He was gentle with her, gentle and strangely restrained. And yet as the happy moments went by in that silent, sunny house, something deep in her still troubled heart told her that Radmore really loved her--loved her as perhaps he had not loved her ten years ago, in his hot, selfish, impulsive youth.
"We needn"t tell anyone for a little while, need we?" she whispered at last.
She had shared her life, given her services to so many during the last nine years, and she longed to keep this strange new joy a secret for a while.
"If you like, we need never tell them at all," he answered. "We can just go out, find a church, and be married!"
"Oh, no; that wouldn"t be fair to Janet." And yet the notion of doing this fascinated her.
CHAPTER XXV
And meanwhile what had been going on at Old Place? Outwardly very little, yet one long-expected, though when it happened, surprising, thing had occurred. Also Janet, as the day went on, felt more and more worried about Jack.
He wandered in and out of the house like an unhappy, unquiet spirit, for the sudden departure of Enid Crofton for London two days before had taken him utterly by surprise, the more so that she had left no address, and he was suspicious of--he knew not what! It was reasonable to suppose she had gone to pay the debt for which he had provided the money; but then why keep her address in town secret from him?
At last, this morning, there had come a postcard to Rosamund, asking to be met at the station, alone, with the Old Place pony-cart. It was a reasonable request, for the funny little vehicle only held two people and a minute quant.i.ty of luggage. Still Jack had felt annoyed she had not asked him to meet her. She seemed to him absurdly over-cautious.
About ten minutes before the motoring party"s return, Rosamund hurried in with a casual message that Enid was very tired, and so had gone straight to bed; that she hoped some of them would come in and see her on the morrow, Sunday. In any case they would all meet at church.
Jack was puzzled, hurt, and bitterly disappointed, and at once he went off to write a note which should be, while wildly loving, yet clear in its expressions of surprise that she had not sent him some sort of message appointing a time for their next meeting. He found the letter unexpectedly difficult to write, and he had already torn up two beginnings, when the door behind him burst open, and, turning round irritably, he saw Timmy rush across to a window and shout exultantly, "Mum? We"re back! And we"ve brought Josephine and her kittens. Mr.
Trotman said she"d be all right now."
Jack Tosswill jumped up from his chair. It was as if his pent-up feelings of anger had found a vent at last: "You have, have you?" he cried in an enraged voice. "Then I"ll see to the shooting of the brute this very minute!"
Quick as thought, Timmy rushed back to the door and turned the key in the lock. Then he bounded again to the open window. "Mum!" he screamed at the top of his voice. "Come here--I"m frightened!"
Janet Tosswill, walking quickly across the lawn, was horrified at the look of angry despair on the child"s face.
"What"s happened?" she asked, and then, suddenly, she saw Jack"s blazing eyes.
"J-Janet," he began, stuttering in his rage, "either that cat is shot to-day, or I leave this house for ever."
Even in the midst of poor Janet"s agitation, she could not help smiling at the melodramatic tone in which the usually self-contained Jack uttered his threat. Still--
"It was very, very wrong of you, Timmy, to bring back your cat to-day,"
she said sternly. "Had I known there was any idea of such a thing I should have absolutely forbidden it. Josephine is not fit to come back here yet; you know what Dr. O"Farrell said."
The colour was coming back into Timmy"s face. He had a touching belief in his mother"s power of saving him from the consequences of his own naughty actions.
"I"m very sorry," he began whimperingly. "It was not my fault, Mum. Even Mr. Trotman said there was nothing the matter with her."
And now Jack was beginning to repent of his hasty, cruel words. He was as angry as ever with Timmy, but he was ashamed of having spoken as he had done to Janet--the woman who, as he knew deep in his heart, was not only the best of step-mothers, but the best of friends, to his sisters and himself.
"Of course I don"t mind her being at Trotman"s, but I do very much object to her being here," he said ungraciously.
"I"ll see about her being sent back to Epsom to-day," said Janet quietly.
She turned to her son: "Now then, Timmy, I"m afraid we shall have to ask poor G.o.dfrey to start back at once after tea."
"Oh, I say," called out Jack awkwardly. "I don"t want the cat to go as soon as that, Janet. To-morrow will do all right. All I ask is that the brute shall be taken away before it has a chance of seeing Mrs. Crofton again."
"Very well; the cat shall go to-morrow."
Drawing her little boy quickly after her, Janet left the drawing-room, crossed the corridor, walked into the empty schoolroom, and then, to Timmy"s unutterable surprise, burst into bitter tears.
Now Timmy had never seen his mother cry--and she herself was very much taken aback. She would have given a great deal to have been left alone just then to have her cry out, but Timmy"s scared little face touched her.
"I can"t think why you did it," she sobbed. "I always thought you were such an intelligent boy. Oh, Timmy, surely you understood how angry it would make Jack and Rosamund if you brought Josephine back now, to-day?"
"I never thought of them," he said woefully. "We were so happy, Mum--G.o.dfrey, Betty and I. Oh, why are people so horrid?"
"Why are people so selfish?" she asked sadly. "I"m surprised at Betty; I should have thought that she, at least, would have understood that the cat must stay away a little longer."
"It wasn"t Betty"s fault," said Timmy hastily. He waited a moment, then added cunningly, "It was really Mr. Trotman"s fault; he said Josephine ought to come home."
But his mother went on a little wildly: "It isn"t an easy job, taking over another woman"s children--and doing the very best you can for them!
To-day, Timmy, you"ve made me feel as if I was sorry that I ever did it."
"Sorry that you married Daddy?" asked Timmy in an awe-struck voice.
Janet Tosswill nodded.
"Sorry that I was ever born?" cried Timmy. He flung his skinny arms round her bent neck.
She looked up and smiled wanly. "No, Timmy, I shall never be able to say that, however naughty you may be."
But Timmy was not to be let off yet.
"What happened to-day has hurt me very, very much," she went on. "It will be a long time before I shall feel on the old, happy terms with Jack again. Without knowing it, Timmy, you"ve pierced your mother"s heart."
But even as she uttered these, to Timmy, dreadful words, Janet Tosswill got up, and dried her eyes. "Now then, we must go and see about Josephine being shut up in some place of safety, where she and her kittens will not offend the eyes of Jack and Rosamund. How about the old stable?"
She was her own calm, satirical, determined self again. But Timmy felt, perhaps for the first time in his life, deeply conscious of sin. His mother"s phrase made him feel very uneasy. Had he really pierced her heart--could a mother"s heart be permanently injured by a wicked child?
It was a very mournful, dejected, anxious boy who walked into the kitchen behind Janet Tosswill.
Timmy had a very vivid imagination, and during the drive back he had amused himself by visualising the scene when he would place Josephine and her kittens in their own delightful, roomy basket in the scullery. It would be such fun, too, introducing Flick to the two kittens! At Betty"s suggestion, Flick had been shut out from the scullery after Josephine"s kittens were born, and that though the dog and the cat got on extremely well together. In fact, Flick was the only creature in the world with whom Josephine, since she had reached an approximately mature age, ever condescended to play.
And now poor Josephine and her kittens were to be banished to the old stable, and to-morrow driven back ignominiously to Epsom, all because of that tiresome, hateful Mrs. Crofton!
There was no one in the kitchen, and it did not look as tidy as it generally looked; though the luncheon things had been washed up, they had not been put away.
Mother and son walked on into the scullery to find Betty there, boiling some water over a spirit lamp. "Betty? How very delightful you look!" her step-mother exclaimed. "Just like an old picture, child! Wherever did you get that charming motor-bonnet?"
And then Timmy chipped in: "_I_ thought of it," he said triumphantly; "it was _my_ idea, Mum, but G.o.dfrey paid for it. He said he hadn"t given Betty a proper present yet, so he _had_ to pay for it, and, and--"