Inheritance Feud

Chapter 52

Chapter 52

Hermione set out that day alone. Sybilla would join them later; her daily lessons with Jane Glover were becoming important, for though Godfrey could not bear the thought of parting with the little girl it was time, at any rate, to think about sending Sybilla in due course to school. Hermione remembered her own lonely childhood, and was resolved that such should not be her daughter's fate, lacking brothers and sisters. Sybilla should make the right friends-Hermione was never free of mild ambition and the best way to achieve thisI was by putting her name down for the right establishment for young ladies, already suggested by Jane Glover. It was pro bable, though nothing definite had been said in this way, that when Hermione no longer required her at Baron, Jane would be offered a place on the school's staff. This would be of great benefit to Sybilla, who would feel less strange, in her first long absence from her home and parents, if her former governess were with her. "And so, my love, you must work hard each day till then, for there is-" Hermione smiled at the innovation-"an entrance examination, and those who are stupid, or lazy, will not be admitted. Think of the shame of that!"

But Sybilla would not be too stupid, she was convinced; Godfrey had taught her from an early age to use her mind, to look about her and to cultivate memory. Hermione walked her pony, surveying the new forest and thinking how tall the trees had grown in under six years. The light filtered between the delicately traced branches was the colour of dry sherry-wine; something of the tonic quality of wine, too, was in the air from the sea, and she herself felt better than she had of late, even glad Godfrey had persuaded her to come out for the ride and alfresco today. She stayed indoors too much, he told her; and now that he was about again, she must make, she told herself, more effort to accompany him.

He had not appeared yet, and Sybilla also would ride down later, when the lessons were done, like a grown-up young lady in her habit. Hermione meantime cantered her mount along the coast-road, seeing again the well-known vistas of sea and rocks, caves and the distant bulk of Man she had known from a child. The remains of invalid weariness; of doubt, fell away from her with the speed of the ride; with their health, now that she and Godfrey had begun to regain it, could they not be content with their lot? A good horse, a daily ride before break fast; a beloved child, enough money to satisfy every whim, and Godfrey himself a saint and scholar; what did she lack? She turned the pony's head at last, and the beast trotted

docilely back the way they had come. As the underwater

shadows of the forest closed again about her, Hermione drew a

sharp breath. Standing on the bridle-path, straight in her way,

on Godfrey's land, was Theon Doon, a long staff in his hand

his stance as he heard her come; there was no escape between

on which he was meantime leaning. He did not move or alter

the interlacing tree-branches, and she reined in her pony.

He smiled, and she knew well that he was aware of her as the rider. She said severely, "Theon, you should not be here," and waited for him to bow, apologise, and allow her to pass before removing himself. He must use, she realised, the long staff to tap his way among the trees; they would be new since his earlier sojourn here. Pity for his blindness claimed her, and she slid from the saddle. He had not moved and she saw, too late, that he had in fact been waiting for her to dismount; taking charge of the reins, he tied them to a branch with strangely expert fingers.

"Theon." She smiled, and decided to try to charm him into going; it would be unpleasant, she thought, if Godfrey came upon them here; it would spoil Godfrey's day. "Theon, why do you act always as if we were enemies, and try to embarrass us? Can the past not be forgotten, so that we can both of us wish you well? I am happy, you know, with my husband and child; I-I would wish to see you happy also. Godfrey, I am sure, would feel as I do, were you to act in a friendly way to him, and show a little gratitude for all he has permitted you. It is at least ungrateful," she finished gently, "to trespass in his forest." She did not mention, indeed hardly thought of, Clairette: that matter was done with.

"There were silver birches here once, among the thorns," said Theon inconsequentially. "I remember them from a boy. I carved my name on one."

He took his staff and viciously, as if he wanted to wound it, slashed this against the trunk of one of the evenly planted young larches, then laid the staff down. A weal showed on the assaulted bark: Hermione drew a breath of anger. How mean, how needlessly destructive Theon could be, like a small boy whose will has been crossed and who pulls the wings off flies! As though to prove that he was by now more of a child, or savage, than he had ever been, Theon himself broke into sudden laughter.

"Happy, eh? With your husband and your child?" He mimicked her tones cruelly, stressing each syllable to convey a hidden meaning in the outwardly harmless words, stripping her of pretence. "Was he ever in truth your husband, my dear? And the child is mine."

"Be quiet, you will be heard-" "And that would be a pity," he mocked. "That'd prick your genteel soap-bubble, would it not? Are you happy in it, Anna bel? Poor Hermione; your tail's ill served nowadays!"

She had drawn away from him, in disgust; he was coarse, she thought, and lewd; the low company he affected had altered him from what he had once been. She would tell him again to go, and "Shall I solace it?" he whispered, drawing

nearer. "Shall I rouse it to life again, my dear, your little tail?" Still laughing, he pulled her to him; and on the gasp of out rage she had given at the words he used, he kissed her, her Imouth was open, and he put his tongue in it, and held her thus for moments; she could feel his laughter.

She had struggled against him, striking out until he pinioned her hands, easily in one of his own; then he began to handle her with the other. Her senses reeled, and she grew dizzy; this couldn't be real, it was a dream; an evil dream, Theon couldn't be here with her, his fingers thrusting down inside her bodice, his mouth on her mouth. He knew, had always known, how to rouse her, where to touch; he did so now, at the same time talking, talking always, against her imprisoned mouth.

"Do you remember how I came below your window, then climbed up, and into your little bed... a virgin, a chaste little maiden nun, you were ... but not by the time I'd done... do you remember how you would leap, and cling afterwards, and not want me to go? Do you remember, Madam Gentility, eh? Do you, do you?"

And he caressed and teased her; and presently her thighs, her knees, had become like melting wax, and he would have drawn her then into the privacy of the trees, and she could not prevent him, no, she could no more prevent him from any thing than the moon from rising.

"Ah..." ود

And the shameful flood, the hot unbidden surge of desire, welled in her as it had used to do, and the thing was as it had used to be, and she Then she tore herself away and raised the arm which held

her small silver-handled riding-whip, and slashed and slashed

so that the blood ran down Theon's face. She must have been screaming, although she had not heard herself make any sound. She was aware, at some time, of an answering shout in the distance, and at the same moment the tension in all her body eased and she turned and ran, one hand still clenched over the whip, and saw Godfrey in his chair, coming down the path to where they were, so that he must have heard and seen her strike and strike at a blind man,

who couldn't defend himself. What had come over her? What had she become? She reached Godfrey. He had stopped the calèche, and was at the reins still, staring down to where Theon stood. Anna bel flung her arms about him; in the terror Theon had aroused in her, it seemed as if he could do them both harm, as if they were here unprotected together. But Theon wag blind.

He came then. He began to walk towards where they were, without his staff which he had left lying by the tree. The whip had cut four weals across his face and the blood had welled up in these and now ran down, disfiguring his cheeks and chin and staining his clothing. The light, blind eyes were fixed on Godfrey; he must have heard the latter call out. "Are you there, Devenham?" they heard him say as he

came. "Are you there, eunuch, protector of other men's women? Do you know, my usurper, that she" and he pointed at Hermione, again as though he could see her, for her breaths were loud and rasping now with the horrified sobbing that would soon overcome, and she clung to Godfrey as if in fear that Theon would strike. "Do you know that she was my bedfellow, Devenham, in the days when you were collect ing shells on the shore together? That was a pretty spectacle, I declare; but the nights were mine. I climbed up to her win dow, as you could not."

"Stop, stop," screamed Hermione, "can't you see-" Then the impossibility of what she had said, had tried to say, in such a situation overcame her, and she gave way to crazed laughter. Theon was blind, blind. She'd asked a blind man if he could see. She'd slashed a blind man till the blood ran down his face. She'd Then she saw Godfrey; and her laughter died.