Page 120 of The Christmas Retreat
Nerys looked rather strained and Timon kept giving her anxious glances, while Noel, who arrived just after I did, sat next to her and patted her hand from time to time.
From the look he and Evie had exchanged when he arrived, I thought they’d already been in contact with each other, despite her insistence that nothing be discussed until the meeting.
Rhys took my hand under the table and squeezed it, murmuring, ‘Don’t look so worried, Ginny. I’m sure Evie can’t have ferreted out anything too appalling!’
I tried to smile at him, but my face wasn’t working properly. I didn’t much fancy my porridge this morning either and gave up on it almost immediately.
Toby and Pearl went off to the pottery together and Kate, who had eaten her way through her usual gargantuan breakfast, soon followed, with a backward look full of thwarted curiosity. I expected her twisty little crime writer’s mind would supply a more lurid answer to what we were going to discuss privately than the real one.
We went into the large sitting room and Timon switched onthe log-effect fire, which gave the room a cheerful air of cosiness, even if none of us was feeling very cosy just then.
Evie took her usual seat next to it and waited for the rest of us to settle on the sofas around the coffee table, before she began to speak.
‘I assume you’ve all now read the letters that Arwen sent to Milly and have discovered, as I did, two very unpleasant truths about Cosmo Caradoc’s character?’
No one replied, but Nerys nodded mutely.
‘First, let’s deal with Caradoc’s appropriation of Arwen’s paintings as his own work.’
‘That was a complete shock,’ Nerys said. ‘I did already know that Arwen had helped him a bit in the studio, just with backgrounds and details, and that he’d also encouraged her to try copying his style. But to find out that he signed some of her paintings and sent them off to the exhibition as his own work is … well,unthinkablefor any true artist!’
‘It would appear that his ego was too big for him to appreciate that point,’ said Timon. ‘I already knew from Nerys that Arwen had helped in some of Caradoc’s paintings, but I can’t understand any real artist or writer putting their name to someone else’s work.’
‘Yet the appropriation of female artists’ work by men has so often happened in the past, as evidenced in my TV series and books,’ pointed out Evie. ‘And so far I’ve only touched on the tip of the iceberg. But even when it came to helping Caradoc with his own work, while Arwen had been happy to do this for her father, she was most definitely reluctant to do so for him.’
‘That’s hardly surprising, because now I’ve seen some of her work, I can appreciate the way she had already developed herown very original style,’ said Nerys. ‘It’s no wonder she didn’t want to become a ghost artist for Cosmo.’
‘Ghost artist,’ murmured Evie, appreciatively. ‘I must remember that one.’ Then she focused her mind back to the matter in hand, sitting up a little straighter in her chair.
‘Arwen wasn’t prepared to put up with that, or with Caradoc’s advances to her. We need to discuss this obsession of his, which led to his increasingly inappropriate behaviour towards her, and culminated in that final scene on the cliffs.’
38
In the Family
There was a short silence, the kind so solid you could have sliced it up and offered it round on a plate.
Then Nerys, after an encouraging nod from Timon, sighed and spoke.
‘I did also know that Cosmo had fallen in love with Arwen, but, like with the paintings, I only knew half the story. I had no idea that he was … was …’
‘Coming on to her so strongly?’ suggested Evie. ‘Entirely deluded about her returning his feelings and her rebuffs being just teasing?’
‘Yes, although my grandfather Hugh Caradoc-Jones, who was his best friend, thought he was mistaken, and that it was Arwen’s main reason for running away.’
‘She was clearly determined to escape at the first opportunity, even before she got there,’ Rhys pointed out. ‘Finding out about Caradoc’s appropriation of her work and his delusion that she returned his feelings must only have made her more desperate.’
‘Poor Arwen, she must have felt so trapped and alone,’ I said. ‘Until Milly arrived, she had no one to turn to for help.’
‘I make no excuses for him,’ Nerys said. ‘He was her guardian and twenty years older. She was orphaned, alone and in his power.’
‘It’s all very shocking,’ said Noel softly. ‘Poor girl! Beatrice Caradoc’s companion, Maude Fry, should have looked after her, and been someone she could confide in, but obviously was not. But Beatrice seems to have redeemed herself a little by helping Arwen to escape, even if not for the most altruistic of motives.’
‘The servant girl Efa was more of a friend to her than anyone else at Triskelion,’ I said.
‘Of course, I knew nothing about any of this before I read the letters,’ Rhys said. ‘I’m so glad Arwen got away to Cornwall with her friends.’
‘Yes,’ said Nerys, frowning, ‘but in that last note to Milly, Arwen says she’s decided marriage isn’t for her after all. I’d always understood she married Milly’s brother, Edwin. My grandfather thought so, and Rose said he wrote to tell her about Cosmo’s death and that she was free to do as she wanted. Did she change her mind later and marry Edwin after all?’
