back!” and there was no answer.
Miss Adamson caught at herself. If anyone else had behaved like this, she would have known what to say about them. She couldn’t believe that it was she herself, Kate Adamson, who stood at the foot of the stairs and was afraid to go on. She knew very well what she would say if it were anyone else.
In the room above her Jenny still held the cold dead hand. It had very little warmth to lose. She couldn’t bear to let it go. She was glad to be alone. She was glad that there had been no one there except herself to see that look on Garsty’s face. It was the look of someone who sees into reality. She would never forget that she had seen it. When the voice called to her from below it seemed very far away. She began to come back, but slowly. Even when the door opened behind her she did not turn.
Miss Adamson came into the room and stopped. For a moment she had nothing to say. She saw Jenny sitting forward holding Miss Garstone’s dead hand in hers. She saw Jenny’s face in profile, quite calm. She had rather the look of someone waking from a dream-waking, but not quite awake yet. Miss Adamson’s eyes went to Miss Garstone’s face. It had changed very little since she had seen it last, but she knew at once that she was dead.
There was a silent moment. No sound at all in the little room, and outside the wind that had been blowing gustily was still. As Miss Adamson stood there with the open door in her hand she heard the car. She could hear it quite plainly. It tooted twice at the entrance gate, which was just across the road, and turned in. Time was when the lodge was occupied and one of the children would run out and open the gates for the carriage to pass. But that was a long time ago. The carriage had given place to a car, the lodge stood dark and empty, and the gates were always open.
The sound of the car died away and was followed by a puff of wind. It shook the latched windows and made a rushing sound about the house.