Chapter Eighteen #2
She looked back at the picture. Her mum and Lady Bramlington were clearly content in each other’s company as they held their babies on their laps.
Her mum had never mentioned knowing Lady Bramlington, and yet the photograph was discovered in a frame, the fading of the picture suggesting it had once been on display.
So it had once been a treasured memory to someone.
But who, Ted? ‘If they were once best friends, then something happened to alter that, but what?’
‘Oh my God, you’re his love child!’ Mary gasped, her hand going to her mouth.
‘Ted’s?’ Ava looked at her incredulous.
‘No, not Ted’s, Lord Bramlington’s. Lady Bramlington found out and’ — Mary’s eyes went wide as if a sudden realisation dawned upon her — ‘which would make you and Henry—’
‘No! It definitely doesn’t.’ Ava pushed away an image of her straddling Henry on her mum’s floral sofa. ‘Have you seen my hair? My complexion?’
‘Yes!’ Mary dropped her shoulders, the deflation of her fanciful idea reflected in her demeanour.
‘All very much from my dad!’ Ava pulled at one of her curls that sprung back into place as she released it. ‘Connor Flynn might have died when I was two, but his genes very much live on in me. Believe me, I’ve seen the pictures.’
Mary looked at the photograph. ‘Ah bugger, so you’re not the secret heir to the late Lord Bramlington then? You’re not going to step up, claim your inheritance and save the village.’
‘No, I’m really not.’
Hearing the bell ring as the shop door was opened, Myrtle went to investigate.
‘That’ll be Flo. She’s got the spare keys.’ Jumping into action, Ava pushed the photograph and the note back in the envelope. ‘I’ll put the kettle on.’
Mary lowered her voice, ‘OK, but what’s your theory then?’
Ava filled the kettle with water before putting it on its base and clicking it on. ‘I don’t have one. But I’ll start with Ted.’
‘If that’s about that photograph, Ted’ll be no use to you.’ Flo looked round the corner.
Mary looked at her, eyes wide. ‘How do you—?’
‘I asked what was in the envelope. You said always check what people bring in, no electrical, no previously used safety equipment, no videos, no nightwear or fancy dress without a safety standard. Definitely no underwear and to ask about Gift Aid e-v-e-r-y time.’
‘I was talking about donations, not private correspondence.’
‘I know, but best to be thorough.’ Flo winked.
Mary took a mug from the mug tree, taking over the tea making since Ava stood motionless in the wake of Flo’s comments.
‘So you know what’s inside?’ Ava asked.
‘I know it’s a photograph, donated by accident amidst a set of fancy gold frames. When he hinted at the value of the frames, I put two and two together. It had to be the donation in Ted’s name. Am I right?’
‘Yes.’
‘Bingo! Miss Marple has nothing on me!’ Flo giggled.
‘But what do you mean in Ted’s name?’ Ava asked, attempting to keep Flo’s mind on track.
Flo folded her arms. ‘Well, it wasn’t Ted who brought the donation in, it was him, in disguise. He had me fooled for a while but—’
‘Ted in disguise?’ Ava was getting more confused by the minute.
‘No!’ Flo laughed, unfolding her arms and slipping off her coat. ‘Lord, hold up, he said I could call him Henry. Oi get me, hobnobbing with the Bramlingtons.’
Ava went to speak, but Mary interjected.
‘So the donation was from Henry, but he Gift-Aided it from Ted, why would he do that?’ Mary raised an eyebrow at Ava, suspicion clearly on her mind, before looking back to Flo.
‘I told you he was in disguise.’ Flo walked through to the back office, hung up her coat, left her bag and walked back towards the two dumbfounded women, a wide grin on her face.
‘Undercover boss and all that. Checking out the local businesses. He had a beard, long hair, nothing like when he was here yesterday.’
Ava pushed away an unhelpful image of how Henry looked when she saw him yesterday. ‘So the donation was from Lord Bramlington?’
‘Yes — but I can call him Henry. And when I asked him if he would Gift Aid them’ — Flo looked pointedly at Ava — ‘he didn’t want to give the game away and said they were from Ted, his uncle.’
‘Ted’s his uncle?’ Mary asked in surprise. ‘My God, this is turning into one of those crazy chat shows where everyone’s got a secret, and it turns out they’re all related!’ She poured the boiling water into Flo’s mug and finished making her tea, barely taking her eyes from Flo.
Ava reached for her coffee. Her mind was too muddled with everything that had gone on in the last twenty-four hours to take this all in.
‘No! Ted’s not Henry’s uncle.’ Flo laughed.
‘But you said—’
‘I said, he said, he was — as part of his disguise. It’s very simple.
I don’t know why you two aren’t keeping up.
’ Flo tutted and shook her head, picked up her mug of tea and began to walk back towards the shop.
‘Come on, Myrtle, you and I best get the shop open. I think these two have feathers in their heads today!’
‘Well, that clears up one bit of the mystery. The donation was from Henry. But the whole disguise thing. That’s a bit odd, isn’t it?’ Mary pondered.
Ava thought about seeing Henry in the woods and knew that the beard and long hair hadn’t been a disguise, at least not in the sense that Flo thought it was.
As for knowing he had donated the frames, Ava was unsure if her mind felt any clearer from knowing that fact.
She drank down the last of her coffee. ‘Do they make a triple shot coffee in the café at all? I think I might need something stronger.’
‘Yes. But wait, what if Henry donated the picture on purpose? Maybe he wanted you to find it,’ Mary continued, seemingly unwilling to let the subject go.
‘No, that makes no sense. I looked at the frames and I missed it. If he wanted me to find it, he’d have left it more prominently or . . . or just shown me.’
‘OK, so you need to find out what Henry knows.’
Ava nodded, unsure that Henry would be any wiser on the subject than she was.
If he knew about the connection between their parents, he had never mentioned it.
She had already been through her mum’s things and found nothing, and that meant the only person left to ask was Lady Bramlington herself.
And that won’t be happening any time soon.
‘Or you could go public, ask around. Flo obviously hasn’t seen the picture, or she would have said something. You could show her, or maybe Pauline—’
Ava felt a cold shiver down her spine, her eyes flicking to the picture of her mum on the noticeboard. ‘No. I’d like to keep this between us, for now, if you don’t mind. Whatever the reason, my mum kept her connection to the Bramlingtons from me. Until I know why I’d rather not go public.’
‘An excuse to go undercover with Henry!’ Mary winked.