Changeling

“My mother always had a strong feeling about the pool.”

“I know.”

We were silent, thinking of her, then I said: “Are they still talking about the bells at the bottom of the pool which are supposed to ring to herald disaster?”

“Of course. They always did. The point is that people remember they heard them after the event.”

“What else has been happening?”

“One of the boats was lost in a gale. The gales were worse than usual this year.”

“A string of disasters.”

“Well, there are always the gales. Mrs. Jones had twins and Flora Grey is expecting a baby.”

“Good work for Mrs. Polhenny. How is she?”

“Doing her duty. Now tell me about yourself. The season went well, didn’t it? And you emerged engaged to be married.”

“That is what all girls are expected to do. But ours is a secret so I don’t get the glory.”

My grandmother laughed. “It is … wonderful. Our dearest hopes realized.”

“I did not know you were so dedicated to the idea.”

“We didn’t feel we could interfere. A marriage should be arranged between the two chief parties concerned.”

“But it is nice to find approval all round.”

“You haven’t told your stepfather?”

“Why should I?”

“He’s your guardian, I suppose. He’ll have to know.”

“You don’t think he’ll raise objections.”

She was silent and I flushed with indignation. Then I was laughing. “He won’t care,” I said. “He’s not interested. All he thinks about is getting on with his political career.”

“He did give you that expensive season.”

“He probably expected me to marry some great nobleman … someone who would bring kudos to him. ‘Rebecca Mandeville, stepdaughter of rising politician Benedict Lansdon, is to marry the Duke of …”

“Uncle Peter was like that. He always wanted such things to be noticed. Well, Benedict is his grandson. He might have the same thing in mind.”

I faced my grandmother. “If ever he tried to stop us …”

She smiled at me. “Don’t worry. We would talk him round.”

I stamped my foot in sudden rage. “It’s not his affair.”

“He might think differently.”

“I would not have it, Granny.”

“Well, don’t let’s imagine something which has not happened yet.”

“I think we were right in not telling people. We should wait until Pedrek and I are married.”

She did not answer. I knew it was something she would discuss with my grandfather later.

She changed the subject and said: “The children look well.”

“Leah turned out to be good for them.”

“She does a lot of sewing and they have beautifully embroidered dresses. She is always stitching. I think she is happy. But one can never be sure with Leah.”

“She must enjoy coming back here … after all it was her home.”

“I think she had a bad time before she escaped.”

“There was a change in her after she went up to High Tor. It must have been strange to her to find she was more or less working for the same people. Who would have thought Benedict would have married Celeste Bourdon?”

“It was rather surprising. I think it was their connections with Cornwall which made them interested in each other in the first place.”

“I’m glad he married again. We all know how it was between him and Angelet. They were made for each other. I think he suffered terribly. I like to think of him … settling down.”

“He hasn’t settled down.”

I told her about the locked room, the sadness of Celeste and the uneasy situation between him and Belinda.

“Belinda is very much aware of it,” I said. “It is quite wrong. But she is much better now. Miss Stringer is very good for her and Leah, of course, dotes on her. She probably lets her have too much of her own way. But what is rather nice is that she seems to be getting fond of me. Lucie is a help.”

“Dear Lucie! One would think she might be the one to develop complexes.”

“She knows of her birth. I thought it best that she should learn of it through me and not discover some other way. Belinda has a knack of finding out things and I did not want her taunting Lucie with it. Oh, they are good enough friends, but you know what children are. Lucie knows that I brought her into the household because her mother died. She does not know of course that her mother was strange and her father unknown. I said her father was dead … as he may well be … and that her mother lived near Cador and we had known her for a long time. She seemed content to leave it at that.”

“I am sure you will never regret insisting that we take her.”

“I had to do it, Granny. It was some compulsion.”

“You are a good sweet girl, Rebecca. You know what a comfort you have been to us.”

“Granny, we are getting morbid again.”

“All right … I won’t. Tell me about Belinda.”

“Christmas was good. There is a friend of my stepfather … well, a business associate really. He came down. He’s one of those suave men … very charming to everyone. Men of the world, I think you call them. He was particularly nice to Belinda and that made her very happy.”

“What that child needs is tenderness … special tenderness.”