Chapter Nineteen
‘Do come inside and we’ll chat in comfort over a cup of tea. I’m really grateful for your help in getting rid of those nuisances today.’ Miranda led the way into the house, going straight across to the rear of the hall, which she now knew was one of two routes that led through to the kitchen and then to a large old-fashioned laundry at the rear.
As she was about to turn out of the hall she glanced back, intending to ask Ryan, the last to come in, if he’d lock the front door. To her relief, he was just turning the big key in the lock without being asked.
She nodded approval because she didn’t intend to let those Parnhams find any weaknesses and sneak into her house again. Then she wondered if this door-locking was automatic for him, which it wasn’t usually for people who lived out in the country, from what she’d heard.
Or was there a special reason for these men being doubly careful when coming to look round inside this house? Had her great-aunt upset people? Who knew? She had so much to learn about her new home and the people who lived nearby. She did hope they’d be generally friendly and that she’d make one or two personal friends from among them.
Thank goodness she hadn’t come here on her own! She’d hate to be facing everything alone, though she’d have coped. She always did, whatever she had to face, she prided herself on that, but it didn’t mean she liked having to struggle alone at times. Libby had made a huge and very positive difference to her life. She really did feel like they were family now, with a friendship both of them valued highly.
She waved one hand towards the big scrubbed wooden table. ‘Do please sit down, gentlemen, while I check that the gas is still switched on. I’ve still got all sorts of details like that to check.’ She turned a tap on the ancient gas cooker and heard a hissing noise so turned it off hastily and looked round for something to light it with.
The two men settled at the table and Libby began to fill the kettle then studied the old-fashioned gas cooker. ‘Anyone got something to light this with?’
‘We’re neither of us smokers.’ Col stood up and began to open and shut drawers. ‘People usually keep matches nearby. Aha! Here we go.’ He handed her a part-used box of matches. ‘I think you’d better keep these next to the cooker. You can buy gadgets to light these old-fashioned burners with.’
Miranda looked across at the elderly cooker and grimaced. ‘Or I can buy a modern cooker and get it installed as quickly as possible! I reckon this one is an antique.’
Libby lit a front burner and nodded in satisfaction as the flame burnt strongly and steadily, then she put the kettle on it. ‘I’ll boil this water then pour it away to clean the kettle, before I use any for making tea with.’
‘Good idea,’ Ryan said.
Miranda had been opening and shutting the wall cupboard doors. ‘We’re assuming there will be some tea-making supplies around still, because the lawyers didn’t allow anything to be cleared out of the house even by their own clerk except for the perishable foods.’
‘They sent a clerk and his wife across to lock the house up almost immediately. He took his wife with him to pack up the housekeeper’s possessions because the hospital doctor had informed them almost immediately that Miss Westerby was brain-dead and not going to recover. They removed the housekeeper’s clothing and possessions then paid to have the locks changed and the house secured.’
‘Would you mind if I just check the rest of the ground floor before I join you?’ The sergeant made a sweeping gesture with one hand as if to encompass the whole area.
‘Be my guest.’
Col stood up and began opening and closing the doors leading out of the kitchen into the adjoining rooms. He vanished from sight for long enough to make them realise that he was going round the whole of the ground floor and they heard him opening and closing doors elsewhere.
Miranda was pleased about that because it made her feel more secure, though, as she admitted to herself, not completely secure. She was still wary of there being unpleasant surprises left by her great-aunt.
He came back a short time later, nodding as if to assure them that everything was all right, then rejoining his friend at the table. ‘Dust everywhere, but no sign that anyone has been walking around disturbing most of it. The dust on the stairs had two sets of women’s footprints showing. I’m guessing they’re yours and Libby’s.’
‘Yes. There were no others before we went up.’
He sat down and began studying the roomy kitchen and the dining area at the side where they were sitting, as well as keeping an eye on Libby and Miranda as they continued to investigate the contents of the kitchen cupboards and pull one or two items out of them.
Miranda kept just as careful an eye on him, surprised at how intently he was studying everything and how alert he looked. He was very impressive, actually, and she’d like him to investigate the whole house. Would he do that for her? Did she dare ask him to? Was it even necessary when there had been no other footprints on the dusty stairs except for hers and Libby’s?
Oh, what did she know?
She turned back to continue looking at the contents of the last pair of wall cupboards on her side of the kitchen and waved a packet of chocolate biscuits at her companions. ‘These are past their expiry date but they’re all we’ve got so we may as well give them a try.’
‘The brew will still be nice and hot,’ Ryan said with a smile. ‘And I’ve probably drunk far worse.’
‘Aha!’ Libby took a packet of brown sugar and a carton of long-life milk out of the last cupboard at her side and brandished them happily.
‘I’ll let you make your cuppas to your own taste because there’s plenty of sugar here, even if it is brown, as well as several cartons of this packet milk. Oh, and there’s instant coffee as well, also past its use-by date, though it’s not mouldy or anything like that.’
They all opted for tea and Miranda poured the just-boiled second kettleful into the pot and then put the chocolate biscuits on a plate.
Libby snipped one of the corners off a carton of milk and set it down next to the packet of brown sugar. Then she grimaced at a miscellaneous assortment of rather grubby-looking, tea-stained mugs and insisted on giving four of them a thorough scrubbing out under the tap before even trying to use them. Ryan came over and dried them, setting them out next to the kettle.
It was … cosy, Miranda thought. Almost as if they were long-time friends. And there had been no awkward silences either.
She gestured towards the teapot. ‘We’ll let it brew for a minute or two then you can help yourselves. Sorry about these mugs being rather chipped but the only other drinking vessels I’ve found are some small wine glasses and a set of tiny china cups which would hold only a couple of thimblefuls of fluid each.’
‘I prefer mugs any day.’ Ryan wiped the last one and put it with the others, looked round to see if anything else needed doing, found nothing to help with and sat down again.
What a nice man he was, Miranda thought, and rather attractive, too.
Libby gave her friend a quick nudge. ‘You sit down as well, love, and chat to your first set of guests in your new home. I can finish making the tea on my own.’
Miranda joined the two men at the table. They didn’t do anything very special, just made cups of tea and passed things to one another, yet somehow that broke the ice and she felt comfortable with them, as if they had somehow become friends. It had happened as quickly as that when she first met Libby, so she hoped this was a good sign.
‘Did you know Miss Westerby well?’ Col asked Miranda.
‘No, not at all. I only ever met my great-aunt in person when I was a small child, and once when I was fourteen, but she was my guardian for a few years when I was a teenager.’ She grimaced involuntarily at the thought of how badly that woman had fulfilled her role as guardian.
‘From your expression you didn’t get on with her.’
‘No, not at all. She usually communicated with me through her lawyers and dumped me in a boarding school for kids whose parents were working overseas during the school holidays and left me there. I always felt that she disliked me intensely, though I could never understand why. And I certainly disliked her from the start. I couldn’t figure out why, but she always felt like an enemy.’
Both men looked at her in puzzlement and Ryan asked, ‘Why would she leave this house and her portfolio of shares to you, then?’
‘I don’t think she had much choice with this house. It’s owned by the Westerby Family Trust and I inherited it because I was the family member most closely related to her. It’s only mine for my lifetime and then it has to go to my closest relative. If necessary the lawyers will search for other branches of the family to find that person.’
‘There don’t sound to be many other Westerbys left.’
‘No. Apparently not. I’m the last in this branch and it must have galled her that she had no choice about who inherited the house. I don’t actually know the details of the family tree, but she let me know when I was a teenager and she became my guardian that she’d not be leaving the family home to me if there had been any legal alternative.’
‘How old were you when you lost your mother?’
She looked at him and suddenly her expression was deeply sad. ‘Fourteen. She was knocked down and killed by a drunk driver.’
Ryan stared at her in surprise. ‘What a nasty woman your great-aunt must have been to treat a grieving child so badly!’
‘I’ve always thought so, looking back on that time from being an adult. But I coped.’ They should write that on her gravestone, she thought, not for the first time: I coped .
‘So you were expecting to inherit this house, then?’
‘Yes. I don’t know the full rules of how it has to be managed, though. They were set a long time ago.’
‘No one’s tried to revise the trust and make it more suited to the modern world, then?’
‘My great-aunt certainly didn’t try to change anything in her cosy little world and I’ve only just inherited the house. I’ve not even had time to walk round the whole of it yet.’
She couldn’t stop herself frowning at the mere thought of that horrible woman.
‘What brought that frown?’ Ryan asked.
She hesitated, then told him. Why not? She wasn’t a secretive type like her great-aunt. ‘I suspect there are going to be some unpleasant surprises in store for me. There usually have been when dealing with any of the things that woman organised or administered. I’m sure she’ll make me pay for it in some nasty way.’
‘Well, if you need further help, don’t hesitate to ask me. I’m only just across your field. I’ll give you my phone number.’ He got his phone out so she did the same and put his number on hers. Giving her number to him felt strange. She didn’t often do that with anyone, let alone a near stranger. But she trusted this man absolutely, for some weird reason, him and Col both.
‘Thank you. That’s very kind of you, Ryan. I hope I shan’t need to trouble you, though.’
He smiled. ‘Independent type, eh? I’d be truly happy to offer help if you ever need it. Some things are better done with others helping. There will be less risk of your great-aunt’s unpleasant surprises that way.’
Once again, she returned his smile instinctively.
There was silence for a moment or two, then Miranda looked away and noticed Col sitting watching them but not trying to join in the conversation. He seemed a quiet sort of man, a bit older than her and Ryan, and he too had a really kind smile. In fact, she’d met more nice people, the sort you’d want to make close friends with, in the last day or two than she had for years, since she left university in fact.
When they were all supplied with mugs of tea and chocolate biscuits, Libby sat down with them and Ryan looked across at the two women. ‘What do you want me to start telling you about first?’
Miranda shrugged. ‘How about starting with the local people, such as those two who tried to push their way in today?’
‘The Parnhams?’
‘Yes. I’m presuming you know something about them from the tone of your voice as you say their name? Why on earth did they try to do that? Surely that woman didn’t think I’d just give her an antique box, considering that the house and its contents have been left to me?’
‘I’ve picked up a few things about them from overhearing people whispering to one another in the village shop,’ Ryan said. ‘No one dares talk openly about either of them because the houses of one or two who did were vandalised soon afterwards, while they were out. The man is Griff Parnham and his sister is Selma. She’s the older of the two by several years, I’m not sure how many.’
‘Her eyes look old,’ Libby said thoughtfully. ‘Old and spiteful.’
Ryan nodded. ‘I agree. Some people are like that and you wonder why. I’ve not been living here for long enough to understand all the background implications of the local situation.’
Col took over the tale. ‘The man I took over from as sergeant here gave me some information about the Parnhams. Years ago, Selma and her brother inherited a scruffy little cottage in the largest of the three villages, from an aunt I gather. But Selma was already the housekeeper here at Fairfield House so she kept most of the furnishings and left some of her personal possessions there locked in the attic, but stayed on in her job. Her brother went away to work, took to crime and was caught committing a burglary. He had a record for violence, and attacked and wounded the officer who caught him, so was given a prison sentence.’
‘Nice neighbour to have!’ Ryan said.
‘Selma then let the main part of the cottage to local people, always leaving the attic room containing her own and her brother’s things locked up.’ Col sighed. ‘Unfortunately, Griff has recently been released from prison so I’m keeping my eye on him. He seems determined to stay out of trouble this time so I haven’t caught him doing anything against the law, or heard any rumours of him causing trouble either. However, I suspect he’s gone back to extorting money out of weaker folk with secrets to hide. He and his sister seem to have been doing that for years, or so I was told by my predecessor. Some of them are so terrified of him they pay him a regular amount to leave them alone. I can’t get anyone to reveal the details of what’s going on to me officially, though.’
‘That’s disgusting!’ Libby exclaimed.
Col shrugged. ‘My main advice is not to trust Griff or his sister, whatever they say or do.’
‘Has Selma ever been in trouble with the police?’
‘No, never. She and your great-aunt seem to have got on very well, were more like friends than mistress and housekeeper. People said that was probably because they were both nasty types. I kept an eye on what was going on after your aunt collapsed. She was taken to hospital but didn’t die straight away, even though the doctors had said she couldn’t recover, and judged her to be brain-dead.’
He frowned. ‘So I felt I’d better take charge until an heir could be found. I got that new lawyer of hers to give Selma notice and he paid off all her accrued entitlements. I’d hoped that she would find herself another job away from here then, but she didn’t even try to. I wouldn’t let her go back into the big house, though.’
Col allowed himself a tight little grin. ‘I give the lawyer his due. He acted quickly, not only taking over the legal side of things that your great-aunt had mainly been managing herself, but following up on my suggestion to lock Selma out of the house. He got his wife to pack her clothes and the other personal items from her quarters. She caught a glimpse of Selma’s bank book while she was doing that and reckoned the woman must have been milking the housekeeping money for years to put so much money away. She told me about it. Unfortunately the woman had never been caught out doing anything illegal, so we couldn’t pursue matters.’
Miranda frowned. ‘If she’d already taken her own possessions away, why did she keep insisting there was some box she had promised to destroy for her late mistress? When I refused to let her in to get it, she and her brother tried to push me out of the way. They’d have succeeded as well if you two hadn’t come to my aid. As heir, I intend to find the box to see what it was they wanted to destroy.’
She stared into space and added, ‘I don’t intend to let her into my house ever again, though, whatever she says or does. She makes me feel uncomfortable, I can’t work out why, but it feels as if I’m touching something dirty when I’m with her. I’m glad you two were around today, because she and her brother took me by surprise.’
Col frowned. ‘I wonder what’s in the box. Selma seemed desperate to get hold of it. I bet she’d have taken it without saying a word if that lawyer hadn’t had the locks on all the external doors changed so quickly.’
‘I’d not have handed it over meekly on her say-so, believe me,’ Miranda said. ‘I’d have checked it with the lawyer first. This house is my inheritance via a family trust and that box is surely part of its contents, don’t you think? That gives even less reason for it to be any concern of Selma Parnham’s.’
The two men both nodded, then Col said slowly, as if thinking aloud, ‘She and Miss Westerby were apparently very close. And your great-aunt was known for treating her tenants badly, the ones in houses owned by your family trust.’
Miranda stared at him, even more worried now about what nasty surprises her great-aunt might have left for her. She hated the thought of being related to a woman as vicious as that and was worried about why she’d been left those extra bequests.
The two men waited patiently for her to pull her thoughts together and she was grateful to them for that. There was a lot to get her head around.