by Anna Jacobs
Russ came to stand beside her. ‘Thanks for inviting me to join you. She’s a feisty old dame, that one. Fun to spend time with and still got all her marbles.’
‘And a few extra marbles thrown in, if I’m any judge.’
‘Yes, her intelligence shines through, doesn’t it? And she’s photogenic too. Why don’t you come in and have an early sundowner with me, Simone? I’ll get no more work done today and you’re looking tired now.’
‘I’d better not.’
‘Oh, and why not?’
‘We shouldn’t—’
‘You can try to hold me at arm’s length, but you won’t succeed. And today I’m not taking no for an answer.’
He followed up his words by picking her up almost as easily as he had done Henrietta and with his face close to hers, he said, ‘She told me to take no nonsense from you, so I’m obeying her orders and sweeping you off your feet.’
‘Russ, I—’
But his lips cut off her protests and when the kiss ended, she stopped complaining and let him carry her inside and plonk her down on a chair.
‘A glass of wine?’
‘Oh, all right.’
She tried to summon up her determination to keep him at arm’s length, but it refused to come out of hiding.
She enjoyed his company, the wine was good and the conversation interesting. He explained about the next stages of his work and how he wanted her to help, then she told him about some of the birds who visited her garden in Australia, including several varieties of parrot and cockatoo.
When she set down her empty glass she forced herself to say firmly, ‘I really do have to go now.’
‘Another glass? With some cheese and biscuits?’
‘No, thank you, I have a few things to do.’
‘Running away?’
She gave up trying to be polite. ‘Yes. And so should you.’
‘I enjoy your company, so I’m not running anywhere.’ He paused and added, ‘I can’t stop you leaving. But unless you’re taking the coward’s way out and resigning, I’ll see you tomorrow morning.’
‘Why on earth should I want to resign? I enjoy the job.’
She didn’t wait for his response but walked out quickly. By the time she closed her own front door behind her she was wishing she’d stayed longer.
She was a fool.
She got herself a snack but the evening seemed to go on for ever and there was nothing worth watching on television.
She really should have accepted his invitation. Who knew where it might have led?
What had happened to all those sensible resolutions she’d made the previous night? They’d vanished, that’s what. The main question now was whether she should even try to resist temptation. Henrietta had urged her to give in to it.
But as the slow minutes passed, Simone began to worry about Clo as well as herself and that affected her decision too. Her daughter hadn’t sounded as sharply confident as usual. And having an unexpected extra baby would upset their careful budgeting.
She’d help them sometimes with babysitting, of course she would, but she wasn’t going to bring the child up for them.
You only got one life and even that could be cut short unexpectedly, as poor Harvey’s had been. She needed to do more with the rest of hers before it was too late. Look how much she was enjoying exploring this part of the world.
She’d been right to come here, but this was only temporary. She would have to find something more permanent to focus on long term, something in Australia that didn’t separate her from her family.
Chapter Twenty
Lance was worried. Life had never been so bad financially. Never. He was not only short of money for the basic everyday expenses like food and petrol but he also needed to pay something off his gambling debts if he didn’t want some rather nasty people coming after him heavy-handedly.
Given his run of bad luck, there was only the old hag left to turn to. He’d have to see Henrietta soon and beg her for help. If he acted repentant, he ought to be able to coax a little more money out of her. She’d not see him go hungry, surely? Not that he had much of an appetite these days. Which was useful, because he didn’t have to waste much money on food.
It would probably be a good tactic to call on Henrietta the first time and just chat nicely about other things before paying her a second visit. That would be the time to mention how bad things were. Yes, that should do it. The sooner he got started with the first visit the better.
While he was there, he might be able to pocket one of her little silver pieces and pawn it. That would buy him food for a few days at least. She left some quite valuable stuff lying around, he could never understand why. He’d seen her pat pieces absent-mindedly, so they must be her favourites. He’d remembered which they were and would be careful not to take one of those.
She had to pay her maid to polish it all. Was that a ridiculous waste of money or what?
He’d stolen pieces a couple of times over the years, though only when he was desperate, and no one had said a word about them going missing. The trick was to find one that was half hidden behind something else. And not to do it very often. That old maid couldn’t be much good at her job if she hadn’t noticed the gaps.
He’d quit his last job when he was on a winning streak and hadn’t left them happy about his work. Well, he hadn’t been happy with their lousy wages, either.
He wouldn’t be able to get another job easily without recent references, but who wanted to spend their life selling used cars? Not him! He’d been born into a good family, destined for better things if his parents hadn’t spent all their money before dropping dead on him. The main thing he’d inherited from them had been debts that ate up nearly all the money he got from selling their house and possessions.
He hated work, hated the boredom of it most of the time, not to mention the forms you had to fill in so that the government could steal your money by calling it tax.
And as for the idiots you had to be polite to, well, there weren’t just stupid customers to deal with in the car sales business but equally stupid colleagues.
He called round at Pennerton House the following day only to be told that the mistress was out.
‘I’ll pop in and write my aunt a note, then.’
The elderly maid shook her head. ‘Sorry, sir. I have orders not to let anyone into the house while Miss Henrietta is away.’
As Jane started to close the door in his face, anger boiled up in him and he shoved the door backwards as hard as he could, causing the old servant to stumble helplessly back with it. ‘I only want to write a damned note!’ he yelled.
Upon which she screamed at the top of a very loud voice and lunged for something which turned out to be an alarm bell.
It shrilled out so loudly it hurt his ears, going on and on. He hadn’t intended shoving the door to be more than a gesture. He started backing away. ‘Sorry. Didn’t mean to push so hard. Don’t know my own strength sometimes. Tell your mistress I called.’
He saw her pull a walking stick out of the hallstand and brandish it at him, so moved more quickly towards his car. Only he couldn’t move all that fast these days. He really ought to get fitter.
By that time a rusty van had come screeching round the corner to join Jane. The grim-faced old gardener got out of it, waving a cricket bat threateningly in Lance’s direction.
Damn! As he leant against his car to catch his breath, the old man joined the maid on the stone steps and the two of them stood holding their impromptu weapons at the ready and glaring at Lance.
He got in, started the car and drove off as quickly as he could.
What would Henrietta do next, for heaven’s sake? There hadn’t been an alarm bell there before, surely? She must be getting senile. Surely she didn’t expect burglars to try to break into the house through the front door in broad daylight?
He was angry with himself for giving way to his temper, but honestly, what was a chap without a steady income to do? He was her
closest male relative, after all, even if he wasn’t called Pennerton. He would be living here if the old bat had died at a reasonable age and treated him as their relationship deserved. Or at least, not living here but living on the proceeds of the sale of the ugly old ruin. You needed bigger money than he had to win really big.
He was not going to try to claim social security payments, however broke he was. Those officious types poked into every aspect of your life before they’d give you any money and he wasn’t putting up with that.
A lawyer friend said if Henrietta didn’t leave him anything, it would be worth having a go at suing the estate for his rightful share of the inheritance by showing he’d been partly dependent on her. That sounded like a long shot to him and Lance wasn’t at all sure it would work. From what he’d seen, it was lawyers who got rich on lawsuits not their clients.
His stupid son might say Henrietta was welcome to leave her property to whomever she wanted. Kit had always been too soft to grab an advantage, even if it hit him in the face. And he was so very wrong. It would be bad enough for her to leave it to someone else in the family, but it wouldn’t be right to simply give it away to the National Trust.
It could be that Russ Carden also had an eye to benefitting from her will in some way via Simone. Lance wasn’t sure how he might do that but he was going to keep his eyes open.
He went into his grotty little flat and scrabbled round for something to eat, cursing as he found that the last few slices of bread had gone mouldy because he’d forgotten to put them in the freezer. And he was nearly out of jam.
He had to dip into his emergency coin jar, then go out to the old-fashioned corner shop and pay for another loaf and a jar of jam.
He bought a scratchcard while he was at it with his last pound. Special offer. Chance to win £5,000. Something to hope for.
He walked slowly back to his flat. He was not going to let go of Henrietta and her money, whatever it took to hang in there.
As for that chance comer from Australia, he was onto her tricks. Simone was already ingratiating herself with the old lady, judging by what he’d heard from other members of the family. He’d find a way to come between her and Henrietta.
He set the scratchcard on the mantelpiece next to his lucky Buddha. Never scratch them immediately was his rule. Give yourself some time to dream first.
He’d go round to Henrietta’s house the next day and apologise. He’d not scratch those numbers until he got back.
When Henrietta got home she went upstairs into her bedroom-cum-sitting room and put her feet up in the recliner rocker with a happy, tired sigh. She rang the bell for her maid and Jane answered it almost immediately, asking how the visit had gone.
Jane had been with her for years and was as much a friend as an employee. Henrietta could tell that something had upset her so asked straight out, ‘Who’s been ruffling your feathers?’
‘That Lance turned up while you were out.’
‘Oh dear! He must be short of money again.’
‘Well, I hope you won’t give him any this time. He tried to push his way in even though I said you weren’t at home. Nearly knocked me over, he did. Said he wanted to write a note to you. Ha! Wanted to pinch another piece of silver, more like. You should have reported those other thefts to the police, you really should.’
‘I couldn’t do that to a relative. Luckily they weren’t pieces I cared about. They were showy rather than valuable. He has no taste. How did you get rid of him today? He can be horribly persistent when he wants something.’
‘When he shoved the door open I thought he was going to force his way in and I got nervous, so I rang the emergency bell. Gavin came straight away and Lance was quick to drive off. Gavin’s twice his size and he may be nearly eighty but he’s still a strong chap. It’s comforting that he keeps an eye on security round the estate, though there isn’t usually much to worry about.’ She paused to think about it, head on one side. ‘I don’t think Lance can be eating properly, mind you, he’s got so scrawny these days. He looked like a shrivelled yellow prune this afternoon.’
‘I do wish he’d move away from the district. I worry what he might do next.’
‘Who can tell?’ Jane let out a snort of disgust. ‘He apologised, pretending he hadn’t meant to push the door so hard but he nearly knocked me over and that doesn’t happen by chance. Does he think I was born yesterday?’
‘He thinks the whole world was born yesterday except for him. He’s rather a stupid little man, really.’
‘Very stupid.’ Jane blew out another angry breath then clicked her tongue in annoyance at herself. ‘What am I doing nattering your head off? What did you want, miss?’
‘Could you please bring me a nice pot of green tea? I’m not hungry because Simone gave us some lovely food, but I would like something to drink.’
She waited quietly in her big recliner armchair in the bay window for Jane to return, using the binoculars from the small table beside her to see what was happening outside in her beloved grounds.
Elizabeth had left her in peace, knowing she’d want to think about the outing and her new relative. Her secretary more than deserved some time to herself anyway. She was a lovely person. How lucky Henrietta was to have such kind people to help her during this last phase of her life.
She wasn’t lucky to be related to Lance, though. She had to work out what to do about him. He wasn’t going to get any more money out of her but how was she to persuade him she meant that? He only believed what he wanted to.
He must have been gambling again. He’d promised to give it up last time she helped him, but it wouldn’t be the first time he’d broken a promise.
Oh well. Things would work out and she’d probably not be here to see the worst of it where he was concerned, thank goodness.
She could feel herself slipping towards a quick nap so let it happen.
Chapter Twenty-One
The doorbell rang the following day and Jane opened it to see Lance standing there again, this time with a bunch of flowers in his hand.
‘These are for you, as an apology for pushing the door too hard yesterday by mistake.’
When he held them out she took a hasty step backwards, her hands going instinctively behind her back. ‘No, thank you.’
He breathed deeply and the smile vanished for a few seconds then returned again. He had the most pitiful excuse for a smile she’d ever seen.
‘Then I shall give them to Aunt Henrietta.’
‘If she wants to see you. Wait there and I’ll ask her.’
Jane shut the front door quickly before he could try to push his way in and locked it too, before hurrying to find Elizabeth.
‘Lance is at the door. He wants to see the mistress. The cheek of it!’
‘Oh dear, I wish he hadn’t come today. She’s still a bit tired after yesterday’s outing, though she won’t admit it. I’ll check with her.’
‘I’ve locked him outside the front door.’
‘Good. I’ll speak to him in a minute. How about you invite Gavin in for a cup of tea in the kitchen in case we need help removing Lance?’
‘Good idea.’
Elizabeth ran lightly up the stairs and found Henrietta using her binoculars to watch what Russ was doing in the little grove at the far edge of the lawn. He’d phoned this morning to ask if it was all right to come today.
She pointed. ‘He’s moving around very carefully checking the area. No fear of that man hurting or trampling on any of the creatures who live here.’
‘That’s good. Look, I’m sorry to disturb you but you have a visitor.’
‘I thought I heard the doorbell. Who is it?’
‘Lance.’
‘Oh dear.’
‘Shall I tell him you’re not well?’
‘I’m tempted but I suppose I’d better see him. Don’t leave me alone with him, though.’
‘I wasn’t going to.’ She shot a quick glance at her companion. It wasn’t like Henrietta to show any weakn
ess and that worried her.
‘Give me time to take the lift down to the small sitting room. I’ve got my favourite pieces of silver in here and I’m not risking him getting near them.’
Elizabeth saw her safely into the room downstairs, then peeped out of a window before she opened the front door.
Lance was walking slowly up and down the path in front of the house, looking aggrieved.
When she opened the door, he turned with one of his false smiles and started back to join her. She was surprised at how slowly he was walking and his clothes looked loose, as if he’d shrunk.
‘You can come in, Lance, but only for ten minutes. Henrietta’s tired today and I’ll send you straight out again if you upset her.’ As she was far bigger than he was, she was sure she could handle him if necessary until Gavin came to help her.
Lance came back up the stone steps to the front door and followed her inside, puffing a little as he walked across the hall.
She turned to study him carefully. ‘You’re not starting a cold, are you? Because if so, you’d better not see Henrietta until you’ve recovered.’
He stopped when she did. ‘Why do you ask that? I wouldn’t have come out of the house if I had a cold. You know I have a weak chest.’
‘I asked because you’re puffing and panting.’
‘Going up stairs makes me puff, always has done.’
He’d only come up four steps, for heaven’s sake! ‘You should get a check-up with your doctor, just in case there’s a problem.’
‘It’s not a check-up I need; it’s some financial peace of mind.’
‘Not at Henrietta’s expense.’
She led the way across the hall, opening the door to the small sitting room. ‘Lance is here. I’ve told him just ten minutes.’ She gestured to him to enter.
Henrietta stayed in her chair, watching the usual sickly smile settle on Lance’s face as he moved forward, holding out some rather droopy flowers.
‘For you.’
She didn’t take them. They were a poor bunch and she wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t pinched them from a grave at the cemetery.
