01 - Murder at Ashgrove House (9 page)

‘Shush, Aunt,’ replied Lavinia hurriedly, ‘he’ll hear you, but yes he
does look absolutely divine, doesn’t he. Don’t you agree, Rose?’

‘Yes,’ replied Rose dutifully, although it was not Lord Sneddon who had
caught her eye. Even so, she could see why Lavinia found him attractive. He was
tall, a good head taller than his companion who was himself by no means short
or even of middle height, and was very dark with almost jet black hair. He
carried himself well, very upright, and there was a look approaching arrogance
about him as if he were fully aware of his own importance which, given that he
was heir to a dukedom, the
highest hereditary
title in the British aristocracy, was not
insignificant. His eyes, when he turned to focus his gaze on Lavinia, could be
described as nothing less than smouldering and Rose heard a small intake of
breath from her friend as she luxuriated in his attentions. It was a few
moments before he turned his head to acknowledge Rose’s presence because Lady
Withers had intervened herself to welcome him, clasping his hands in hers and
fussing around him like a bee around a honey pot. When at last he directed his
look to Rose, there was an altogether different expression on his face,
although Rose thought that probably only she herself had seen it.

Lord Sneddon’s look towards her was
clearly mocking. It seemed to Rose that he took his time to look her up and
down as he might a horse he was considering purchasing and a smile crossed his
full, rosebud lips which was by no means kind. It made her for a moment feel
vulnerable and alone. Both Lavinia and Lady Withers were totally oblivious to
her discomfort, she was sure, just as she was equally certain that Lord
Sneddon’s intention was to make her feel ill at ease.

‘Miss Simpson, or may I call you
Rose?’ the marquis drawled. ‘How wonderful to make your acquaintance at last.
Cedric and I have heard so much about you from Lavinia and I can see that she
did not write a word of a lie about you, for you are exactly how I pictured you
would be from her description of you.’ He turned to Lavinia and they both
laughed. Rose stood there feeling awkward. She thought it unlikely that her
friend would have said anything outright unkind about her, but the way Lord
Sneddon insinuated by his manner, it was as if she had. 

‘I say, you there,’ Lord Sneddon
flicked his fingers and Albert, the young footman, came hurrying over. ‘Have
you got one of those modern domestic refrigerators here?’

‘Yes, your lordship, we’ve an
electrically operated one. It has a storage capacity of twenty-two cubic feet and
Mrs Palmer, she’s the cook-housekeeper, is right proud –.’

‘Splendid. Take these,’ Lord Sneddon
handed the footman what looked like some small metal balls. ‘Put them in the
refrigerator, they need to be made ice-cold and then bring them out to me this evening
when we have cocktails.’

‘Very good, my lord,’ said Albert,
taking the balls gingerly.

‘Whatever are they, Hugh?’ enquired
Lavinia.

‘Wait and see,’ replied Lord Sneddon
with a gleam in his eye. ‘If you’re lucky I might put one or two in your glass.’
Lavinia giggled.

The man who had caught Rose’s
attention was still a little way off and appeared engrossed in conversation
with Stafford. This in itself seemed remarkable to Rose, more so because the
butler appeared to be smiling, having seemingly forgotten his usual impassive
air; the combination of these two things roused Rose’s curiosity. The man came
closer and, as he strode across the gardens towards them, she took in his
appearance for the first time.  He was tall and slender and his hair, which
was slicked back from a side parting, was blonde.  He had chiselled
features which almost made his face look more beautiful than handsome, Rose
thought, as if he were a Greek god rather than a mortal man. His skin was
tanned a golden brown as if he spent much time out of doors. Like his friend,
he carried himself well and while he looked imposing, there was nothing about
his manner that was aloof. To Rose, his looks rivalled those of a matinee idol.
She could not help but stare at him.

Two things happened then. Later she
wondered if everything would have ended up differently if they hadn’t. The
first thing was that Mrs Palmer, who had come out of the house presumably to
ask a question of Lady Withers about the tea or to welcome the guests herself,
slipped and fell heavily on to the ground. In an instant, the fair-haired young
man was at her side, helping her up and appearing genuinely concerned as he
made sure that she was not hurt. The two of them had looked at each other with
mutual affection and it was obvious that the young man was a favourite among
the servants and that they held him in high esteem. The second thing was that,
having satisfied himself that Mrs Palmer was alright, Lord Sedgwick had looked
up and spotted Rose looking at him shyly and he had smiled, a genuine smile, of
that she was sure, a smile that had lit up his face and made his eyes shine.
And in that moment, Rose, who was not a romantic by any means, being too much
of a realist to believe in fairy-tale endings and dreams coming true, had fallen
in love.

‘How do you do, Miss Simpson?’

‘How do you do, your lordship?’

‘Oh, don’t call me that, Cedric, please. But don’t call me Ceddie, I beg
of you. Only Lavinia calls me that, and I am trying so very hard to persuade
her not to. It was all very well when we were children and she was my big
sister, but now that I am a man, I find it a trifle embarrassing.’

Rose laughed. ‘If I am to call you Cedric, then you must call me Rose.’

‘I should be delighted to, Rose, especially as roses are my favourite
flower by far.’

‘Enough, you two,’ interrupted Lavinia coming over. ‘My brother can be a
bit of a charmer, Rose, you must take no notice of him and certainly don’t
encourage him. But, Ceddie, you haven’t said hello to me yet and I haven’t seen
you for absolutely ages. I suppose you know Mother’s here? Whatever possessed
you to tell her that I would be down at Ashgrove this weekend?’

‘Stafford told me as soon as we arrived. He was very discreet and
conveniently looked away so as not to see me grimace. But I didn’t tell Mother
that you’d be here, Sis. Why ever would I do such a thing, especially as Hugh
and I decided to come down too? Hope you girls don’t mind us being here. We
thought it would be fun and I’m so tired of studying, I can’t tell you. Don’t
look at me like that, Lavinia,’ Cedric gave his sister’s shoulder a playful
nudge. ‘I do heaps of work, you know, despite what you may think. It’s not just
a round of parties, I want to get a decent degree.’

‘I’m sure you do, little brother. Oh, but why does Mother have to be here
to spoil everything?’

‘I suppose it’s our fault for not going home enough. Try to look on the
bright side, it won’t be too bad and I understand from Stafford that father has
come down with her. I don’t know how she’s managed that. I can’t remember the
last time he left Sedgwick. Mother usually has to make his excuses.’

‘It’s all very well for you, Ceddie, you’re her favourite and can’t do
any wrong in her eyes. But it’s awful for me. Why, we hadn’t been here five
minutes and she was already badgering me about working in the dress shop.’

‘How’s that going, Sis? I must admit that I can’t imagine you being
particularly nice to customers that you don’t like, or putting clothes away or
anything.’

‘Oh, it’s alright, I’m quite enjoying it and of course, I’ve met Rose.’

‘Yes.’ The word hung in the air as Cedric turned and smiled at Rose. Rose
felt her stomach do a somersault as she returned his smile. And all the while
she realised that Lord Sneddon was following their exchange with some interest,
the way she lowered her gaze and could not help herself from blushing. And a
tiny part of her, that was not focused solely on Cedric, warned her of danger
and told her to be afraid.

‘So you see, Rose, it really is lovely to be here at Ashgrove. Despite
what my sister thinks, I really have been working desperately hard and I always
find it so relaxing here. Uncle William and Aunt Connie are always so pleased
to see us but in a quiet, unassuming sort of way so that one feels one can just
be without having to put on a show of any kind. I say, does that make any sense
or am I just talking a lot of old rot?’

Lord Sedgwick and Rose had been wondering aimlessly around the grounds
for a quarter of an hour or so, Lord Sneddon and Lady Lavinia always a few feet
behind, equally engrossed in conversation.

‘I understand what you’re saying perfectly, Cedric.’
Cedric
! She,
Rose Simpson, a simple shop girl, was on first name terms with the heir to an earldom
and it had felt to her, in these last fifteen minutes or so, that she had been
waiting all her life for Cedric to appear, that while she felt excited and
agitated by his presence, she also felt relieved and reassured as if it was
supposed to happen, as if it were fate. ‘I’ve only been here a few hours
myself, but it is so tranquil and peaceful here. I feel as if I have left my
old life behind and stepped into another world where anything might happen. I’m
going to find it a very hard wrench to leave on Sunday afternoon.’

‘So shall I, Rose, but we have the whole weekend in front of us, so let’s
not think about that yet.’

‘My lord.’ Stafford had somehow managed to appear, totally unobserved
until he had spoken. ‘Begging your pardon, but the Earl of Belvedere has
requested your presence in the library.’

‘Really, what now, Stafford? Miss Simpson, Rose, will you forgive me if I
abandon you for a while? I don’t like to keep Father waiting. He doesn’t often
ask to see me. Truth be told, I had completely forgotten that he was here.’

Rose watched his retreating back and felt a sense of loss. She was not
left to her own devices for long however, for Lady Withers, who had been
occupied in another part of the garden, came hurrying towards her.

‘I say, Miss Simpson, are you into roses like your namesake? We have some
wonderful rose bushes here at Ashgrove that you simply must see. Of course,
green fly has been particularly active on our roses this year, so Bridges, our
head gardener, tells me anyway. He syringes the infested plants with a nicotine
wash which he simply swears by. It’s effective against all aphids and
caterpillars, so he tells me. This way.’ Lady Withers, who apparently did not
think it necessary to wait for an answer, led Rose across the lawn and through
an archway into a small garden which was obviously the rose garden. As soon as
they had gone a few yards into the garden, Lady Withers turned around abruptly
to look behind them and Rose followed suit, noticing as she did so that Lady
Withers looked relieved.

‘Ah, good, they haven’t followed us, I was afraid they would. Oh, no need
to look alarmed, Miss Simpson, I haven’t got something to say to you that I
didn’t wish to be overhead. No, on the contrary, I’m afraid I’ve rather asked
you to come in here on a false pretence; not that our roses aren’t rather
splendid, because they’re really rather good. No, it’s just that I wanted the
two young people to have some time together, get to know each other, so to
speak. I’m very fond of Lavinia, of course, but she does have a tendency to be
a bit headstrong and apt to do her own thing, which is all very well in a girl
of seventeen, but not the thing at all for a woman almost twenty-three. It’s
high time she was married and although she still has her beauty, her looks will
fade soon enough like her mother’s looks have done, mark my words.’

It seemed to Rose that there was nothing much to say to that and that it
was probably better if she did not volunteer an opinion, although she found
that Lady Withers’ comment about marriage had irked her, for she herself was
only a year younger than Lavinia.

‘So she needs to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. And it really
is rather fortunate that my sister is still having her lie down because I’m
afraid to say that she is likely to put off any potential suitor. I’m sure she
doesn’t mean to, but poor Marjorie can be rather fierce at times and she very
rarely smiles or is even in good humour come to that. Oh dear, that makes her
sound quite dreadful and I really don’t mean to, but all in all I think it’s
probably best for Lavinia’s sake if Lord Sneddon sees as little as possible of
her mother. Wasn’t it Oscar Wilde who said something about all women becoming
like their mothers? What an awful prospect, we don’t want Lord Sneddon to be
put off, do we? My goodness, Stafford,’ Lady Withers broke off at the
reappearance of her butler. ‘How on earth did you get there? If I didn’t know
better, I’d swear that you had wings. Whenever I look around, there you are.
Well, what is it now?’

‘Mrs Torrington has just arrived, m’lady.’

‘Edith, oh, I had quite forgotten about her. How tiresome, not that I
don’t want to see Edith, of course, or I would never have invited her here,
it’s just rather awkward that’s she’s coming now when my sister and especially
Cedric are here, we really don’t want another scene. I say, Stafford,’ Lady
Withers raised her voice slightly as if she thought her butler was rather hard
of hearing, ‘I was just saying to Miss Simpson that we really do not want
another scene.’

‘No, indeed not m’lady,’ agreed the butler, ‘which is why I took the
liberty of putting Mrs Torrington in the morning room on the first floor. I was
afraid that if I put her in the drawing room or brought her out into the
gardens, there was a possibility that she might inadvertently come across Lord
Sedgwick and the earl coming out of the library and I thought that such an
encounter would be unfortunate, until Mrs Torrington had been told the
situation.’

‘You were quite right, Stafford, as always,’ sighed Lady Withers. ‘Well I
suppose I had better go and see Edith and break the news to her. Why she does
have to be so silly about Cedric, I really don’t know, I mean, it was such a
very long time ago, one would have thought that she would have got over it by
now.’ She turned and looked at Rose as if she had suddenly remembered that she
was there and did not know quite what to do with her. ‘Ah, Miss Simpson, now
what about you? Should I leave you here to amuse yourself or would you like to
accompany me to see my old school friend? I think, on reflection, you had
better come with me, if you have no objection.’ Rose did not for she was rather
curious to make the acquaintance of the mysterious Edith who seemed to have
such a thing for Cedric despite the very large difference in their ages.

She followed Lady Withers into the house and up the stairs to the morning
room which had, earlier in the day, been used by the countess to berate her
daughter. On the landing just outside the door, looking as if he were trying to
pluck up the courage to enter the room, stood Sir William.

‘Darling, whatever are you doing here?’ enquired Lady Withers, obviously
surprised to see her husband there. ‘I thought you were tied up in your study
answering your business correspondence.’

‘Ah, yes my dear, I was,’ replied Sir William, looking rather awkward.
‘But just as I finished I heard Stafford greeting Edith in the hall and I
thought I’d take the opportunity to forewarn her about ... er … Cedric, before
she happened to bump into him. But by the time I had put my papers away, I
found that she was no longer in the hall but had been shown up here into your
morning room.’

‘Well, Stafford thought it would be safer and I have to say I agree with
him. But you thought
you’d
warn her?’

‘Yes, seeing as I was here, so to speak, and you were in the garden.’

‘I see.’ There was a certain coldness in the way Lady Withers uttered
these two words that resulted in an uncomfortable silence. Rose averted her
gaze, suddenly finding the pattern on the wallpaper very interesting. 

‘Constance, please, it’s not what …’

‘Don’t say another word, William, we won’t discuss it here and now. I
take it that you haven’t had a chance to actually speak to Edith yet? In which
case Miss Simpson and I will go and tell her. I say, my dear,’ Lady Withers
said turning in that instant to both dismiss Sir William and to address Rose,
‘is there any chance of my calling you “Rose”, I can’t keep calling you “Miss
Simpson” while you’re a guest in my house, it makes you sound too much like a
servant.’

‘Yes, of course, “Rose” is fine, Lady Withers.’

‘Oh, and do stop calling me “Lady Withers” dear, “Connie” will do.’

Before either of them could venture into the room, however, the door
opened and Edith appeared in the doorway, the sound of their voices having
drawn her out.

‘Oh, Connie, I didn’t know you were there, and William too.’ To Rose, who
scrutinised her with some interest, Edith looked slightly flustered as if she
found the whole experience of being greeted by three people, one unknown to
her, quite overwhelming.

Rose did not know what she had been expecting, but Edith certainly was
not it. She realised that she must have been assuming that a woman who was
sufficiently attracted to a man half her age to make such an apparent spectacle
of herself, would go to great lengths to retain her youth and beauty. But this
could not be said of the woman standing before her, who looked to Rose’s eyes
quite nondescript. Her blonde hair was showing grey in places and her face was
faintly lined with either worry or sickness, Rose was not sure which; it was
only later that she knew it to be grief.  

‘Now, Edith,’ Lady Withers was saying, ‘I’d like you and me to go back
into the room and sit down. I’ve something to tell you which I’m afraid you
might find a bit upsetting at first but I’m sure that once you have got over
the shock you’ll be alright and it needn’t spoil your visit here at all. Why,
it will be just like old times with us all back together. Rose, here, who’s a
young friend of dear Lavinia’s, will summon the servants and arrange some tea
for us,’ she paused to glance over her shoulder at Rose, ‘won’t you my dear,
I’m sure you won’t mind.’

‘No, of course not Lady Withers … er … I mean, Connie.’

‘Such a sweet girl; would you believe, Edith, that she works in a dress
shop? William, what are
you
doing still here? Go and entertain the
gentlemen. I’ll see to Edith.’

‘Yes, my dear, it’s just that –.’

‘Oh, for goodness sake, William –.’ 

Unexpectedly, in the air of tension that had suddenly sprung up between
husband and wife, the library door opened below. It was a welcome diversion to
all those present on the landing and, almost as if they had been one, they
stepped forward together and peered over the banister.

Later, when Rose thought back over it all, it seemed that everything then
happened in slow motion. Firstly, Cedric came out into the hall followed by his
father the Earl of Belvedere; secondly, Sir William flung himself quite
unceremoniously in front of Edith, as if to shield her from the view; thirdly,
Edith half stumbled forward and half pushed Sir William aside as if determined
to see what she was being sheltered from; fourthly, both father and son had
looked up to see the cause of the kerfuffle; and lastly, Edith had let out a
gasp that was clearly audible, even to the men below, and she had clasped her
hands to her chest as if experiencing a sudden pain, before her legs had
buckled up beneath her and she had crumbled onto the floor.