Endless Night

Chapter 13

I'm trying as best I can, though that isn't saying much, to paint a picture of the people who came into our lives, that is to say: who came into my life because, of course, they were in Ellie's life already. Our mistake was that we thought they'd go out of Ellie's life. But they didn't. They'd no intention of doing so. However, we didn't know that then.

The English side of our life was the next thing that happened. Our house was finished, we had a telegram from Santonix. He'd asked us to keep away for about a week, then the telegram came. It said:

"Come tomorrow."

We drove down there, and we arrived at sunset. Santonix heard the car and came out to meet us, standing in front of the home. When I saw our home, finished, something inside me leaped up, leaped up as though to burst out of my skin! It was my house - and I'd got it at last! I held Ellie's arm very tight.

"Like it?" said Santonix.

"It's the tops," I said. A silly thing to say but he knew what I meant.

"Yes," he said, "it's the best thing I've done... It's cost you a mint of money and it's worth every penny of it. I've exceeded my estimates all round. Come on, Mike," he said, "pick her up and carry her over the threshold. That's the thing to do when you enter into possession with your bride!"

I flushed and then I picked up Ellie - she was quite a light weight - and carried her as Santonix had suggested, over the threshold. As I did so, I stumbled just a little and I saw Santonix frown.

"There you are," said Santonix, "be good to her, Mike. Take care of her. Don't let any harm happen to her. She can't take care of herself. She thinks she can."

"Why should any harm happen to me?" said Ellie.

"Because it's a bad world and there are bad people in it," said Santonix, "and there are some bad people round you, my girl. I know. I've seen one or two of them. Seen them down here. They come nosing around, sniffing around like the rats they are. Excuse my French but somebody's got to say it."

"They won't bother us," said Ellie, "they've all gone back to the States."

"Maybe," said Santonix, "but it's only a few hours by plane, you know."

He put his hands on her shoulders. They were very thin now, very white looking. He looked terribly ill.

"I'd look after you myself, child, if I could," he said, "but I can't. It won't be long now. You'll have to fend for yourself."

"Cut out the gipsy's warning, Santonix," I said, "and take us round the house. Every inch of it."

So we went round the house. Some of the rooms were still empty but most of the things we'd bought, pictures and the furniture and the curtains were there.

"We haven't got a name for it," said Ellie suddenly. "We can't call it The Towers, that was a ridiculous name. What was the other name for it that you told me once?" she said to me. "Gipsy's Acre, wasn't it?"

"We won't call it that," I said, sharply. "I don't like that name."

"It'll always be called that hereabouts," said Santonix.

"They're a lot of silly superstitious people," I said. And then we sat down on the terrace looking at the setting sun and the view, and we thought of names for the house. It was a kind of game. We started quite seriously and then we began to think of every silly name we possibly could. 'Journey's End', 'Heart's Delight' and names like boarding houses. 'Seaview', 'Fairholme', 'The Pines'. Then suddenly it grew dark and cold, and we went indoors. We didn't draw the curtains, just closed the windows. We'd brought down provisions with us. On the following day an expensively acquired domestic staff was coming.

"They'll probably hate it and say it's lonely and they'll all go away," said Ellie.

"And then you'll give them double the money to stay on," said Santonix.

"You think," said Ellie, "that everyone can be bought?" But she only said it laughingly.

We had brought pate en croute with us and French bread and large red prawns. We sat round the table laughing and eating and talking. Even Santonix looked strong and animated, and there was a kind of wild excitement in his eyes.

And then it happened suddenly. A stone crashed in through the window and dropped on the table. Smashed a wineglass too, and a sliver of glass slit Ellie's cheek. For a moment we sat paralysed, then I sprang up, rushed to the window, unbolted it and went out on the terrace. There was no one to be seen. I came back into the room again.

I picked up a paper napkin and bent over Ellie, wiping away a little trickle of blood I saw coursing down her cheek.

"It's hurt you... There, dear, it's nothing much. It's just a wee cut from a sliver of glass."

My eyes met those of Santonix.

"Why did anyone do it?" said Ellie. She looked bewildered.

"Boys," I said, "you know, young hooligans. They knew, perhaps, we were settling in. I dare say you were lucky that they only threw a stone. They might have had an air gun or something like that."

"But why should they do it to us? Why?"

"I don't know," I said. "Just beastliness."

Ellie got up suddenly. She said,

"I'm frightened. I'm afraid."

"We'll find out tomorrow," I said.

"We don't know enough about the people round here."

"Is it because we're rich and they're poor?" said Ellie. She asked it not of me but of Santonix as though he would know the answer to the question better than I did.

"No," said Santonix slowly, "I don't think it's that..."

Ellie said:

"It's because they hate us. Hate Mike and hate me. Why? Because we're happy?"

Again Santonix shook his head.

"No."

Ellie said, as though she were agreeing with him, "no, it's something else. Something we don't know about. Gipsy's Acre. Anyone who lives here is going to be hated. Going to be persecuted. Perhaps they will succeed in the end in driving us away... "

I poured out a glass of wine and gave it to her.

"Don't, Ellie," I begged her. "Don't say such things. Drink this. It's a nasty thing to happen, but it was only silliness, crude horseplay."

"I wonder," said Ellie, "I wonder..." She looked hard at me.

"Somebody is trying to drive us away, Mike. To drive us away from the house we've built, the house we love."

"We won't let them drive us away," I said. I added,

"I'll take care of you. Nothing shall hurt you."

She looked again at Santonix.

"You should know," she said, "you've been here while the house was building. Didn't anyone ever say anything to you? Come and throw stones - interfere with the building of the house?"

"One can imagine things," said Santonix.

"There were accidents, then?"

"There are always a few accidents in the building of a house. Nothing serious or tragic. A man falls off a ladder, someone drops a load on his foot, someone gets a splinter in his thumb and it goes septic."

"Nothing more than that? Nothing that might have been meant?"

"No," said Santonix, "no. I swear to you, no!"

Ellie turned to me.

"You remember that gipsy woman, Mike. How queer she was that day, how she warned me not to come here."

"She's just a bit crazy, a bit off her head."

"We've built on Gipsy's Acre," said Ellie. "We've done what she told us not to do." Then she stamped her foot. "I won't let them drive me away. I won't let anyone drive me away!"

"Nobody shall drive us away," I said. "We're going to be happy here."

We said it like a challenge to fate.