What the Shepherd Saw (2)
'Well, it is a lovely night for meetings.'
'Yes, it is a lovely night.'
The Duke got down from his horse and stood by her side. 'Why were you listening for me at this time of night?' he asked.
'There is a strange story, which I must tell you at once. But why did you come a night sooner than you said? I am sorry, I really am!' (shaking her head playfully), because I had ordered a special dinner for your arrival tomorrow, and now it won't be a surprise at all.'
The Duke did not look at his wife. 'What is this strange story that you wish to tell me?' he asked quietly.
'It is this. You know my cousin Fred Ogbourne? We used to play together when we were children, and he - well, he loved me, I think. I told you about it, you know.'
'You have never told me of it before.'
'Oh, then it was your sister - yes, I told her about -it. Well, I haven't seen him for many years, and of course I'd forgotten all about his feeling for me. So I was surprised to receive a letter from him yesterday. I can remember what he wrote.
'My dear cousin Harriet,' the letter said. 'If my life and future mean anything to you at all, I beg you to do what I ask. Meet me at eleven o'clock tonight by the ancient stones on Marlbury Downs. I cannot say more, except to beg you to come. I will explain everything when I see you. Come alone. You have all my happiness in your hands. Yours, Fred.'
'That was his letter. Now I realize that it was a mistake to go, but at the time I only thought he must be in trouble, and with not a friend in the world to help him. So I went to Marlbury Downs at eleven o'clock. Wasn't it brave of me?'
'Very,' replied the Duke coldly.
'When I got there, I saw he was no longer the boy that I remembered, but a full-grown man and an officer. I was sorry I had come. What he wanted, I don't know - perhaps just a meeting with me. He held me by the hand and waist, and refused to let me go until I promised to meet him again. And in the end I did, because he spoke very warmly to me and I was afraid of him in that lonely place. Then I escaped - I ran home - and that's all. Of course, I never meant to meet him there again. But this evening I thought, "Perhaps he'll come to the house when he realizes I'm not coming to meet him," and that's why I couldn't sleep. But you are so silent!'
'I have had a long journey.'
They moved on towards the front entrance of the house. 'I have thought of something, but perhaps you won't like it,' she said. 'I think he will wait there again tomorrow night. Shall we go to the hill tomorrow together - just to see if he is there? And tell him he must not try to meet me like this?'
'Why should we see if he is there?' asked her unsmiling husband.
'Because I think we should try to help him. Poor Fred! He will listen to you, if you talk to him. It is wrong of him to think of me in that way, but he is clearly very miserable.'
By this time they had reached the front entrance and rung the bell. A man came to take the horse away, and the Duke and Duchess entered the house.
CHAPTER THREE
Third night
The next night Bill Mills was left alone again to take care of the sheep. He tried bravely not to think of what lay behind the Devil's Door, but without much success. So he was almost pleased as well as surprised when the Duke and Duchess appeared near the hut at about eleven o'clock. He watched and listened through the little window in his hut.
'I tell you, he did not think it was worth coming again!' the Duke said, reluctant to walk further. 'He is not here, so turn round and come home.'
'He doesn't seem to be here, it's true. Perhaps something has happened to him? Oh poor Fred! I do hope he is all right!'
The Duke said quickly, 'Oh, he probably has some other meeting to go to.'
'I don't think so.'
'Or perhaps he has found it too far to come.'
'Nor is that probable.'
'Then perhaps he thought it was better not to come.'
'Yes, perhaps. Or he may be here all the time, hiding behind the Devil's Door. Let's go and see - and surprise him!'
'Oh, he's not there.'
'Perhaps he's lying very quietly in the grass there, because of you,' she said, smiling.
'Oh, no - not because of me!'
'Come, then. Dearest, you're as reluctant as a schoolboy tonight! I know you're jealous of poor Fred, but you have no reason to be!'
'I'll come! I'll come! Say no more, Harriet!' And together they crossed the grass towards the stones.
The boy came out of the hut to see what happened next, but the Duchess saw him moving in the darkness.
'Ah, I see him at last!' she said.
'See him!' cried the Duke. 'Where?'
'By the Devil's Door. Don't you see him?' She laughed. 'Ah, my poor lover-cousin, you'll be in trouble now!'
'It's not him!' said the Duke in horror. 'It can't be him!'
'No, it isn't. It's too small for him. It's a boy.'
'Ah, I thought so! Boy, come here.'
Fearfully, young Bill came closer.
'What are you doing here?' asked the Duke.
'Taking care of the sheep, your Grace.'
'Ah, you know me! Do you keep sheep here every night?'
'Most nights in winter, your Grace.'
'And what have you seen here tonight or last night?' asked the Duchess. 'Anyone waiting or walking about?'
The boy was silent.
'He has seen nothing,' said her husband quickly, staring angrily at the boy. 'Come, let us go. The air is cold.'
When they had gone, young Bill went back to the sheep. But he was not alone for long. Half an hour later the Duke's heavy steps were heard again. His wife was not with him.
'Listen, boy,' he said. 'The Duchess asked you a question, and I want you to answer it. Have you seen anything strange these nights, when you've been watching your sheep?'
'Your Grace, I'm just a poor, stupid boy, and what I see, I don't remember.'
'I ask you again,' said the Duke, holding the boy's shoulder with a strong hand and staring down into his frightened face. 'Did you see anything strange here last night?'
'Oh, your Grace, don't kill me!' cried the boy, falling to the ground. 'I've never seen you walking here, or riding here, or waiting for a man, or pulling a dead body along!'
'Ah!' said the Duke coldly. 'It is good to know that you have never seen those things. Now, which do you prefer - to see me do those things now, or to keep a secret all your life?'
'Keep a secret, your Grace!'
'You are sure you can do it?'
'Oh, try me, your Grace!'
'Very well. And now, do you like being a shepherd?'
'Not at all.' Tis lonely work for a boy like me, who sees ghosts everywhere. And my master sometimes beats me.'
'I'll give you new clothes, and send you to school, and make a man of you. But you must never say you've been a shepherd boy. The moment that you forget yourself, and speak of what you've seen on the hills - this year, next year, or twenty years from now - I will stop helping you, and you'll come down to being a poor shepherd again.'
'I'll never speak of it, your Grace!'
'Come here.' The Duke took the boy to the Devil's Door. 'Now make a promise in front of these ancient stones. The ghosts that live in this place will find you and punish you if you ever speak of your life as a shepherd boy or what you saw then. Promise to keep this secret!'
His face as white as a sheet, the boy promised.
Then they went down into the valley, the Duke holding the boy's hand. That night the boy slept at Shakeforest Towers, and the next day he was sent away to school.
CHAPTER FOUR
Fourth night
On a winter evening many years later, a well-dressed man of business sat in his office at Shakeforest Towers. He had come a long way from the shepherd boy that he once was, but he did not seem happy with his comfortable life. He appeared older than his age, and he looked about him restlessly.
He stood up and left the office, and went to a room in another part of the house, where he knocked, and entered. The Duchess had been dead for some years, and the Duke was now a thin old man with white hair.
'Oh - Mills?' he said. 'Sit down. What is it?'
'Old times have come to life again, your Grace.'
'Which old times are they?'
'That Christmas week twenty-two years ago, when the Duchess's cousin asked her to meet him on Marlbury Downs. I saw the meeting, and I saw much more than that.'
'Do you remember a promise made by a shepherd boy?'
'I do. That boy has kept the promise all his life.'
'Then I wish to hear no more about it.'
'Very well. But the secret may soon come out. Not from me, because I'm grateful for what you've done for me. There was great excitement when Captain Ogbourne disappeared, but I spoke not a word, and his body was never found. For twenty-two years I've wondered what you did with him. Now I know. This afternoon I went up on the hill, and did some digging. I saw enough to know that something still lies there in a hole behind the stones.'
'Mills, do you think the Duchess guessed?'
'She never did, I'm sure, to the day of her death.'
'What made you think of going there this afternoon?'
'Something that happened today, your Grace. The oldest man in the village has died - the old shepherd.'
'Dead at last - how old was he?'
'Ninety-four.'
'And I'm only seventy. I have twenty-four more years!'
'He was my master when I was a shepherd boy, your Grace. And he was on the hill the second night. He was there all the time, but none of us knew that.'
'Ah!' said the Duke, looking fixedly at Mills. 'Go on!'
'When I heard he was dying, it made me think of the past, and that's why I went up on the hills. Now the villagers are saying that before he died, he confessed a secret to the vicar - a secret that he'd kept for your Grace, about a crime on Marlbury Downs more than twenty years ago.'
'That's enough, Mills. I'll see the vicar early tomorrow.'
'What will you do, your Grace?'
'Stop his tongue for twenty-four years, until I am dead at ninety-four, like the old shepherd. Go home now, Mills.'
Mills left the room and walked to his own house, where he lived a lonely, friendless life. But he could not sleep, and at midnight he looked out at the colourless moon, and decided to walk up to Marlbury Downs again. Once on the hill, he placed himself where the shepherd's hut had stood. No sheep or lambs were there that winter, but the Devil's Door stood high and white as ever, with dark shadows behind it.
Suddenly he realized he was not alone. A figure in white was moving silently towards the stones. It was the Duke himself, in his long nightshirt, walking in his sleep. He went straight to the covered hole, and dug with his hands like an animal. Then he got up, sighed, and went back down the hill. Mills followed him and saw him enter Shakeforest Towers.
