The Cross of Love (17 page)

"I am twenty-four."

"And you?" he looked at Rena.

"I am twenty-two, and have no family."

"Then I can marry you now, if that is your wish."

"Yes!" The four of them said it together.

"Then bolt the doors," said Adolphus robustly. "Let no-one enter until our work is done."

They were the strangest wedding ceremonies Rena had ever seen, yet she had no doubt that they were safe in the hands of this holy man. Apart from her father, no man had ever impressed her so deeply with his power for good.

By common consent Matilda and Cecil married first, since they had the most to fear from her father. Or, as John put it to his beloved, "Wyngate cannot harm us now."

They married with curtain rings which Adolphus 'just happened' to have slipped into his pocket, at about the same time that he asked Rena about the status of the chapel.

John stood groomsman to Cecil, and then he and Rena signed the register which they had found in the vestry only half an hour ago.

Then the newly married Cecil became groomsman to the Earl, while Mrs. Cecil Jenkins was Rena's attendant, both of them covered with dust but full of joy.

"Wilt thou take this woman - ?"

"I will."

"Wilt thou take this man - obey him and serve him, love, honour and keep him - forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, as long as ye both shall live."

With profound joy, Rena responded, "I will."

"With this ring, I thee wed - "

Before John could say more there was a thunderous knocking on the door outside.

"Let me in!" bawled Wyngate's voice.

The door shook under his assault. But it held.

John's hand tightened on his bride's in silent reassurance, while his voice continued steadily reciting his vows.

The noise retreated from the door, and they heard footsteps climbing. The next moment Wyngate had appeared in the gallery high above, his face contorted with rage. He could see them, but not get to them.

"Stop this!" he screamed. "I demand that you stop!"

"Never fear," said Adolphus. "He has no power here."

He raised his voice.

"Forasmuch as John and Rena have consented together in holy wedlock - "

"No-oh!" shrieked Wyngate.

Adolphus made his measured way through the words, almost as though he could not hear the howls of rage and frustration coming from above.

" - I pronounce that they be man and wife together."

Now Wyngate had stopped screaming. In the silence he sent them a look of such malevolent hatred that Rena was startled.

"You'll pay for this," he snarled. "You think you can defy me and get away with it? Nobody has ever done that. I'll ruin you."

"You cannot ruin us," John called up to him. "We no longer need your money to safeguard the people or restore the house."

"The house," sneered Wyngate. "You think you're going to enjoy the house? This should have been my house. Nobody shall take it from me."

He turned sharply and the next moment he was gone. Distantly they could hear the sound of voices, shouts of warning, Simpkins calling, "Not up there, sir. It isn't safe."

"The roof," said John.

Hastily Adolphus pulled back the bolts and they all rushed out. From the gallery Wyngate had a good head start, and they could already hear him above them.

The next moment something went flying down past the window, to land with a crash on the terrace outside.

"It's a piece of stone from the turrets," said John. "He must be trying to destroy the house. Rena, stay here. Don't go outside whatever you do. It isn't safe."

"I'm coming with you," she cried, fearful for him.

"No darling, I want you to stay here."

"But - "

He gave her a faint smile. "Only a few minutes ago you vowed to obey me. Where's Adolphus?"

"He's gone up ahead."

Another crash as more stone came down. John raced after Adolphus, but the old clergyman had already reached the roof ahead of him, and was standing, facing Wyngate.

"Get away from me," Wyngate shrieked.

"It is over, my son. You can harm these people no more. The Earl is married, your daughter is married, and they have gone beyond you."

"This is your doing."

"No, it is your doing. You have driven away everyone who loved you, until only I am left. I am still your father."

"Keep your distance from me," Wyngate repeated, taking a step backwards.

"Don't go too near the edge," Adolphus cried. "The stone is missing there."

"This is mine," Wyngate said fiercely. "I will not give it up. I shall fight them for it. Look out there - " he swept his arm out in the direction of the estate. "Land fit for a king. Fit for me. Mine. Mine!"

"Nothing is yours," said Adolphus. "You have thrown away everything that matters, and now nothing is left."

Silence.

Only the wind.

They faced each other over several feet. Neither moved, but Adolphus saw in his son's eyes that he had understood.

"Nothing - " Wyngate repeated hoarsely. "Nothing is mine. Nothing is left. Nothing."

He looked out over the inheritance he had fought so hard to steal, and which now would never be his.

The next moment he had vanished.

From below came shouts of horror as he dropped sixty feet to land on the flagstones below.

No man could survive such a fall.

John, bursting out onto the roof, saw Adolphus standing there, stock still, his eyes fixed bleakly on the distance.

"Adolphus, are you all right? Where is Wyngate."

"He fell," the old man said through his tears. "He was standing by the edge and - he fell."

Cautiously John went to the edge and looked over. Down below a crowd of workmen were standing in a circle around Wyngate, but still they kept their distance, as though even in death Wyngate was terrifying.

He lay on his back, staring up to the sky, his eyes open and blank.

John turned back to where Adolphus stood, still motionless.

"Let's go down," he said gently.

"He was my son," Adolphus said softly. "He was my son."

* The coins fetched slightly more than Adolphus' prediction, and John immediately put the work in hand, not only on his own house but on the cottages that dotted the estate. Now there was accommodation for his workers, and jobs for everyone who needed them. Mr. Simpkins was summoned back to do a new set of plans, and the house rang with the sound of workmen. Best of all it was early enough in the year to revive the farms and sow this year's crops. "There's a lot more to be done," the Earl of Lansdale told his Countess as they strolled together by the stream when the harvest had been gathered. "It wasn't a large harvest this year, because we were so short of time. But next year will be an even greater success." "And the year after," said Rena, "and the year after that, and all the years to come. Nothing matters, except that we'll be together." Their walk had brought them to the cross, sturdy and upright since a group of workmen had dug new foundations and settled it securely in the earth. "I'm glad we asked Adolphus to bless it," said John.

"Yes, now it speaks of him as well as Papa."

"I think he's going to be all right."

"I'm sure he will," said Rena. "Matilda writes to me from London that for a while they feared for his reason, so deep was his grief. But when he knew that he was to be a great grandfather he came back to life.

"But what I think pleased him most was the news that Matilda planned to use only a small part of her vast inheritance, just enough to set Cecil up in his own business. The rest will go to making reparations to those her father injured. It was only then that Adolphus agreed to live with them."

"I had hoped to persuade him to spend a little time with us," said John.

"But of course," Rena assented eagerly. "Who else could baptise our child in the King's Chapel?"

"Our child," he said tenderly. "Are you quite certain?"

"Quite certain. In the spring. And then we will have everything."

"No," he said, taking her face between his hands. "When I think of what could have happened, how we might have lost each other, then I know that I have everything now. Whatever else befalls us in life, you and you alone are my everything. And that is how it will be forever."

"Forever," she murmured. "It has such a beautiful sound."

"Yes," he said. "And it will be beautiful, in this life and the next, because we will have the love that God gave us. Forever. Until the end of time."