‘And hoped it would pay no attention to you, either?’
David laughed wryly. ‘If one refuses to see a curse working in everyday incidents or misfortunes, does it in fact work?’
‘You’ll have to quote a few examples before I’d risk an opinion on that.’
‘Well, looked at in a certain light…if one’s in a gullible frame of mind…there have been some events uncomfortably close to the prophecy. I mean, if you’re determined to see such a closeness.…’
The first Brobury son to be born in the Tudor house built on the convent foundations married young and soon found his marriage turning sour. After bearing him a son, his wife had the child secretly christened as a Catholic and then, when power came into the hands of Bloody Mary, contrived to have her husband handed over as a heretic and burnt at the stake. Was this the offering demanded by the curse? Or could the dedication of the son to the Church of Rome be taken as that offering back? But that same son managed in Queen Elizabeth’s time to fall foul of his wife, who with her lover engineered his being sent to the block for treason. For a while the lands were confiscated by the Crown; and during that time the surviving children and their children, living elsewhere, were untroubled.
Later the property was restored to the penitent, Protestant Broburys. The next two cases of firstborn children delivered on the premises were of daughters, unaffected by the malediction. One of the girls, of devout turn of mind, also secretly returned to the Catholic faith and vowed herself to the life of a recluse, half hoping that such voluntary dedication might lift the cloud from the family. But the next time a son was born into the household the pattern had a grim familiarity: happy marriage turning to disaster, crazed wife ruining her husband and bringing about his early death.
At last the family quit Ladygrove Manor and left it in the hands of a bailiff, building for themselves a Queen Anne mansion on the farthest extremity of their estate. Here they suffered no more tragedies. Until, early in this present century, the house was gutted by fire and, newly married and unable to afford rebuilding, Sir Mortimer’s father moved back into the old home. He had not been born at Ladygrove himself— ‘And so,’ observed David Brobnry, ‘seems to have been immune. But my father was born here.’
Caspian framed a dozen questions, each stumbling more provocatively over the last. He could not tell whether David’s coolly dismissive telling of the history was genuine or whether it hid some unadmitted apprehension. He chose his words with care. ‘“Strife ’twixt man and wife”,’ he quoted. ‘Was there a lot of disagreement between your father and mother?’
‘Not that I remember. The usual domestic squabbles, I suppose—and mother did tend to harp on the fact that she was rushed away just before I was born—but on the whole I think they got on amicably enough. There were no great upheavals: certainly not when I was around.’
‘And your own child is going to be born here?’
David hesitated. ‘There’s no good reason why not, but.…’
‘You see no reason why not,’ Caspian probed.
‘I wasn’t born here, so my wife won’t turn on me.’
‘So you do to some extent believe in the family curse.’
‘I only meant that if there were such a thing, and it sticks to its pattern, I have nothing to fear.’
‘And what about your son, in later life? If the child should be a son, that is.’
David’s eyes were evasive. ‘Now you sound like Judith.’
‘Judith doesn’t like the idea?’
‘You know how women get at this stage. Or so I’m told. This is our first time. But they do indulge in all kinds of fancies, don’t they?’
‘Some fancies deserve to be humoured.’
‘In fact, I’ve more or less promised to take her away and look after her in London. I still have a lot of business to settle in town, and could be there with her. Though I’d still prefer an heir born under this roof.’
‘If she will feel more confident in London—‘
‘But why shouldn’t she feel confident here? It’s our home.’
‘Yours,’ said Caspian gently. ‘Not yet hers. You must be patient.’
David gave a rueful nod. ‘Yes, yes, I’m afraid you’re right. The trouble is, I’ve had to deal with so many things at once. Taking over the estate and learning the ropes, and at the same time winding up the practice in London—and then there’s my mother, and Judith in the state she is.’
‘Which is the most important?’
‘Judith.’
‘Quite so.’
‘It’s good to talk to you, Alex.’
‘I only state the obvious.’
‘When one gets tired and confused, the obvious often gets lost.’
They sat for a moment in companionable silence. Then Caspian said: ‘You haven’t been putting ideas into Judith’s head? I mean, worrying her with too many jokes about the family curse?’
‘She’d never take such stuff seriously.’
‘She may be more susceptible than you think. People can be coaxed, or can coax themselves once given the initial tug, into believing many a strange fancy to be real.’
‘These old wives’ tales couldn’t be real.’
‘You’re not absolutely convinced of that, are you? Generations of your family have believed, or half-believed. Such a half-willing body of people can, shall we say, half-will a thing into existence. A state of mind can create an illness—can virtually create a physical entity.’
‘You’re saying we’ve dreamed up our own curse?’
‘I’m saying that if successive generations have a fatalistic conviction that events will happen in rough parallel to events which have happened before, or are supposed to have happened before, then they may well be forced into happening, We may explain it by saying that even by the law of averages there must be a number of families in this country who suffer runs of bad luck and get more than their fair share of disaster. But there may be something more positive behind it all. What I’m warning you of is the danger of drifting into acceptance of such a sequence.’
‘I won’t, I promise you.’
‘And help Judith. Let her know that—’
‘I love her,’ said David simply. ‘And that she knows.’ He pushed his empty glass away from him. ‘On which note, I think for her sake and Bronwen’s we’d better join the ladies and rescue them from mother.’
* * * *
‘I thought you were never going to give up drinking and gossiping,’ Lady Brobury greeted them. ‘I hope David hasn’t been boring you with too many of his business problems, Dr. Caspian? If only he could get out of the habit of running to and
