Chapter 31 #2
‘When Edith, Molly and I were searching for the third clue near the old schoolrooms, I thought I heard someone moving around and I caught a waft of Poison perfume. When I looked, there was nobody there. There’s a suite called the Widow’s rooms on that corridor, where, strangely, Gulliver has insisted Lucia stay now she’s back.
There’s also an old servants’ staircase that leads from that wing of the house to the rooms behind the kitchen which opens onto the path that leads to the stables. ’
‘Voice of reason here, Miss Marple,’ said Tamar. ‘How did she manage to sneak in without anyone seeing? Where’s her car? And why?’
‘Her car is easy, she could hide it in the village or on one of the lanes and, remember, the security cameras went down for twenty-four hours due to a technical hitch,’ said Tabitha. ‘It was a few days before Gulliver arrived home.’
‘Are you saying she could have arrived at Cerensthorpe before Gull?’
‘Possibly, when he was sobbing on my doorstep he kept moaning that she’d gone and he didn’t know where she was. He assumed she was in Tuscany with her new man.’
‘But why?’
‘She’s looking for something.’
‘The Chaucer?’
‘Perhaps, but, remember, she and her family are art dealers,’ said Tabitha. ‘I wonder if she’s discovered another item which neither Gull nor Edith realise is valuable and Lucia’s trying to steal it.’
‘Tabs, this is crazy,’ said Tamar and Tabitha could hear the shock in her sister’s voice.
‘I know,’ said Tabitha, ‘and these are not things I’d say without good reason, but there is definitely something off about Lucia and her unexpected arrival. She and Gull are at loggerheads and neither of them seem to be making any effort at a reconciliation.’
‘Marriages rarely make sense to anyone else looking in,’ said Tamar. ‘This might be the way they solve their problems: weeks of arguing, sulking and sleeping in separate rooms, then a passionate reunion.’
Tabitha felt queasy at the thought, but she did concede her sister could be correct.
‘Have you had any joy with the new clue?’ Tamar asked.
‘No, why?’ replied Tabitha.
‘I think you should solve it and see where it leads,’ said Tamar. ‘If Lucia is after the Chaucer, she’ll be interested; if not, she’ll ignore you, but she might use the flurry of excitement of the treasure hunt to locate another item. By the way, how’s Edith?’
‘Up and down, a few good days, then a relapse.’
‘This might sound paranoid, but does Lucia have any involvement in the kitchen?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Tabitha. ‘Why?’
‘Edith’s symptoms remind me of a woman I treated in my early days as a GP,’ said Tamar.
‘Although the woman had mains water, there were occasions when she would use water from the old well in her garden. Whenever she did, she fell ill. It was a long while before she admitted using the well and when we had it tested, there was arsenic in the water. Her symptoms were the same as Edith’s.
There’s no reason why arsenic would be in a modern kitchen, so it can’t be from accidental contamination. ’
‘Are you saying you think Lucia is poisoning Edith?’ asked Tabitha aghast.
‘I wouldn’t have said anything before, but if you’re suspicious of her, then yes. I have wondered for a while if there was more to Edith’s illness. After all, it began a few days after Lucia’s arrival.’
Outside, Tabitha could hear footsteps approaching. From the heavy tread, she thought it must be Gulliver.
‘Tay, I have to go,’ she said. ‘I can hear someone coming.’
‘Lucia?’ asked her sister in concern.
‘No, probably Gulliver—’
‘Talk to him, Tabs,’ urged Tamar. ‘Or talk to Molly, but let someone know of your suspicions.’
‘I’ll call you later,’ said Tabitha and hung up as the scriptorium door opened.
‘May I join you?’
Tabitha jumped guiltily. She had hoped her conversation with Tamar would have quelled her suspicions, but instead, it had added to her growing anxiety. Gulliver’s uninvited appearance did not help, but she pushed her discussion with her sister to one side and smiled.
‘Of course,’ she said.
It was a week since she had found the final clue. Edith had wanted to search for it immediately, but a relapse of her illness had halted this plan. During lucid moments, Edith had spoken to Tabitha about the most recent entry in Wilbur’s diary concerning Helena and Eglantine.
‘Helena died,’ she had said, ‘and Wilbur left no details of Eglantine’s aunt who adopted her.
Could you search one of those genealogy websites to see if you could trace her, please?
You might be able to discover the truth about this lost chapter of Swanne history.
If it helps, please use the family tree, it’s in the scriptorium. Gulliver will show you.’
However, due to the pressure of work, Gulliver had proved unavailable to spend time in the scriptorium to allow her to see the Swanne family tree.
Instead, using the information she had from the diaries, Tabitha had begun her own search online, trying to piece together a genealogy for the mysterious Helena Last. Her research had been frustrating, leading to endless dead ends, and Tabitha had wondered if this had even been the woman’s real name.
Finally, she had discovered a newspaper cutting dated from a week before Wilbur’s diary entry, giving details of a woman called Helena Last who had been killed in an accident in London.
She was hit by an omnibus as she crossed the road.
When Tabitha had reported the cause of Helena’s death back to Edith, the older woman had suffered another relapse.
Tabitha had continued searching for clues about the Last family, hoping to discover good news about the missing child, but she was unsure how she felt about Wilbur’s double life.
Edith found it amusing, but Tabitha thought Wilbur sounded weak, an entitled man who abandoned his wife at the point of her deepest despair.
She struggled to like him, but she did feel compassion at the loss of his daughter, taken into a family who barely knew of his existence.
Now, Gulliver hovered in the middle of the room, his moss-green jumper with its half zip showing a grey T-shirt below, his hands were buried in the pockets of his jeans.
He often referred to the outfit as his ‘uniform’ as it was a look he stuck with each day, altering only the colours of the jumpers and T-shirts.
‘Auntie Edie wanted me to check on you,’ he said.
‘Why?’ Tabitha asked in surprise.
‘She says you’ve been very quiet and is worried you might feel you’re being pushed out since Lucia’s return.’
The statement was bald. Gulliver was staring into the middle distance as he spoke and his voice was flat, with no hint of emotion. Tabitha felt a spurt of anger: was he testing her? If so, how dare he? His marital mess was his problem; it was nothing to do with her.
‘Not at all,’ she replied and there was a sharpness to her voice.
Gulliver gave a terse nod.
‘Auntie Edie also said she’d suggested you consult the family tree, but there hasn’t yet been an opportunity. Are you busy now or would you like to look?’
A curious thought occurred to Tabitha concerning Edith’s suggestion she spend the afternoon in the scriptorium. Was this a situation the older woman had deliberately engineered? She suppressed a smile, Edith was incorrigible.
Tabitha put her sketchbook aside and stood up. ‘I’d love to see the family tree,’ she said, ‘but on the condition you tell me truthfully whether Edith has forced you into coming up here.’
Gulliver pulled his hands from his pockets, a small keyring hanging from the index finger of his right hand, as a reluctant smile spread across his face. ‘Of course she has,’ he said. ‘Edith is a very determined woman.’
‘What do you mean?’
He held her gaze before replying.
‘Nothing will stop her discovering the truth about the Chaucer,’ he said and the faint blush on his cheeks made Tabitha wonder if he was being entirely honest. ‘She wonders if there’s a link between this missing child who is mentioned in the diaries and the manuscript.
It’s why she’s so keen for you to see our family tree, in case it helps you unravel the story. ’
Gulliver walked towards the wall-mounted drawers and unlocked the two in the centre, while Tabitha wandered over to the long wooden table in the centre of the room. Gulliver had proudly explained he and Oliver had made it from left-over floorboards.
‘It would have been a shame to waste them,’ he had said. ‘It’s Pippy Oak or Cat’s Paw, the markings look as though a cat has walked across them and left paw prints.’
Tabitha had traced her finger around the delicate patterns set in the wood. ‘I thought the wood had been painted,’ she had admitted.
‘No, it’s natural,’ Gulliver had said, ‘a tiny piece of magic.’
Now, as she looked down at the cluster of dots, resembling a trail of feline paws, Gulliver appeared at her side. She could smell the faint trace of his aftershave, it made her think of the sea or petrichor – the scent of the rain – and goosebumps shivered up her arms.
‘Here,’ he said and placed two large leather-bound scrolls on the table. ‘Edith commissioned these from the Royal College of Arms. It’s a family tradition to update them whenever there’s a marriage.’
‘How lovely,’ Tabitha managed to choke out.
‘I wonder if there’s a tradition for updating them after a divorce,’ he said, his voice flat.
‘Gull, I’m so sorry…’ began Tabitha, but he shook his head, halting her sympathy.
‘My choice,’ he said. ‘It’s why Lucia is so angry.
She thought she’d be able to come back, apologise, cry, I’d forgive her as I have whenever we’ve rowed in the past and everything would be back to normal, but…
’ he hesitated, ‘things have changed, and despite my outbursts when I came home, I know my feelings for her are… different. Not as strong, perhaps gone.’