The Ashiel Mystery by Mrs. Charles Bryce (mini ebook reader TXT) 📕

wicked, wicked man. A murderer! Oh, how horrible it all is!"

 

Julia laid a hand on Mark's arm.

 

"She will tell what she knows," she said, trembling.

 

"She shall not," Mark stammered furiously. He seemed to be half

suffocating with rage. "She shall not go unless she swears to say

nothing. Swear it, I say!"

 

He seized Juliet by the shoulder and shook her violently to emphasize

his words.

 

"I won't swear anything of the kind," she retorted, trying to break from

his grasp. "Do you suppose you can kill me, too, without being found out?

There is a detective here now, and Sir David Southern is not at hand to

lay the blame on. You coward! How dare you touch me!"

 

The truth of her words seemed to strike home to Mark, for he left go of

her suddenly, and stood, biting his nails and scowling, the picture of

irresolution and malignance.

 

Juliet lost no time in following up any advantage she might have gained.

 

"I can't help knowing that you care for him," she said, addressing

herself to Julia, "though I wouldn't have listened to that part if I

could have helped it. But how can you? How can you? I can't understand

how you can feel as you do about killing people, but at least if you did

such a thing you would imagine it was for the good of your country, while

this man thinks of nothing but his own selfish ends. Money, that is all

he wants! How can you condone such a crime as his? To kill Lord Ashiel,

that good, kind man who had treated him like a son all his life, who did

everything for him. And just for the sake of money! It's not even as if

he wanted it really. He's not starving. He had everything, in reason,

that he wanted. If he needed more, urgently, I believe he had only to

tell his uncle, and it would have been given to him. Oh, it is beyond all

words! He must be a fiend."

 

Indignation choked her. She spoke in bursts of trembling anger, her words

sounding tamely in her own ears. All she could say seemed commonplace and

inadequate beside the knowledge that this man was her father's murderer.

 

Even Julia, indifferent to every aspect of the case that did not touch

upon her relations with her lover, was shaken by the scornful disgust

with which the broken sentences were poured forth; and, if her

infatuation for Mark was too complete to allow her to consider any

action of his unjustifiable, still she realized, perhaps for the

first time, the feelings with which other people would view the thing

that he had done.

 

"You don't understand him," she faltered. "He didn't want money for

himself alone. It was for me he did it. He was too proud to ask me to

marry a poor man. You could never understand his love for me. How can I

blame him? How many men would run such risks for the girl they loved? I

am proud, yes proud, to be loved like that!"

 

"You believe his lies," Juliet cried contemptuously. "You believe he

loves you so much? Why it is not two days since he came to me and asked

me to marry him."

 

"What!" Julia spoke in a panting whisper. Her face had suddenly lost

every particle of colour. "Say it's not true," she begged, turning

miserably to the man.

 

He made an effort to deny the charge.

 

"Of course. Not a word of truth in it. Damned nonsense," he blustered.

 

But his eyes fell before Juliet's scornful gaze, and Julia was not

deceived.

 

"It can't be true, oh, it can't," she moaned. "No man could be so vile."

 

"No other man could," Juliet amended. In spite of herself she was sorry

for the girl, whose stricken face showed plainly the anguish she was

undergoing. "Forget him, Julia; he is not worthy to tie your shoe-lace.

He came to me after they had taken David away, and asked me first if I

would take his inheritance even though I couldn't prove my birth, which

he must have known perfectly that I should never dream of doing, and then

proposed I should marry him, saying that he was very fond of me, and that

in that way justice would be done as regards Lord Ashiel's money,

however things turned out for me. I thought it honourable and generous at

the time, and so did Lady Ruth when I told her--oh yes, she knows about

it and can tell you it is true--but now I see that all he wanted was to

be on the safe side, and, if I had accepted him and had turned out to

have no claim upon his uncle's fortune, he would have broken the

engagement on some easy pretext. Can you deny it?" she demanded of Mark.

 

But he could not face her, though he made an effort again to

brazen it out.

 

Every word she had spoken seemed to strike Julia like a blow. She shrank

quivering away, and threw herself down on to a chair, her face hidden in

her hands. Juliet went to her and touched her gently on the shoulder.

 

"Don't think of him any more," she said. "Presently you will hate

yourself for having cared for a murderer. Just now, I know, your love for

him makes you gloss over his crimes, but when you are yourself you will

see how odious they are. Poor Julia, I hate to hurt you so, but it is

better, isn't it, that you should know? You will forget this madness. He

is not worth your wasting another thought on. Think how shamefully he has

deceived you. Think of all his lying words, of how he told you he had

never looked at another woman."

 

Julia raised her head and showed a face, white as chalk, in which the

great brown eyes seemed to burn like fires of hatred.

 

"Yes," she said in a hard, even voice. "I am thinking of it. I shall not

forget him. No. Instead, I shall think of him day and night, be sure of

that. I shall laugh as I think of him; laugh at the thought of him in

his place in the dock, or in his prison cell. I shall laugh when I give

my evidence against him, and most of all I shall laugh on the day when he

is hanged. If his grave is to be found, I shall dance upon it. Oh, it

will be a merry day for me, that day when the cord is tightened round his

false neck!"

 

She went near to Mark, and hissed the last words into his face, leaning

forward, with one hand on her own throat. But he seemed to shrink less

before her vindictive passion than he had under the colder scorn of

Juliet's denunciations.

 

"Come, Juliet," said Julia, calming herself a little, although hate was

still blazing in her eyes, "let us leave this place. We must send for

the police."

 

"Julia," said Mark, stepping forward, and speaking with some of his

former assurance, "you condemn me unheard. Why should you believe this

girl before me? It is not like you, Julia. It is not like the girl I

love. For I do love you, darling, in spite of what you may think; and,

till a few moments ago, I thought you loved me too. But I see now what

your love is. One whiff of suspicion, one word of accusation, and without

proof or evidence you condemn me, and your so-called affection

disappears. Julia, I think you have broken my heart."

 

Juliet gave vent to a derisive sound which can only be called a snort;

but it was plain that his words, and more especially the manner of sad

yet tender reproach in which they were uttered, were not without their

effect on the other girl. Her eyes wavered uneasily; she twisted and tore

at her handkerchief.

 

"I have heard what you have to say," she murmured. "I saw that you could

not deny what Juliet told me."

 

"I did deny it. But what is the use of talking to you when you are in

such a state? You are determined beforehand to disbelieve me. And I have

no wish to justify myself to Miss Byrne, though I am willing to swallow

my pride and do so to you."

 

"Well," she said after a moment's hesitation, "justify yourself if you

can. No one shall say I would not listen. God knows I shall be glad

enough if you can clear yourself."

 

"To begin with," said Mark, "I admit that, superficially, there is truth

in what you have heard. But only superficially, for the person I deceived

was not yourself but this young lady. I certainly, as she suggests, never

had the slightest intention of marrying her. For one thing I was

absolutely certain she would refuse me, but it seemed a good

precautionary move to make what might appear a generous proposal, and at

the same time get a sort of mandate from the possible heiress herself to

stick to my uncle's fortune. You may be sure I should never have given it

up, in any case, but it is as well to keep up appearances. The business

was only a move in the game I am playing, and no more affects the

sincerity of my love for you than any of the social equivocations we all

find necessary from time to time. I love you, Julia, and you alone. How

can you doubt it? I love you so much that I am willing to overlook your

want of confidence in me, and to forgive the cruel things you said just

now. Darling, how can I tell you, before a third person, what I feel for

you? You are everything to me; and, if you no longer love me, I don't

care what happens. Give me up to the police if you like. The gallows is

as good a place as another, without your love."

 

Long before he had finished, all traces of resentment had vanished. When

he ceased speaking, she gave in completely, and threw herself upon his

breast, sobbing passionately, and begging his forgiveness for having

doubted him for an instant, while he soothed and comforted her in a low

tone. Juliet did not know what to do or which way to look. The two stood

between her and the door, and she felt an absurd awkwardness about trying

to pass them. Was it likely she would be allowed to go out free to

denounce them? She was afraid of trying.

 

At last Julia was calm again, and there came a silence, during which the

pair glanced at Juliet and then at each other.

 

"What's to be done?" Julia asked at length, and then suddenly, without

waiting for an answer, "I have an idea, Mark, that will save you. If her

mouth can be stopped for a time, will you be able to get clear away?"

 

"I shall have to try, I suppose," he replied, with a trace of his former

sulkiness. "To think that everything should miscarry because of a slip

of a girl!"

 

"You had better go to Glasgow and get on board some ship there which will

take you to a place of safety. I shall have to stay behind till the

matter of the list is settled one way or the other. But then, when I have

reported to my superiors, I can join you, and we can begin life together

in some far-off country. I shall be as happy in one place as in another

with you, Mark; are you sure you will be, too, with only me?"

 

Mark hastened to reassure her on that point, but his tone as he said it

did not carry conviction to Juliet. Julia, however, seemed satisfied.

 

"Miss Byrne can choose," she continued. "Either she swears not to say a

word till we are both safe away, or else we can shut her in the dungeon

of the castle. I know where it is, in the wall of this tower. She will

never be found there, and I can take her food from time to time till I am

ready to join you. Isn't that a good plan?"

 

Mark considered.

 

"I don't think we will give her the option of swearing not to tell," he

said presently.

 

"As if I would ever promise such a thing!" Juliet interrupted, indignant.

 

"But," he went on, ignoring this outburst, "otherwise I think your idea

is good. Where is this dungeon? We may be disturbed at any minute, and

enough time has been wasted already."

 

"I will go first and show the way," said Julia. "I have an electric

torch," and she stepped into the clock and lowered herself through the

trap-door.

 

Mark motioned to Juliet to follow.

 

"Ladies first," he said with a sneer.

 

Juliet turned and made a dash for the door.

 

"I won't go!