A Stranger's House

by Clare Chase

  Just before we left, the barman caught my eye again. ‘Glad we weren’t talking about Samson when Liz came in,’ he said in an undertone. ‘She was his lady friend not so long ago, before she switched to his older brother.’ He leant forward, a look of ill-disguised relish in his eye. ‘Of course, you’ll know all about the tragedy of Damien Newbold’s murder if you and Samson are family friends. The cottage where he was killed belongs to our Liz, and it was she that found his body.’ Then he seemed to recollect himself. ‘And, of course, I should extend my condolences to you.’

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  ‘I didn’t much like the way that man Jake looked at you,’ Nate said as Ruby started the engine.

  ‘I wasn’t overjoyed myself.’

  She drove round the corner and then pulled over again. ‘Sorry, but I can’t wait to get rid of these.’ She pulled off the red nails.

  ‘Didn’t that hurt?’

  She shook her head. ‘They were already coming adrift. Cheap product. So, what about Elizabeth Edmunds casting Samson aside in favour of Damien?’

  ‘Newbold senior clearly liked to sail close to the wind.’ Nate put his sun visor down as she re-started the engine and they turned west. ‘I know I said I couldn’t see Samson summoning up the energy to kill his brother, but I might have to revise that opinion. Damien was clearly dishing out humiliation to him over and over again. That’s the kind of campaign calculated to breed hatred.’

  ‘I agree.’ Ruby pulled out to overtake a lorry. ‘But would Samson have known where Damien was staying? Why would he have told a brother he loathed about a temporary change of address?’

  Nate thought for a moment. ‘Unless Damien told Samson he was staying at Elizabeth’s cottage as part of his campaign to wind him up. He could have emailed to say how nice it would be to see her for a night or two of passion, knowing how angry that would make Samson.’

  ‘Yes, I could imagine that.’

  Back at River House, Nate took out some crusty white bread he’d bought from a bakery in Mildenhall, and he and Ruby made sandwiches with some farmhouse cheddar and chutney. ‘I’ve thought of another possibility,’ he said, as they sat down at the table. ‘We’d already realised Elizabeth Edmunds had easy access to Damien on the night he was killed. She even told the police she let herself in with her own key when she found his body. Well, what if she’d secretly rekindled her affair with Samson? Maybe she’d found out about Maggie, and the way Damien operated, and had decided she’d rather have the younger brother after all.’

  Ruby put down her sandwich. ‘Then she and Samson could have planned Damien’s murder together. They both had a grudge against him, and our trip to the Red Tavern confirms Samson was in debt. He’ll be glad of the money this place will raise.’

  Nate nodded, and Ruby shivered.

  We were stacking the dishwasher when my mobile rang. I glanced at the screen. Sodding hell. Luke. No more putting it off then. I picked up.

  ‘Steph said you were going to call me today,’ he said. ‘So I thought it would be okay to get in first, if you were planning to talk anyway.’

  ‘She told me things were getting out of hand in the village,’ I said. ‘And that you wanted to sort out a move as quickly as possible.’ I was conscious of Nate picking up on what I was saying, and then leaving the room to give me some privacy.

  ‘I think whatever the future involves, I can’t live it here in Saxwell,’ Luke said.

  No kidding. ‘Right. I’ll book an appointment to see a solicitor; just so we get things straight. Probably best to have someone independent to check over the arrangements we make.’

  There was silence; then, ‘So, that’s it? Just like that?’

  I had to count to ten. ‘Well, what did you think I’d do, Luke? You must have known this was how it was going to end.’

  I heard him catch his breath. ‘It always felt as though you were holding back on committing to me, Ruby. Now you’ve got the excuse you needed to break free. So many years, thrown away so easily.’

  Adrenaline coursed through my body. I couldn’t remember when I’d last felt such fury. ‘Do you really think I’m finding this easy? Do you imagine for one minute that I can just wipe the last twelve years of my life away as though they were words on a white board? This hurts, Luke. It’s not easy. It’s love and pain that I feel now, and I’d guess I’m going to carry on feeling for – ooh several more years to come. Doesn’t alter what has to happen though.’ I paused for a second to try to master my emotions and steady my breathing. ‘And if we’re going to talk about which of us has found it easy to throw things away …’

  ‘All right,’ he said, ‘all right. We’ll talk again when you’re feeling better, okay?’

  Unbelievable. ‘You can call me to let me know who you want to have in to value the house. We should ask for at least three estimates I suppose. And I’ll be in touch to let you know what the solicitor says.’

  ‘Jesus, Ruby, I thought you’d at least want to talk.’

  ‘We are talking. But there isn’t much to say, is there?’

  He paused again. ‘I’ve been getting hate mail.’

  ‘Steph mentioned it.’

  ‘I just wondered …’ I could hear him swallowing. ‘I mean, you, out of everyone, have the most reason to be pissed off with me. So I was just wondering …’

  Suddenly I got it. ‘You want to know if I sent you letters?’ I was speechless for a moment. ‘No, Luke. Not having had a complete personality transplant I have not been sending you malicious mail.’ And I hung up.

  Tears of frustration and anger welled up in my eyes. Why couldn’t he at least understand? I got myself a glass of water. Taking a deep breath and thinking straight I knew that, in spite of all the misery, it was better that the break up was happening now, if it was going to happen at all. What if he’d only revealed his lack of self-control when we’d already got two children?

  Then at least I’d have two lovely children.

  No use thinking like that now.

  But what if I didn’t find a partner I could love and rely on in time to have kids? Ever since we’d broken up I’d had that worry in the back of my mind. Now it pushed its way to the fore.

  I took my water out into the garden, sat down on the bench and closed my eyes. Either it would happen or it wouldn’t. It was only after I’d sat there seething for fifteen minutes that I realised that, in spite of what I’d said, I was currently feeling more angry than sad.

  Nate stood at his bedroom window, watching Ruby sitting on the garden bench. It made him want to drive over to her old village and take her ex apart. He went down to the kitchen to make a coffee, and wondered if he should offer Ruby one, or if it was better to keep his distance.

  But in a moment, she joined him inside, thanks to a distraction next door.

  The raised voices at Oswald House were hard to ignore, especially with all the windows open. Neither of them spoke: they were too busy listening.

  ‘You can bloody well pull yourself together right now.’ Nate was pretty sure that was Saskia Amos’s voice. He recognised the honking upper-class tone from when he’d overheard her conversation with Ruby.

  There was a half-shouted reply, but the voice was indistinct, as though the speaker was crying.

  ‘Emily,’ Ruby mouthed. Nate nodded.

  ‘You’re making a real exhibition …’ Again the rest was lost. Not that it made any difference. It was easy enough to fill in the gaps.

  ‘You don’t know a thing about it.’ That was Emily again. ‘You’re too old and haggard to remember what it’s like to be in love. And I don’t suppose you can ever have been on the receiving end.’

  Ruby raised her eyebrows.

  ‘How dare you!’ He could hear that bit all right. Nice and distinct. ‘How dare you speak to me like that?’

  ‘What do you expect when you don’t even try to understand how I feel?’

  ‘I expect a good deal more of you, young lady!’

  Emily’s reply
was lost again and Saskia’s voice grew lower now, so that the next part of the conversation – lasting for a minute or two – was inaudible.

  Then Emily’s words rang out again suddenly. ‘That’s not true! You’re a lying old witch! You weave stories so that you’re at the centre of everything. You think it’s all about you. Well, it’s not, so get over it!’

  ‘Blimey,’ Ruby said. ‘What the hell’s all that about?’

  Then Saskia was yelling again too. ‘There’s absolutely no point in my staying. I don’t know why I even bothered trying to help in the first place.’

  And suddenly, there she was in the doorway in Nate’s line of sight, followed not only by the girl who must be Emily, tears streaking down her cheeks, but also by Tutor Guy. It was a surprise, and the fact that he’d been completely silent confirmed Nate’s impression of him as wet.

  Saskia turned back towards the doorway once she’d descended the house steps. ‘You’re being a real old woman about all this, Emily,’ she said. ‘Bitter, spiteful and pathetic. You take after your bloody father, that’s your trouble. There’s nothing of me in you. It’s as though someone swapped my child for you at the maternity hospital.’

  Nate could see the shock in Mathewson’s eyes. And the other girl he’d seen around appeared too, also white-faced. Nate turned to Ruby. ‘That’s Fi?’

  She nodded.

  ‘And as for you,’ Saskia was saying, turning to Paul. ‘Haven’t you got any work to be getting on with? Surely your other students need attention, or maybe you might even give your academic duties a thought. I’m certain the university must be missing you. If you carry on hanging round here like this people are going to start to talk.’

  At that moment Mathewson looked up, and although Ruby and Nate were in shadow, he was pretty sure he saw Tutor Guy catch Ruby’s eye. Nate made a conscious effort to unclench his teeth.

  I couldn’t get my head clear that night. Samson, Maggie, Damien, Emily and Saskia took it in turns to keep me awake.

  And what about the would-be burglars? The crowd at the Red Tavern drifted into my head, and I imagined Samson, sitting there in the middle of them all, holding court. He’d be half cut, of course. Might he have boasted about the security at River House? I pictured him saying, to anyone who would listen, ‘I was paying a girl to sleep in the drawing room to guard my stuff. She’s doing all the cleaning too – very eager to please. Still, I’ve told her to move upstairs now, it seemed only fair.’ I could imagine he’d be keen to portray himself as a proper gent. Yeah, right. And he might not even have mentioned Nate’s presence. It wouldn’t have added colour to the story from his point of view.

  I shivered under the duvet, in spite of the warmth of the evening. If he’d said that, would one of those listening have taken special note? Decided it might not be too hard to nip in and pick up a few choice items?

  Maybe Samson had bragged about all the expensive stuff in the house, too. Perhaps he’d told everyone what a rich man he was going to be. And then maybe a couple of the men he’d borrowed money from had decided to recoup their losses. And what if one of those men had been Jake, the man at the Red Tavern who’d looked at me so closely? Had he known I was lying about being a family friend because he’d been watching River House, and had actually recognised me under all that bling? If that was the case, he’d probably recognised Nate too. I hadn’t worried about him going into the pub looking like his usual self. After all, we’d only been concerned about bystanders reporting back to Samson. It didn’t seem likely he’d recognise us from the description the barman might give (husband and wife: big guy and a woman with a fondness for flashy jewellery). But if we’d come face to face with someone who’d been watching us, that was another matter.

  My conspiracy theories began to spiral out of control. What if Samson needed money – a lot of money – but didn’t fancy selling all those nice family heirlooms? What if he’d primed the two men to break in and stage the burglary? He could claim on the insurance, pay the men a percentage and keep the valuables.

  If he was behind it, he could try again. And if that was the case, and the man, Jake, had been one of the burglars, Jake would have told him Nate and I had been snooping at the pub. But if Jake had been acting for himself, without Samson’s knowledge, he would never tell, and we would be safe.

  And so it was that I lay there, almost rigid, for several hours before I managed to let go, and get some sleep.

  On Sunday lunchtime Paul came to see me. It was the first time I’d spoken to him since I’d poured out my woes, and I now found I was struck almost dumb with embarrassment. The fact that Nate was home also made me squirm. I didn’t want him to get the wrong impression about Paul and me, even though he’d made it quite clear that we could never be an item.

  ‘I shouldn’t have tried to use my training on you,’ Paul said, standing there on the doorstep. ‘You can’t be someone’s counsellor as well as their friend.’ He was wearing his off-duty gear, jeans and a navy T-shirt. ‘I hope I haven’t lost my chance of being one by being the other.’

  I opened my mouth, ready to make some tactful comment, but he went on quickly. ‘I wanted to talk to you about Emily. Any chance of stealing you away for a short time? I thought you might agree to a swift half at the Fort Saint George.’

  If he’d just been there for my sake I would have made an excuse. What he knew about me weighed on my mind and I felt like a fool. Even with the Emily element I was tempted to bottle out, but at that moment Nate appeared in the hall. ‘Go right ahead if you want to,’ he said. He quite clearly wasn’t at all bothered about me going out with Paul. It was just as Steph had said.

  So I grabbed my stuff and followed him across the Common. He looked almost boyish out of his suit, his long fringe flopping forward, his clothes endearingly scruffy. Perhaps it wasn’t so bad to be out and about. A change would do me good.

  They were operating an outdoor bar at the pub and Paul queued up at a hatch to get us a lager each. ‘Facing the river, or facing the Common?’ he asked, looking at the available seats.

  ‘Maybe the river,’ I said. I could turn my back on the house and pretend it wasn’t there.

  He set the drinks down and grinned at me. ‘Perhaps we can share a pizza sometime, under happier circumstances.’

  ‘That would be nice,’ I found myself answering, before I’d even thought about it one way or the other. I added quickly, ‘You wanted to talk about Emily?’

  ‘That’s right. You probably saw something of what happened yesterday.’

  ‘I was in the kitchen.’

  ‘I thought I caught a glimpse of you.’ He took a long draught of his pint. ‘Bloody Saskia Amos.’

  ‘I could use her to illustrate a whole book on social dysfunctionality.’

  He nodded. ‘I’ve been finding it hard to leave Emily and Fi to it, and she’s been part of the reason. Emily’s just got no support at home. Fi’s doing her best, but she’s very young. Time’s moving on, but things are still hard. I think she hoped Emily would be in better shape by now, and she’s finding the extended period of high emotion wearing.’

  ‘That’s understandable, I guess.’

  He nodded. ‘Completely. Even I didn’t expect it to be like this. I’ve no idea how long it will take for Emily to get over what’s happened, though I’m happy she’s receiving more expert help now. I’m sure that should make a difference.’

  ‘Yes.’

  We paused a moment and watched a man sculling up the river, ducks scattering as he slid by.

  ‘But my worry now,’ Paul said, ‘is Emily’s wellbeing as all the students disappear off to summer jobs, or travelling round India, or whatever it is they’re doing.’

  ‘Will she stay on at Oswald House?’

  ‘Would you go back to the family home?’ He raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Do you know,’ I said, ‘I think I’d probably forego that pleasure?’

  He gave me a wry smile. ‘Fi’s off though. Going to stay on some farm i
n Tuscany with her sister. They invited Emily to go with them, but she couldn’t face it. I was wondering if there’d be any chance …’ He let the sentence trail off.

  ‘Of me dropping round occasionally to pass the time of day?’ I said. ‘Yes, of course. I’m not sure she’ll want me breathing down her neck, but I can probably find some excuses for showing up. Though it’s anyone’s guess as to how long I’ll be here. It all depends on when Samson Newbold’s allowed to sell the house.’

  ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Well, just whilst you are around, if you could stand it.’

  ‘No problem. What about you? Do you get to jet off somewhere?’

  He shook his head. ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’d keep popping into Oswald House myself, but …’

  ‘But?’

  ‘Well, loathsome though Saskia Amos is, she does have a point about me.’

  I raised an eyebrow.

  ‘She’s right that I’m not giving Emily enough space. Ultimately I do have to let her make her own way. It’s just … Well, it’s bloody hard to stand back when a student’s having quite such a harrowing time.’

  ‘I can imagine.’ I sipped my lager. ‘But I can see you’ve got thoroughly embroiled and I take your point. I suppose it’s possible to get too involved in someone else’s life. Do you always find you get this caught up in your tutoring work, or is it the peculiarities of Emily’s case in particular?’

  His eyes met mine and it was a moment before he answered. ‘My sister went through a similar experience,’ he said. ‘No murder involved, of course,’ he added, quickly, ‘but you know, just this thing about being led a dance by an older man. I saw what it did to her and I think that has meant I’ve found it harder to take a step back.’

  ‘Makes sense.’

  He paused for a moment and then looked up at me and smiled ruefully. ‘To be honest though, I always do get too wound up by the troubles I see. Anyway, I’ll still give Emily a call once in a while, but I’d be really grateful if you wouldn’t mind looking out for her. And if you end up finding it stressful, maybe we could get together and talk it all over. I’ll still be one step removed, but at least you’ll have some moral support.’