“I am so glad that she came back to you. I know how distressed she was at that time when you went away and then when she went off with Aunt Florence. She loved you from the beginning. I remember how frightened she was when she heard there was to be a governess, and you became the most wonderful person in the world to her.”
“Poor Adeline! They didn’t know how to treat her. Her mother particularly frightened her and made her unhappy. She was very easily frightened and very easily made happy.”
After a brief pause, she went on: “Jefferson is, of course, very interested in Adeline. He is so good with her. He understands her. She is happy now.”
“Jefferson sounds a wonderful person.”
“He is indeed. He treats Edwina as his daughter and she looks on him as her father. They are very contented together. So, you see, Carmel, I have much to be thankful for. There is one thing I ask. Perhaps I shall never have it and must be content with what, miraculously, has been given me.”
“What is that?”
“To know what actually happened on that day in Commonwood House. Who killed Grace Marline? All I know is that it was not Edward. Then who?
I want to know most of all for my child’s sake. I know she has her name and she can go through life as Jefferson’s daughter. But there is a chance, fainter now, thanks to Jefferson, but it is there, that someone might discover who her father was . they might remember me. Jefferson was very anxious that there should be no publicity about the wedding.
Imagine what a field day the press would have had with that!
“Jefferson Craig marries Kitty Carson whom he saved from the gallows.”
It would have been unbearable, and you can be sure that, if some of them discovered this information, there would be no hesitation in using it to get a good story which would sell papers. “
“That would be dreadful.”
“You see, it is hanging over me. If only it could be cleared up. But there it remains. Perhaps one day … It seems unlikely, but one can hope. Carmel, you won’t lose touch now that we have found each other?
It has been good to talk to you. You must come and see us. We have a pleasant house in Kent. We used to be in London but when we were married, Jefferson bought this house and we retired to the country because he did not want to be too much in the public eye. You see what he did for me. “
“I do, but I could not admire him more than I do already.”
“So you will come?”
“I should very much like to.”
“Soon, please. Jefferson will be so eager to meet you, and he is very impatient. He does not like to wait.”
“I promise.”
“I want you to meet Edwina … and there is Adeline. She will be so excited.”
“Do you ever hear of Estella and Henry?”
She shook her head.
“No, I think they realized that the past was something best forgotten. Adeline does not seem to care about them.
You were the one of whom she was most fond. “
“I think all her love was for you.”
“Poor child. Life was not very good to her.”
“Until you came and it was clear then how much she loved you.”
“Well, I was saying how pleased she will be to see you. So when?”
“I could come at the end of next week.”
“Oh, could you?”
“Not too soon?”
She laughed at me.
“We shall look forward to it. Let me give you instructions.”
She took a piece of paper from her bag and wrote on it.
“I shall be at the station to meet you,” she said.
“Friday week,” she said, and we settled the time of the train I should catch.
She was smiling. She looked very like the Miss Carson who had come to Commonwood House all those years ago. Our meeting had cheered her. I was glad I had had the courage to step into the past.
Confession
Dorothy called that afternoon, eager to hear what had happened at the meeting. She was greatly excited, especially when she heard I was to pay a visit.
“How wonderfully it worked out! And he married her! He was always known as an eccentric. I can understand the worry about the child. It would be just the sort of titbit the press likes to get its teeth into. Just imagine if that came out! The object of the marriage would then be completely pointless. And she didn’t have any light to throw on the case?”
“Only that she confirmed my conviction that the doctor did not kill his wife.”
“Well, I suppose she would believe that, wouldn’t she?”
“I am absolutely convinced of it.”
“Unfortunately, that wouldn’t carry much weight in a court of law. And you are actually going to stay in Jefferson Craig’s house! Perhaps you’ll get an invitation for me, one day.”
“I should think that might be possible.”
“What’s the next plan of action?”
“I am to go down at the end of next week.”
“Wonderful. And in the meantime … secrecy.” I looked at her steadily.
“At this stage, I think so.” She nodded. She would agree with me that there could be no point in telling Lawrence at this time. We both knew that he would consider it unwise to become involved in something unsavoury that happened a long time ago.
Dorothy understood Lawrence absolutely. Had she not been looking after him for so many years?
I wrote to my mother and told her what had happened. I thought she would be interested, and it was Harriman who had suggested what I should do. I had not told the Hysons and Gertie would not be home until Saturday. So I would wait until after the visit before saying any thing specific about it to anyone else. Dorothy knew, of course, but then Dorothy was involved, as my mother and Harriman were.
One thing I must tell them was that Edward Marline had sworn to Kitty that he had not poisoned his wife. I knew they would say it was natural that he should do that, but I knew, and Kitty knew, that Edward would not have sworn that he was innocent if he were not. So I was v completely convinced that it was someone else who had administered the fatal dose. I had a letter from my mother wishing me luck and telling me how much she looked forward to being with me again and hearing the result.p>
Gertie and Bernard came home the following Saturday. They were in excessively high spirits. Aunt Beatrice, Uncle Harold and I went to the station to meet them. There were hugs and kisses and shrieks of delight. We drove to the house where everything had been prepared by Aunt Beatrice to give the newly married couple a suitable welcome home.
Bernard had not carried Gertie over the threshold and she insisted they go out and enter in the correct manner, so Bernard performed his duty to everyone’s satisfaction and we all went into the drawing-room where Uncle Harold produced champagne and we all drank to the return of the happy couple.
And they were happy. Gertie shrieked her pleasure at the well-stocked larder and demanded to know if Aunt Beatrice wanted to make her as fat as she was.
It was a wonderful homecoming and it was some time before Gertie turned her attention to me.
I told her about my mother, which interested her, and that I had found some other friends from the past whom I was visiting the following weekend.
“What a lot of friends from the past you have!” she cried.
“You are really a dark horse, Carmel Sinclair.”
Fortunately there was too much to absorb her in her new house for her to be very interested in me.
I had a note from Lucian. He was coming up to London in the middle of the week and suggested we have lunch together at Logan’s.
This threw me into a dilemma. I should have to tell him that I was going away again. He had been in my thoughts a great deal since he had asked me to marry him, and there had been many times when I had wanted to say yes. Very much I had wanted it. I thought how unhappy I should be if he had to go away. I felt envious of Gertie, whose life ran so smoothly. That was how I should have felt if I had been certain of Lucian. There was just that barrier which I could not cross. I did not know even if it were a barrier. There was just something I could not understand and I must know what it was before I could marry him.