The Norman Case

by Diana Xarissa

  Joan had settled in the sitting room with something by Dickens. Janet dropped into the chair next to her and began to read. The knock on the door startled both sisters, who were immersed in their books.

  “Ah, good afternoon,” the tall and slender man at the door said when Janet opened it. “This is Doveby House, I assume.”

  “Yes, this is Doveby House,” Janet replied.

  He nodded. “I’ll just get the wife and the bags,” he said before bouncing down the steps and back to a small grey car in the car park.

  Janet stood and watched as he opened the door for his wife. He helped her from the car and then opened the boot. He pulled a single large suitcase out and then slammed the boot shut. Pulling the bag behind him, he offered his arm to his wife. The duo made their way back to Doveby House slowly.

  “I am sorry you had to wait,” the woman said apologetically when they finally reached the door. “I simply don’t get around very well these days.”

  Janet smiled. “No need to apologise. Welcome to Doveby House.”

  As the couple walked into the house, Joan got up to greet them.

  “Welcome,” she said. “I’m Joan Markham.”

  “Ah, yes, we spoke on the phone,” the woman said. “I’m Vera Conner and this is my husband, Floyd.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you both,” Joan said. “This is my sister, Janet.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Janet,” Vera said.

  The woman looked to be a similar age to her husband. Janet would have guessed that they were both right around sixty. Floyd had dark hair that was liberally sprinkled with grey strands. He was wearing thick glasses over his brown eyes. Vera’s hair was an improbable red. She was smiling, but Janet could see pain in the woman’s green eyes as she stood in the doorway.

  “I’m sure that I told you that we don’t have a lift,” Joan said. “I hope that won’t be a problem.”

  “I can manage stairs, just not very quickly,” Vera replied. “Sometimes they’re easier than walking on the flat, actually, although my doctor tells me that isn’t possible.”

  “But do sit down for a moment and rest,” Janet said. “There’s no need to rush up to your room.”

  “I can take the bag up while Vera rests,” Floyd said. “We aren’t planning to go out anywhere today, aside from getting an evening meal somewhere, so there’s no need for her to go up to the room for now.”

  “I will want to freshen up before we go out,” Vera protested as she sank into the nearest chair.

  “We have a downstairs cloakroom if you’d like to use that,” Joan offered. “For now, just relax. Once I’ve shown your husband to your room, I can make you both some tea, if you’d like.”

  “Tea would be lovely,” Vera sighed.

  “Why don’t you start on the tea while I show Floyd to their room?” Janet suggested. “I could do with a cuppa myself.”

  “The Conners are staying in the Montgomery Room,” Joan told her. “I’ll just get you their keys.”

  Janet bit her tongue. Joan usually assigned rooms based on the order in which reservations were received and she knew that the Conners had booked their stay after the other guests who were due to arrive today. Janet was more than happy to leave those details to Joan, and in this case she was glad Joan had switched rooms for them. She quite liked the Conners, at least so far.

  “If you’d like to follow me?” she invited Floyd a moment later after Joan had handed her the correct keys.

  Floyd dragged the large suitcase behind him up the stairs as he followed Janet. She opened the door to the larger of the two guest rooms and walked inside.

  “This is the Montgomery Room,” she said. “It was named after a former resident of the house.”

  “Fascinating,” the man said. “Although history is more of my wife’s thing. I’ll be sure to tell her.”

  “Will you be visiting the stately homes in the area while you’re here, then?” Janet asked.

  Floyd shrugged. “We’ll have to see how Vera is managing. She always thinks she can do a great deal more than she actually can, which is frustrating for both of us. I have her wheelchair in the car, but she hates to use it.”

  “She seems very young to be having mobility issues.”

  “Yes, she is, at that. But she tries not to complain, which means she pushes herself too hard. I suspect we may spend a lot of our time in your garden and in the village of Doveby Dale. I hope you have a few nice cafés and the like.”

  “We have a coffee shop in the centre of the village that’s under new ownership. I’ve only been there a few times since the new owners took over, but it was pleasant enough both times. There’s a café at the top of the road from here that has excellent food. Beyond that, there’s a very fancy French restaurant in the village that does much better food than you’d expect.”

  The man grinned. “I suspect we’ll try them all at least twice before we head for home.”

  Janet gave the man the keys, explaining which one was for their room and which was for the house’s front door. When the pair returned to the ground floor Vera had moved into the kitchen with Joan.

  “…a week away every year at this time,” she was saying as Janet and Floyd joined them.

  “The summer is a good time for a holiday,” Joan replied.

  “Yes, I suppose it is,” Vera replied.

  “The room is lovely,” Floyd told her. “Much more spacious than I feared it might be, but still cosy.”

  “Oh, excellent,” Vera said.

  “Mmerrrowoowww,” Aggies said as she wandered into the room.

  “Oh, my goodness, a kitten,” Vera gasped. “I wasn’t expecting you to have a kitten.”

  “If you don’t like cats, I can put her in my room,” Janet said quickly.

  “Oh, no, I love cats,” Vera told her. “We’ve had several over the years, but with all of my mobility issues we don’t currently have any. The worry is that one of them might get under my feet and trip me.”

  “I’ll make sure I keep her out of your way when you’re moving,” Janet said.

  “Is it okay if I pet her?” Vera asked.

  “My goodness, yes,” Janet laughed. “She’d love it.”

  Vera smiled at Aggie and then patted her lap. Aggie jumped up and then curled herself into a ball and began to purr. Vera’s face lit up as she began to stoke Aggie’s back.

  Joan served tea with homemade biscuits to them all as they sat around the kitchen table and talked. Janet was wishing that all of their guests would be like the Conners when she heard someone knocking on the front door.

  “I’ll go,” she told Joan, who was refilling the biscuit plate.

  “The keys to the Alberta Room are here,” Joan said, reaching into the drawer and then handing the keys to Janet.

  “I was starting to think that you were never going to open the door,” the woman at the door snapped. “I hope this isn’t an indication of how you treat your guests.”

  “I’m sorry. Please come in,” Janet said.

  The woman looked at her companion. “Should we?”

  “Where else would we go? I’m not driving around all afternoon looking for an alternative. If it’s awful, we can move tomorrow,” he said in a clipped tone.

  The woman frowned and then gave Janet a condescending look. “We’ll stay, at least for tonight,” she said haughtily.

  Janet forced herself to smile as she stepped back to let the couple into the house. “I’m Janet Markham,” she said as she shut the door behind them.

  “We’re the Normans,” the man said. “I’m Trevor and this is Amelia. Our bags are in the car.”

  He held out a ring of keys to Janet. She stared at them for a moment. This was awkward. “I’m sorry, but we don’t have anyone to bring in your bags. You’re going to have to do that yourself.”

  Trevor looked at his wife and then shook his head. “Perhaps you’re right,” he said. “Perhaps this isn’t the right place for us.”

  The two we
re probably in their mid-forties. They both had dark hair without any trace of grey. They were well dressed and Amelia was wearing what looked like a fortune in diamonds. Janet couldn’t help but think that Trevor was probably correct. Doveby House probably wasn’t the right place for them.

  “We aren’t far from Derby. Perhaps there is somewhere there that could accommodate us on short notice,” Amelia said.

  “As you didn’t explain your cancellation policy when we booked, I will assume that we aren’t liable for any charges if we don’t stay,” the man said.

  “Not at all,” Janet replied. She had no idea what Joan had told them about cancelling, but she was prepared to lose money if it meant getting rid of the unpleasant pair.

  “Let’s go to Derby,” Amelia suggested. “If we can’t find anything suitable there, we can always come back.”

  “I’m sorry, but if you are cancelling we won’t be able to accommodate you later. We have a long list of guests who are eager to fill any unexpected vacancies.”

  The pair exchanged glances. “We’ll be back, then,” the man said. “Or we’ll ring you.”

  “If you ring to cancel later, we’ll have to charge you for one night,” Janet said, making up new rules desperately.

  Trevor took his wife’s arm and pulled her a few steps away from Janet. The didn’t bother to lower their voice as they spoke.

  “I don’t think this is at all suitable,” Amelia said.

  “But we’ve been driving for hours,” Trevor replied. “I don’t want to drive any more today.”

  “You’re going to have to drive anyway. I’m sure there isn’t anywhere to eat in the village. We’ll have to go to Derby to find some dinner.”

  “Yes, I suppose so,” the man sighed.

  “If we find a place to stay in Derby, then after dinner we’ll only have a short drive back to the hotel.”

  “There is that.”

  “So we’re in agreement?” the woman asked. She didn’t wait for a reply before turning to Janet. “We’ll be going now, then. This simply isn’t what we were expecting, not at all.”

  “What were you expecting?” Janet muttered as she shut the door behind the pair. She walked back into the kitchen and dropped into her chair.

  “Was that our other guests, then?” Joan asked.

  “It was, but they decided not to stay,” Janet replied.

  “My goodness, why not?” Vera asked.

  Janet thought about telling them the whole story, but discretion won out. “They decided that they would prefer to be closer to Derby,” Janet told them.

  “How odd. I can’t imagine anything in Derby being as charming as your lovely home,” Vera told her.

  The foursome chatted easily for another hour before the Conners decided that they were ready to explore Doveby Dale.

  “After all those biscuits, I won’t want much dinner,” Vera laughed as she got to her feet. “Perhaps that coffee shop you mentioned would be good for tonight.”

  While Vera freshened up, Joan gave Floyd directions to the centre of the village. “There’s a lovely antique shop, a newsagent, and a chemist,” she told him. “The coffee shop is right across the road.”

  After the pair left, Joan got busy with dinner. As she put the chicken into the oven, Janet began to peel apples for the crumble.

  “I should tell you exactly what happened with the Normans,” Janet said. “They were horrible.”

  “The Normans?” Joan repeated.

  “Yes, the other guests, the ones who decided not to stay.”

  “The other guests we’re expecting are called Foster,” Joan said. “Who are the Normans?”

  Chapter 3

  Janet just looked at Joan for a moment and then shook her head. “He said they were Trevor and Amelia Norman. I just assumed they were the other couple we were expecting. He said something about not being told our cancellation policy when he booked, so he must have spoken to you at some point.”

  “Interesting. The names sound vaguely familiar, but I’m not sure why. I’ll have to check the bookings, I suppose.”

  Janet kept an eye on dinner while Joan went to get her book. “Let’s see,” she said when she came back into the kitchen. She set the book on the counter and began to look through it. “Ah, here we are,” she exclaimed a moment later.

  “You’ve found them?”

  “I have. They’re booked for the same dates next month. I thought it was odd when he told me that they’d be arriving on October fifth, as that is a Tuesday, but when I questioned it, he was quite insistent.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Yes, I made a note next to their names. I had a feeling they might be difficult.”

  “And then they turn up a month early. How does anyone even do that?”

  “I’ve no idea. They rang in July and I remember telling him that he was our first booking in October. I can’t believe he actually meant September.”

  “Thank goodness they left. What would have happened when our proper guests arrived?”

  “We’ve have had to ask the Normans to leave, I suppose. That would have been the right thing to do, although it probably would have been difficult if they’d already made themselves at home in the room. I must make certain you know whom we are expecting in the future. It never occurred to me that the wrong guests might suddenly appear.”

  “I must help out with the business end of things more. I’ve left everything to you since we’ve been here. That wasn’t really a problem when it was fairly quiet, but it’s far too much work for you do on your own now that we’re busy.”

  “I’m managing,” Joan told her, “and I quite like the challenge, which isn’t to say that I wouldn’t like more help, but only if you truly want to help. I’m very aware that this whole enterprise was my idea, after all.”

  “Yes, but I’m reaping the benefits of it as much as you are. I get to live in a wonderful home with its own library and gardens. I really should help with the work that goes with it.”

  “You do help a lot, especially with all of the cleaning that needs to be done. Over time I’m sure we’ll work out a system for dividing the labour.”

  “For now, let’s just agree that we both need to know exactly whom we’re expecting on any given day,” Janet said.

  Joan chuckled. “Yes, I think that’s essential.”

  Dinner was cooking nicely and the crumble was ready for the oven when someone knocked on their front door.

  “It should be Roy and Bridget Foster,” Joan said as Janet got to her feet. “Don’t let anyone else in.”

  Janet laughed and then walked to the door.

  “My goodness, we’re so late. I wouldn’t blame you if you’d given our room to someone else,” the pretty brunette at the door said. She looked around forty, and as she walked into the house Janet noticed a few grey strands in her hair. Her clothes were casual, but looked expensive, and when she pulled off her sunglasses, Janet noted that her eyes were green.

  “I’m Janet Markham,” she said.

  “How do you do? I’m Bridget Foster. Roy, that’s my husband, he’s just parking the car and getting the bags. He let me off at the door so that I could run in and reassure you that we really do want our room for the week.”

  Janet was still standing next to the door. She glanced out towards the car park and smiled as she spotted the man dragging several suitcases out of his boot.

  “My goodness, for how long are you travelling?” she asked as he began to pull and push the cases towards the house.

  “Only this week,” the woman replied with a giggle. “One of the cases is empty. We’ll be doing a lot of shopping while we’re here. I love to shop when I’m on holiday, so we always bring an extra case and fill it up.”

  “How fun,” Janet said. She stepped back as the man stumbled into the house, nearly falling over as he caught his foot on the edge of one of the cases.

  “Maybe we should find a better way to do this,” he muttered as he straightened
up and then picked up the case he’d knocked over.

  “Darling, this is Janet,” Bridget said. “Janet, this my dear, sweet, wonderful husband Roy. He truly is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  “Yes, dear, we’ll do all the shopping you want. No need to butter me up any further,” the man laughed. He had more than a few strands of grey, but they suited him. Again, Janet would have put him at forty. He and his wife both looked fit and healthy as well as reasonably affluent.

  “Let me show you to your room, then,” Janet said. “You can take the bags up one at a time, if you’d like.”

  “I’ll take the empty one,” Bridget offered.

  “Gee, that’s helpful,” the man said with a wink.

  Bridget laughed. “I don’t have to help at all if you’d rather do it yourself.”

  “No, no, not even a little bit,” he replied.

  The pair followed Janet up the stairs. She opened the door to the smaller of the two guest rooms and ushered their guests inside.

  “I hope this suits you,” she said, glancing around to make sure that everything was neatly in place.

  “It’s lovely,” Bridget cooed. “Absolutely the perfect place to forget about all of life’s problems. And I love that lamp.” She crossed to the small table in the corner and picked up the small reading lamp. “How much?”

  “How much?” Janet echoed. “It’s not for sale. None of the furnishings in the house are for sale.”

  Bridget shook her head. “But you can name your price. I must have this lamp.”

  “I’m terribly sorry, but we aren’t interested in selling our things,” Janet said firmly. “There’s a lovely little antique shop in the village, though. I’m sure the owner there will have many things you’d like.”

  “That would be William Chalmers,” Bridget said with a smile. “He’s the reason why we’re so late. We arrived in Doveby Dale right around midday, so we decided to get some lunch before we came here. Then I spotted William’s adorable little shop and I simply had to go inside.”

  “She’s never been able to walk past a shop anywhere,” Roy said.

  “You’re right, it’s a lovely shop. We’ve a dozen things on hold there and we’ll probably add to our collection when we go back. But William was kind enough to tell us about a number of other antique shops in the area as well. We need to visit all of them before we make any final decisions.”