Voices in a Haunted Room

“They are rather special friends of Mr. Frenshaw Senior, and perhaps they will look in.”

“They’ll come for sure ... and their son with them. I wish he could see more of my Evie. I reckon if he did he’d ask her to marry him.”

“I really don’t know about that, Mrs. Trent.”

“I do. If ever I saw a young man ready to fall in love, that man is Harry Farringdon.

But what happens? He sees her for an hour or two and then he is whisked away. He’s fond of her all right. She’s such a lovely girl. I reckon if she was only in the right society ... You get what I mean?”

“I do, of course, and I really will have to be going if ... er ...”

“Mrs. Frenshaw, ask my Evie to the christening party. Let that nice young man see her again. Oh, I worry about those girls, Mrs. Frenshaw. You’ve no idea. I have done everything I could to bring them up well and you must admit I’ve made a good job with Evie. You see, I’m not well off ... not like your family. It’s all very different for me. I’ve had to skimp and scrape. It was my son, Richard, you see. He was rather a wild one. Goes off and gets married. Then she dies when Dolly was born. And he’s left with two girls and he brings them to me. And then before Evie’s ten years old he’s gone. And Evie’s a girl to be proud of. I want to see her do well. I want to see her settled.”

“I do understand.”

“Then ask her to this christening party and whenever that young man is coming to you, make sure she’s there too. That’s all I want.” I said: “My mother arranges that sort of thing.”

“She would listen to you.”

“I would see that Evie was asked if it were a more formal occasion. This is really just for the family and a few...”

“You mean the Farringdons, and if they are in it, why shouldn’t my Evie be? I know you’ll do this for me. You will when I tell you something, something you ought to know.”

I felt sick and faint. Now it was coming. This was blackmail. She knew. She was the one who had been in the house and spoken through the tube. She was going to say: If you don’t do what I want, I shall tell.

I heard myself say in a voice which sounded a long way away: “What is it ... that you want to tell me?”

“Oh, well, we all have our secrets, don’t we? And human nature being what it is, there’s things we don’t always bring into the light of day, nor should they be. But if a wrong’s been done ... right-minded people ... well, they want to be able to right it, don’t they?”

I heard myself give a false laugh. “I don’t really understand you, Mrs. Trent.”

“Well, you’ve got to make excuses for people when they’re young. The blood runs hot then. They do things they’re sorry for after, but it’s too late then. We should think of these things ... things like consequences ... when we indulge in our little bits of wickedness.”

“Please, Mrs. Trent ...”

“All right, my dear, I’m coming to it. What I am saying is that my Evie has as much right to a good life as anyone. If she had had her due she’d be up there at all those dances and parties. She’d have a real launching into society, which would help her find someone who’d give her a good home and look after her in the future.”

She seemed to have strayed from the point and I wondered when she would return to it, threatening me to do as she wanted as the price of her silence.

“I’m telling you this, Mrs. Frenshaw, because I know you’re a sensible young woman.

You’ve got kindness in you, too. You wouldn’t judge anyone too harshly, would you?

I’ve got a feeling you’ll understand.”

“Do tell me what it is I have to understand.”

“It goes back a long way.”

“Please tell me, Mrs. Trent.”

“It was before you were thought of, Mrs. Frenshaw. It was when your grandmother was here at Eversleigh.”

I began to breathe a little more freely. It did not seem to be what I had feared, unless of course she was coming to that later.

“I was here with my mother, the housekeeper at Eversleigh, looking after the old gentleman. Your grandmother came and stirred things up. Then he came down ... that Mr. Frenshaw ... Dickon, the master of Eversleigh. Oh, he wasn’t that then. He had some place miles away ... not much consequence but he got Eversleigh and a wife to bring him a great fortune. He became a very important gentleman ... but I knew him when he was nothing much more than a boy. I was only a bit of a girl myself.

We had been up to games ... if you know what I mean ... that was before I married my Andrew. Then I came to Grasslands and Andrew got fond of me. I was fond of him too ... and he married me. You can imagine what they all had to say in the neighbourhood about that.”

“Yes, Mrs. Trent,” I said. I felt that I was coming alive again. This could not possibly be anything to do with me.

“People are not always kind, are they? They never forget, and in places like this it is passed down through the family. I know my mother left Eversleigh under a cloud.