The Song of the Siren

“Well, there’s no doubt he’s that. No doubt that he’s Gregory’s either, though I had to pretend he was Toby Eversleigh’s for a long time. These contretemps occur and it is better to tackle them in the way which will bring less trouble to everyone.

Listen. If you marry Benjie you can have a child-a little prematurely perhaps, but that is soon forgotten. You will have a husband, the child will have a father, and they are useful assets on most occasions.”

“Are you suggesting that I should deceive Benjie just to... to acquire these useful assets?”

“Not necessarily deceive him. Tell him the story of your capture, how your life was in danger and to preserve it you had to submit. That’s true, it is not?”

“It’s not the whole truth, Harriet. We ...”

“I know what happened. You tasted excitement with Beau; you missed it and thought it was your love for him you missed. It was more than that, though, and then the dashing Hessenfield arrived and threw a little light on the subject. You’re not like your true mother, dear child, you take after me. It was a great adventure, was it not? While it lasted you were deeply involved in it. But there are other men in the world like Beaumont Granville and John Hessenfield. Benjie is not one of them. But that is all to the good. He’s the best kind to marry. He loves you truly. And there is a great deal to be said for true love. Look how I have settled down to happiness with his father.”

“You want my fortune for Benjie, don’t you, Harriet?”

“Of course. I’m not going to deny that it adds to your many attractions.”

“That was what Beau said. But I couldn’t marry Benjie without telling him.”

“I was not suggesting that you should. Benjie will love you none the less because he is going to play the saviour. That will suit him well. He’ll want to protect you.

Yes, Benjie is the best answer.”

I shook my head.

“One can’t use people like that, Harriet. It’s not the way to live.”

“You still have some growing up to do,” she said.

Harriet was noted for taking matters into her own hands. She had with my mother; and she had always managed her own affairs with skill.

She spoke to Benjie without telling me, and his reaction was to seek me out at once.

He was tender; he was protective, all that she had known he would be.

“My dear little Carlotta,” he said. I noticed that I had become little, although I was a tall girl, almost as tall as he was. “Harriet has told me.”

“What has she told you?” I asked.

“There is no need to talk of it. It makes me furious. I wish he were here. I would kill him.... But there is something I can do and I’m going to do it.”

I turned away from him but he caught my arm and said: “We’re going to be married.

We’re going to be married from here, soon. Harriet and Gregory will arrange it. You know they always wanted it. You’ve been their special darling all your life. Mine too, Carlotta.”

I said: “Listen ... you don’t know what you’re doing.”

He laughed. “Dearest Carlotta, it was no fault of yours. That black villain took advantage ...”

“It was not quite like that, Benjie.”

He wouldn’t listen to me. He knew how it was. Harriet had told him, and, like his father, he had been listening to what Harriet had told him for a very long time.

I was shocked, he insisted. Who wouldn’t be? I had had a terrible experience. It was all so easy to understand and because of it I was going to have a child. That child would be his child. No one should know he was not the father. He was going to take care of me.

He had his arms about me and I had always been comforted by Benjie. When I started to grow up I was aware of the immense power I could wield over him and I shall never forget his joy when he discovered that I was not his sister. I knew he had planned to marry me from that moment.

It was a way out. I imagined what it would be like at Eversleigh if I had a child without a father. However independent one felt, however ready to fly in the face of convention, when it came to doing it there were complications which made it unpleasant.

There would be disadvantages for the child also.

I could of course take the path which had been taken in so many cases. Go away secretly and have the baby, get someone to take it. Oh, no, I did not want that.

The alternative was to marry Benjie. Our marriage would surprise no one. For some time our families had been hoping for it.

I was not deceiving Benjie. If he liked to put his own construction on what had happened-and I could see that nothing I could say would make him do otherwise-then I must be thankful that I was provided with such an easy solution to my dilemma.

Harriet threw all her energies into making the arrangements. My mother was going to be put out because I had married from Eyot Abbass instead of from my own home in the conventional manner. But as soon as she knew that I was pregnant she would understand. She would believe that Benjie and I had forestalled our marriage vows and that the need for the wedding was urgent.