The House on the Strand

  "You've been ill. I know why, the doctor explained it all," she said. "He told the boys too, and they understand. We none of us blame you for anything, darling. We just want you to get well and to be happy."

  "They're not frightened of me?"

  "Heavens, no. They were very sensible about it. They've both been so good and helpful, Teddy especially. They're devoted to you, darling, I don't think you realize that."

  "Oh, yes, I do," I said, "which makes it all the worse. But never mind that now. When are we supposed to be off?"

  She hesitated. "Dr. Powell said you'd be fit to travel by Friday, and he told me to go ahead and get the tickets."

  Friday... The day after tomorrow.

  "OK," I said, "if that's what he says. I suppose I'd better move about a bit to get myself in trim. Sort out some things to pack."

  "As long as you don't overdo it. I'll send Teddy up to help you." She left me with the best part of a week's mail, and by the time I'd been through it, and chucked most of it into the wastepaper basket, Teddy had appeared at the door.

  "Mom said you might like some help with your packing," he said shyly.

  "Good lad, I would. I hear you've been head of the house for the past week, and doing a fine job."

  He flushed with pleasure. "Oh, I don't know. I haven't done much. Answered the phone a few times. There was a man called up yesterday, asked if you were better and sent his regards. A Mr. Willis. He left his number, in case you wanted to ring him. And he left another number too. I wrote them both down."

  He brought out a shiny black notebook and tore out a page: I recognized the first number--it was Magnus's lab--but the other one baffled me.

  "Is this second one his home number, or didn't he say?" I asked.

  "Yes, he did say. It's someone called Davies, who works at the British Museum. He thought you might like to get in touch with Mr. Davies before he went on holiday."

  I put the torn page in my pocket, and went along with Teddy to the dressing-room. The divan bed had gone, and I realized what the dragging sound had signified the night the doctor came: the bed had been moved into the double room and put under the window.

  "Micky and I have been sleeping in here with Mom," said Teddy. "She felt she wanted company."

  It was a delicate way of putting that she wanted protection. I left him in the dressing room pulling things out of the wardrobe, and picked up the telephone receiver beside the bed.

  The voice that answered me, precise and rather reserved, assured me the owner's name was Davies.

  "I'm Richard Young," I told him, "a friend of the late Professor Lane. You know all about me, I believe."

  "Yes, indeed, Mr. Young, I hope you are better. I heard through John Willis that you'd been laid up."

  "That's right. Nothing serious. But I'm going away, and I gather you are too, so I wondered if you had anything for me."

  "Unfortunately nothing very much, I'm afraid. If you'll excuse me a moment, I'll just get my notes and read them out to you."

  I waited, while he put down the receiver. I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was cheating, and that Dr. Powell would have disapproved.

  "Are you there, Mr. Young?"

  "Yes, I'm here."

  "I hope you won't be disappointed. They are only extracts from the Registers of Bishop Grandisson of Exeter, one dated 1334, the second 1335. The first relates to Tywardreath Priory, and the second to Oliver Carminowe. The first is a letter from the Bishop at Exeter to the Abbot of the sister-house at Angers, and reads as follows:

  "John, etc., Bishop of Exeter, sends greeting with true kindness of thought in the Lord. Inasmuch as we expel from our fold the diseased sheep which is wont to spread its disorder, lest it should infect our other healthy sheep, so in the case of Brother Jean, called Meral, a monk of your monastery at present living in the Priory of Tywardreath in our diocese, which is ruled by a Prior of the Order of St. Benedict, on account of his outrageous abandonment of all shame and decent behavior, in spite of frequent kindly admonitions--and because, alas, as I am ashamed to say (not to mention his other notorious offenses), he has nevertheless become more hardened in his wickedness--we have therefore, with all zeal and reverence for your order and for yourself, arranged to send him back to you to be subjected to the discipline of the monastery for this evil behavior. May God Himself maintain you in the rule of this flock in length of days and health."

  He cleared his throat. "The original is in Latin, you understand. This is my translation. I couldn't help thinking, as I copied it out, how the phrasing would have appealed to Professor Lane."

  "Yes," I said, "it would."

  He cleared his throat again. "The second piece is very short, and may not interest you. It is only that on 21 April, 1335, Bishop Grandisson received Sir Oliver Carminowe and his wife Sybell, who had been clandestinely married without banns or license. They confirmed that they had erred through ignorance. The Bishop relaxed the sentences imposed upon them and confirmed the marriage, which seems to have taken place at some previous date, not stated, in Sir Oliver's private chapel at Carminowe, in the parish of Mawgan-in-Meneage. Proceedings were taken against the priest who married them. That's all."

  "Does it say what had happened to the previous wife, Isolda?"

  "No. I presume she died, possibly a short while before, and this other marriage was clandestine because it took place so soon after her death. Perhaps Sybell was pregnant, and a private ceremony seemed necessary to save face. I'm sorry, Mr. Young, but I haven't been able to turn up anything else."

  "Don't worry," I said. "What you've told me is very valuable. Have a good holiday."

  "Thank you. The same to you."

  I put down the receiver. Teddy was calling to me from the dressing-room.

  "Dick?"

  "Yes?"

  He came through from the bathroom with Magnus's walking stick in his hands.

  "Will you be taking this with you?" he asked. "It's too long to fit into your suitcase."

  I had not seen the stick since I had poured into it the colorless liquid from bottle C nearly a week ago. I had forgotten all about it.

  "If you don't want it," said Teddy, "I'll put it back in the cupboard where I found it."

  "No," I said, "give it to me. I do want it."

  He pretended to take aim at me, smiling, holding it balanced like a spear, then lobbed it gently in the air. I caught it and held it fast.

  24

  We sat in the lounge at Exeter airport waiting for our flight to be called. Take-off was twelve-thirty. The Buick was parked behind the airport, to remain there until our return, whenever that should be. I got sandwiches for all of us, and while we ate them cast an eye over our fellow-travelers. There were flights that afternoon for the Channel Isles as well as Dublin, and the lounge facing the airfield was filled with people. There were a number of priests returning from some convocation, a party of school-children, family parties such as our own, and the usual sprinkling of holiday types. There was also a hilarious sextet who, from their conversation, were on their way to, or from, a riotous wedding.

  "I hope," said Vita, "we aren't going to find ourselves beside that lot on the plane."

  The boys were already doubled up with laughter, for one of the group had donned a false nose and a mustache, which he kept dipping into his glass of Guinness, to emerge beaded with froth.

  "The thing to do," I said, "is to leap to our feet as soon as our flight is called, so that we can get right up to the front, well away from them."

  "If that man with the false nose tries to sit beside me, I shall scream," said Vita.

  Her remark set the boys off again, and I congratulated myself on having ordered generous rations of cider for the boys and brandy and soda--our holiday drink--for Vita and myself, because it was that, more than the wedding party, which was making the boys giggle and causing Vita to squint as she peered in her powder-compact. I kept a close watch on the plane on the runway, until I saw that it was loaded. They were p
ulling the baggage trucks away, and a hostess was walking across the tarmac to our door.

  "Damn!" I said. "I knew it was a mistake to swill all that coffee and brandy. Look, darling, I must rush to the gents. If they call the flight go ahead and get seats in front, as I said. If I'm caught up in the mob I'll find myself a seat at the back and change places after take-off. As long as you three are together you'll be all right. Here--you take your boarding cards and I'll hang on to mine, just in case."

  "Oh, Dick, honestly!" exclaimed Vita. "You might have gone before. How typical of you!"

  "Sorry," I said: "Nature calls..."

  I walked rapidly across the lounge as I saw the hostess enter the door, and waited inside the gents. I heard the flight number called over the loudspeaker, and after a few minutes, when I came out again, our party was walking with the hostess across to the aircraft, Vita and the boys in the van. As I watched, they disappeared into the plane, followed by the school-children and the priests. It was now or never. I went rapidly out of the main door of the airport building, and crossed over to the car park. In a moment I had started the Buick and pulled out of the airport entrance. Then I drew into the side of the road and listened. I could hear the sound of the engines before the plane taxied to the start, which must mean that everyone was aboard. If the engines ceased it would mean my plan had gone for nothing, and the hostess had discovered that I was missing. It was twelve thirty-five exactly. Then I heard the engines increase in pitch and in a few minutes, unbelievably, my heart pounding, I saw the silver streak of the aircraft speeding along the runway and take off, gain height and flatten out, and then it was away among the clouds and out of sight, and I was sitting there, at the wheel of the Buick, on my own.

  They were due to touch down at Dublin at one-fifty. I knew exactly what Vita would do. She would put through a call from the airport to Dr. Powell in Fowey, and find him out. He would be out because it was his half-day. He had told me so, when I had rung up after breakfast to say good-bye. He had said that, if it was fine, he was going to take his family over to the north coast to surf, and he would be thinking about us, and would I please send him a postcard from Ireland saying "Wish you were here."

  I started to sing, as I turned into the main road and touched seventy. This was how a criminal must feel when he had just robbed a bank and got away with the loot in a stolen van. A pity I had not the whole day before me to explore at leisure, drive over to Bere and look up Sir William Ferrers and his wife Matilda, perhaps. I had found the spot on the map--it was only just across the Tamar in Devon--and I wondered if their house was standing still. Probably not, or, if it had turned itself into a farm like Carminowe. I had located Carminowe on my map at the same time, when Teddy was up in my dressing-room packing my case, and had also found the reference to it in the old volume of Parochial History that had given me Tregesteynton. Carminowe was in Mawgen-in-Meneage, near the Loe Pool, and the writer said that the ancient mansion and chapel had fallen into decay in the reign of James I, along with the old burial ground.

  I took the Launceston road after leaving Okehampton, for it was faster than the way we had come, and as I crossed from Devon into Cornwall, heading for Bodmin moor like a homing pigeon, I sang louder still, for even if Vita had beaten me to it, and was about to land in Dublin, I was safe from pursuit; she could not reach me now. This was my last trip, my final fling; and whatever became of me in the process I could not hurt either her or the boys, for they would be safe on Irish soil.

  "In such a night

  Stood Dido with a willow in her hand

  Upon the wild sea-banks, and wav'd her love

  To come again to Carthage."

  The trouble was, Isolda's lover had died in Treesmill creek upon the strand, and I doubted if either the threat of convent walls, or Joanna's taunts, or the monk's promise of safe passage to some doubtful refuge in Angers would have made her turn to Roger in the end. The future was bleak, six hundred years ago, for wives who left their husbands, especially when the husband had an eye to a third bride. It would have suited Oliver Carminowe, and the Ferrers family too, if Isolda had simply disappeared, which she might well have done had she entrusted herself to Joanna's care; but to remain under Roger's roof was at best only a stop-gap measure, and could not have continued long.

  As I drove across Bodmin moor, rejoicing that each mile brought me nearer home, exhilaration was tempered by the knowledge that not only must this be the last trip to the other world, but that when I entered it I had no choice of date or season. The thaw could have come and Lent be over, high summer have taken its place, Isolda herself, having made her choice, be languishing behind those convent walls somewhere in Devon, in which case she would have moved out of Roger's life, and mine as well. I wondered, had Magnus lived, whether he could have perfected the timing factor, thus leaving the awakening from present to past to the participant's own choice; so that today, by some infinitesimal alteration of the dose, I could have summoned up at will those figures in the basement where I had left them last. Never, in the few weeks of experiment, had it happened that way. There had always been a jump in time. Joanna's carriage would no longer be waiting on the top of the hill above Kylmerth; Roger, Isolda and Bess would have left the farmhouse kitchen. That single draft in the walking-stick could guarantee re-entry to my world, but not what I should find there when I did.

  The halt-sign brought me up with a jerk on to the main Lostwithiel-St. Blazey road. I had driven the last twenty miles like an automaton, and I remembered the side turning that would take me past Tregesteynton to the Treesmill valley. I drove down it with a strange nostalgic sense, and as I passed the present farmhouse of Strickstenton, and a black-and-white collie darted out on to the road barking, I thought of small Margaret, Isolda's younger child, who had wanted a riding-whip like Robbie's, and Joanna, the elder, preening in the looking-glass while her father chased Sybell up the stairs with the otter's paw.

  I came down into the valley, and so intense was my identification with the past that I had forgotten, momentarily, that the river would no longer be there, and I looked for Rosgof's cottage by the side of the ford opposite the mill; but of course there was no river and no ford, only the road turning left and a few cows grazing in the marshy field.

  I wished I was in the Triumph, for the Buick was too big and conspicuous. On sudden impulse I parked by the bridge below the mill, and, walking a short way up the lane, climbed over the gate into the field leading to the Gratten. I knew I must stand there once more among the mounds before returning home, for once back at Kilmarth the future would be uncertain; the last experiment might land me in some trouble unforeseen. I wanted to carry in my mind the image of the Treesmill valley as it looked today under the late August sun, letting imagination and memory do the rest, bringing back the winding river and the creek, and the anchorage below the long-vanished house. They had been harvesting in the Chapel Park fields behind the Gratten, but here where I walked beneath the hedge it was all grass, and cows were grazing. I came to the first of the gorse-bushes, climbing to the top of the high bank surrounding the site, and then looked down to the apron of grass which had once been a path under the hallway window, where Isolda and Bodrugan had sat holding hands.

  A man was lying there, smoking a cigarette, his coat propped under his head as pillow. I stared hard, unbelieving, thinking that guilt and an uneasy conscience must have conjured his image out of the air; but I was not mistaken. The man who was lying there was very real, and it was Dr. Powell.

  I stood there a moment watching him, then deliberately, without malice but with total resolution, I unscrewed the top of Magnus's stick and took out the little measure. I swallowed my last dose, and replaced the measure once again inside the stick. Then I walked down the mound and joined him.

  "I thought," I said, "you had gone surfing on the north coast?"

  He sat up instantly, and I experienced, for the first time since knowing him, the immensely satisfying feeling that I had caught him unawa
res and at a disadvantage.

  He recovered quickly, the look of astonishment giving place to an engaging smile. "I changed my mind," he said calmly, "and let the family go off without me. You seem to have done the same."

  "So Vita beat me to it after all. She didn't lose much time," I told him.

  "What's your wife got to do with it?"

  "Well, she telephoned you from Dublin, didn't she?"

  "No," he said.

  Now it was my turn to look astonished and stare at him. "Then what the hell are you doing here waiting for me?"

  "I wasn't waiting for you. Rather than brave the Atlantic breakers I decided to explore your piece of territory. A hunch that has apparently paid off. You can show me round."

  My one-upmanship began to fade, my self-confidence desert me. He seemed to be playing my own game and getting away with it.

  "Look," I said, "don't you want to know what happened at the airport?"

  "Not particularly," he replied. "The plane took off, I know, because I rang through to Exeter and checked. Whether you were on it or not they couldn't tell me, but I knew that if you weren't you would head back for Kilmarth, and if I turned up there for a cup of tea I'd find you in the basement. Meanwhile, burning curiosity drove me to while away half an hour or so down here."

  His cocksure attitude infuriated me, but I was even more angry with myself. If I had taken the other road, if I had not come through the Treesmill valley and allowed momentary sentiment to sway me, I should have been safely back at Kilmarth with at least half an hour or more in hand before he breezed in to take possession.

  "All right," I said, "I know I've played a dirty trick on Vita and the boys, and she's probably ringing you from Dublin airport now and getting no reply. What staggers me is that you let me go knowing what might happen. It's almost as much your fault as mine."

  "Oh, I agree," he answered. "I'm equally to blame, and we'll both apologize when we get her on the telephone. But I wanted to give you a chance, just to see if you could make it, instead of going by the rules."