Read Ebook: An open verdict by Braddon M E Mary Elizabeth

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AN OPEN VERDICT.

'DEATH BRINGS COOL NIGHT AFTER LIFE'S SULTRY DAY.'

MONDAY morning was bleak and cold. There was neither frost nor snow, but a driving rain that beat fiercely upon all the southern windows of the Water House, and obscured the view of river and village, church tower and moorland.

At nine o'clock Beatrix was still sleeping. Bella, to whom necessity had given the habit of early rising, was dressed and out of her room before eight, and found herself at a loss for occupation. There was a cheery fire in Miss Harefield's sitting-room, and the breakfast was laid--a snug round table bright with pretty china and quaint old silver, with an old blue and red Oriental bowl of hothouse flowers in the centre. How different from the Scratchell table, with its tumbled week-old cloth, which was like an enlarged copy of Mercator's Chart of the World, done in tea and coffee--its odds and ends of crockery, all cracked--for what pottery that ever the potter moulded could withstand the destructiveness of the young Scratchells?--the battered old Britannia teapot, stale quartern loaf, scanty remnant of salt butter, and inadequate dish of pale-faced rashers, the distribution of which half-cured pig gave rise to much ill-will and recrimination among Mr. Scratchell's olive branches!

At home Bella would have had to help in the preparation of the morning meal, and to assist her overworked mother in the struggle to preserve peace and order while it was being eaten. Here she had nothing to do but to sit and watch the logs burning, and listen to the clock ticking and the rain lashing the windows, while she waited for Beatrix.

This state of existence, placid though it was as compared with the turmoil of home, soon began to pall upon Bella, who was of an essentially active temper. She went to the window and looked out, but could see only dim shapes of mountain and moor through the blinding rain. She thought of Cyril Culverhouse, who was going his rounds already, perhaps, in the cold and rain, or teaching damp children in a windy schoolroom. She thought of her poor mother, whose much-tried spirit was doubtless being exercised by the teakettle's obstinate persistence in not boiling, and of her father, who was most likely making himself an affliction to everybody with his well-known Monday morning temper.

To-morrow would be Christmas Day. This afternoon Miss Harefield's presents, and Bella's poor little offerings were to be sent to the Scratchells. Bella wondered whether her father would be mollified in temper as evening wore round so far as to allow of egg-flip or snapdragon--those luxuries for which the young Scratchells always pleaded, but wherewith they were but seldom gratified. Yet, by and by, when going down the bill of life, they would look back fondly upon this and childhood, and, softened by distance, the rare and scanty pleasures of these early days would seem to them sweeter than anything which a prosperous later life could yield.

The clock struck the quarter after nine, and still Bella sat looking at the fire, with the breakfast table undisturbed. Even the urn had left off hissing. Beatrix was not generally so late. The two girls had been accustomed to sit down together at eight, for in Miss Scales' moral code late hours were sinful, and a nine o'clock breakfast was the first stage in a downward career.

Bella's patience was exhausted. She went to Beatrix's door and knocked. No answer. She knocked louder, and called, and still there was no answer. She was beginning to feel uneasy, when she saw the young woman who waited on Miss Harefield coming along the corridor.

'Is your mistress up, Mary? Have you done her hair?'

'No, miss. I went at half-past seven, as usual, but she was sleeping so sound I didn't like to wake her. I know she has had bad nights lately, and I thought the sleep would do her good. I've been on the listen for her bell ever since.'

'And she has not rung?'

'No, miss.'

Bella went in without another word. Beatrix was sleeping profoundly.

'Don't wake her, miss,' said the maid, looking in at the door. 'She's been wanting sleep all along. Mr. Namby says so. Let her have her sleep out.'

'Very well,' assented Bella. 'I'll go and have my breakfast. I'm quite exhausted with waiting.'

'So you must be, miss, and the urn is cold and the eggs too, I'll lay. I'll go and get things hotted up for you.'

Bella sat down to her lonely breakfast, presently, profound silence reigning in the house, and a dulness as of the grave. She began to think that, after all, wealth was not an unqualified blessing. Here was the heiress to one of the finest estates in Yorkshire, with innumerable acres in Lincolnshire to boot, leading an existence so joyless and monotonous that even one week of it was too much for Miss Scratchell. And yonder at the Park the wife of a millionaire was hastening her descent to the grave by vain cares and needless economies. The rich people did not seem, according to Bella's small experience, to get value for their money.

She was still sitting at breakfast when she was surprised by a visit from the butler.

'Oh, if you please, ma'am,' he began, with a serious air, 'Mrs. Peters and I are rather anxious about Mr. Harefield. We really don't feel to know what we ought to do--the circumstances are altogether out of the way. I don't want to do more than my duty as a faithful servant--and I shouldn't feel satisfied if I was to do less.'

'But what is wrong?' asked Bella, puzzled and scared by this circumlocution, and now perceiving the round rubicund visage of the housekeeper looking in at the door. 'Is Mr. Harefield ill?'

'No, Miss Scratched, it isn't that--but we cannot find him.'

'You can't find him?'

'No, ma'am. He isn't in his bedroom, and what's more, his bed wasn't slept in last night. He isn't in the library or the dining-room, and those three rooms are the only ones he ever uses. His habits, as you know, ma'am, are as regular as clockwork, as far as regards meals and so on. He takes his breakfast at nine o'clock, and goes from his breakfast to his library. He never left home in his life without letting me know beforehand. But he didn't sleep in this house last night, and he's not to be found in this house this morning.'

'He may have gone away last night with that strange gentleman,' suggested Bella.

'No, ma'am, that he didn't, for I let the foreign gentleman out, and locked the door after him.'

'Have you searched the house? Mr. Harefield may have fallen down in a fit somewhere. It's too dreadful to think of.'

'I've looked everywhere that was likely. There are only three rooms that he ever uses, as I said, ma'am. And I wouldn't frighten Miss Harefield for the world. That's why I came to consult you, ma'am, knowing you to be a clever young lady, and your father being my master's lawyer.'

'Come,' said Bella, seeing the two servants looking at her, as if for inspiration. 'If Mr. Harefield has gone away on the spur of the moment, I dare say he has left a letter or a memorandum somewhere. Let us go round the house together, and look about. It was quite right of you not to disturb Miss Harefield.'

Bella led the way downstairs, followed by the two scared servants. Her heart was beating fast, agitated by nameless fears; but even in the midst of her fear she felt a kind of elation, a sense of new importance. Some great event was going to happen. This slow old ship, the Water House, was entering stormy seas, and she was at the helm.

A sudden thought went through her heart like a knife. What if Mr. Harefield were to die? His death would mean wealth and freedom, love, liberty, all glad things that earth could give for Beatrix. It would mean union with Cyril Culverhouse. The pang of envy which pierced Bella's little soul at that thought was an almost insupportable agony. She had endured the idea of their mutual love with secret pangs and heart-burnings, but with at least an outward patience, while all possibility of their union was afar off. But, to see them prosperous lovers, happy in each other; to hear their wedding bells, and to have to sit by and smile assentingly while her little world praised them and rejoiced in their happiness, would be too much. All these considerations passed through her mind as she went downstairs, with the housekeeper and butler behind her, on her way to the library, where, if any letter had been left by Mr. Harefield before his departure, it was most likely to be found.

The shutters had been opened and the blinds drawn up, the fire was lighted, the chairs were set straight. But the large writing-table, with its litter of books and papers, had been left untouched. The housemaids at the Water House knew their duties too well to disturb anything there.

There were letters on the mantelpiece, old letters thrust carelessly behind bronze candlesticks and Oriental jars. The butler went over to the hearth to examine these papers, with a faint hope that there might be a message from his missing master among them. The housekeeper went to look at a tray in the hall, where cards and letters were sometimes put, and where it was just possible her master might have left some message on a scrap of paper.

Here, under Bella Scratchell's hand, lying half hidden among the books and pamphlets, was a letter that evidently meant something. A large blue envelope, sealed with the Harefield crest, and curiously addressed,--

A man would hardly write to his daughter, she living under the same roof with him, sitting at meat with him a few hours ago, unless he had something of an exceptional nature to tell her. These considerations and some more passed through Bella's mind as she stood with her hand on the letter, her eyes on the butler's portly back.

He was entirely engrossed with his scrutiny of the envelopes in his hand, being of a slow and stolid temperament, and requiring leisure in which to grasp an idea. At this moment no one but Bella and the writer knew of the existence of this letter.

And the writer, where was he?

Bella put the letter into her pocket.

'I will give it to her myself,' she thought. 'It will be better.'

'There's nothing here, Miss Scratchell,' said the butler, 'and this is where master always puts his letters for the post.'

And then he came and surveyed the table with his slow gaze, which seemed feebly to interrogate the covers of the books, as if in the hope that they might tell him something.

'Nothing on the table, ma'am?'

'Nothing,' answered Bella.

'It's a very awkward position for old servants to find themselves placed in,' said the butler. 'It isn't like my master to go out of the house and tell nobody, and leave his servants to puzzle and worry themselves about him. He has been eccentric of late years, but always the gentleman. And how could he go away, except on foot, which isn't likely? I've been to the stables. He has not been out there. The horses are in their stalls. There's no coach goes through Little Yafford. There's no rail within five miles.'

'I wish I knew what to advise you,' said Bella, 'but indeed I do not. It's quite a dreadful situation for you to be in. And Miss Harefield will be coming downstairs presently, and must be told. I really think you ought to send for my father. He would know what to do, perhaps.'

'But you have a right to make a fuss. His bed was not slept in last night, you say. He disappears suddenly on a Sunday night, after receiving a mysterious visitor. You have a right to be frightened.'

'Why frightened? Who has disappeared?' asked a voice at the door, and Beatrix entered, pallid and heavy eyed after her late slumbers.

'Oh, Beatrix,' cried Bella, going over to her, 'I did not think you were coming downstairs.'

'What is wrong?' asked Beatrix. 'Is it anything about my father?'

There was a pause, and then she turned sharply upon the butler.

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