“Yeah, do you know what, I think that might be a good idea. How long do you think you’re going to be?”
“Three hours at the most, if you’re worried call me and if I don’t answer it’s because I can’t have my phone on in the exam room. If that happens ring the secretary, and I’ll give her a heads up to come and get me straight away.”
“You are lovely Freddy.” Marsha beamed at him as she reached up and he bent to give her a tender kiss.
“Yeah, I know. Come on, pop to the loo and then I’d better get going.”
As the sound of his car drawing away faded Marsha heaved a great sigh. He really was the most wonderful man and she was so lucky, but what was it that niggled away at her? When they had been in the flat just outside Birmingham she hadn’t felt this strange unsettled feeling that swept over her every now and again. The feeling that there was something lurking around the edges of her happiness. She had no proof at all that she had ever been watched or followed, but now and again she believed that she wasn’t completely alone.
She tried to lay the unease to rest, looking for a simple rational explanation. It’s because you need to get back to regular working hours, you lazy sod. But the feeling that there was something else going on still churned deep inside her.
She laid her head back on the soft cushions and closed her eyes. Just bliss. Although they had kept her in the hospital for only two nights she had been delighted when they had said it was time to come home.
As she relaxed in warm comfort she felt herself drift off. They had told her to sleep whenever possible and to take things very easy for a few days, after which she had an out-patient appointment which would hopefully give her the all clear. Well, okay, a few days rest, why not? She felt the muscles of her face relax and the knots in her shoulders loosen.
She didn’t open her eyes. She daren’t. Something had disturbed her. It hadn’t really been a noise, not much more than a disturbance of her surroundings. The air in the room slipped across her arms raising goose bumps. Then there it was again, the soft click. The door catch. “Freddy, is that you Freddy?”
She pushed herself up against the cushions and rubbed a hand over her eyes. Her head throbbed gently. She sat quietly listening. Could she hear a soft footstep out in the garden? Was that the rattle of the latch on the back gate? She had a lump in her throat. If she had been well then she would have been out there already, checking and reassuring herself, but the drugs from the hospital and the dull thud in the back of her head kept her where she was. “Freddy, are you back?”
Maybe the district nurse had come, she was supposed to, but if that were so, surely she would have knocked by now. She glanced at the clock, he had been gone just over an hour so it wasn’t Freddy, but she was sure someone had been there. All was quiet again now and the clouds were drifting back into her brain and she let them come.
The white van turned into the parking area at the nursery and Jared and his mother clambered to the ground. “Well thank God, lad. You’ve been damned lucky this time, let that be a lesson. We ‘ave to do this my way. Do you ‘ear?”
“Yes Ma. Bloody ‘ell yes. Let it rest now will ya? Just let it rest. I’m goin’ back out, I’m takin’ the van.”
Chapter 15
“Marsha, hello, sleeping beauty.”
“Freddy?”
“You were sound asleep, I’ve been home about half an hour, that’s good though, yeah? The hospital said you should rest as much as possible.”
“Hmm, mm. I had the weirdest dream. Give me a couple a minutes would you, I feel a bit adrift. Let me get my head together.”
“Are you okay, no headache or anything is there? Because if there is we have to call the hospital.”
“No, no I’m fine really, it’s just, oh you know, I feel a bit fuzzy. As I said I had this really vivid dream, I was sure there was someone here, I heard the door and felt that there was someone in the house. I thought it was you. You didn’t come home did you?” He shook his head.
“Look, are you sure you’re okay? You look a bit pale and your hand’s trembling.”
“Is it? Oh yeah. No, really I’m fine. I’d love a cup of tea though, some of that Earl Grey.”
As she watched him make his way to the kitchen she wanted to call him back, she needed his arms around her making her feel anchored and safe.
She replayed the dream, it had seemed so real. Damn it, she hated this insecurity, it wasn’t like her. She had her feet on the ground, there had never been any room in her life for airy-fairy imaginings. Bloody bang on the head, why did she go and do that? She felt frustrated and cross with herself. Tomorrow she was getting back to normal. She would ring and ask for some work to be sent down. Okay she might have to take it easy, but enough was enough.
Freddy laid the tray on the coffee table, biscuits, and chocolate and tea. “Mmm lovely, now then, how did the exam go?”
“Yeah, it was fine, we’re getting them used to the atmosphere of a serious exam so that it’ll be one less thing for them to worry about when the time comes for the big event. I was worried about you though, are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, honestly I am. In fact later on I think I’d like to go out in the garden for a bit, it looks like it’ll be a lovely evening and we could sit and have a glass of wine.”
“Hmm they did say no alcohol.”
“Yeah, but you know, maybe just a tiny glass of wine.” She grinned up at him, she was hoping that the effect of the alcohol would take away this strange tension, the feeling of dread that she couldn’t shake. She needed to relax, to unwind and just try to get back to normal.
“Oh go on then, just a little one mind. Do you want to take this blanket out with you?”
“No, that’s fine. Let me get up and I’ll go wipe the chairs down.”
“You will not. Drink the tea, I’ll do that and when the drinks are ready I will assist my lady to the terrace.”
“Oh very well Jeeves.” She grinned as she swung her legs round and gingerly pushed herself up from the soft cushions.
It was beautiful in the early evening garden and the wine was a ruby glow in the crystal glass. The sun was starting its slide down the darkening sky and a blackbird serenaded the world. Absolute tranquillity surrounded her and she lay back in the chair and closed her eyes.
“Are you asleep again?”
“No, no just enjoying the peace, are you coming to sit down?”
“Yeah, I was just straightening the living room. Here’s your ring, you left it on the table. It’s full of soil, I thought you wore gloves in the garden.”
“Oh crikey, I’d forgotten about that. I found it. Before I hit my head. It was up in the top garden, I unearthed it with the rake. I thought it might have belonged to your mum. I must have put it on the table when I came back in, after my accident.”
“Oh. I don’t recognise it. Mum would never have worn jewellery in the garden I don’t think. I wonder if it belonged to one of the holiday people. It looks quite old doesn’t it? Well, I am almost sure it wasn’t Mum’s but we’ll ask Dad of course. If not there is no way we’ll be able to find the owner so I guess if you want to you can keep it. We can have it cleaned up, it’s very pretty.”
“Yes, it is isn’t it? Well, let’s ask Bob first of all eh?”
Chapter 16
“Now are you sure you’re okay? I am really worried about you Marsh, I am.”
“I’m okay Freddy, I need to talk to you though. There’s something I want to get off my chest and I don’t know how to start.”
“What, oh Marsha, is there something wrong, I mean apart from your head? Something with – well – us, you and me, God Marsha have I done something wrong?”
“No, no it’s nothing like that, you daft thing,” she reached over and took hold of his hand. “Freddy I love you, I really do and I love you more every day. No, this is, well, it’s odd and I don’t know how to start.”
“Okay, look, just say it, say what’s on your mind. As long as it�
��s not something wrong with us, I don’t care what it is. I can cope with anything if we’re okay.” Freddy dragged his chair across the flagstones to sit closer so that he could keep hold of her hand. He leaned and kissed her, “I love you too Marsha... Marsha, do you think we should get married?”
“What,” she gulped audibly, “married, us, you and me?”
“Yeah, do you think so? I’d love it.”
“Oh, God Freddy. Yes, please. Oh wow, where did that come from?”
“Well, you just scared me stupid with that accident, and I know that it could have happened even if we’d been married but it made me realise just how much I need you around. Then just now when you started talking I thought that you were going to say you weren’t happy being with me and I can’t lose you Marsha. I know, that’s dead corny and soppy but it’s true. Is that it then, are we going to, are we getting married?” He had risen to his feet and he knelt now on the terrace floor in front of her chair. “Right, I’m gonna do this properly. He rose to one knee. Marsha, I love you very, very much indeed and I would be the happiest man in the world if you would do me the honour of becoming my wife, will you marry me Marsha?”
She leant to him and threw her arms around his neck, “Oh Freddy yes, yes I would love it.”
They were twined together in a lovers’ embrace as the sun left the turquoise sky and the great branches of the trees drew silhouettes in the gloaming. In the top of the garden, deep among the weeds and brambles a shadow moved. The bushes whispered into the quiet and the grass wavered and then all was still. Marsha shuddered in Freddy’s arms.
“Hey, are you cold?”
“No, no not cold,” she laughed, “you know what they say, someone just walked over my grave.”
“Yuk, horrible thought. Come on, let’s break out a bottle of bubbly then we’ll ring Dad and tell him the news. Oh wait, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about? Sorry with all the excitement I forgot.”
“No, no Freddy it’s nothing, it can wait.”
Chapter 17
It had been a busy couple of weeks. Bob insisted on taking them out for a celebration meal and they had travelled to London for the night to stay with him. It had been the ideal opportunity to shop for Marsha’s engagement ring and she had chosen a cluster of rose diamonds. She had suggested using the found diamond ring to save money but Freddy wouldn’t hear of it. Bob had assured them that it hadn’t belonged to Fiona so it sat in the little jewel box in the bedroom. Marsha had put it on a couple of times but for some reason didn’t feel quite right wearing it without knowing the history. It almost felt like stealing. Maybe one day she would have it valued and perhaps altered in some way because both men insisted that it belonged to her.
It still hadn’t been possible to find the right words to tell Freddy about her uneasy feelings. As the time went on they had faded and she began to believe that perhaps the whole thing had been imagination, moving stress and then of course the result of the accident.
The date of her hospital appointment came and went with her receiving a clean bill of health. Work started to come in from the agency and the summer moved along in warm happiness with only the vague sense of unease whenever she remembered the odd moments that there had never been an explanation for. Sometimes when she worked in the garden and the birds went quiet or when she was in the office and the old house creaked and groaned as old places will, she would stop and hold her breath and wait. But it was okay, everything was coming together and she allowed herself to be happy.
The land at the top of the garden was still overgrown and Freddy had asked her not to venture up there on her own. Even though they had never found out how she had injured herself, she acquiesced and let it be. The parts of the garden they were using were big enough for their needs and now she was well, happy and busy, and she ignored the land beyond the apple tree.
So it would have remained had it not been for the gardener. Jared would not let it lie. If ever she was around when he came in to cut the grass, he would ask if a decision had been made and he even sought out Freddy at the school to put his case forward.
The accident was a thing of the past for Freddy and Marsha but in the little cottage the atmosphere often became tense when they discussed the problem of the land and the way that history has of repeating itself.
“We could just leave it Ma, you know it’s all a long time ago and in spite of all you say nothing ‘as ever ‘appened.”
The old woman was ever the catalyst, bullying, cajoling and nagging. She was reaching the verge of desperation. She couldn’t sleep and as time went on with no obvious chance of the granting of what had become, more than ever, an obsession, her usually sharp temper was almost uncontrollable. For so many years she had held the family secret hidden and the risk now that it would be revealed seemed to be spiralling out of control.
“Aye I know that lad but now that the house is properly lived in there’s risk, none of them holiday rentin’ folks were gonna mess about in the garden but that Freddy an’ his young lady, they might well and then where’ll we be, eh, answer me that?”
“I’m keeping an eye on things Ma, I’ve told ya. I got my eye on ‘er. I ‘ave been all along, right from the first. Watchin’ ‘er moonin’ about, spoilt rich girl. Playin’ ‘ouse and fiddlin’ about in the garden and me just waitin’ for it all to go wrong. Anyway, she never goes up there anymore. Not since ‘er accident,” he winked theatrically. “You’re worryin’ about shades and maybes. It’s always been the same with you. I’ll carry on keepin’ watch an’ if there’s a need to act then I’ll act.”
He had grown up with this, all his life there had been a shadow over his family, a spectre at every feast and the cause of many night’s tears and terror. He knew that his mother was right and the best thing would be to sort it out once and for all, but he had no idea how this might be accomplished. It was obvious that the couple at the house didn’t intend to give him any excuse to dig in the garden, his input was simply grass cutting and he had an inkling that, in the fullness of time, even that might be withdrawn. The best thing would be for them to own that cursed piece of real estate, but they had been given word from Bob that he wasn’t going to sell.
As the plans for their wedding were made, Marsha and Freddy were told that the house was to become theirs legally. The deeds would be a wedding present from Bob. Although it was a hugely generous gesture, and the sort of thing most young couples could only dream of, the night after receiving the news Marsha had tossed and turned into the early hours. She liked the house, she loved the village and now they had friends both at the school, and in the larger community life was good. It was what she had always wanted. Something in the deepest recesses of her mind niggled at her, this house had a secret, she was sure of it, she didn’t think it was a good secret.
She couldn’t bring herself to admit the problem to Freddy. It all seemed too far-fetched and really rather silly but at times she found that she just had to leave the house and get outside, away from the atmosphere. She would throw down her pen and clatter downstairs as if the devil himself were after her, breathless and shaking she would find herself in the garden, staring back at the blank windows, afraid to go back into the quiet rooms.
Freddy had repeatedly told her how much he loved the place, how it made him feel close to his mother and all the happy memories of his childhood. What would his reaction be were she to tell him that really she would be happier in one of the new-build places up near the school? She wouldn’t let it beat her, it was imagination and nothing more. If she felt that eyes watched as she sat in the garden then it was surely the birds, and the hedgehog who had his parade at night, leaving evidence to be brushed away in the morning.
Chapter 18
Freddy walked out to the terrace. “Here’s your coffee,” he bent low, “and here’s your kiss.” Marsha smiled up at him.
“You’re a soppy thing sometimes you are, not that I mind, but it makes me laugh.”
“Well, I was trying t
o get you in a good mood.”
“I am in a good mood, why wouldn’t I be? I got paid today, there’s more work coming in and we’re going out at the weekend with Pete and Jenny from the school. I love Friday, even though I’m working at home there’s something about that final switch off on Friday night.”
“Yeah, but knowing you there’ll be the odd switch on again over the weekend, just to check this and that or do a little bit that you’ve just had an idea for.”
“Do you mind, Freddy?”
“No, I’m glad that you like your work, I love mine and I think it’s important that you enjoy what you do.”
“Well, at the moment I’m not thinking about work at all, I’m just thinking about you and the brandy you forgot to bring out.”
“Ha, I knew I’d forgotten something. Hang on.”
“Thanks love.” Marsha cradled the snifter in her cupped hand. Every now and again she raised it to her nose simply to enjoy the building aroma as her body heat warmed the amber liquid. “Now then, why did you want me in a good mood? Are you going to the football again this weekend? I don’t mind, I told you, I might even come and cheer the school on.”
“No, no there’s no match now until next month. No, it wasn’t anything to do with the school. Dad is sending some paperwork next week for us to sign; it’s the house deeds and so on. He thought that we might as well get it done, even though it’s a wedding present. He said by the time we get ourselves sorted out he’d have died and we’d have got the place through his will.”
“Oh, that’s awful Freddy.”
“No, he was just making a point. I think he’s quite excited about the idea of the wedding and having you as his daughter-in-law. You know I think he just wants to have more family, does that make any sense? There are only the two of us since Mum died and I know he feels it sometimes.”
YOU'RE DEAD: Three Gripping Murder Mystery Suspense Novels Page 11
