“You understand me, Rosamond-Jenny leaves this house on Friday morning.”
She said, “Yes,” and went out of the room. There was nothing else for her to say. It was an ultimatum, and they both knew it. Jenny was being turned out. If they had had any money or anywhere to go, it would have been an order of release. The plain fact was that they had nothing. When Jenny left Crewe House on Friday morning Rosamond would have no choice but to take her to the school which Lydia Crewe had chosen. She would have no choice at all.
CHAPTER 27
She turned away from Jenny’s room and ran down the passage into the hall. She had the feeling that she couldn’t run fast enough. Lydia Crewe and her harsh dominant will reaching out to her, ruthless, compelling! It was like knowing that there was a fierce animal shut up in that oppressive room, and that it might at any moment be loosed and follow her. She snatched her old coat from the cupboard under the stairs and ran out by the side door and down the garden into the wood. To be alone in the dusk had no terrors. It was the house that frightened her-and Lydia Crewe. Out here in the wood she would not hear, however stridently the summoning bell might ring, however persistently Jenny might call to her. She wasn’t ready to face her yet. She must have time to put herself out of the way, and to get her to see the whole thing as an adventure. She must keep Jenny from getting hurt, and that was the way that would hurt her least.
It was very dark in the wood. There was still some light outside, but here the trees moved with their shadows and shut her in. They gave her a feeling of safety. They were the walls of her house of defence. It was her own place, where she could be quiet and steady her thoughts. She walked to and fro in the little clearing at the heart of the wood. Presently she would have to think, but for the moment all she wanted was to stop thinking, to be quiet, and above all to be away from Crewe House.
She did not know how long it was before she heard the footstep. It was a man’s step, quick and vigorous. She heard Craig calling her.
“Rosamond! Are you there?”
For a moment she was any wild wood creature. She had an instinct to stay quite still where she was and let the silence cover, her, but when he said her name again, she was Rosamond and he was Craig. She moved and went to meet him.
“Jenny said you might be here.”
There was a roughness in his voice. He had had the unreasoned thought that she might have just walked out of his world and been lost. His arm came round her.
“Why on earth do you go off by yourself like this? I don’t like it.”
She said, “I must-have somewhere-”
“That barrack of a house has rooms enough!”
She shook her head. He could see the movement, but not how she looked.
“I have to get-right away-sometimes-”
“And this was one of the times?”
“Yes.”
“Rosamond, what has been happening?”
He was too close to her not to know when she was in trouble. He felt the trouble now, but he didn’t know what it was. He had to know. He spoke her name again insistently,
“Rosamond-”
She said on a quick uneven breath,
“She’s sending Jenny away-”
“Where?”
“A school at Brinton. She’s got it all fixed up.”
“Without telling you?”
“She never said a word. Craig, I knew she would have to go sometime. But not like this. Even if she hadn’t been ill, I ought to see the place first. No one has seen it. A woman she knows sent some orphan cousins there-that’s how she heard of it. It’s just any place to send Jenny away to, and she has done it all behind my back.”
He said in a controlled voice,
“You must certainly see any place she suggests before Jenny goes there.”
He felt the tremor that went over her.
“There isn’t time-she’s planned it so that there shouldn’t be time. She says I’m to take her there on Friday-day after tomorrow! We’re to take the nine-thirty from Melbury-it’s all fixed up. And there’s nothing I can do. She’s got the whip hand and she knows it. She’s always had the whip hand. We haven’t got any money. There is no one who would take us in, and she won’t keep Jenny any longer. She is to go to school, and I am to stay here and do what I can to make up for the fees Aunt Lydia will have to pay.”
He said in his strong voice,
“Well, it’s not going to work out that way, so don’t worry. Even Miss Crewe can be made to see that she can’t just bundle Jenny off like this at a moment’s notice. Why don’t you stand up to her?”
He felt her stiffen.
“You think I’m afraid. Well, I am, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. If I were on my own I’d just walk out. I’d have done it long ago. In fact I wouldn’t ever have come. It’s like being in prison. But what can I do with Jenny? The specialist said she would need care for some time. I don’t know what I could earn-not very much, because I’m not trained for anything. It would have to be housework, or a shop-and how could I leave Jenny alone all day? I did think if I could find a really nice school they might take Jenny for less and let me work there. I’ve heard of that sort of thing. But this doesn’t give us any time. And, Craig, you say she can’t do it all in a hurry like this-but she can, and everyone would back her up. You see, she knows about Jenny getting out of the house at night.”
“How does she know?”
“She didn’t tell me, but she does. And you see, it justifies her. She said how dangerous it was, and it couldn’t possibly be allowed to go on. Everything she said was reasonable and just what anyone would say. But that wasn’t why she said it. It was just something she’d got to make me come to heel and do what she wanted. Do you see now why I had to get out of the house? I couldn’t see Jenny until I got hold of myself. I couldn’t tell her she was going to be sent away-I don’t know how to tell her now.”
He had had his arm round her all this time, and she had let it stay. It crossed his mind to wonder if she so much as knew that it was there. He put both hands on her shoulders now and let her feel their weight.
“Rosamond, stop talking! If you go on saying there isn’t anything to be done, there won’t be. It’s quite futile. If you’ll stop panicking and listen to me, there’s a perfectly simple way out of all this. I should just like to feel that you are going to listen before I tell you about it.”
“I’m listening.”
“Well, to start with, I don’t know whether you happen to remember that I’ve asked you to marry me. You didn’t say yes, and you didn’t say no, and I didn’t want to rush you. I still don’t want to-I’d like you to believe that. But events seem to be taking charge, and that would be one way of getting the better of them. If we were married there wouldn’t be any problem to settle-we could just take Jenny and go. I’ve got a house, and I’ve got a job. It’s all as simple as the ABC. But it depends on what you feel about it. I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned that I love you, but I don’t think you can have helped noticing it. I fell in love with your picture, and I fall farther and faster every time I see you. I know myself pretty well, and as far as I am concerned it will just go on like that. I’m not putting in any sobstuff, because we’ve got to use our heads. Now what about your side of it? I think I gave you a brief catalogue of my faults. Anyhow you will have noticed them for yourself by now. All I can say is what I think I’ve said before, I’ll look after you, and I’ll look after Jenny. And I’ll eat my hat if I’m not easier to live with than Lydia Crewe. What about it?”
Rosamond found it hard to believe that she could be shaking on the edge of laughter, but right from the beginning, even when he was saying the most outrageous things, even when he was making her angry, there had been a hidden spring of laughter bubbling up and threatening her self-control. If she let it have its way it would drown all the feelings of pride and self-respect to which she had been brought up. You can’t laugh at someone and be proud at the same time. The two things just don’t mix. When he said, “What about it?” it came over her how easy it would be just to say yes and let go of all her troubles.