by KT King
Before Lucy had finished whisking the eggs, Jimmy told her he had to go.
“But your eggs?” Lucy said, slamming the spatula down on the worktop in frustration.
“Come on, babe!” Jimmy replied, looking like a hurt puppy. “You know how important work is to me! Opportunities like this don’t come round very often. I thought you understood? I can’t be in two places at once, now, can I? You said you would support me. You want me to do well, don’t you? Make lots of money, so I can buy you nice things? Don’t wait up. Love you!” He kissed her, and then he was gone out of the conservatory into the snow, disappearing across the roofs and elevated walkways.
Lucy sat down in despair and started to cry again.
Sophie came through and made her sister a cup of tea. She sighed to herself. Bloody love-karma! she thought. She looked at Lucy and felt compassion welling in her heart for her sister. She tried to change her anger towards Jimmy into compassion as well - to the best of her abilities anyway - she couldn’t help thinking he was a f*ckwit just the same.
Chapter 14
~ * ~
That evening, Robert had been summoned to the Little Eden Hotel for another family gathering. There he found his mother, his brother, Varsity, India, Adela and Lancelot, already seated in the à la carte dining room. Robert was surprised to see Shilty sitting there as well.
“This is a merry party!” he said sarcastically, as he sat down next to her. “What are you doing here Shilty?” he added under his breath.
“Collins invited me,” she whispered back, “He thought you needed some moral support.”
Lancelot caught Robert’s eye and nodded to him in a gesture of solidarity.
No one said anything for a while until Jennifer began to ask Adela for some Hollywood anecdotes, but she was sorely disappointed. Adela’s father, albeit a sound man for Universal Studios, had very little social contact with the stars, and preferred the company of his technical colleagues to celebrities. The table fell silent again and the awkwardness was getting just a little too much for Shilty. Although Adela did not yet know of the plans to sell Little Eden, Shilty, being Shilty, did not keep her mouth shut for long!
“So, when is the elephant in the room going to be discussed?” Shilty asked, as she took a sip of her champagne. “Let’s talk about the sale of Little Eden and clear the air, otherwise, we are all going to suffocate to death.”
Robert and Lancelot looked aghast that Shilty had mentioned it in front of Adela.
Adela was taken by surprise. “What do you mean the sale of Little Eden?”
Lancelot and Robert hurriedly tried to change the subject but to no avail.
“Mother and I, and our cousin Lucas, wish to sell Little Eden,” Collins said finally, after being nudged by his mother several times.
“You know Lucas rather well I hear?” Jennifer said to Adela. “He is a dear boy.”
“You’ve never met him,” Robert pointed out.
They all looked at Adela for her opinion. She nearly choked on her halibut. When she had recovered she tried to find the right words. “Lucas is…well…he spends most of his time in Alaska or the wilds of somewhere saving bears or the rainforests. I’m surprised he would wish to sell Little Eden, but perhaps it’s because he’s never seen it. I would imagine he’ll spend the money on protecting the environment.” Her heart was sinking as she spoke, and she was desperate to ask how the sale might affect the Star Child Academy, but she didn’t want to sound selfish.
“He stands to gain at least two billion pounds from the sale. I should think that would save a fair few black bears and plenty of trees,” Lancelot told her.
Adela shook her head in dismay. “I’m sure if you invited him here he would change his mind!” She really wanted to believe it, but she knew that Lucas didn’t care for buildings, and he certainly cared more about animals than humans. “You can’t really want to sell, Mrs Bartlett-Hart, surely?” Adela asked.
“It is not up to me, is it?” Jennifer replied, moving some sea bass around her plate with her fork and into the langoustine drizzle. “I do not have a say in what happens in the Trust.”
“Seems to me you’ve been saying exactly what you want and that you are just using Collins as your mouthpiece!” India goaded her.
“Collins can do as he pleases,” Jennifer said meekly. “If we share the same opinion about selling Little Eden, then all well and good. I am only thinking of my family and what’s best for them.”
“Oh, stop with your nonsense!” India exclaimed. “How do you define family? Is it only blood that matters? Those who are alive or those who are dead? You’re not thinking about Robert, me, Adela or Lancelot and you are certainly not thinking about the Little Eden residents - all of whom are family! It’s all your idea and we all know it!”
“Let’s not spread blame,” Lancelot interjected. “Let’s just stay with the facts.”
“Hear, hear!” Collins agreed, holding up his wine glass towards Robert. “It’s just business, eh Bobby, old chap! You don’t want this old place hanging round your neck for the rest of your life. Got to move with the times! The days of aristocratic do-gooders and benefactors are over. Everyone is out for themselves nowadays. Our ancestors didn’t have anything better to spend their money on back then. People aren’t poor like their used to be. No one needs our help anymore.”
“Collins doesn’t mean we can’t give a bit to charity now and again,” Varsity added, trying to smooth things a little. “I like a charity ball as much as anyone else. When I was on the catwalks we did a charity fashion show every year for Africa or somewhere like that.”
Robert seethed but kept quiet, not sure if he could hold onto his temper if he spoke.
“We’ve got to live whilst we’re alive. It’s time to move on!” Collins said.
“I think…” Varsity began to say, but didn’t get any further because Jennifer’s dander was up and she waved her fish knife at her.
“You! Keep out of it!” Jennifer scolded her.
Jennifer put her knife down with a clatter onto her plate. “Alright! I will say what I think! My oh-so-venerated ex-husband, Mr Melbourne Bartlett-Hart, left me stuck here with this Trust to look after and two young boys. Your cousin Christabelle’s to blame. If she hadn’t seduced him with her youth…” Jennifer paused, she hated having to even think of Christabelle. “Off he swans to America (she looked at Adela as if she was to blame for anything related to that continent) and he gave me nothing in return! All I ever got was a pittance of an allowance from the Trust. I’ve suffered all these years, trying to make ends meet, and I am entitled to my share of the Bartlett-Hart wealth!”
“Father had no personal money,” Robert muttered. “And your allowance is hardly a pittance, Mother.”
“That’s beside the point!” Jennifer retorted. “I have put up with this community,” she waved her hand in the general direction of the window and the street below, “These residents, for long enough! I’m sick to death of them begging for help every time they get sick and can’t pay the rent. Look at that man the other day - what was his name? He came to the house, at god knows what hour, to ask Robert for one of the alms houses just because he and his wife have both got cancer. If they can’t run their shop anymore that’s their problem, not ours. All of them - constantly taking from us! It’s time to stop this ridiculous babysitting sham once and for all. Robin, Mr Shaft, has assured me that Robert, Collins and Lucas are worth at least two-and-a-half billion each. That doesn’t seem like very much to me considering the sacrifices we have all had to make.”
“And what do you expect to get?” India asked her. “Half of Collins’ and half Robert’s share too? Shame you can’t lay claim to half of Lucas’s money as well!”
Jennifer seethed. She took a large sip from her glass of Montrachet Chardonnay and continued, “You should be talking with my lawyers - with Collins’ lawyers I
mean, not with me about it. I have no head for business and I don’t claim to.”
“No one may get any money!” Robert said suddenly. “I have not decided yet whether to sell!”
“You will sell!” Jennifer replied, her face reddening.
“Come on, it’s two to one, old chap!” Collins added confidently. “If you challenge us, Shaft, Pencill and Push say there will be no problem getting a legal settlement. You know Father wasn’t popular with the establishment after he became a damned hippy. You will have no supporters outside the walls.”
Robert looked at Lancelot for reassurance but none came.
“I’m afraid Collins is right,” Lancelot agreed. “Your father’s way of doing things after the war, was not always appreciated. The establishment always thought he was a commie, you know that!”
“Isn’t Little Eden under some kind of preservation order? I mean, surely the government wouldn’t want it to be destroyed?” Adela asked hopefully.
“The government are constantly trying to take away our legal and tax privileges,” Lancelot told her. “Having our own town is almost like having our own country, and that does not make us popular with, well, with anybody really!”
“I would like to know how much Mr Shaft stands to gain for arranging everything? He seems to be very eager to help you,” India said, a little more calmly.
“Never you mind!” Jennifer replied.
“I believe Shaft, Pencill and Push want twenty percent of the profit if it’s settled quickly, and forty percent if it goes to court,” Lancelot announced.
A gasp went up from everyone - except Jennifer.
Collins looked at his mother in astonishment. “Mother!” he exclaimed. “They want forty percent?” He looked at Robert in desperation. “Come on, old chap, just say you’ll sell. Even I don’t want Shaft to get his hands on that much!”
“Robert will sell,” Jennifer repeated.
“If it goes to court I assure you it will take at least twenty years to resolve,” Lancelot told her.
“Whatever do you mean?” Jennifer demanded.
“I will see to it that it costs you hundreds of millions of pounds to fight your case, and that it goes on for as long as possible. I intend to do a ‘Jarndyce’* on it, and by the end of it all, we will all be bankrupt!”
At that, Jennifer threw down her napkin and excused herself to powder her nose. She insisted Varsity accompany her. Varsity returned within a few minutes explaining that Jennifer had a headache and was going home.
The family meal had come to an end!
~ * ~
Robert was getting into the lift as Lancelot caught up to him. “Before you go,” Lancelot said. “I have the results of the research you asked for about Melanie Humphreys.” As the lift began to descend Lancelot took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Robert.
It read:
Little Eden Abbey Magistrates Hearing No. 8149. Presiding: The Honourable Sister Mary J. 21st day of March, the year of our Lord 1878.
Case: Mrs Robert Bartlett-Hart, née Melanie Humphreys, vs. Little Eden
Verdict: Guilty of murder on three counts; John Quick, Goods Carrier, lately of Dicks Mount; Henry Slight, Pure-Collector, of Balls Green; Mr Leonard Hand, of Swallow Passage, London.
Mr Robert ‘Bobby’ Bartlett-Hart, husband of the accused, requested leniency of sentence, recommending deportation in a voluntary capacity, with issue. Mr Bartlett-Hart to pay annuity and incur costs of transportation.
Robert looked shocked. “She murdered three men?”
“It would appear that way,” Lancelot frowned.
“Good god! No wonder she was deported!” Robert exclaimed.
Lancelot handed Robert another small piece of paper - it was a cutting from the York Herald from 1879:
We learnt this week from our London contemporaries of the greatest excitement in that city, arising from an inquest held at Little Eden Abbey before Judge Sister Mary and an intelligent jury of five, touching the suspicious deaths of three men. The London press has refrained from publishing full details of the proceedings to avoid public gossip in deference to its upstanding and greatly beloved citizen Mr Robert ‘Bobby’ Bartlett-Hart, who has had the misfortune to be inadvertently caught up in this gruesome affair.
It transpired that the first victim, John Quick, originally of Dicks Mount, was reported missing by his wife, in 1875. Mr Quick’s horse and cart were found in Little Eden market shortly after his disappearance, but his body was never discovered.
The suspect, Mrs Melanie Bartlett-Hart, née Miss Melanie Humphreys, was apprehended by a Little Eden patrol officer, P. G. Tips, January of this year, when during a house clearance of Mr Quick’s former abode, correspondence of a most lascivious nature was found in a wooden box, which had been hidden under the floorboards of Mr Quick’s former bedroom. The letters revealed that several years earlier, Miss Melanie had been secretly married to Mr Quick and had three wretched children by him. The infants had been placed in a foundling hospital.
The death of Mr Henry Slight is also attributed to Miss Melanie, he being a neighbour of Mr Quick. Landlady, Mrs Hettie Buttle, sworn, told the court that she had seen him often with Mrs Melanie and that he had disappeared on the same night as Mr Quick. Mrs Buttle had not reported Mr Slight’s disappearance to the authorities as she considered him to have fled the area with Mrs Melanie on the account of her being already married.
In the case of Mr Leonard Hand, of Swallow Passage, his disappearance was discovered on the 1st of January of this year. A housemaid at the Bartlett-Hart residence, Miss Annette Curtin, sworn, said she remembered seeing her mistress, walking out into the Pleasure Gardens around ten o’clock on the evening of the 20th of December last. Miss Curtain reported that her mistress had returned to the house soaking wet and covered with mud. Another servant, a Miss Polly Kettle, sworn, told that, on that same evening she had helped her mistress dispose of soiled clothing on which there were splatters of blood, and to being sworn to secrecy on the matter.
Mrs Melanie was found guilty of the manslaughter on all counts, based on the holy visions of the jury, as well as sworn testimony, as is common practice in Little Eden. It was established that the bodies of the three men were disposed of in the lake but their remains have yet to be recovered.
Mrs Melanie and her three issues, by Mr Quick, are to be deported within the year. Mr Bartlett-Hart is said to be stricken down by the event and may not live to see out the year.
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse!” Robert said to Lancelot. “In my past life regression session with Silvi earlier today, I saw that Bobby believed her to be guilty and he was very shaken by the whole thing. I hoped maybe he had been wrong about it all. I still hoped for the best. I’m just glad in this lifetime, as my mother, she can control her temper better or I might be the next one in the lake!”
Lancelot laughed. “Your mother flies off the handle, but she isn’t a murderer.”
“No, not in this lifetime, but she was in that one!” Robert said. “Sophie’s right. Finding out what we did in past lives is not always a good idea. I won’t ever be able to think of her just as my mother again. I’ll always see Melanie too. It’s distressing.”
Lancelot nodded in agreement.
“You’d better organise dredging the lake,” Robert decided. “See if the three poor chaps are in there. Sophie believes if we find out what happened and can dispel the energy from that past life perhaps it’ll stop my mother in this one. Maybe a funeral or a blessing for at least one of them might help?”
Lancelot frowned. “I don’t believe in past lives, but I understand the need to lay things to rest. Closure I would call it.”
Robert walked home alone and Lancelot took the lift back up to the restaurant to find Adela and India deep in conversation. Adela was shaking her head saying, “Lucas has a good
heart, but with him the planet comes first and humans second. No! I correct that statement! All other animals come before humans too. He would rather feed a hungry dog than a hungry human.”
Lancelot sighed as he sat down. “How do you feel about the idea of selling Little Eden?” he asked Adela. “Sorry you had it sprung on you so suddenly.”
“My opinion doesn’t matter really, does it?” Adela said, in a slightly sad tone. “I’m sorry the Star Child Academy won’t open now. I guess I’ll have to move back to the States. I was looking forward to being here for a long time to come.”
“Were you?” Lancelot said and smiled.
“Do you think you might be able persuade Lucas to see sense?” India asked her.
Adela shrugged her shoulders. “I haven’t seen Lucas for years, not since his mother’s funeral.” She thought for a minute. “I might be able to talk to his sister though. Faberge and I still send Christmas cards and we friended each other a while back. She might have some influence over him.”
“Anything you can do is welcome!” India said.
“You must promise to keep this a secret from everyone else,” Lancelot said seriously. “Only a handful of us know about the sale and if it were to get out…”
“Goodness me yes!” India interjected. “If the residents got to know about it there would be chaos. I dread to think what some of them might do! Their whole lives are on the line and we are hoping to stop all this nonsense before it goes much further!”
Adela nodded in agreement.
“We don’t want riots in the streets,” Lancelot smiled sadly.
India smiled too, but it was more to do with the fact that she had suddenly noticed how Lancelot was looking at Adela. He was love struck and no mistake! India excused herself for the evening and left them alone together. She chuckled to herself as she went down in the lift. She had not seen Lancelot in love for a long time. She thought for a moment and decided that she had never seen Lancelot in love, ever!
