The Mask of the Enchantress (27 page)

But there was no doubt that her delight in Mateland Castle was genuine. I was growing as enthralled as she was. It seemed as though I wandered through those vaulted rooms with her. I could feel the cold of the vaults, the terror of the dungeons, the eerieness of the undercroft and the splendor of the main hall. I felt that I had actually walked up the great staircase and stood beneath the portraits of those long-dead Matelands, that I had dined in their company in the dining room with its tapestried walls and needlepoint chair seats which had been worked by some long-dead ancestor. I lingered in the Braganza room which the Queen of that name had occupied when she stayed at the castle. I sat on the bay window in the library with books from the shelves piled beside mend in the main hall and the little breakfast room which the family used for taking meals when they were alone. Then I walked through the armory at night when it was so ghostly with the suits of armor standing there like sentinels. I felt that I had sat in the solarium catching the last of the sun before darkness fell. It was uncanny. I felt that I knew the castle, that I had lived there. I longed to hear of it and continually I plied Susannah with questions.

She was amused. ou see the power of this castle,she said. ou, who have never stepped inside it, long to be there. You would like to possess it, wouldn you? Oh yes, you would. Imagine yourself mistress of Mateland. Imagine yourself going to the kitchens every morning to discuss the day menu with the cooks, bustling round the stillroom, counting your preserves, arranging balls and all the amusements which are part of entertaining in a castle. It because you belong. Youe one of us. Our blood is in your veins and if you acquired it on the wrong side of the blanket, as they say, it still there, isn it? It the home of your ancestors. Your roots are sprouting from those ancient stone walls.

There was a good deal in what she said. I would never forget as long as I lived standing at the edge of the woods with Anabel and seeing it for the first time, and how I had watched the riders passing under the gatehouseusannah, Esmond, Malcolm and Garth.

Susannah and I spent a great deal of time together. I told her I was going to Laura wedding and would be leaving with the ship when next it called. hall you be leaving too?I asked.

l think about it,she said. oul be away two months. Oh yes, I must come with you. Il have to make plans for going home. Why don you come with me? I love to show you the castle.

ome with you! How would you explain me to Esmond Emerald and the others?

should say: his is my beloved sister. We have become good friends. She is going to stay at the castle.

hey would know who I was.

hy not? Youe a Mateland one of us, aren you?

couldn come. They would ask questions. They would find out where my father is.

She shrugged her shoulders. hink about it,she said, hile youe dancing at this wedding.

am leaving in two weekstime.

nd Philip will go with you. The bride is his sister, isn she? Il have to come, I think.

am sure the Halmers would welcome you. It a big property and there are lots of rooms.

She was thoughtful.

A few days later she said: hy do you always wear those smocks, Suewellyn? I like to see you in something really smart. Come on, try on one of my dresses. Let see if we can fool them. Wel dress you up as me.

t would take more than a dress.

She eyed me intently. going to try,she said.

She brought out the white dress which she had arrived in. It had been freshly laundered.

ome on, slip it on. Let me see you.

I did so. The dress did transform me. It was an almost perfect fit. I was slightly tallero slightly that it was only noticeable when we stood side by side; and I was a trifle slimmer.

hat a transformation! Because you live on a desert island, you don need to look like a native,she said. here, what do you think of that?

We stood side by side looking in the mirror. ee still very much ourselves,I said.

ere. Let me do your hair for you.

I sat down and she turned away swiftly and came back to me. She had started to cut my hair before I had noticed what she was doing. I cried out in protest but it was too late. I already had the beginnings of a fringe.

She laughed at my dismay.

assure you it will be an improvement. You will love it. In any case you are too late to stop me now. Please keep still or you will spoil my handiwork.

I sat there. The image which looked back at me from the mirror had changed from that which usually confronted me.

Susannah stood back. here! Isn that exciting?

She put her face close to mine.

e might be twins. And now let me make the picture complete.

She turned my face towards her and applied a black pencil to the mole on my chin.

here. The picture is complete. Do you think you can deceive them?

eceive my mother! Never!

erhaps not, but you could those who don know you very well.

She was amused. Her eyes gleamed. look forward to going down to dinner. You must wear that dress, Suewellyn, and when we are in Sydney wel buy some clothes for you.I looked down at the white dress and she went on: h, do keep it on. It most becoming. I always liked that dress. But more on you than on myself.

I kept glancing at myself in the glass. No, I was not really much like Susannah; but it was a different self that looked back at me.

When I came out of Susannah room I came face to face with Cougabel. She took one look at me, gave a little scream and fled.

I cried out: ome back, Cougabel. What the matter with you?

She paused and looked over her shoulder, staring at me as though I were a ghost.

h no no she cried, ad bad.And she turned and ran away.

They were astounded when I appeared at dinner.

uewellyn!cried my mother, really dismayed. hat have you done to your hair?

did it,said Susannah, almost defiantly.

My mother just looked at me.

on you like it?asked Susannah. nd doesn she look lovely in my white dress? I was heartily sick of those smocks and my sister going round like a native.

t looks charming,was Philip comment. hy, you look very like Susannah.

That hurt a little. I looked charming because I looked more like Susannah. He was honest at any rate.

My father comment was: hatever have you done to yourself?

usannah did it,my mother told him.

h, Stepmother Susannah now and then referred to Anabel as Stepmother; she did it in a somewhat ironical way. Anabel hated it and Susannah knew it. ou make it sound as though Ie cut off her head.

oue cut off some of her beautiful hair,said Anabel.

t shows it off better that way; and she looks so pretty. You must admit it.

t looks neater,said my father.

here!cried Susannah. hat is what you call damning with faint praise. Who wants to look neater? That is for maiden aunts. We want to look more fashionable, a la mode, beautiful, don we, Suewellyn?

h,I said, or heaven sake stop discussing my hair.

like it,put in Philip softly.

And then we settled down to a meal.

That night I had two visitors when I was in bed. The first was my mother. She sat on the edge of the bed and said: hat made you let her do it?

didn realize she was going to until she started. Then she had to go on. In a way, she right. It is more becoming. My hair was also getting untidy.

t makes you look like her. It accentuates that faint resemblance.

ever mind. It done. It only hair and I can let it grow in the old way in time.

oul be going to Laura wedding soon. I suppose she will go with you.

he Halmers are very hospitable. I am sure Philip has asked her.

My mother face hardened. She said: h, I wish she hadn come here. She changed everything.

f they changed,I said quietly, t wasn really only because of her. If they had been more steady they wouldn have changed.

I was thinking of Philip and she knew it.

he like some sort of siren,said my mother angrily. he was always a strange child. I remember she always used to be up to some sly sort of mischief. We thought she would grow out of it.

ou mustn get ideas about her, Anabel.

he not a bit like Jessamy, or her father. I wonder where she gets that mischievous malice from.

t the Mateland strain, I dare say. Some of the ancestors were not too nice. There is nothing wrong with Susannah really. Sometimes she can be very charming.

always feel she making trouble. I suppose I don like her because she is your father daughter and I don like the thought of anyone giving him a daughter except me.

Anabel was always frank with herself and I loved her for it

ear, dear Anabel,I said, on worry because Ie got a fringe. Nothing can change the way we are together, can it? Whatever happens, youl always be there for me and I for you.

She came close to me and put her arms about me.

ou are right, Suewellyn,she said. here are times when I think I am becoming a silly old woman.

She kissed me and went out.

My next visitor came about half an hour later just as I was dropping off to sleep. This was more dramatic.

The door was slowly opened and a black figure glided in. I could scarcely make her out, for there was no light in the room except that which came from a crescent moon and a sky full of stars.

I started up in bed.

ougaba!

es, Little Missy. Cougaba.

s something wrong? Is Cougabel all right?

ougabel very frightened.

hat happened?

She pointed a finger at me. hat you do. What you am. There is spell on you.

I put up a hand and touched my new fringe.

ot good not good,murmured Cougaba. ad spell is put on you.

h, Cougaba, have you wakened me to tell me you don like the way my hair is cut?

She came closer to the bed; her eyes were round with horror.

tell you,she said, ad bad. Cougabel know. You blood sister. She feel it. She feel it here.Cougaba touched her forehead and the spot where her heart might be expected to be.

he say: ad things have come to Little Missy. Spell woman take her make her bad. Make her like spell woman.

h, dear Cougaba, you must tell Cougabel not to worry. I perfectly all right. It only that some of my hair has been cut off.

ad witch,she said, ougaba know. Cougabel know. Cougabel said Giant not like her. He grumbled when this bad thing done.

he Giant! What has it to do with him?

e like island grow big rich. He like Daddajo and Mamabel and Little Missy. He not like spell woman and now she take you and make you like her.

obody is going to take me and make me different. I myself and I always will be.

Cougaba shook her head sorrowfully.

ou go away. You go on big ship.She came closer to me.

ake Phildo with you. Take him away from her. She put spell on him. You Phildo happy. We like. Have little babies. Grow up on island. More babies lots of little babies and make fine rich island. But Giant angry. He does not like. Take her away. Come back come back with Phildo and have babies.

h, Cougaba, it good of you to care so much.

I held out my arms and she came to me and held me for a moment. Then she drew back, frowning at my hair.

ot good,she said, shaking her head. he take you she make you like her. Cougabel very sad. She feels it in her blood. She says Giant angry. He her father He father of her child. She very close to Giant.

It was no use reminding Cougaba that this was not so. It mattered not that she had admitted in a moment of stress that Luke Carter was Cougabel father and we knew that Cougabel child had not been conceived on the Night of the Masks. Cougaba, like all her race, accepted as truth what she wanted to.

However, I soothed her and, as she thought that Susannah was going away soon, she allowed herself to be comforted.

It was a week before the ship was due to arrive and I was ready to leave.

We were at dinner when Susannah said: e decided not to go to Sydney. I not really ready to leave the island yet, and let face it, when I leave Il have to go home, and when should I get a chance to come and see you all again?

There was silence. Philip looked completely dismayed.

I said: aura would have liked you to be at her wedding. I was looking forward to her seeing us together.

ringes and all,cried Susannah flippantly. o. Ie made up my mind. You won turn me out, will you?She was looking pleadingly at our father and then she turned and her gaze lingered on Anabel.

f course you must stay as long as you want to,said my father.

thought the novelty had worn a little thin by now,added Anabel.

here you are mistaken. The place is so fascinating. Think of all you are doing. When that hospital project really gets under way it will be magnificent. I should love to see it. But I dare say it will take years and years to turn it into a working concern. Perhaps Il come back someday and see you all. But just yet, I don feel ready to go. Do you mind, Suewellyn?

was looking forward to introducing you to Laura. She would have enjoyed meeting you. But I understand, of course.

oul be coming back in two months. I shall have to go then, but wel have a lovely day together before I leave.

ou seem to like the primitive life,said Anabel coldly.

here are certain things which keep me here.Her eyes swept round the table and rested on Philip.

But he is going with me, I thought, and I wondered how Susannah would like the island without Philip to enslave and me to laugh at.

I was very soon to get an answer to that.

I had come out of the house and was walking down to the shore to sit in my favorite spot under a palm tree where I would read one of the books which had come on the last ship. Philip was beside me.

want to talk to you, Suewellyn.

es. What about?

hall we sit down? Under this tree?He was obviously seeking for the right words. At length he said: e been thinking a lot about this.

bout what?

aura wedding.

ou do need a lot of prompting, Philip. What about Laura wedding?