Chapter 32 Painted Out
Painted Out
Evie appeared briefly at lunch to take a plate of bread, cheese and cold meat, before vanishing back upstairs with it.
She favoured fountain pens when she wasn’t using the computer, and her current one, wedged behind her ear, had leaked blue ink down the side of her neck, like a strange tattoo. Above it, her pinkish hair stood up like a cockatoo’s crest.
I wondered if she would remember her promise to bring down all the paintings she’d found in the attic to show everyone at teatime. I’d have read the last of Arwen’s letters by then, and perhaps she’d be in a mood to talk to me about them.
I sat down in my usual place next to Rhys without looking at him, feeling rather shy after what had gone on between us earlier.
He seemed cheerful, however, and told Nerys about finding the box of Annie’s things in the attic, which he’d put in the family sitting room.
‘I thought you could go through it with Cariad later and see if there’s anything she might like to have now.’
‘Good idea. I seem to remember there were a few things Annie must have had as a child, including a piggy bank. It’s a Wemyss one, so it’s antique and collectable.’
‘I think she’ll definitely like that,’ he said.
‘Apart from a lot of clothes and shoes, and the things in her studio, she didn’t really have very much,’ Nerys said.
‘No, she was a rolling stone,’ he agreed.
‘We’ll sort it out when Cariad gets back from the castle.’
‘OK, I’ll fetch her in time for tea,’ Rhys said, then added to me, ‘Do you want to come for the run, Ginny?’
‘I … no, I’m going to work,’ I said lamely, not wanting to tell him what I’d really be doing.
He looked at me rather searchingly, then said, ‘OK.’
‘There’s something I want to do,’ I elaborated and, as soon as I could, went back up to my room.
There, I made myself a cup of tea and then settled down to read the last of Arwen’s letters to Milly, notes hand-delivered while her friend and her brother were staying in St Melangell.
I expected they’d be mainly concerned with the escape plan that had taken Arwen to safety.
Friday 25 July 1919
Dear Milly and Edwin,
I wanted this little note to greet you on your arrival at the Star and Stone, and only wish I could see you straight away, but that is impossible. Also, I expect you are tired from the long journey.
You will find an invitation from Maudie awaiting you, Milly, to take tea at Triskelion tomorrow afternoon. Edwin is not included, since I have told them he will be pursuing his own interests during your stay in St Melangell. We must both be on our best behaviour.
Also, Milly, since the idea of my coming into contact with any young man seems to drive Cosmo into a fit of jealous rage, it would be a good idea if you reinforce the story I have told them about Edwin only consenting to drive you up here because he had friends nearby he wished to spend time with.
Cosmo usually takes his tea into the study with him, even when there are visitors, but since he ordered Maudie to invite you so he could see for himself if you were a suitable companion for me, he may linger.
If so, you could ask him if he would allow me to visit you at Christmas, which should allay any remaining suspicions that I am still planning to escape.
I hope to meet you on the cliff path as I suggested at six tomorrow morning – if you can bear to get up that early!
We can get off the path a little where no one will see us, although the only person likely to pass that way at that time in the morning is Efa, and I have already sworn her to secrecy about my movements and who I meet when out.
If you recall my telling you, it was she who warned me about Wykes, the chauffeur, who spies on me and brings back the gossip from St Melangell, for he goes there to drink in the pub most evenings and also has a woman friend there, so he learns all the gossip.
It was he who told Cosmo who I had met and where I had been on my two trips into St Melangell.
I have so much to say to you and also, I want to hear news of all our friends and, of course, about Cosmo’s exhibition! But most pressingly, I want to hear your plan for my escape without implicating either of you in the process. I really can’t think how it can be done. I will hardly sleep tonight!
Your affectionate friend,
Arwen
Saturday 26 July 1919
My dearest Milly,
It was wonderful to see you both early this morning – and how sweet of Edwin to give us some time together first, before he joined us!
But I found it hard to comprehend the news you brought me, that several paintings you were certain were mine were being displayed as Cosmo’s work in his exhibition.
Yet I must accept it, for you know my style and also have my descriptions and sketches.
Nor is it any mistake on the part of the gallery, if they are indeed signed with his distinctive back-to-back C monogram!
But I simply can’t understand how any artist of integrity could appropriate the work of another, and the more I think about it, the angrier I become and the more resolved to face Cosmo with it!
However, I’ll have to do this in a way that conceals that you and Edwin are aware of what he has done.
I can manage this by saying you described some seascapes in the exhibition that were such a departure from his usual style and palette, that I recognized them as my own work.
Since he doesn’t know of our early meeting, I’ll let him think you told me about his exhibition after tea this afternoon, when I walked with you up to the oak grove and Mab’s Grave.
That was an unlooked-for pleasure, which I am sure would not have been allowed had Edwin been with you.
But since you were alone, it would have been hard for Maudie to forbid my escorting you part way home, especially since Lily Trimble was also at tea and would have thought it very odd.
I am glad you like her. All the sisters are very good company, as you will see tomorrow afternoon when we all meet again for tea at the vicarage, a kind invitation to a stranger on Lily’s part.
I’ll see you at church before that, however, if you really do mean to go.
It was so difficult facing Cosmo in the studio this morning after I had learned of his perfidy, but luckily Mr Jones was there, since Effie is still posing in her role as St Melangell.
Cosmo did comment that I seemed quiet and not myself, although I have held him in reserve ever since that horrible kiss when I realized the misapprehension he was under about my feelings for him.
I said I had a headache and after lunch would lie down, so could escape to my room until you arrived later.
Despite all my inner turmoil, it was so hard whenever I caught your eye during tea, not to burst out laughing, for listening to Maudie uttering inanities while eyeing your short hair and skirt disapprovingly, and Bea trying to pump you for the latest London fashions, in which you have little interest, almost overset me.
I think Bea was disappointed not to meet Edwin, my supposed ardent suitor.
But she is also rather cast down by the news that Mark Prynne and Lesley Stretton are engaged, even though she can see that she and Mark would no longer suit each other.
Her desperation to escape Triskelion by some other means is now as great as my own, even if for entirely different motives.
I’m glad you shared my delight in the ancient oak grove and Mab’s Grave, with its strange markings and the view of sky, sea and distant mountains gained from it.
There is a magic about this place that touches me, but I long for the broader canvas of Cornwall, which I am sure, from your descriptions, I will adore.
Despite my trepidation about facing Cosmo with what he has done, I am determined to do it and so will follow him to the terrace over the ballroom after dinner tonight, where he goes to smoke a cigar every evening. Fury will make me brave.
He must surely be ashamed when he realizes I know what he has done. Or will his overweening sense of self-importance make him think I should be pleased and flattered by it?
But whatever transpires, this has only made me the more determined to get away, although I can’t accept Edwin’s kind offer to marry me! I can see that once the deed was done Cosmo couldn’t do anything about it, but I won’t ask it of him. The first part of your plan, however, is masterly.
Pretending that you are leaving on Saturday and intending to call in to say goodbye that morning, while in reality we will leave on Friday evening, will allay any lingering suspicions Cosmo might have and also give us a whole night’s start – especially since you can drive too and so can share with Edwin.
I’m sure Bea will help me creep out to meet you at the rear gates to Castle Newydd.
And the second part of the plan, leaving me in the remote cottage of a friend on Bodmin Moor, means that if Cosmo pursues me to Lamorna, you can pretend complete surprise and concern.
I expect after a little while he will give up his search for me and I can join you, but if the hue and cry does go on longer, then I could take a job under an assumed name for a time. I am, if I say so myself, a good cook!
It was so sweet of Edwin, when he walked partway back with me along the cliff path this morning, to assure me that marrying me would be no hardship, but I knew it was just his kindness and I teased him about all those ideas he used to have about Free Love!
If you can meet me again early tomorrow, I will tell you what happened when I confronted Cosmo! I fear his anger, but he at least dare not lay hands on me in the house, with the servants and family about!
I will finish now before I go down to dinner, so Efa can bring this letter to the inn on her way home.
Your affectionate friend,
Arwen
Sunday 27 July 1919
Dearest Milly,
Since it was so wet this morning that we couldn’t talk for long without drowning, and there was no chance of private conversation after church, or during tea at the vicarage, with Bea there too, I thought I’d give you a full account of the scene I had with Cosmo last night.
If Cosmo thought I had followed him on to the terrace from a desire for his company, I soon disabused him of that idea by angrily informing him I knew of his appropriation of my works in the exhibition as his own.
While you both completely understand my feelings about this, it was clear Cosmo could not. In fact, he was quite unabashed, merely laughing and saying it was nothing to get in a froth about, and the art dealer wouldn’t have taken the paintings had he not thought they were his.
When I replied hotly that I’d much rather he hadn’t taken them at all and that I couldn’t understand how he could have brought himself to sign my work as his own, he just said, what did it matter?
He was allowing me to work on his paintings, which he was sure must have greatly improved my own style, and therefore I should be grateful he had thought them good enough to put his signature to!
‘That I most certainly am not!’ I cried, but he carried on as if I had not spoken, telling me not to be silly and then alluding to a future together that I had already told him I would never agree to.
‘It is time you grew out of that streak of childish rebellion and accepted that your future lies here with me at Triskelion, working together,’ he told me.
‘What, with you taking all the credit for work that is not your own!’ I threw at him, but he only laughed again and said I would come to see things his way in the end.
I said I wouldn’t, and that also his advances were repugnant to me, so that I’d be shaking the dust of Triskelion off my feet the moment I reached my majority.
To this he only replied that I protested too much and he knew me to be a tease – but in any case, I’d have ample time to change my mind.
‘Never!’ I cried – and just then the heavens opened and I ran back into the house and up to my room.
Can I have ever said or done anything to make him misread my character so completely?
From his demeanour today, you’d think nothing had happened and I’m sure none of my words made the slightest impression on him.
It does seem that one of our ploys to divert suspicion from our plans is working, however, thanks to Maudie’s prattle at the dinner table last night, when she recounted what you had told her at tea about Edwin only bringing you to St Melangell under sufferance and leaving you to your own devices every day, while he was spending time with his friends who lived near Harlech.
Then she added that despite your short skirts and bobbed hair, you seemed a well-brought-up young woman.
Cosmo paid more attention to what she was saying than usual and, when I asked him if I would be allowed to accept your aunt’s invitation to spend Christmas in London with you, he merely smiled and said he would see.
I’m very sure he wouldn’t let me, in case I never came back, and, of course, I’ll be long gone by then, but I tried to look pleased and hopeful.
I think that is my budget of news up to date. So frustrating that we should twice see each other during the day, yet not have a moment to speak privately. Still, on the walk home with Bea from the vicarage, I was able to tell her our plan, or at least the parts she needed to know.
She surprised me by sensibly suggesting that I begin to employ Efa to secretly take some of my belongings to you at the inn, since I wouldn’t be able to carry much with me when I made my escape.
I may also put some things in the attic over the east wing, where I’ve already stored one or two paintings of the dawn that I didn’t want Cosmo to see, but I didn’t tell Bea about this.
Before I leave, I’ll hide as many of my paintings there as I can without Cosmo noticing, so he can’t claim those as his own work, too!
I’m about to go down to dinner, but Efa will bring you this note with the first instalment of those of my belongings I can’t bear to leave behind.
I’ve already asked her to warn her young man not to talk to Wykes about any of our doings, when he goes to the bar to glean gossip for his master in the evenings.
I shall see you in the morning and hope the weather allows a longer meeting.
Sweet dreams.
Your affectionate friend,
Arwen
I stopped reading. So that must be what Nerys was afraid of – that Evie would expose Cosmo Caradoc’s appropriation of Arwen’s work as his own!
Riveted, I read on …