01 - Murder at Ashgrove House

by Margaret Addison

  ‘And Sir William, you must be close to him too given that he’s the husband of your old school friend?

  Edith looked at Rose suspiciously for a moment, and then looked away.

  ‘They seem a very devoted couple, don’t they, Lady Withers and Sir William?’

  ‘Do they? Yes, I suppose they do, I’ve never really given it much thought.’

  ‘Well, perhaps you should,’ Rose blurted out before she could stop herself.

  ‘I –.’

  ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean ….it’s … oh, I don’t really know what I mean,’ Rose said helplessly. It was not any of her business after all.

  ‘It’s all right, it’s the atmosphere here. You feel it as I do. You can cut it with a knife. It’s because of her you know.’ Rose followed Edith’s glance. She was staring intently at where Lady Withers and Lady Belvedere stood, engaged in conversation. Rose was pleased to see that Lady Withers’ servants were at the other end of the lawn, loading up the hampers with the used cutlery, glasses and crockery and so were unlikely to overhear their conversation.

  ‘I am about to do something that I am loathe to do,’ said Edith, and Rose saw that she had tears in her eyes. ‘It will break Harry’s heart, of course, but I’ve got to do it, I’ve got to.’

  ‘Must you really?’ asked Rose. She felt a sharp stab of guilt. Not once had she thought about the effect the discovery of his wife’s affair might have on Edith’s husband, Harold. Her thoughts had only been with Lady Withers and Lavinia and Cedric and how they would be affected. Now she thought about the man she had never met. Surely he had suffered enough with the death of his only son; it would be too cruel to hear that his wife had been unfaithful with the husband of her old school friend.

  ‘Don’t do it, Mrs Torrington…. Edith,’ Rose implored. ‘No good can come of it, after all. You’ll hurt so many people. Is it really worth it, just to free your conscience?’

  ‘But I’ve got to. I don’t think I’ll be able to live with myself if I don’t. Don’t you see,’ Edith turned to look at Rose beseechingly, ‘I might never get another chance. The truth must come out, it must.’

  Edith was right in thinking that she might not have another opportunity, Rose acknowledged, for now that Lady Withers had suspicions about her husband’s relationship with her old school friend, it was highly unlikely that Edith would ever be invited to stay again at Ashgrove.

  ‘But please don’t.’ Rose took a deep breath. Edith appeared so adamant that there did not seem anything for it but to let on that she had overheard their conversation on the croquet lawn. ‘Sir William doesn’t want you to, does he?’

  ‘William? Oh, oh, no ….’ Edith stared at her and then realisation must have dawned, because her face seemed to collapse.

  ‘Please,’ said Rose hastily, looking around afraid that the others would notice Edith’s distraught state. She was relieved to see that everyone, other than Lord Belvedere, who Rose thought was unlikely to say anything or draw it to anyone else’s attention, appeared to be too engrossed in their own conversations to have noticed. ‘I didn’t mean to listen to your conversation, really I didn’t, but if Sir William doesn’t want you to, why do it?’ She wanted to add, but thought it mean to do so, so didn’t, that if Sir William did not want Edith to say anything, then surely that meant that he had no intention of leaving his wife to be with her.

  ‘Don’t you see, I’ve got to.’

  ‘But why?’ Rose felt as if she wanted to shake Edith. ‘Why must you do it?’

  ‘She’s got to pay, don’t you see that? She’s got to pay for what she did to me, to us?’

  Rose felt herself becoming cold towards Edith. Why should Lady Withers pay? What could she possibly have done to Edith, compared with what Edith had done, and was about to do, to her? Edith was thinking only of herself. Perhaps she felt that if she could not have Sir William, she would make sure that he and Lady Withers were not happy.

  ‘When are you going to do it?’

  ‘Today sometime, before dinner, I must do it today.’

  ‘Why must you do it today? Can’t you leave it to the end of the weekend, when everyone’s about to leave?’ She wondered if Edith could arrange to stay on somehow, so that Lady Withers was not told the truth until her guests had all gone.

  ‘No, I want to get it over with. Besides, there might not be time tomorrow.’

  ‘Do you really think so little of her that you would cause her so much pain while everyone is still here?’

  ‘Think so little of her?’ Rose was alarmed to find that Edith had raised her voice. ‘I don’t just think little of her, I loathe and despise the woman! Why, I positively hate her, didn’t you hear me say as much to William? As far as I’m concerned, she should die for what she did, she certainly doesn’t deserve to live. I’m half minded to kill her myself and to hell with the consequences!’

  Rose was visibly shocked. It was not just the vehemence with which Edith had said such awful things which led her to believe that she truly meant every word, it was that she had managed to disguise her feelings so well so as to appear friendly towards Lady Withers. Why had she been chatting idly with Lady Withers as they made their way towards the croquet lawn for lunch if she despised her so?

  ‘But she’s your old school friend –‘

  ‘Pah! She and I have never been friends. She never liked me then and she dislikes me even more now.’

  ‘But if that’s the case, why do you come to Ashgrove? If you hate Lady Withers so much, why do you accept her hospitality?’

  ‘Lady Withers?’ Edith looked at Rose in amazement. ‘I’m not talking about Constance. Whatever put that idea into your head? No, I’m talking about Marjorie, the Countess of Belvedere.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  Before Rose had an opportunity to question Edith further and ask her what she meant, Lady Withers had whisked her friend away on some pretext about seeing some gown or other that she had a view to wear that evening. In the few brief minutes before she herself was persuaded to play another game of croquet, Rose, although deeply puzzled at how she could have misunderstood everything so completely, felt a deep sense of relief that Edith was not about to tear apart the lives of her host and hostess. That Edith had some personal grievance against Lady Belvedere was obvious, but it was not her concern.

  The rest of the day was spent playing yet more croquet, and with Cedric as a capable teacher, Rose felt by the end that she was becoming quite a master at the game and was even able to croquet Lavinia. The activities of the day, however, were constantly disrupted by Lady Belvedere summoning one or other of them to her presence. The first to be summoned was Lord Sneddon, much to the young man’s surprise, who was followed first by Lavinia and then by Cedric. Lord Sneddon, Rose noticed, returned distinctly out of sorts, not wishing to speak to anyone and smashing the croquet ball with such force that Rose was surprised that it did not split in two. Lavinia returned in a sulky mood, every so often looking daggers at Rose, as if her friend had upset her in some way rather than her mother. When Cedric returned he was quiet and withdrawn, as if he had much on his mind but, when he happened to catch Rose’s eye, he smiled shyly. Rose half expected to be summoned herself to appear before the countess, but was relieved to find that this was not to be the case. Even so, it had put a distinct dampener on the afternoon, casting a shadow that lasted until dinner.

  Lavinia, Rose knew, planned to wear her gold lame dress that evening, cut on the bias and pleated on one side, complete with fishtail. While she herself considered that such a dress was more suited for wearing to a banquet, it put her black dress to shame, particularly as she had already worn it to dinner the night before. She had also completely forgotten to select a rose from the garden to wear as a corsage. Just as Rose was resigning herself to wearing her mother’s pearls again, hoping that no-one would notice that her outfit was exactly the same as the one she had worn the night before, there was a gentle tapping at her door.

  ‘Excuse me, miss,�
� said Martha, coming in. ‘I hope you don’t mind, I know it’s taking a liberty, like, but I couldn’t help noticing when I was hanging up your things that you’d only brought the one evening dress with you. I hope you won’t take offence, but I happened to mention it to Miss Crimms, she who’s her ladyship’s lady’s maid and who’s also seeing to Lady Belvedere while she’s staying with us, and a more demanding and ungrateful woman I can’t imagine, the countess that is not Miss Crimms, begging your pardon, miss. But Miss Crimms suggested you might like a fabric flower to make your dress look a bit different, like. She’s ever so good at needlework and sewing is Miss Crimms, makes all her ladyship’s smalls she does, and her mending is invisible, makes outfits look as good as new. You should’ve seen what she did with her ladyship’s blue, silk chiffon dress after her ladyship accidently caught her sleeve on the door handle. Almost ripped the sleeve in two did her ladyship, but Miss Crimms mended it so it looked better than before, so she did. Well, anyway, miss, here you are, with Miss Crimms’ compliments.’

  Martha handed Rose a large fabric flower made out of raw gold silk, decorated with beads.

  ‘Oh, Martha, it’s beautiful but she shouldn’t have,’ exclaimed Rose, ‘it must have taken her ages to make. ‘

  ‘Miss Crimms is awful quick with a needle, miss. It took her no time at all. And to tell you the truth, I think she enjoyed it. She don’t get much call to try out her needle skills making new things, not here, she don’t. She suggests as you should wear it on one shoulder. If you sit still there one moment, I’ll just fix it before I go back downstairs. There now,’ Martha stood back to admire the effect, ‘now don’t you look a picture, miss.’

  ‘That maid looked awfully pleased with herself,’ said Lavinia coming into the room and lounging on Rose’s bed while trying not to mess up her hair. ‘I say, I like that flower, it totally transforms your dress.’

  ‘Yes, it’s lovely, isn’t it?’

  ‘Mother wouldn’t stop bending my ear about you this afternoon.’

  ‘Oh?’ Rose, seated at the dressing table and in the act of powdering her face, paused and looked at her friend’s reflection in the mirror.

  ‘She says that you have designs on Ceddie, that you only became my friend so as to get the opportunity to meet him.’

  ‘What rot,’ said Rose, blushing furiously and swinging around in her seat to face her friend, ‘surely you don’t believe her, Lavinia? Why, I didn’t even know that he’d be here.’

  ‘I don’t know, Rose. I don’t want to believe her, of course, but you and Ceddie have been getting on rather well and besides there’s another thing.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Well, Hugh agrees with Mother; in fact I think he might have put the idea into her head. But that’s not all,’ Lavinia added quickly as Rose made to interrupt. ‘Hugh told me that you had made a bit of a play for him too.’

  ‘Did he now; how dare he? I think you’ll find that the opposite’s the case, Lavinia. If you want to know the truth, he made a drunken pass at me last night.’

  ‘What absolute rubbish.’

  ‘It happens to be the truth. But if you don’t believe me,’ replied Rose coldly, ‘then I suggest you talk to Stafford. He witnessed it all and rescued me from what was a very unpleasant situation. Ask him.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Lavinia, ‘I’ll do no such thing. I think you’re just jealous about me and Hugh. Well, you can jolly well make your own way down to the drawing room; I’m not waiting for you.’ And with that she stormed out of the room banging the door shut behind her, with Rose left wondering how it had come to this.

  Not surprisingly, it was a very subdued party that met for dinner that evening. Rose and Lavinia were clearly not talking to each other, with Lavinia taking every opportunity to glare at Rose when she happened to catch her eye across the table. While she was making a great show of finding everything Lord Sneddon said to her highly amusing, that gentleman in turn, although acting totally enthralled with Lavinia, every now and then allowed himself to smirk unkindly at Rose when he was sure of not being seen by anyone else. Turning to her dinner companion, Rose found that she could not even find solace in his company, for Cedric looked distinctly unhappy and hardly spoke, picking at his bread roll miserably. On her other side, the earl was as quiet and uncommunicative as he had been the previous night and Edith’s face was positively ashen; indeed she looked as if she might faint any minute. Rose shot a glance at both Sir William, who was clearly concerned about the state Edith was in, and Lady Withers, who, while watching them forlornly, was talking loudly about nothing in particular to try and hide the fact. Only Lady Belvedere, Rose noticed, looked unperturbed by the tension in the room. She would even go so far as to say that the countess appeared to glow, as if it was something that she positively enjoyed. There was a cruel gleam in her eye and a curl of her thin lips which seemed to spell out victory, as if she had been anticipating a fraught and unpleasant battle that she had now won.

  ‘I’m afraid that I don’t feel very well,’ Edith said suddenly, clutching her head. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go to my room.’

  There was the noise of chairs being pushed back as the men stood up. Edith on rising to her feet appeared about to swoon. But it was a sharp intake of breath from the countess that made Rose turn her attention to Lady Belvedere. Afterwards, Rose wished that she had remained looking at Edith and not let her attention be diverted; then she might have had an inkling of what would happen later. But she had been transfixed by the expression on Lady Belvedere’s face, her eyes wide open, her lips parted and formed into the letter ‘o’; it was unmistakeable; the countess was in shock.

  It was apparent to Rose that Lady Withers did not relish the prospect of having to entertain her sister in the drawing room after dinner with only herself and Lavinia for company, particularly as it was obvious that the two girls had had some disagreement.

  ‘I say, darling, don’t leave it too long before you join us, will you?’ she said somewhat desperately to her husband. ‘I know that you men like to enjoy your port and cigars and talk about things we women don’t understand, but I think everyone is rather done in this evening. It must be all that sunshine, don’t you think? Makes one jolly tired.’

  ‘Of course, my dear,’ replied Sir William, catching on straightaway and Rose found she liked him even more because of it. ‘I say, you chaps,’ he said turning to address the other gentlemen, ‘what say we abandon convention and join the ladies in the drawing room now?’

  The earl and the two younger gentlemen concurred and they all made their way to the drawing room to take their coffee and liquors. The atmosphere, however, did not improve, if anything, it seemed more strained.

  ‘I say,’ said Sir William, just as Rose was thinking that she could bear it no longer and must think up some excuse to escape to her room, ‘I’ve just bought a jolly nice pair of antique, Queen Anne, flintlock duelling pistols. I expect you’ll want to see them, won’t you, Henry, you’re interested in that kind of thing, aren’t you?’ The earl nodded, looking keen at an opportunity to leave the room. ‘They’re by Delaney. You too Lavinia, Miss Simpson; they’re pretty attractive things and they’ve got something fun on the butt caps that I think you’ll find amusing.’

  In the end everyone followed Sir William to his study, with the exception of Lady Withers and Lady Belvedere who, feigning tiredness, retired to their rooms. Sir William went to an alcove at one side of the room and, pulling back a thick velvet curtain, revealed his gun cabinet, which he proceeded to open with a key that he took from the breast pocket of his jacket.

  ‘I say, Sir William,’ exclaimed Lord Sneddon, ‘that’s quite a collection that you’ve got there. You wouldn’t want them getting into the wrong hands.’

  ‘Indeed you wouldn’t, which is why I always keep it locked and carry the key around with me on my person.’

  ‘Do you keep the ammunition in the cabinet as well?’

  ‘Yes, I keep it a
ll together under lock and key, can’t be too careful these days. Right, here we are girls, what do you think of these? Silver-mounted they are, but what I want to show you is this.’ He pointed out the butt caps. ‘What do you make of these, they look like some kind of grotesque mask, don’t they?’

  ‘Oh, I think they look just like the face of a King Charles spaniel, don’t you, Daddy? Do come and look too, Ceddie. Do you remember Bouncer? They look just like him.’

  Rose made her way miserably up the stairs to her bedroom. She had been totally humiliated. Not only was Lavinia not speaking to her, but the countess had taken her aside to tell her that she wished Rose to take a walk with her after breakfast the following morning. Lady Belvedere had spoken none too quietly, so that, without a doubt other members of the party had overheard. With a heavy heart, Rose had shortly after made her excuses to Lady Withers and left the drawing room. Lavinia was flirting with Lord Sneddon and Cedric had appeared so deep in thought that she doubted whether either had noticed her departure. She wondered, not for the first time, how the weekend, which had started off so perfectly, could have deteriorated so completely. How were she and Lavinia going to be able to work together on Monday? Perhaps Lavinia would decide not to come back to the shop, in which case Madame Renard would surely hold her to blame. Or perhaps, worse still, Lavinia might only agree to come back to work if Rose was sacked.

  ‘Well, well, quite deep in thought little Rose and looking so dejected.’ Rose froze. She recognised the voice immediately and it sent a chill through her.

  ‘What are you doing here, Lord Sneddon and how did you get here so quickly? You were busy talking to Lavinia when I left the drawing room.’

  ‘Yes, you did rather sneak out, didn’t you? But I saw you go and followed. You stopped to powder your nose, so I took the opportunity to come up the stairs and wait for you. It’s awfully deserted on this landing, isn’t it? Only you and Lavinia have your bedrooms on this floor, don’t you?’