Changeling

My grandparents would come up to London for the ceremony. They had written sending congratulations and expressing their pleasure in the forthcoming marriage. Uncle Peter was clearly delighted. He was fond of my mother and very proud of Benedict who had become so rich without any help from him. I think he cared more for him than his son Peterkin who had devoted his life to good works at the Mission, and Helena who had been such a perfect wife to Martin Hume.

It was rather different in our house where I was conscious of an atmosphere of brooding apprehension.

The servants did not speak to me about their fears but I used to listen shamelessly to their conversations because it was imperative that I should know what was in their minds. It was possible in a smallish house like ours to listen to talk and I made the most of it.

I heard Mr. and Mrs. Emery once. She was putting things in the linen cupboard and he was handing them to her. It was just outside my room and if the door were a little open—which I had contrived that it should be—it was possible for me to hear quite a bit.

She was saying: “It don’t do to worry. We’ll know in good time.”

“There is this new house they’re getting. But if I know Mrs. Mandeville, she’s not the sort to forget them as has been good servants to her.”

“Oh, it’ll be all right if it’s left to her … but …”

“Why shouldn’t it be? She’ll be the mistress, won’t she?”

“Well, yes … I reckon he’ll leave all that sort of thing to her.”

“I doubt he’ll buy that house unless he gets in.”

“Oh, I don’t know. He’s been close before, hasn’t he? That means if he loses first time round he could win next. There’ll be a general election before long … bound to be. Yes, I reckon he’ll want that house now he’s been selected.”

“Do you think he’ll get into Parliament?”

“He seems the sort to get what he wants.”

“Don’t forget last time … a regular scandal that was.”

I crept near to the door. I must not miss this. What scandal? I asked myself. Did my mother know of it?

“Well, it was all cleared up, wasn’t it?”

“Sort of. He didn’t kill her. That’s what they thought at first.”

“But it turned out she took the stuff herself instead.”

“All nice and convenient, wasn’t it?”

“Convenient! Why, it lost him the seat, they said. He was all set to take it.”

“Who knows? It was a Tory stronghold and he’s a Liberal.”

“But, but the Tories was getting really rattled. It looked like he was going to take it … make a record. The first time the Tories had been ousted for a hundred years or something.”

“But it didn’t happen.”

“No, his poor unwanted wife died in mysterious circumstances.”

“But I told you it was all right. He didn’t kill her.”

“I reckon it all worked out for the best. It kept the seat for the Tories.”

“Oh, you and your Tories. I’m a bit of a Liberal myself.”

“What do you know about it?”

“About as much as you do. There! That’ll be the lot. Come on. I’ve got the dinner to see to.”

I crept away from the door.

I felt excited, and the same time full of misgiving.

He had been married before. His wife had died … mysteriously. His first wife! And my mother was proposing to become his second.

I wondered what I could do. Warn her? But she must know about that long-ago scandal. She ignored it. She was bemused. She was bewitched by him.

I wished people would talk to me. I knew it was no use asking the Emerys or either of the maids. They would not tell me.

There was only one thing I could do and that was call on Pedrek’s help. Together we might discover what it was all about.

He was eager to help and asked their butler with whom he was on very friendly terms; he was told that some time ago Benedict Lansdon had stood for election in Manorleigh and just before it took place his wife had died; she had been a quiet, rather nervous woman and he had been very friendly with Mrs. Grace Hume. It had been hinted that Benedict murdered his wife to get her out of the way. It was all rumor and nothing was proved at the time of the election, and if this had not all come out, Benedict Lansdon would almost certainly have won the seat. But he was defeated at the polls because of the scandal and lost his chance of becoming a Member of Parliament. A note was discovered later … which had been written by the wife before she died. In it she said she was taking her life because she was suffering from some uncurable disease and was beginning to be in great pain.

So he was exonerated, but it was too late for him to win the election and in any case he had gone out of politics.

So there was some secret in his past. And this was the man who was to marry my mother and take her away from me!

From then on it grew worse. I saw less of my mother. They were making plans for the wedding. Uncle Peter wanted a grand one.

“There is nothing people like better than romance,” he said. “And if you are going to stand for Parliament, it is a good idea to get into the public eye … in the right way, of course.”