Page 121 of The Christmas Retreat
‘No, she never married and died in childbirth the following year. But I’ll come to that presently,’ said Evie.
Noel said, sadly, ‘There seems to be a lot of tragedy associated with this story.’
‘It’s certainly a two-act tragedy, if not a three,’ agreed Evie.
‘It was an odd coincidence that Caradoc should die in an accident on the very evening Arwen escaped,’ said Rhys, and I could see he’d had the same thought I’d had, when I’d read the letters – that perhaps Arwen, scared and angry after their row on the clifftop, had had a hand in his death. Now, of course, having read Milly’s journal, I knew that wasn’t so.
‘Itwasthe same evening, but his accident happened after dinner and Arwen had already left. He never knew she had run away,’ said Nerys.
It had become evident that she knew a lot more about Arwen’s stay at Triskelion than she had previously disclosed, but I can’t say I blamed her for her secrecy.
‘I knew my great-grandfather wasn’t a very nice man. My step-grandmother, Rose, told me as much,’ began Nerys, who, clearly assuming the worst was over, was looking a little less tense. ‘His behaviour was appalling, but it could have been worse and—’
‘Oh, itwasworse! I haven’t finished the story yet. There’s still a little more to come,’ Evie told her, and Nerys looked anxious again.
‘Milly’s journal was illuminating,’ Evie continued, ‘once I’d made out her appalling handwriting, but I needed a little time to think over what she’d written. I gave it to Ginny to read early this morning, but I don’t intend sharing it with the rest of you, because most of it is personal and not directly relevant to the matter in hand.’
‘I’m not sure you should discloseanyof it,’ I told her.
‘Ginny, it’s more than time to drag the truth out into the open,’ she told me severely, then turned back to the others.
‘Milly started her journal on the day Arwen became engaged to Edwin, and continued it till a couple of weeks after Arwen died giving birth to my mother, Frances Madoc. She describes how they escaped with Arwen that night and left her at the remote cottage of a friend on Bodmin Moor until the hue and cry died down. Except, of course, there was no hue and cry, and it was some time until they learned the reason why. When the letter from Hugh Caradoc-Jones arrived, explaining thecircumstances of the accident, Arwen finally confided in Milly why she would not marry Edwin – or, indeed, anyone else.’
Knowing what was to come, I found I was twisting my hands nervously in my lap and Rhys covered them with his own large, warm ones in a comforting grip.
‘It wasn’t Edwin’s lovemaking on the cliff top that morning that had given her an aversion to the marital state, but what passed between her and Caradoc when he witnessed her last embrace with Edwin and accosted her in a fury of rage and jealousy. He not only called her a lot of hard names, but he dragged her into a nearby thicket and, as Milly put it, forced himself on her.’
‘Rape?’ whispered Nerys, unbelievingly, her dark blue eyes widening. ‘Surely he didn’t – he couldn’t have …’
‘I’m afraid he did. Which explains that last distressed note to Milly that you’ve all read.’
‘I didn’t know – and I wish I didn’t know now. It’s quite horrible to think that you’re descended from someone capable of such a monstrous thing,’ cried Nerys.
‘Appalling things have happened in most families, darling,’ said Timon comfortingly. ‘It isn’tyourfault.’
‘I’m positive that my grandfather, Hugh, didn’t know about it – or anyone else in the family,’ Nerys said firmly.
‘No, I shouldn’t think Caradoc would have told anyone what he’d done, and he put it about that he’d caught Arwen being taken advantage of by Edwin and intended to marry her to save her good name – a total distortion of the truth,’ Evie said.
‘Only Arwen escaped, and he died that night,’ said Noel. ‘What happened to the poor girl after that?’
‘After she discovered she was pregnant, Edwin proposedagain, but she turned him down once more. As well as now having an aversion to the idea of intimacy with any man, she also had no idea who the baby’s father was. Edwin soon returned to his old life in London, leaving the two girls there alone.’
Evie looked at the family’s horrified faces and then added, surprisingly cheerfully, ‘And Arwen and Milly lived happily ever after … although not, unfortunately, for very long.’
‘What on earth do you mean?’ cried Nerys. ‘How can you joke about something like that?’
‘I’m not joking. Arwen was a splendidly determined character, and she decided that she wasn’t going to let what had happened define her. She would concentrate on what was most important to her, her work, and make a new life for herself with Milly.’
‘And Milly makes it clear in her journal that Arwen was the love of her life, even if Arwen didn’t love her in quite the same way,’ I put in.
‘Yes, which is why she kept all her letters and other memorabilia with her for her entire life, in the Memory Box,’ agreed Evie.
‘She and Arwen settled into the cottage in Lamorna,’ I said, taking up the tale again. ‘There were lots of bohemian artists in the area and Milly already had a circle of like-minded friends, including the painter Laura Knight, who used Arwen as a model for some of her work. The two girls worked hard – Milly was becoming very successful with her woodcuts – but Milly says that as Arwen’s pregnancy progressed, she worked like someone possessed.’
‘I’m trying to track down more of her paintings, because there must be so much out there to discover,’ said Evie. ‘Andalso, I want to find the paintings by Laura Knight that Arwen modelled for.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘My mother always referred to Arwen dismissively as “just an artist’s model”!’
‘She was certainly an ancestor you can both be proud of, unlike mine,’ said Nerys bitterly. ‘I’m glad she found some kind of happiness.’
