It was all coming back to me that warm afternoon. Tom Yardley had wheeled Mrs. Marline into the garden and there we were, in the drawing-room, laughing because we did not have to worry that we might make too much noise since She was in the garden and out of the way. I had been disappointed because Lucian had gone off with Henry, leaving us girls together.
Lucian went on: “Henry was determined to show me his mother’s opal, because he was sure it was as good as any thing my mother had: and I was eager to see it. Henry said: ” Come into her bedroom. It’s all right. She’s in the garden. I know where she keeps it. ” We tiptoed into her room. She was safe in the garden, in the shade of the oak tree. Henry found the opal.
“Look!” he cried. It was then that it happened. I knocked over the table at the side of her bed as I went to take the jewel. There were two bottles of pills on it. The tops were not properly screwed on and they were scattered all over the floor.
“I was dismayed, but Henry said: ” Look, pick them up in a minute. Just look at this. Look how it flashes. I reckon that’s a very fine opal one of the best. ” I was about to proclaim the superiority of my mother’s when I heard Mrs. Marline say something to Tom Yardley and the chair began to move. Henry put the opal quickly back and I started to pick up the pills. There was one idea in our minds. We must not be caught here. I picked them all up. I had put them into the bottles.
They were on the table where they had been and we ran giggling from the room just in time. Carmel, I did not think about that incident until later . much later. I awoke one early morning. The possibility had dawned on me. I had mixed up the pills. They were two different kinds, I was sure now. Mrs. Marline had taken the wrong ones. “
“I can’t believe that, Lucian.”
“I have been trying to tell myself it couldn’t have been like that. I never stop trying to assure myself. But it is a possibility. I should have come forward. I should have told what had happened. But I could not have saved Edward Marline. He was already dead. I was away at school at the time of the trial and the execution, and knew nothing of it until it was over. It was not until a long time after that I realized what could have happened. The idea suddenly came to me. It might have been due to my action. Those pills were in different bottles to distinguish them. They might have looked different. In my haste, I had not thought of that. My one purpose was to get the pills back in their place before I was discovered. Mrs. Marline might have intended to take a small dose but taken a fatal one.”
“Lucian, you are building up a fantasy. How do you know there were two sorts of pills, just because there were two bottles on the table?”
“I saw some newspaper cuttings about the trial once. There was a great deal about the medical evidence and those pills figured largely in it.
What the pills contained was described. There was one which was to be taken only if she were in great pain-and no more than one a day.
Then there was a milder sort, of which she could take three a day. I supposed they were both at her bedside. You can see how it might have happened they were spilt. They were hurriedly picked up and put back anyhow. It is almost certain that some would have got into the wrong bottle. “
“But suppose you did mix them in your haste? There would be some difference in the pills. One would be larger, or of a different colour. You might not have noticed it, but anyone in the habit of taking them would.”
“There was no suggestion at the trial that she had taken the wrong ones by accident. There was no suggestion that they had been put into the wrong bottles. They did not know they had been spilt, of course.
All that was said was that she had taken a massive overdose of strong pills which had proved fatal. As it was so long after they hanged that poor doctor that this occurred to me, I tried to convince myself that it was too late to alter anything. There was nothing I could do to save him. But I can’t stop thinking of Kitty Carson and her daughter, who have to live their lives, as you say, under a threatening cloud. I can’t forget it. It has haunted me for a long time.
“I am glad I have told you, Carmel. I must do … whatever has to be done.”
I’m glad you’ve told me. We’ll talk of it. We’ll work out what has to be done. We must always share. “
He turned to me. We looked at each other for a second and then his arms were round me. He kissed me lingeringly and with a yearning passion. He was asking me to help him. Fleetingly, I thought of him as he had been when I first knew him. The hero who protected me. Now it was his turn to be vulnerable, and I wanted more than anything to care for him.
I knew in that moment that I loved him completely. Understanding was there between us. Barriers had been swept away. I had said it all when I had told him we must share.
“What’s to be done?” I said.
He replied: “You are going to Kitty Carson. I am coming with you.”
I stared at him in astonishment.
“Yes,” he said.
“I thought it out last night. There is that man, the expert, Jefferson Craig. He will know what action to take. I will tell them exactly what happened. I have decided on that. It is the only way I can live now. There will be publicity, but I shall face it. Do you agree, Carmel?”
“I think you will not be at peace until you have faced up to this. But to come with me … I am not sure. We shall have to think more about that. Kitty will not expect me to arrive with anyone. I think the best thing would be that I should first explain to them and perhaps you could come down the following day. Kitty will probably remember you.
You must have seen her now and then when you came to the house. “
“Yes, I do remember her a very pleasant person.”
“I will tell her what you have told me and then we can all talk it over.”
“I think that is probably the best way of doing it. Oh, Carmel, how glad I am that I told you!”
“You should have told me before.”
“I know that now.”
“You have to throw off this sense of guilt. Even if it were as you fear and I cannot believe it happened like that it is not your fault. A boy’s careless act does not make him a murderer.”
“No. But it can make him the cause of someone’s death. And that is a sobering thought. One can’t help its having an effect. Oh, I wish I could be sure that it had not happened that way!”
“We’ll ask Jefferson Craig’s advice. He will know what could be done.”
Lucian smiled suddenly.
“Oh, Carmel,” he said.
“I like the way you say ” we”.”
We were a great deal happier when we left the Gardens. Guilt still hung heavily on Lucian, but now I shared his problem, and we were both aware that through it we had come closer together.
When Kitty met me at the station there was a young girl with her. I knew at once that this was Edwina a pretty girl with considerable charm, and I was immediately aware of the great affection between her and her mother.
“This is my daughter Edwina, Carmel,” said Kitty.
“And Edwina, this is Miss Carmel Sinclair, whom I used to teach.”
Edwina smiled and shook my hand.
There was a gentleness about her which reminded me of the doctor, and I could understand why Kitty was proud of and apprehensive for her.
Kitty drove the trap herself and, as we passed along through those pleasant lanes, I was trying to work out how soon I could approach the matter which was uppermost in my mind.
We made conventional conversation and in due course arrived at the house. It was very pleasant, of three storeys and painted in white, which gave it a clean, fresh look. The house was made attractive by the green shrubs which grew around it. There were steps to the front porch and on the second floor were two balconies, one on either side, which had a charming effect.