Chapter 13
Leonard had been brought back on the golf buggy and carried into the house between Rufus and Paul, complaining that his saddle hadn’t been fitted properly. He really did look as if he was in immense pain as they lowered him onto a chair.
‘You need an ice-pack and to elevate your leg,’ suggested Paul.
‘What I need is a large whisky and to find the person responsible for saddling my horse!’ Leonard barked.
‘I’m sure it was a mistake. No one would have deliberately sabotaged your tack.’
There was a hushed silence for a moment and I could feel Dorothy bristle beside me, then Caroline appeared, pushed up Leonard’s trouser leg and began to check over his knee.
‘She’s a nurse,’ Dorothy explained.
‘It doesn’t seem too serious, but you have bruised it. I think if you keep off it for a couple of days then you’ll be fine for the wedding, if you take it easy of course,’ Caroline said.
I listened with a heavy heart. Leonard keeping off his knee meant my ability to search was lessened. I was relying on him being out of the house so I could continue. With him upstairs resting in his bedroom I could hardly scour his sitting room and I could kick myself now for not taking the opportunity while I had it. Maybe I’d just have to be patient and wait for the other guests to arrive on Friday. With a lot more people in the house I might just be able to go about my task without detection. Surely Leonard would be very busy with a house full of guests. I had a feeling that I was committed now and that just maybe I could handle a challenge.
‘I fully intend to go quad biking tomorrow. You can hardly all go off on your own. I’ve got some knee supports somewhere from my days of tennis injuries. That will be fine.’
‘This week is turning into an outward-bound course,’ Dorothy muttered under her breath, and I stifled my laughter.
‘Uncle Leonard, I’m not sure that’s very sensible,’ Caroline said, but he waved her away.
‘I promised you a full week of activities and that is what you shall have. I’d love to take you all around the park, to see the full extent of my land here. There are deer and I have some alpaca too. We can’t miss out on that and it wouldn’t be the same without me to show you around.’
I was beginning to feel better thinking that Leonard intended to go regardless of his knee, but then he spoke again.
‘And we are all going – no stragglers left behind on this one. Even you, Dorothy,’ he continued as she began to protest. ‘You can ride pillion to Gina, if she thinks she can handle it.’
He gave me a penetrating stare and I felt both intimidated and challenged.
‘Of course I can handle it,’ I said, only just remembering that I’d never actually driven a quad bike in my life and had very little wish to do so now.
‘That’s settled then. Now, you have a free afternoon and then we meet at six on the patio for a special meal. Six sharp because I have something planned.’
Leonard started barking orders at Paul for strong pain relief and then both Rufus and Paul manhandled him away up the stairs. As I watched them go I realised I had so much of the house left to search. It would have to wait for another time and time wasn’t something we had an awful lot of.
‘Would you like to escort me up to the temple?’ Dorothy said. ‘I’ve asked Harry to make us up a picnic lunch and I thought we could have that in the shade and then, perhaps we could have a walk around the rose garden.’
‘That sounds lovely,’ I said.
Harry had actually produced picnic baskets for everyone and we all scattered off in different directions with our lunch.
The temple was a large stone structure at the far end of a gravel path, which ran from the back of the formal garden and offered a wonderful view of the east side of the house. Because the house was longer than it was wide, this position really did show off its best aspect. I carried the basket and Dorothy held on to my arm while using her stick in her other hand for extra support. Once at the temple, Dorothy sat on one of the iron benches and I put the basket down next to her.
Standing on the steps and looking back to the house, I felt awed by its magnificence. I was interested to know the history of the house before Leonard came to inherit and live here.
‘What do you know about Walstone Hall?’ I asked Dorothy.
‘Not a lot, to be honest. It belonged to Leonard’s unmarried uncle who’d inherited it from his own father. Apparently they’re a very small family.’
‘It must be very hard for Paul to see Leonard take it all. Is it just because he’s older? I assume he’s older.’
‘Yes he is, but I don’t know the family dynamics. I don’t know what they did to warrant owning such a huge estate. Lords and ladies back in the day, perhaps, or criminals more likely.’
I lifted my hand to shield the sun from my eyes. I could see Paul and Sandra walking in the gardens down by the lake and Lavinia and Miles sitting on the chairs by the edge of the croquet lawn. Sophie and Luke were talking to Juliet, but then she turned and stalked away from them. Sophie raised both of her arms in a defeated gesture before slapping them down by her sides. No sign of Caroline and Toby, but if they had any sense they had tucked themselves away for a quiet and private lunch. I opened our own basket to find smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches, pots of crab salad with chunks of homemade sourdough and large slices of Victoria sponge cake. There was also a half bottle of Prosecco and two tins of cloudy lemonade.
‘God, I shall be the size of this house by the end of the week,’ I said.
‘I really don’t want to enjoy myself in Leonard’s company, but he does make it very difficult when faced with all this delicious food,’ Dorothy said.
Just then there was a rustling in the bushes beside the temple and the sound of muffled conversation before an odd silence. It reminded me of Juliet on the landing outside my bedroom door yesterday.
‘Juliet, you can come out. It’s only Gina and your grandmother here,’ I said.
The silence continued for a moment and Dorothy and I glanced at each other, her eyebrows raised in question. Then another rustling and Juliet appeared.
‘Juliet! What are you doing in a bush?’ Dorothy asked her, but she wasn’t cross, because she was laughing. ‘You really must be bored.’
‘I’m recording for my Instagram channel,’ she said.
‘Well, if I knew what one of those was, I’d probably be impressed,’ Dorothy said. ‘Have you had any lunch?’
‘No, Mum and Dad have mine in their basket and there’s no way I’m picnicking with them.’
‘Have some of ours,’ I offered. ‘You’d be doing my waistline a huge favour if you’d take that cake off my hands.’
Juliet took a slice and sat down on the steps next to us.
‘Tell me about your channel,’ I said, and Juliet finished her mouthful of sponge before she answered.
‘It’s called MyMad Family and the Week from Hell,’ she said, her expression deadpan.
Dorothy spluttered on her lemonade, but once she’d finished coughing it was clear she was laughing again.
‘Oh, sweetheart, I know this week isn’t easy for you, but I do hope this channel of yours is a real thing because it sounds brilliant,’ Dorothy said, wiping her eyes.
Juliet got her phone out of her pocket and swiped her finger across the screen, then turned the screen towards us, so we could see a grainy image of Paul and Sandra standing in what looked like one end of the library. Their body language suggested they were in the middle of an argument.
‘I’m trying my best you know, Paul, but your brother is pushing my buttons with his constant lord of the manor act,’ said Sandra.
‘He is lord of the bloody manor. Look, it’s Caroline’s big week and she’s so happy you’ll just have to find a way to get— Hello, Juliet, I didn’t see you there.’
Juliet tapped again on her phone and then turned it until we could see the back of Sophie and Luke sitting on a bench by the lake. I glanced at Dorothy, but she seemed transfixed by her granddaughter. Juliet pressed again and Sophie’s voice could be heard.
‘But who is she and why is she here? Mum doesn’t even really need a carer. It was a minor fall, a small lapse in memory. This will be Lavinia sticking her oar in again. I should really have been consulted.’
Dorothy glanced at me with an apologetic smile.
‘I think that’s enough now, Juliet,’ she said.
‘But, Granny, you haven’t heard the best one yet,’ she said and tapped on the screen again.
Juliet was clearly in a bush again because the screen was full of leaves.
‘We need to brush aside the fact that Leonard is unhinged and actually in light of what I believe he has done, is pretty dangerous too. He mustn’t know you are anything other than a companion and I will keep smiling at him even though I would ideally love to plunge a knife in his heart.’
‘Juliet! Turn that off!’ Dorothy said, but our voices continued.
‘And…?’
‘And, you will search the house from top to bottom until you find the painting.’
‘Oh, God!’ I said.
‘And this is for a channel is it?’ Dorothy said, her voice low and stern. ‘Sneaking about and recording private conversations?’
‘I want to help,’ said Juliet.
‘Nothing to help with,’ her grandmother replied. ‘It’s just an old joke about a painting, that’s all.’
‘I’m not stupid, Granny. There is something clearly going on and if you need to find a painting I can help.’
‘No.’
‘You just said it yourself, I’m sneaking around, and you didn’t know that I was. Surely that makes me a better sleuth than her,’ she said, shaking her thumb in my direction. ‘No offence, Gina.’
‘None taken,’ I said.
‘Juliet, this is really nothing to do with you,’ Dorothy said, looking a little flustered, but I knew it was too late for that – Juliet had made it everything to do with her.
‘Is it to do with Grandpa? Is it that painting?’
‘So, you’ve been listening for quite a while then!’
‘When no one ever tells you what is going on, I find it’s best to quietly listen, otherwise you’ll always be in the dark. That’s not a smart place to be.’
‘Can’t really argue with that,’ I said.
‘I can,’ Dorothy said.
‘I want to help you. Please let me. I can be really useful.’
Dorothy opened her mouth and judging by her expression it was to argue with her granddaughter, so I decided to step in. This was only going to go one way.
‘Juliet, can we trust you, implicitly?’
‘Of course,’ Juliet replied earnestly.
‘Your grandmother and I need to discuss what’s best. Can you trust us to do that and to talk to you later just before dinner when we have a plan, a plan that will involve you?’
‘Yes,’ she said, her face brightening.
‘In that case I can trust you not to breathe a word to anyone during that time; that’s really important. I would never usually ask a young person to keep a secret, but with your grandmother present I hope that’s okay in this case.’
‘Yes, it’s fine,’ Juliet said again and more seriously this time.
‘Okay, well, leave us now and do as we ask, and we’ll meet at five-thirty before whatever Leonard has planned for this evening.’
‘Thanks, you won’t regret it,’ she said and then kissed her grandmother on the cheek, choosing to ignore Dorothy’s words that followed her down the steps.
‘I already do.’
‘Whoop!’ Juliet leaped from the bottom step onto the grass. ‘This week just got a whole lot better,’ she said and then ran down the lawn towards the house.
‘I do not like this at all,’ Dorothy said, watching her granddaughter’s retreating figure.
‘I know. Neither do I, but surely you can see that to not include her would be a mistake. That conversation she’s got on her phone is problematic. Isn’t it better if she’s onside? Wouldn’t that keep her safer? There’s no point telling her to forget about it, is there, because she won’t. Then, a wrong word from her, here or there, and Leonard will get wind. We can tell her the bare minimum and get her to help in a small way. But however you look at it, we’re a group of three now.’