A cold treachery - Charles Todd [85]
The scenes were rustic renderings of the valley, views that added the garish colors of sunset or sunrise to a view from The Claws, with a walker poised on the ledge to look down at the lake. Another was of The Knob in a storm; a third showed a line of walkers traversing The Long Back. A smaller painting was of a deep and narrow defile where sheep were being herded by dusty men. The artist had caught the light and shadow to better effect than he had the sunset.
“What's this?” Rutledge gestured to the work as Jarvis handed him a sherry.
“One of the old drover roads out of the valley. Drift roads they're called. Closed by a rock slide two or three generations ago. I can tell you that's a fanciful view. Looks more like Cheddar Gorge than the reality. What did you wish to see me about? Not my paintings, I'll be bound!”
Rutledge said, taking the chair across the desk from him, “You delivered Mrs. Elcott's twins.”
“Yes, that's true—”
“What was her mood through the pregnancy? Was she happy, looking forward to a larger family? And the children, Josh and his sister, how did they see this change in their lives?”
Jarvis thought for a moment. “Grace was happy enough, looking forward to giving her husband children of his own. Hazel was excited to have a sister. She was a sweet child, very motherly, helping prepare the cribs after we discovered Grace was carrying twins. Gerald was solicitous, worried about his wife, fussing over her.”
“And Josh?”
“Josh was older—uncertain, I think, whether he would lose his mother's attention. She'd leaned on him, until Gerald came along. The boy was only just learning to share her. Now there were to be other children. I think it worried him. He asked me every time I came out to the farm if his mother was going to be all right.”
“Jealous, was he?”
Jarvis stared at him. “Just where are you going with such questions?”
“The schoolmaster, Blackwell, believed Josh was unhappy and would gladly have gone to London to live with his natural father. But his mother wasn't willing to let him go, young as he was.”
Reluctantly Jarvis replied, “I can't answer that directly. I can tell you two things. It was difficult for Josh, when his father returned out of the blue. He scarcely knew this stranger who'd been dropped back into his life. It was confusing for him emotionally. Hazel of course had only the faintest memories of Robinson, and seemed most comfortable with him. But Grace herself was troubled by her dilemma, which must have baffled her son. It's possible he didn't understand why, with his father home again, they shouldn't be a family now. I don't know. I'm speculating. I will tell you this. It was Gerald who was the rock from the beginning. Willing to let her choose.”
“And the second thing?”
“Young Josh ran away from home the week before his mother delivered. I'd been summoned because she was experiencing false labor. With twins, it was important that I should be there. After I'd finished my examination, Hazel told me that Josh was missing, had been for more than a day. Gerald had gone searching for him, but I was the one who found him. The same place, in fact, that Paul used to hide when he was a boy. It was a ruined sheep pen up by Fox Scar and the rocks had tumbled in such a way as to form a shallow cave. Josh was there sulking.”
So the boy knew enough about his surroundings to hide from his stepfather. “Did he explain himself to you?”
“I didn't give him a chance. He was cold and miserable when I found him. I sat on the stone wall and told him that he'd worried his poor mother sick and she mustn't be upset like that, so close to her time, that it was dangerous. I told him I wanted to hear no more of such nonsense or I'd write to his father in London and tell him how unhelpful Josh was being. The boy promised to behave himself, and I took him down to his mother.”
“And that was the end of it?”
Jarvis sighed. “The night Grace delivered, I came to the farm just after dinner to attend her.