Mistress of Mellyn

  I noticed that in places some of the cliff had fallen. This was continually happening. Tapperty had often said that the sea was gradually claiming the land, and that in his grandfather’s day there had been a road which had now completely disappeared.

  I thought of turning back, but if we did I would have to explain my fears to Alvean; and I did not want to do this while she was mounted.

  No, I thought, we’ll continue on this path until we can climb to the top road. Then we’ll go home a roundabout way, but on firm land.

  We had come to that danger spot and I noticed that the ground was even more slippery here, and that there had been a bigger fall of cliff than I had seen on other portions of the path.

  I held Jacinth in and walked her slowly in front of Alvean and Black Prince, for we naturally had to go in single file.

  I pulled up and looked over my shoulder, saying: “We’re going very slowly along here. You just follow.”

  Then I heard it. I turned quickly as the boulder came tumbling down bringing in its wake shale, turf, and vegetation. It passed within a few inches of Jacinth. I stared, in fascinated horror, as it went hurtling down to the sea.

  Jacinth reared. She was terrified and ready to plunge anywhere … over the cliff … down to the sea … to escape what had startled her.

  It was fortunate for me that I was an experienced rider, and that Jacinth and I knew each other so well. Thus it was all over in a matter of seconds. I had her under control. She grew calm as I began to talk to her in a voice which was meant to be soothing but which shook a little.

  “Miss! What happened?” It was Alvean.

  “It’s all over,” I answered, trying to speak lightly. “You managed perfectly.”

  “Why, miss, I thought Black Prince was going to start a gallop.”

  He would, I thought, if Jacinth had.

  I was terribly shaken and afraid to show it, either to Alvean or Jacinth.

  I suddenly felt the need to get off that dangerous path immediately. I glanced nervously up and said: “It’s not safe to be on these paths … after the weather we’ve been having.”

  I don’t know what I expected to see up there, but I was staring at the thickest of the bushes. Did I see a movement there, or did I imagine it? It would be easy for someone to hide up there. What if a boulder had become dislodged by the recent rains. What an excellent opportunity if someone wanted to be rid of me. It merely had to be rolled down at that moment when I was on the path—a perfect target. Alvean and I had made a habit of coming along this path at a certain time.

  I shivered and said: “Let’s get on. We’ll get onto the top road and won’t go back along the cliff path.”

  Alvean was silent; and when in a few minutes we were on the road she looked at me oddly. I saw that she was not unaware of the danger through which we had passed.

  It was not until we were back in the house that I realized how alarmed I was. I was telling myself that a terrifying pattern was being formed. Alice had died: Sir Thomas Treslyn had died; and now I, who was to be Connan’s wife, might easily have met my death on the cliff path this day.

  I longed to tell Connan of my fears.

  But I was a sensible, practical woman. Was I going to refuse to look facts in the face because I was afraid of what I might see there if I did so?

  Suppose Connan had not really gone away. Suppose he had wanted an accident to happen to me while he was believed to be away from home. I thought of Lady Treslyn at the Christmas ball. I thought of her beauty, her sensuous, voluptuous beauty. Connan had admitted that she had been his mistress. Had been? Was it possible that anyone, knowing her, could want me?

  The proposal had been so sudden. It had come at a time when his mistress’s husband was about to be exhumed.

  It was small wonder that the practical governess had become a frightened woman.

  To whom could I go for help?

  There was Peter or Celestine … only those two, I thought. No, I could not betray these terrible suspicions of Connan to them. It was bad enough that I entertained them myself.

  “Don’t panic,” I cautioned myself. “Be calm. Think of something you can do.”

  I thought of the house, vast and full of secrets, a house in which it was possible to peep from certain rooms into others. There might be peeps as yet undiscovered. Who could say? Perhaps someone was watching me now.

  I thought of the peep in Miss Jansen’s room and that set me thinking of her sudden dismissal. Then I was saying to myself: “Hoodfield Manor near Tavistock.”

  I wondered if Miss Jansen were still there. There was a good chance that she might be, for she must have gone there about the same time that I came to Mount Mellyn.

  Why should I not try to meet her? She might have some light to throw on the secrets of this house.

  I was desperately afraid, and at such times it is always comforting to take action.

  I felt better when I had written the letter.

  Dear Miss Jansen,

  I am the governess at Mount Mellyn and I have heard of you. I should so like to meet you. I wonder if that would be possible. If so, I should like our meeting to be as soon as you can manage it.

  Yours sincerely,

  Martha Leigh.

  I went out quickly to post the letter before I could change my mind. Then I tried to forget it.

  I longed for a message from Connan. There was none. Each day I looked for his return. I thought: When he comes home I am going to tell him of my fears, because I must do so. I am going to tell him of what happened on the cliff path. I am going to ask him to tell me the truth. I am going to say to him: Connan, why did you ask me to marry you? Was it because you love me and want me to be your wife, or was it because you wished to divert suspicion from yourself and Lady Treslyn?

  The devilish scheme which I had invented seemed to gain credibility with every passing moment.

  I said to myself: Perhaps Alice died by accident, and that gave them the idea of ridding themselves of Sir Thomas, who was the only obstacle to their marriage. Did they slip something into his whisky? Why not? And it could not have been merely by chance that the boulder came hurtling down at that precise moment. Now there was to be an exhumation of Sir Thomas and the countryside knew of the relationship between Connan and Lady Treslyn. So Connan became engaged to the governess in order to divert suspicion. The governess is now an obstacle even as Alice was, even as Sir Thomas was. So the governess could have an accident on her newly acquired mare to which it might be said that she had not yet grown accustomed.

  The road is clear for the guilty lovers and all they need do is wait until scandal has blown over.

  How could I imagine such things of the man I loved? Could one love a man and think such thoughts of him?

  I do love him, I told myself passionately. So much that I would rather meet death at his hands than leave him and be forced to endure an empty life without him.

  Three days later there was a letter from Miss Jansen, who said she was eager to meet me. She would be in Plymouth the following day and if I would meet her at the White Hart, which was not far from the Hoe, we might have luncheon together.

  I told Mrs. Polgrey that I was going into Plymouth to shop. That seemed plausible enough since my wedding was due to take place in three weeks’ time.

  I made straight for the White Hart.

  Miss Jansen was already there—an extremely pretty, fairhaired girl. She greeted me with pleasure and told me that Mrs. Plint, the innkeeper’s wife, had said that we might have luncheon together in a small room of our own.

  We were conducted to this private room and there took stock of each other.

  The innkeeper’s wife talked with enthusiasm of duck and green peas and roast beef, but neither of us was very much interested in food.

  We ordered roast beef, I think it was, and as soon as we were alone, Miss Jansen said to me: “What do you think of Mount Mellyn?”

  “It’s a wonderful old place.”

  “One of
the most interesting houses I ever saw,” she replied.

  “I did hear, from Mrs. Polgrey I think, that old houses specially interested you.”

  “They do. I was brought up in one. However, the family fortunes declined. That’s what happens to so many of us who become governesses. I was sorry to leave Mount Mellyn. You have heard why I went?”

  “Y-yes,” I said hesitantly.

  “It was a very distressing affair. I was furiously angry to be unjustly accused.”

  She was so frank and sincere that I believed her, and I made that clear.

  She looked pleased; and then the food was brought in.

  As we sat eating in a somewhat desultory way she told me of the affair.

  “The Treslyns and the Nansellocks had been having tea at the house. You know the Treslyns and the Nansellocks of course?”

  “Oh yes.”

  “I mean, I expect you know quite a lot about them. They are such friends of the family, are they not?”

  “Indeed yes.”

  “I had been treated rather specially.” She flushed slightly, and I thought: Yes, you are so pretty. Connan would have thought so. I was aware of a flash of not so much jealousy as uneasiness as I wondered whether in the years to come I was going to be continually jealous of Connan’s appreciation of the attractive members of my sex.

  She went on: “They had called me in to tea because Miss Nansellock wanted to ask some questions about Alvean. She did dote on that child. Does she still?”

  “Indeed yes.”

  “She is such a kind person. I don’t know what I should have done without her.”

  “I am so glad somebody was kind to you.”

  “I think that she looks upon Alvean as her child. There was a rumor that Miss Nansellock’s brother was the father of Alvean, which would make her Miss Nansellock’s niece. Perhaps that is why—”

  “She certainly does feel strongly about Alvean.”

  “So I was called down to talk to her, and I was given tea and chatted with them—as though I were a guest as they were. I think that Treslyn woman resented it … she resented my presence there altogether. Perhaps they were a little too attentive to me—I mean Mr. Peter Nansellock and Mr. TreMellyn. Lady Treslyn has a hot temper, I am sure. In any case I believe she arranged the whole thing.”

  “She couldn’t be so vile!”

  “Oh, but I am sure she could, and she was. You see, she was wearing a diamond bracelet and the safety chain had broken. It had caught in the upholstery of the chair, I think. She said, ‘I won’t wear it. I’ll take it down to old Pastern to get it repaired as soon as we leave.’ She took it off and put it on the table. I left them at tea and went to the schoolroom to do some work with Alvean. It was while we were there that the door was thrown open and they all stood there looking at me accusingly.

  “Lady Treslyn said something about having a search made because her diamond bracelet was missing. She was truculent. One would have thought she was already the mistress of the house. Mr. TreMellyn said very kindly that Lady Treslyn was asking that my room be searched, and he hoped I would not object. I was very angry and I said: ‘Come on, search my room. Nothing will satisfy me but that you should.’

  “So we all went into my room, and there in a drawer, hidden under some of my things was the diamond bracelet.

  “Lady Treslyn said I was caught red-handed, and she was going to have me sent to prison. The others all pleaded with her not to make a scandal. Finally they agreed that if I went at once the matter would be forgotten. I was furious. I wanted an enquiry. But what could I do? They had found the thing there, and whatever I had to say after that, they wouldn’t believe me.”

  “It must have been terrible for you.” I began to shiver.

  She leaned across the table and smiled in a kindly way at me. “You are afraid that they may do something similar to you. Lady Treslyn is determined to marry Connan TreMellyn.”

  “Do you think so?”

  “I do. I am sure there was something between them. He was, after all, a widower and not the sort of man, I think, to live without women. One knows his sort.”

  I said: “I suppose he made advances to you?”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “At least Lady Treslyn imagined that I might be a menace, and I am sure she chose that way to get rid of me.”

  “What a foul creature she is! But Miss Nansellock was kind.”

  “Very kind. She was with them, of course, when they found the bracelet; and when I was packing she came to my room. She said: ‘I’m very distressed, Miss Jansen, that this should have happened. I know they found the bracelet in your drawer, but you didn’t put it there, did you?’ I said: ‘Miss Nansellock, I swear I didn’t.’ I can tell you, I was hysterical. It had all happened so suddenly. I didn’t know what was to become of me. I had very little money and I would have to go to some hostel to look for work, and I knew I could not expect a testimonial. I shall never forget her kindness to me. She asked me where I was going and I gave her this address in Plymouth. She said: ‘I know the Merrivales are going to want a governess in a month or so. I am going to see that you get that job.’ She lent me some money, which I have now paid back, although she did not want me to do so; and that’s how I lived until I went to the Merrivales. I have written, thanking Miss Nansellock, but how can one thank people adequately who do so much for one in such dire need?”

  “Thank goodness, there was someone to help.”

  “Heaven knows what would have become of me if she had not been there. Ours is a precarious profession, Miss Leigh. We are at the mercy of our employers. No wonder so many of us become meek and downtrodden.” She brightened. “I try to forget all that. I’m going to be married. He is a doctor who looks after the family. In six months’ time my governessing days will be over.”

  “Congratulations! As a matter of fact, I too am engaged to be married.”

  “How wonderful!”

  “To Connan TreMellyn,” I added.

  She stared at me in astonishment. “Why …” she stammered, “I wish you the best of luck.”

  I could see that she was a little embarrassed and trying to remember what she had said about Connan. I felt too that she thought I should need that good luck.

  I could not explain to her that I would rather have one stormy year with Connan than a lifetime of peace with anyone else.

  “I wonder,” she said after a pause, “why you wanted to see me.”

  “It is because I had heard of you. They talk of you often. Alvean was fond of you and there are things I want to know.”

  “But you, who are soon to be a member of the family, will know so much more than I can tell you.”

  “What did you think of Gilly—Gillyflower?”

  “Oh, poor little Gilly. A strange, mad Ophelia-like creature. I always felt that one day we should find her floating on the stream with rosemary in her hands.”

  “The child had a shock.”

  “Yes, the first Mrs. TreMellyn’s horse nearly trampled her to death.”

  “You must have gone there soon after the death of Mrs. TreMellyn.”

  “There were two others before me. I heard they left because the house was too spooky. The house couldn’t be too spooky for me!”

  “Oh yes, you’re an expert on old houses?”

  “Expert! Indeed I’m not. I just love them. I’ve seen a great many and I’ve read a great deal about them.”

  “There was a peep in your room. Gilly showed it to me the other day.”

  “Do you know, I lived in that room three weeks without knowing it was there.”

  “I’m not surprised. The peeps are so cleverly concealed in the murals.”

  “That’s an excellent way of doing it. Do you know those in the solarium?”

  “Oh yes.”

  “One overlooking the hall, the other, the chapel. I think there’s a reason for that. You see, the hall and the chapel would be the most important parts of the house at the time that was built.”
r />   “You know a great deal about periods and so on. At what period was Mount Mellyn built?”

  “Late Elizabethan. At the time when people had to keep the presence of priests in their houses secret. I think that’s why they had all these peeps and things.”

  “How interesting.”

  “Miss Nansellock is an expert on houses. That was something we had in common. Does she know we’re meeting?”

  “No one knows.”

  “You mean, you came here without telling even your future husband?”

  Confidences trembled on my lips. I wondered if I dared share them with this stranger. I wished it were Phillida sitting opposite me. Then I could have poured out my heart to her; I could have listened to her advice, which I was sure would be good.

  But, although I had heard Miss Jansen’s name mentioned so much since I had come to Mount Mellyn, she was still a stranger to me. How could I say to a stranger: I suspect the man I am engaged to marry of being involved in a plot to murder me.

  No! It was impossible.

  But, I reasoned, she had suffered accusation and dismissal. There was a kind of bond between us.

  How far, I asked myself, are hot-blooded people prepared to go for the satisfaction of their lust?

  I could not tell her.

  “He is away on business,” I said. “We are to be married in three weeks’ time.”

  “I wish you the best of luck. It must have happened very suddenly.”

  “It was August when I went to the house.”

  “And you had never met before?”

  “Living in the same house one quickly gets to know people.”

  “Yes, I suppose that is so.”

  “And you yourself must have become engaged in almost as short a time.”

  “Oh yes, but …”

  I knew what she was thinking. Her pleasant country doctor was a very different person from the master of Mount Mellyn.

  I went on quickly: “I wanted to meet you because I believed you had been falsely accused. I am sure that many people at the house think that.”