“There was, of course. Lady Perrivale. She was a terrifying person and I was glad that she seemed quite unaware of my existence. She very rarely spoke to me and I had the impression that she did not see me.
She was a large woman and everyone apart from Sir Edward was afraid of her. It was well known in the house that her money had saved Perrivale Court and that she was the daughter of a millionaire coal-owner or ironmaster. There seemed to be a divergence of opinion as to which. She had been an only daughter and he had wanted a title for her. He was ready to pay a price for it and much of the money made from iron or coal had gone into bolstering up the roof and walls of Perrivale Court. It must have seemed a good arrangement to Sir Edward for, as well as keeping the roof over his head, she provided him with two sons as well. I had one desire-to keep out of her way. So now you have a picture of the sort of household I was in. “
“Yes, and then you went away to school?”
“Which was decidedly better for me. There I was equal with the others.
I was good at lessons, fair at sports and I did well. I lost a little of that aggressiveness which I had built up in the early years. I was ready to defend myself before there was any need to do so. I looked for slights and insults where there were none. School was good for me.
“Too soon it was over. We had ceased to be boys. There was enough work on the estate to keep us all busy and we worked comparatively well together. We were reasonable adults now … all of us.
“I was about twenty-four when Major Durrell came to the neighbourhood.
His daughter came with him. She was a widow with a small child, a girl. The widow was startlingly beautiful-red-haired and green-eyed. Very unusual. We were all rather fascinated by her. Both Cosmo and Tristan in particular, but she chose Cosmo and their engagement was announced. “
I looked at him steadily. Had he cared for the widow, as had been suggested? Did the prospect of her marriage to someone else arouse his anger, despair, jealousy? Had he planned to have the widow for himself? No. I did believe him. He had spoken with such sincerity. He had made me see the nursery presided over by the kindly nanny and the arrival in their midst of the fascinating widow-Mirabel was what the papers had called her.
“Yes,” he went on.
“She had chosen Cosmo. Lady Perrivale was very pleased. She was very eager for her sons to marry and give her grandchildren and she was delighted that Cosmo’s bride was to be Mirabel. Mirabel’s mother, it seemed, had been an old schoolfriend of hers her best
friend, we heard. She had married the Major and, although she was now dead. Lady Perrivale gave a warm welcome to the widower and his daughter. She had known the Major when her friend had married him, and he had written telling her that he had retired from the Army and was thinking of settling somewhere. What about Cornwall? Lady Perrivale was delighted and found Seashell Cottage for them. That was how they came to be there. And then, of course, there was the engagement to Cosmo which followed very soon. You see how the stage was set. “
“I am beginning to see it very clearly,” I said.
“We were all working on the estate and there was this farmhouse, Bindon Boys. The farmer who had lived there and worked the farm had died some three years before and the land had been let out to a farmer on a temporary basis but no one had taken on the house. It was in a bad state and needed a bit of restoration as well as decorating.”
“Yes, there was a good deal in the papers about Bindon Boys.”
“Yes … it was originally Bindon Bois. There is a copse nearby. It was called Bindon Boys by the natives and that had become its official name. We had all inspected the house and were deciding what should be done.”
I nodded. I visualized the heavy black headlines.
“Bindon Boys Case. Police expect an arrest shortly. ” I was seeing it all so differently now from the manner which I had when Mr. Dolland had sat at the kitchen table and we had tried to piece the story together.
“We had been over there several times. There was a great deal of work to be done. I remember the day clearly. I was meeting Cosmo at the farmhouse so that we could discuss some plan on the spot. I went to the house and found him there … dead … the gun by his side. I could not believe it. I knelt beside him. There was blood on my coat.
His blood. I picked up the gun . and it was then that Tristan came in and found me. I remember his words.
“Good God, Simon! You’ve killed him!” I told him I had just come in that I had found him like this. He stared at the gun in my hand and I could see what he was thinking. “
He stopped short and closed his eyes as though he were trying to shut out the memory. I laid my hand on his shoulder.
I said: “You know you’re innocent, Simon. You’ll prove it one day.”
“If we never get away from this island, no one will ever know the truth.”
“We are going to get away,” I said.
“I feel it.”
“It’s just hope.”
“Hope is a good thing.”
“It’s heartbreaking when it is proved unfounded.”
“But it isn’t in this case. A ship will come. I know it. And then ..”
“Yes, what then? I must hide myself away. I must never go back. I dare not. If I did they would capture me and, having run away, they would say I had proved my guilt.”
“What really happened? Have you any idea?”
“I think there is a possibility that it might have been old Harry Tench. He hated Cosmo. He had rented one of the farms some years before. He drank too much and the place went to ruin. Cosmo turned him out and put in another man. Tench went away but he came back. He was tramping the road. He’d become a sort of tinker. People said he had sworn vengeance on the Perrivales and Cosmo in particular. He hadn’t been seen in the neighbourhood for some weeks, but of course, if he’d planned to kill Cosmo, he would naturally be careful about being seen nearby. His name was mentioned during the investigation, but he was dismissed and no longer a suspect. I was a more likely one. They made a great play about the emnity between Cosmo and me. People all around seemed to remember signs of it which I was unaware of. They made much of Mirabel and Cosmo’s engagement to her.”
“I know. The crime passionnel. Were you … in love with her?”
“Oh no. We were all a little dazzled by her … but no.”
“And when her engagement to Cosmo was announced … did you show that you were disappointed?”
“Tristan and I probably said how lucky Cosmo was and that we envied him or something like that. I didn’t think we meant it very seriously.”
There was silence between us.
Then he said: “Now you know. I’m glad. It is like a weight being lifted from my shoulders. Tell me … are you shocked to find you have a suspected murderer with you?”
“I can only think that he saved my life … Lucas’s too.”
“With my own, of course.”
“Well, if you hadn’t saved your own, none of us would be here. I am glad you told me. I wish something could be done … to make things right … so that you could go back. Perhaps one day you will.”
“You are an optimist. You think we are going to get off this godforsaken island. You believe in miracles.”
“I think I have seen a few in the last days.”
Again he took my hand and pressed it.
“You are right and I am ungrateful. We shall be picked up in time .. and some day perhaps, I shall go back to Perrivale Court and they will know the truth.”
“I am sure of it,” I said. I stood up.
“We have talked for a long time. Lucas will be wondering where we are.”
Two more days passed. The water stock was very low and we were running out of coconuts. Simon had found a stout stick which Lucas used as a crutch. His leg was slightly less painful, he said, but I had little confidence in our attempts to set it. Still, he could hobble a few steps and that cheered him considerably.