Free The Adultress by Philippa Carr Page A

what a fine thing it was for the old house to stand all those years in the same family … while we of frailer stuff than bricks and stone pass on. I had a good manager in Amos Carew. And then Jessie came along. I saw in Jessie that which had always attracted me in a woman … a sort of readiness … a sort of understanding that passes between you. You want the same thing and you’re of one mind about it. You wouldn’t understand that, dear child. You are so different. Jessie and I were like old friends from the start. She has given me a lot of pleasure.”
    “She runs the household.”
    “She is the housekeeper, you know.”
    “But … she seems to control everything.”
    “Myself, you mean.”
    “Well, I have to come when she is … sleeping.”
    “That’s because I wouldn’t want her upset. I don’t want her to know about this will.”
    “She surely doesn’t believe that she is going to inherit this house.”
    “She may think it could come to that. It couldn’t possibly, of course, but I don’t want her upset. So I want you to find some way of getting the lawyers here. If you could get into town and explain to them. I’ll draw up what I want and you can take it in. Then they can come here with witnesses to do the signing … during an afternoon.”
    “I expect it could be managed.”
    “But Jessie mustn’t know. It would make her really angry.”
    I was silent and he put his hand over mine. “Don’t think hardly of Jessie. She’s what she is and so am I … and so perhaps are we all. She brings me comfort in my old age. I couldn’t do without her. I know a great deal about her … how she must seem to someone like you. But I want you to arrange this for me. I shall leave this house to you. I want you to have, it because you’re Carlotta’s granddaughter. Carlotta was the loveliest creature I ever saw. Mind you, your mother was the daughter of that rogue Hessenfield, one of the greatest Jacobites of the times. But Carlotta was a wonderful creature. Beautiful … wild … passionate. I saw her only as a child but I recognized it all. I never forgot her. You remind me of her in a way. It’s your eyes—that deep blue, almost violet. I remember hers were that color. She wanted to marry some rake who’d fascinated her. They used to meet at Enderby. … That was the story. Then he disappeared … very mysteriously. … There were a lot of rumors later on. Some said he was murdered and his body lies under the ground somewhere at Enderby. Oh, there were a great many stories about her. I often think about her … now I’m so much confined to my bed. She was so full of life … and so beautiful. And she died so young … she couldn’t have been more than in her early twenties. … I often think about that. I’m old … ready to go, you might say. I’ve had my life. How do those feel who are cut off in the prime of youth and beauty … a whole life before them … and then … no more. I wonder someone like that doesn’t try to come back … and finish her life. … You’re thinking I’m a strange old man. Well, I am, I suppose. It’s lying here … having time to think.”
    I said: “I’m glad I came.”
    “I can’t tell you how glad I am. And you’ll do this for me. You will … discreetly, I mean.”
    “I will do what I can. Will you draw up what you want to say and give it to me? I’ll take it to the lawyer and they can prepare what they have to. And then there’ll have to be the signatures. It’ll have to be done here, I suppose. Is there anyone who could do it? Jethro …”
    “No, not Jethro. I shall be leaving him something and I think therefore it’s against the rules for anyone who is a beneficiary to sign. It has to be a disinterested party. You can find out from the lawyers.”
    “Well,” I said, “the first thing for you to do is write the instructions and then I will get them to the lawyer to be drawn up. After that we’ll arrange about the signing.”
    “I can see you