“Well, gosh, he’d stepped into his father’s business and all. I’d say she didn’t do so badly for herself.”
So that was how Roland felt about marriage. No wonder the young plumbing expert could find charm in a none-too-winsome maiden who had running hot and cold water at her command. Little did he suspect that her heart was across the way in the drafting room.
Little had Lavinia herself suspected it, until this moment. So that was why she felt an urge to shove Athelney into the millpond and rush pell-mell toward that forlorn glimmer, even knowing she’d be growled at if she did. It would be a genuine growl, at any rate.
At all costs, she must keep this interesting realization to herself. If Roland caught the faintest hint of what she’d begun to feel about his partner, Heaven only knew what might happen. They’d better stick to the Jenkses.
“I simply cannot get over the way that man simply disappeared. There must be more to the story than anybody’s told so far. Are you sure you’re not harboring any guilty secrets, Roland?”
She forced a laugh as she put the question, but she was not smiling into the darkness. Nor did Roland find the idea amusing.
“If I am, I sure don’t know it. I racked my brains trying to think of places he might have gone, but I simply couldn’t picture him going anywhere. Mr. Jenks was so darn set in his ways that it was like pulling teeth even getting him to a job site. There was snow all over the ground so we could tell he hadn’t wandered off into the woods.”
“Weren’t any paths shoveled?”
“Just one from the house to the drafting room. Hay always had to dig that, and the two of us shoveled out the driveway enough for teams to turn in.”
“Was the road plowed?”
“What they usually do up here is drive a team of oxen over with a heavy wooden roller to pack down the snow. It makes better going for sledges. Yes, the road was open. They were having trotting races on the ice over at Lake Truance, not much over three miles from here, and of course everybody wanted to go. I guess Mr. Jenks was about the only person in town who stayed home.”
“How do you know he stayed? I’ll wager you went.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t have missed it. They had booths set up on the ice selling refreshments, and all the big city sports came up with their prize trotters and slick little cutters. Those races were something to watch, I can tell you! Then when it got dark, they lit bonfires and stuck burning torches around the bank and had a three-piece band playing waltzes for everybody to skate to.”
“Are you sure Mr. Jenks wasn’t there? The place must have been crowded.”
“Oh, yes, people came from everywhere. But nobody saw him. Anyway, how would he have gotten there?”
“Maybe somebody stopped by and picked him up.”
“If they did, nobody’s admitting it, and nobody saw them. You see, what they did was run excursions so that people wouldn’t have to leave their horses standing in the cold all day. A couple of farmers went around with big sledges full of hay and picked up passengers at two cents a head, then brought them back again. So everybody sort of went together.”
“And everybody has an alibi. How convenient. But didn’t Mr. Jenks have any transportation of his own?”
“No, he didn’t. We used to job a rig out of the livery stable when we couldn’t bum rides on the wagons. It was an awful nuisance trying to get around, but that was how Mr. Jenks operated. Hay and I both got bicycles as soon as we could afford them. I sold mine when we bought the truck.”
Too bad Hayward didn’t think of that first. He wouldn’t be having to walk back to the village tonight. Perhaps Roland would be kind enough to stop and offer his partner a lift, after the evening’s festivities were over.
“Anyway,” Roland was going on, “we figured Mr. Jenks couldn’t have planned on going anywhere, because his ulster and galoshes and a ratty sealskin cap he always wore in cold weather were hanging where he always left them, right beside the kitchen door. He’d never have set foot outside the house without bundling up. Watch out here, it’s kind of slippery.”
“I’ll be all right if that animal that’s following us doesn’t push me in.”
Lavinia giggled a bit nervously. She’d been aware of the stealthy sound in the underbrush for some while, and it was beginning to make her uneasy. “What is it, do you suppose, some neighbor’s dog?”
“No dogs around here that I can think of,” said Athelney. “It might be a deer, they’re nosy creatures. You must have sharp ears. I can’t hear anything.”
“It’s stopped now. Perhaps it’s decided we’re not very interesting and gone away.”
“Speaking of going away, don’t you think we’d better start back? Miss Tabard must be wondering what’s happened to us.”
She no doubt was, but not in the way Roland was thinking. All of a sudden, Lavinia wanted this farce to end.
“Too bad we can’t just open the gate and float down with the stream,” she said. “Wouldn’t the ladies be surprised to see us sailing through the backyard?”
“They might see us sailing straight through their parlor windows,” the young man replied. “You’d be surprised what a powerful force is pressing against these planks. Flood water could do an awful lot of damage in a hurry if this dam ever let go. Look down from this rise here, and you can see how the stream runs straight toward the mill. I’ll climb up first and give you a hand.”
As her escort stepped ahead, Lavinia heard that small rustling sound again. Before she could turn to see what it was, something landed hard in the small of her back. Her feet shot from under her, and she skidded on the wet grass, straight into the millpond.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Gosh, what happened? Did you fall?”
Roland was still trying to get his wits together for a rescue when Lavinia crawled ashore under her own power, spitting out water weeds.
“Here, you’d better put my coat around you.”
“Never mind that,” snapped the girl, “give me a match.”
“A match? Do you want to light a fire? Wouldn’t it be better—”
Lavinia gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering. “No, I don’t want a fire. I want to look for tracks.”
“Tracks? For Pete’s sake, why?”
“I want to know who or what pushed me into the water.”
“Pushed you?”
“Roland, if you don’t stop asking stupid questions, I’m going to scream. Please give me a match.”
Athelney made flapping motions at his pockets. “Heck, I’m afraid I don’t have any. Are you sure you don’t want my jacket?”
“No. My shawl will do.”
She wrung out the soft paisley stole and pulled it around her. Wet or dry, there was warmth in wool, and it would be cruel to ruin the lining of what might be Roland’s only good suit, even if he was an addlepated ninny. She had to bite her tongue to keep him from telling him so.
“Can you see any hoofprints or anything?” She scanned the ground by the moonlight. “I can’t.”
Roland made a token pretence at searching, then said he couldn’t, either. “Are you sure something pushed you?”
“Of course I’m sure. I’ll probably have bruises to prove it. I felt a tremendous blow under my shoulderblades. Would a deer do that?”
“I don’t know. Sounds more like some old billy goat that’s running loose.”
“Rather high up for a goat, wasn’t it? I’m almost as tall as you.”
“He could have jumped.”
“Then why didn’t he jump right into the water with me? I was so close to the edge, he couldn’t have had room to stop. Why didn’t we hear him galloping up the bank? Why didn’t we smell him? Billy goats are apt to be pretty rank, aren’t they?”
“I don’t know.”
Roland sounded as though he were on the verge of a good cry. “Lavinia, don’t you think we’d better just go back to the house as quick as we can? Miss Tabard’s going to be awfully upset.”
“I�
�m none too pleased, myself,” snapped his bedraggled companion. “All right, Roland, we might as well. Don’t be shocked if I lift my skirts. I can’t walk with wet petticoats wrapped around my ankles.”
Roland understood perfectly. He was solicitude itself, assisting her down the path with eyes carefully averted from her exposed limbs. Lavinia squelched along, furious and more than a little frightened. Of course it wasn’t a billy goat. She’d been in enough field hockey scrimmages to know how it felt to get shoved in the back. Somebody had followed them to the pond and deliberately tried to drown her.
She strained her ears for that ominous rustling sound, kept looking over her shoulder, forced the pace until they were almost running. When they’d got safely down under the carriage lamps that had been stuck on posts to light the drive, she could have sobbed with relief, until she realized she was walking straight toward the one person who might hate her enough to kill her. Tetsy Mull was standing out in the back yard.
“Well, you two! Enjoy yourselves? I came out for a breath of air. Miss Tabard sends you her apologies, Roland. She’s gone upstairs. Touch of headache. Lav, what have you done to your dress?”
As if she didn’t know! Lavinia clenched her fists around the ends of her wet shawl, determined not to make a scene in front of Roland.
“I fell into the pond,” she replied as lightly as she could. “Roland had to be my gallant rescuer.”
Her gallant rescuer had the grace to look embarrassed. “Er—don’t you think she ought to get those wet clothes off right away, Miss Mull?”
“I’m going this minute,” said Lavinia. “Roland, I do beg your pardon for putting such a damper on our walk. You’re a dear to take such good care of me. Tetsy, won’t you give this poor man a nightcap and send him home to rest? He’s had a more strenuous evening than he bargained for, I’m afraid.”
She gave her escort a clammy handshake and left him to Tetsy. If Miss Mull chose to vent her frustration by lacing his drink with arsenic, there was one soggy young woman who’d shed few tears over his corpse.
Her own tiny room was a temporary haven, at least. She got out of her wet things and started a hot bath, shuddering in the knowledge that this water was coming down from the pond where she might now be lying dead if she’d had to depend on Roland to get her out. Thank Heaven for those tough water weeds she’d managed to clutch hold of as she slid down the bank.
The blue gown was a wreck. So, alas, were her new gray kid slippers. She should have had sense enough not to wear them. Lavinia smiled wryly at herself as she tossed the once-dainty scraps of ruined leather into the wastebasket. She had more serious things to worry about.
Roland must have finished his drink and gone. By the time she got out of her bath, she could hear Tetsy bumbling around the kitchen. Was it actually possible that that stout, fuddled, middle-aged woman could have trailed them quietly up the hill and come close to murdering someone she’d known from a baby? She was there when they got down, so didn’t that mean she must have been down below all along?
Not necessarily. She could surely have gotten back ahead of them. Going down was a lot faster than climbing up, and she’d have had a head start while they were recovering from the shock of the attack and wasting valuable moments hunting for footprints in the mud.
Perhaps she hadn’t meant any harm in the beginning, but had just gone along to snoop. That would be the sort of thing Tetsy might do, especially if Zilpha had left her hanging about alone. The push could have been a sudden impulse born of opportunity and festering jealousy. It was high time Miss Mull got straightened out.
Lavinia put on a light challis robe over her nightgown and opened the door into the kitchen.
“Tetsy, I want to talk to you.”
“I thought you’d gone to bed. Want some hot milk?”
“No, thank you.” She swallowed hard. “I’ve had enough of your kind attentions.”
Miss Mull paused with the dipper held over her cup. “Is that supposed to mean something?”
“You know perfectly well what I mean, if you’re not too flown with wine to think straight. You’ve played every nasty trick you could think of, but tonight was the absolute limit. Were you actually trying to drown me, or just make me look like a fool?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lav. Are you trying to claim I was to blame because you fell into the pond?”
“I did not fall. I was pushed, as you very well know. I’m sure you also know how my letter got lost, and what happened to my rubbing, and who put that revolting dead rat in my hair receiver.”
“You must be out of your mind.” Tetsy’s eyes were red and her breath heavy with port fumes, but her voice was level and menacing. “As I said before, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But if you’re going to tell lies about me and make trouble with Zilpha—”
“I have no desire to make trouble between you and Zilpha,” Lavinia interrupted. “My one wish is to get away from the pair of you as soon as the Lord will let me. And I’m not marrying that pantywaist Roland Athelney to do it, so you might as well quit shoving him down my throat.”
“Nice, ladylike talk, I must say,” sneered the older woman. “And what’s your great plan, may I ask?”
“That’s my business, and I’ll thank you to keep out of it. Tetsy, I realize how much you loathe having me around. All I’m asking you to do is leave me alone, and I’ll give you my faithful promise to be gone from this house by the end of the month. Is it a bargain?”
The bloodshot eyes wavered. “I don’t know what Zilpha’s going to say.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” said Lavinia. “Don’t you dare breathe one word to her. I’ll tell her myself when the time comes.”
“She’ll never let you go off on your own.”
“I don’t see how she can stop me. I’m a grown woman now, and Zilpha’s not my legal guardian anyway. My father won’t give a rap what I do, so long as I don’t ask him for anything. You know that as well as I.”
“That’s gratitude,” shouted Tetsy, “after all Zilpha’s done for you!”
“I’m fully aware of what Zilpha has done for me. I just think it’s time I started doing something for myself, and I should have thought you’d be first to agree.”
“Sit by and watch you bringing shame and disgrace on the family name the way your mother did?”
“Oh, what’s the use of talking to you?” cried Lavinia. “You’re bound to put me in the wrong no matter what I say. Just get this one thing through your head. If you try any more of your filthy tricks, or go tattling to Zilpha about what I’ve just said, I’ll give her an earful, too, and don’t you think I won’t.”
Tetsy began to sputter about cock and bull stories, but Lavinia refused to listen. She went back into her room and shut the door. A few minutes later she heard a muffled creaking on the stairs. Tetsy must have taken off her shoes to avoid waking Zilpha.
That was some small relief. At least she wasn’t going to blab tonight. Maybe she never would, but what difference did it really make now? Lavinia had given her promise, and it must be kept. Somehow, she must find a place to go and pray that she could hold her job with the architects until she’d got enough money for the next step.
It was useless to hope that she could stay in Dalby for long. Zilpha would never stand for having her former ward living in lodgings and working for hire right under her nose. And while it was true that she had no legal power over Lavinia, it was also true that nobody had ever yet crossed Zilpha Tabard and got away with it for long.
Roland was already a lost cause. He’d give way without a struggle if Miss Tabard so much as breathed the ghost of a hint that she wanted Lavvy out of the drafting room. Hayward Clinton might, however, be harder to persuade. Thank goodness she’d washed those windows today! In spite of the danger she’d been through and the trouble she saw coming, Lavinia was smiling when she went to sleep.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lavinia had nightmare
s, but waking up was worse. Her first thought was, “I can’t go to the drafting room.” How was she to face an entire weekend away from her sanctuary, after that confrontation with Tetsy?
Had she done Miss Mull a terrible injustice? There was no doubt in her mind that she really had been pushed into the millpond. The ruined blue silk gown thrown over a chair and the bruises across her back were proof enough. But was it in fact Tetsy who had pushed her?
She wanted it to be Tetsy. It ought to be Tetsy, in view of those other spiteful acts. Yet there had been that light in the drafting room. Athelney said his partner was up there, and Hayward Clinton was a strong young man who could move very fast.
Roland’s happening to step ahead of her at the crucial moment, his being so slow about coming to her rescue, could this have been a prearranged plan? What an insane idea! Why should the architects want to kill the only office girl who’d ever been able to straighten out their files?
Because she’d been asking too many questions about their former boss? No, she wasn’t going to believe that. It had to be Tetsy.
Or Peter Smith? Peter had been so proud of himself for scaring her that day in the burying ground. Peter was also big and strong, and Peter could come and go with hardly a sound. Peter might play a trick without having sense enough to consider the consequences, but was Peter allowed to go roaming alone at night beside a dangerous pond in the woods?
Sighing, Lavinia tucked in her shirtwaist and walked through the kitchen. She dreaded having to appear at the breakfast table and be catechized about last night, but for the brief time she remained under her guardian’s roof, she must abide by Zilpha’s rules.
As luck would have it, her coming was hardly noticed. A messenger boy had just pedaled up from the village with a Western Union telegram, and Zilpha was caroling, “What fun! Bertha and Edward are stopping over in Lake Truance, and they want us to meet them for lunch at the hotel. We shall have to fly.”
Immediately the two older women were plunged into an earnest discussion as to whether they should motor over or take the excursion train, whether there would be time for shopping and, if so, what to shop for. To her surprise, Lavinia was able to eat her shirred eggs in peace. Zilpha didn’t even seem to remember she was there until they were rolling up their napkins and stuffing them back into the massive engraved napkin rings.
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