You didnt see the lady lying on the ground?
No, I dont see very well far. I saw the horse because it showed against the sky line.
Was she riding alone? Was there anyone with her, or near her?
Nobody near her. No. She was all alone. She rode not very far from me, past me, going along that way. She was bearing towards the woods, I think. No, I didnt see anyone at all except her and the horse.
Might have been the gipsy who frightened her, said the rosy-faced woman.
I swung round.
What gipsy? When?
Oh, must have been well, it must have been three or four hours ago when I went down the road this morning. About quarter to ten maybe, I saw that gipsy woman. The one as lives in the cottages in the village. Least I think it was she. I wasnt near enough to be sure. But shes the only one as goes about hereabouts in a red cloak. She was walking up a path through the trees. Somebody told me as shed said nasty things to the poor American young lady. Threatened her. Told her something bad would happen if she didnt get out of this place. Very threatening, I hear she was.
The gipsy, I said. Then, bitterly, to myself, though out loud, Gipsys Acre. I wish Id never seen the place.
Book III
Chapter 19
Its extraordinary how difficult it is for me to remember what happened after that. I mean, the sequence of it all. Up to then, you see, its all clear in my mind. I was a little doubtful where to begin, that was all. But from then on it was as though a knife fell, cutting my life into two halves. What I went on to from the moment of Ellies death seems to me now like something for which I was not prepared. А confusion of thrusting people and elements and happenings where I wasnt myself in control of anything any more. Things happened not to me, but all around me. Thats what it seemed like.
Everybody was very kind to me. That seems the thing I remember best. I stumbled about and looked dazed and didnt know what to do. Greta, I remember, came into her element. She had that amazing power that women have to take charge of a situation and deal with it. Deal, I mean, with all the small unimportant details that someone has to see to. I would have been incapable of seeing to them.
I think the first thing I remembered clearly after theyd taken Ellie away and Id got back to my house our house the house was when Dr Shaw came along and talked to me. I dont know how long after that was. He was quiet, kind, reasonable. Just explaining things clearly and gently.
Arrangements. I remember his using the word arrangements. What a hateful word it is and all the things it stands for. The things in life that have grand words Love sex life death hate those arent the things that govern existence at all. Its lots of other pettifogging, degrading things. Things you have to endure, things you never think about until they happen to you. Undertakers, arrangements for funerals, inquests. And servants coming into rooms and pulling the blinds down. Why should blinds be pulled down because Ellie was dead? Of all the stupid things!
That was why, I remember, I felt quite grateful to Dr Shaw. He dealt with such things so kindly and sensibly, explaining gently why certain things like an inquest had to be. Talking rather slowly, I remember, so that he could be quite sure I was taking them in.
I didnt know what an inquest would be like. Id never been to one. It seemed to me curiously unreal, amateurish. The Coroner was a small fussy little man with pince-nez. I had to give evidence of identification, to describe the last time I had seen Ellie at the breakfast table and her departure for her usual morning ride and the arrangement we had made to meet later for lunch. She had seemed, I said, exactly the same as usual, in perfectly good health.
Dr Shaws evidence was quiet, inconclusive. No serious injuries, a wrenched collar bone and bruises such as would result from a fall from the horse not of a very serious nature, and inflicted at the time of death. She did not appear to have moved again after she had fallen. Death, he thought, had been practically instantaneous. There was no specific organic injury to have caused death, and he could give no other explanation of it than that she had died from heart failure caused by shock. As far as I could make out from the medical language used Ellie had died simply as a result of absence of breath of asphyxia of some kind. Her organs were healthy, her stomach contents normal.
Greta, who also gave evidence, stressed rather more forcibly than she had done to Dr Shaw before, that Ellie had suffered from some form of heart malady three or four years ago. She had never heard anything definite mentioned but Ellies relations had occasionally said that her heart was weak and that she must take care not to over-do things. She had never heard anything more definite than that.
Then we came to the people who had seen or been in the vicinity at the time the accident happened. The old man who had been cutting peat was the first of them. He had seen the lady pass him, shed been about fifty yards or so away. He knew who she was though hed never spoken to her. She was the lady from the new house.
You knew her by sight?
No, not exactly by sight but I knew the horse, sir. Its got a white fetlock. Used to belong to Mr Carey over at Shettlegroom. Ive never heard it anything but quiet and well behaved, suitable for a lady to ride.
Was the horse giving any trouble when you saw it? Playing up in any way?
No, it was quiet enough. It was a nice morning.
There hadnt been many people about, he said. He hadnt noticed many. That particular track across the moor wasnt much used except as a short cut occasionally to one of the farms. Another track crossed it about a mile farther away. Hed seen one or two passers-by that morning but not to notice. One man on a bicycle, another man walking. They were too far away for him to see who they were and he hadnt noticed much anyway. Earlier, he said, before hed seen the lady riding, hed seen old Mrs Lee, or so he thought. She was coming up the track towards him and then she turned off and went into the woods. She often walked across the moors and in and out of the woods.
The Coroner asked why Mrs Lee was not in court. He understood that shed been summoned to attend. He was told, however, that Mrs Lee had left the village some days ago nobody knew exactly when. She had not left any address behind. It was not her habit to do so, she often went away and came back without notifying anyone. So there was nothing unusual about this. In fact one or two people said they thought shed already left the village before the day the accident happened. The Coroner asked the old man again.
You think, however, that it was Mrs Lee you saw?
Couldnt say, Im sure. Wouldnt like to be certain. It was a tall woman and striding along, and had on a scarlet cloak, like Mrs Lee wears sometimes. But I didnt look particular. I was busy with what I was doing. Could have been she, it could have been someone else. Whos to say?
As for the rest he repeated very much what he had said to us. Hed seen the lady riding nearby, hed often seen her riding before. He hadnt paid any particular attention. Only later did he see the horse galloping alone. It looked as though something had frightened it, he said. At least, it could be that way. He couldnt tell what time that was. Might have been eleven, might have been earlier. He saw the horse much later, farther away. It seemed to be returning towards the woods.
Then the Coroner recalled me and asked me a few more questions about Mrs Lee. Mrs Esther Lee of Vine Cottage.
You and your wife knew Mrs Lee by sight?
Yes, I said, quite well.
Did you talk with her?
Yes, several times. Or rather, I added, she talked to us.
Did she at any time threaten you or your wife?
I paused a moment or two.
In a sense she did, I said slowly, but I never thought
You never thought what?
I never thought she really meant it, I said.
Did she sound as though she had any particular grudge against your wife?
My wife said so once. She said she thought she had some special grudge against her but she couldnt see why.
Had you or your wife at any time ordered her off your land, threatened her, treated her roughly in any way?
Any aggression came from her side, I said.
Did you ever have the impression that she was mentally unbalanced?
I considered. Yes, I said, I did. I thought she had come to believe that the land on which we had built our house belonged to her, or belonged to her tribe or whatever they call themselves. She had a kind of obsession about it. I added slowly, I think she was getting worse, more and more obsessed by the idea.
I see. She never offered your wife physical violence at any time?
No, I said, slowly, I dont think it would be fair to say that. It was all well, all a sort of gipsys warning stuff. Youll have bad luck if you stay here. Therell be a curse on you unless you go away.
Did she mention the word death?
Yes, I think so. We didnt take her seriously. At least, I corrected myself, I didnt.
Do you think your wife did?
Im afraid she did sometimes. The old woman, you know, could be rather alarming. I dont think she was really responsible for what she was saying or doing.
The proceedings ended with the Coroner adjourning the inquest for a fortnight. Everything pointed to death being due to accidental causes but there was not sufficient evidence to show what had caused the accident to occur. He would adjourn the proceedings until he had heard the evidence of Mrs Esther Lee.
Chapter 20
The day after the inquest I went to see Major Phillpot and I told him point-blank that I wanted his opinion. Someone whom the old peat-cutting man had taken to be Mrs Esther Lee had been seen going up towards the woods that morning.
You know the old woman, I said. Do you actually think that she would have been capable of causing an accident by deliberate malice?
I cant really believe so, Mike, he said. To do a thing like that you need a very strong motive. Revenge for some personal injury caused to you. Something like that. And what had Ellie ever done to her? Nothing.
It seems crazy, I know. Why was she constantly appearing in that queer way, threatening Ellie, telling her to go away? She seemed to have a grudge against her, but how could she have had a grudge? Shed never met Ellie or seen her before. What was Ellie to her but a perfectly strange American? Theres no past history, no link between them.
I know, I know, said Phillpot. I cant help feeling, Mike, that theres something here that we dont understand. I dont know how much your wife was over in England previous to her marriage. Did she ever live in this part of the world for any length of time?
No, Im sure of that. Its all so difficult. I dont really know anything about Ellie. I mean, who she knew, where she went. We just met. I checked myself and looked at him. I said, You dont know how we came to meet, do you? No, I went on, you wouldnt guess in a hundred years how we met. And suddenly, in spite of myself, I began to laugh. Then I pulled myself together. I could feel that I was very near hysteria.
I could see his kind patient face just waiting till I was myself again. He was a helpful man. There was no doubt about that.
We met here, I said. Here at Gipsys Acre. I had been reading the notice board of the sale of The Towers and I walked up the road, up the hill because I was curious about this place. And thats how I first saw her. She was standing there under a tree. I startled her or perhaps it was she who startled me. Anyway, thats how it all began. Thats how we came to live here in this damned, cursed, unlucky place.
Have you felt that all along? That it would be unlucky?
No. Yes. No, I dont know really. Ive never admitted it. Ive never wanted to admit it. But I think she knew. I think shes been frightened all along. Then I said slowly, I think somebody deliberately wanted to frighten her.
He said rather sharply, What do you mean by that? Who wanted to frighten her?
Presumably the gipsy woman. But somehow Im not quite sure about it She used to lie in wait for Ellie, you know, tell her this place would bring her bad luck. Tell her she ought to go away from it.
Tcha! He spoke angrily. I wish Id been told more about that. Id have spoken to old Esther. Told her she couldnt do things like that.
Why did she? I asked. What made her?
Like so many people, said Phillpot, she likes to make herself important. She likes either to give people warnings or else tell their fortunes and prophesy happy lives for them. She likes to pretend she knows the future.
Supposing, I said slowly, somebody gave her money. Ive been told shes fond of money.
Yes, she was very fond of money. If someone paid her thats what youre suggesting what put that idea into your head?
Sergeant Keene, I said. I should never have thought of it myself.
I see. He shook his head doubtfully.
I cant believe, he said, that she would deliberately try to frighten your wife to the extent of causing an accident.
She maynt have counted on a fatal accident. She might have done something to frighten the horse, I said. Let off a squib or flapped a sheet of white paper or something. Sometimes, you know, I did feel that she had some entirely personal grudge against Ellie, a grudge for some reason that I dont know about.
That sounds very far-fetched.
This place never belonged to her? I asked. The land, I mean.
No. Gipsies may have been warned off this property, probably more than once. Gipsies are always getting turned off places, but I doubt if they keep up a life-long resentment about it.
No, I said, that would be far-fetched. But I do wonder if for some reason that we dont know about she was paid
A reason we dont know about what reason?
I reflected a moment or two.
Everything I say will just sound fantastic. Lets say that, as Keene suggested, someone paid her to do the things she did. What did that someone want? Say they wanted to make us both go away from here. They concentrated on Ellie, not on me, because I wouldnt be scared in the way Ellie would be. They frightened her to get her and through her both of us to leave here. If so, there must be some reason for wanting the land to come on the market again. Somebody, shall we say, for some reason wants our land. I stopped.
Its a logical suggestion, Phillpot said, but I know of no reason why anyone should.
Some important mineral deposit, I suggested, that nobody knows about.