02 - Murder at Dareswick Hall (6 page)

To
Rose’s relief the meal resumed without further incident and Crabtree’s worry
that the dinner would be spoilt proved unfounded. It was late when the meal
finished and that, coupled with the baron’s determination to ensure that Hallam
was given no opportunity to give rant to his feeling towards Sneddon, meant
that port was taken hurriedly at the table while the ladies were still present.
Everyone then adjourned together as one to the drawing room for coffee and liqueurs.

‘This
is all very odd,’ whispered Cedric when he was at last able to snatch a few
words with Rose. He took her by the elbow and led her to a velvet covered
settee that was located a little away from the other occupied chairs and sofas.
They sat down, their heads bent towards each other so that they could not be
overheard. ‘Sneddon made remarkably little fuss over that soup incident, which
is very out of character for him. And I’ve never seen Hallam be so angry. What
can Sneddon possibly have done to him to cause such rage?’

‘Hallam
appeared very concerned about how Josephine would take Lord Sneddon’s sudden
appearance,’ said Rose. ‘Do you think it could be something to do with her? Didn’t
Sneddon say anything to you while you were helping him upstairs to get changed
and have his wound seen to?’

‘Not a
thing, which again is not like him. I know we did not part on the best of
terms, but I would have expected him to say something. But he hardly uttered a
sound. He seemed totally engrossed in his own thoughts. I suppose he must have
been in shock, not to say some pain.’

‘Was he
hurt? That soup was jolly hot.’

‘No, at
least not badly. A scald rather than a burn, I think.’

‘And
that’s another thing, Cedric, the footman did it deliberately.’

‘What!’

‘The
footman dropped the soup on Sneddon on purpose. I saw him do it. You should
have seen the look on his face, it was pure hatred.’ Rose shivered at the
recollection. ‘What could Sneddon possibly have done to make the servant hate
him so? What’s more, I think the butler half expected something of the sort to
happen; he was keeping his eyes trained on the footman throughout dinner.’

‘Well I
never! And how jolly observant of you. Well, the poor fellow’s lost his job
over it now, whatever his reasons for doing what he did. And what’s more, he’ll
have difficulty getting another position without a decent reference.’

‘Yes,
the baron did seem very angry about it. It’s funny, isn’t it, that he appeared
to be the only one delighted by the news of his daughter’s engagement. I suppose
he’s pleased that his daughter is marrying so well and will become a duchess.’

‘Now
you come to mention it, Isabella didn’t exactly look that happy herself about
it all. I’d have thought she’d have been in her element at the prospect of
marrying the heir to a dukedom, even if it meant marrying old Sneddon. But she
was quiet as anything at dinner. She hardly exchanged a word with me, although
I noticed she and Sneddon were whispering together a lot of the time.’

‘She
did seem very detached from it all,’ said Rose, looking over to where Isabella
sat perched now on the edge of a Queen Anne chair, her hands clasped in her lap
with her head bowed. She looked to Rose as if she was trying to shut out the
world. Certainly her posture deterred anyone from going over to speak to her.
Even Sneddon only glanced at her a couple of times before walking over to
engage in conversation with the baron. She looks miserable, Rose thought,
miserable and dejected. Clearly something was very wrong. Aloud to Cedric she
said:

‘I think
Isabella was quite pleased when the soup got poured onto Sneddon’s lap. I think
she thought it was funny, even though he could have been quite badly hurt.’

‘Yes, it’s
all quite strange,’ said Cedric, wearily. ‘But let’s not get involved in it at all
if we can possibly avoid it. I want us to enjoy ourselves while we’re here and make
the most of spending this time together. Goodness knows we deserve it after
what we went through at Ashgrove. I only hope that Sneddon’s arrival won’t
spoil everything. That man does have a tendency to put a dampener on things. At
least Hallam’s stormed off to bed in a mood. I didn’t fancy having to spend the
whole evening trying to keep those two apart, particularly if Hallam had decided
to drown his sorrows in drink, which would only have worsened his temper.’

‘I’m
sorry, Mr Crabtree, truly I am,’ said Robert, the young footman. He was sitting
at the table in the servants’ hall, his head in his hands, close to tears.

‘I don’t
believe a word of it, Robert,’ the butler replied harshly. ‘I could see it in
your face the moment we walked in the dining room that you had it in mind to do
something. I never dreamed though that you’d be so irresponsible as to pour
boiling hot soup onto his lordship’s lap. Whatever were you thinking of, man?
You could have burned him good and proper. You’re jolly lucky that Lord Sneddon
didn’t make more of a fuss about it. Otherwise you might be seeing the inside
of a prison cell rather than just losing your position.’

‘That’s
‘cos he knew he was in the wrong. It was his guilty conscience see, he knew it
was the least he deserved.’

‘That’s
as may be, Robert, but it seems to me that the only one who has really suffered
by this act of stupidity of yours is yourself. How’s your mother going to
manage now with no money coming into the house, what with your brothers still
at school?’

‘I need
this job, Mr Crabtree, I can’t afford to lose it,’ the footman cried
desperately. ‘Please say you’ll have a word with the master.’

‘You
should have thought of that before you did what you did,’ replied the butler
huffily. ‘His lordship wants you off the premises before first light tomorrow,
you heard him.’

‘Oh,
leave the boy alone, Mr Crabtree,’ pleaded Mrs Gooden, the good-natured, rotund
little cook, placing a cup of tea before the footman which he gulped down
greedily, almost burning his mouth in the process. ‘We’re lucky Robert didn’t
see fit to stick a knife in Lord Sneddon after what he did. The boy’s young and
I daresay a bit headstrong, but he only did what we’d all have liked to have
the courage to do. Why, I had half a mind to put some poison in Lord Sneddon’s
soup myself, if I could have been sure that he’d have drunk it and nobody else
and I’d have got away with it.’

‘Mrs Gooden!’
Crabtree was clearly appalled.

‘All I’m
saying, Mr Crabtree, is that we all know why Robert did what he did and that
Lord Sneddon deserved a great deal worse. He got off likely if you ask me. It
ain’t fair that we’re expected to wait on the man. He’s a murderer, that’s what
he is, as good as!’

‘That’s
as maybe, Mrs Gooden, and I don’t say I disagree with you morally speaking. But
while we’re in the employ of the master we must attend to his guests as best we
can and that means not trying to maim or kill them!’ He turned to Robert and
took in his tearstained face and red, swollen eyes. Despite his fine words, he
felt a great deal of sympathy for the young man. ‘I daresay his lordship spoke
rather hasty. Who’s to say that, when he’s had a chance to calm down and think
it over, he might not be encouraged to change his mind, particularly if we can
persuade him that it was a genuine accident? In the meantime, Robert, keep to
the kitchen and servants’ quarters. I’m sure that Mrs Gooden and I can find you
some jobs to keep you busy and out of mischief. But don’t you go causing Lord
Sneddon any more harm, mind, otherwise you’ll be out on your ear.’

‘Yes,
Mr Crabtree, thank you Mr Crabtree.’

While
the other servants went their various ways to complete chores before they
called it a night, the young footman remained seated at the table, looking at
the dregs of tea in his teacup. He had given the butler his word but he had no
qualms about breaking it. His eyes took on a steely glare and his hands gripped
his cup so tightly that he almost broke the china. He wondered whether or not he
had the nerve to carry it through; he wondered if he had the nerve to kill Lord
Sneddon.

‘Come
in.’

‘Oh,
Josephine, it’s you,’ said Isabella in a resigned voice, glancing over her
shoulder as her sister came into her room. She had been studying her face
critically in her dressing table mirror.

‘Who
were you expecting?’ asked Josephine coldly, hovering by the door for a moment
before she closed it quietly behind her. ‘Hugh?’

‘Oh,
you, I suppose,’ replied her sister in a bored sort of voice. ‘I might have
known you’d take the first available opportunity to come and berate me. Well,
let’s get it over with then; it’s late, I’m very tired and I want to go to
bed.’

‘What
on earth were you thinking of, Isabella, bringing Hugh here?’ Josephine
enquired flopping herself down on the bed and glaring at her sister’s
reflection in the mirror.

Isabella
swung around in her seat, angrily.  ‘It’s not all about you, you know. This is
my home too. I can bring whoever I want here. I don’t have to ask your
permission even if you do pretend to be the mistress of the house. Father
doesn’t mind I brought Hugh, he’s delighted, you saw him tonight.’

‘Yes, I
did. That was a clever move on your part. Was it your idea or Hugh’s to send
him in to Father’s study to announce your engagement? You knew you’d get short
shrift from us all otherwise.’

‘Well,
I still did, didn’t I? Hallam made a complete fool of himself, and in front of
Cedric and his shop girl too.’

‘Her
name’s Rose, not that you’d bother to find out. Is she beneath you?’ Josephine
put a hand to her forehead, as if she had the beginnings of a headache. She
suddenly looked very tired. ‘Let’s not argue, Issy. I just want to understand
why you’re doing what you’re doing.  And anyway, I wasn’t thinking about me, I
was thinking about Hallam.’ Not that you’d care about my feelings anyway, she
was tempted to add, but didn’t. It would only lead to a row and it just wasn’t
worth it. ‘Didn’t you think how he’d feel at you bringing that man down here
after everything that’s happened?’

‘It was
just idle gossip, that’s all.’

‘It was
a lot more than that, Isabella,’ snapped Josephine, becoming angry despite her
good intentions. ‘What about the girl? He as good as murdered her!’

‘Don’t
say that, don’t you dare!’ snapped Isabella rising angrily from her seat and
looking furious. Josephine put her hand to her face and looked alarmed. The
gesture seemed to calm her sister for she sat back down again, slowly. ‘Don’t
say that, Jo. He didn’t mean to, you know it was…’

‘Oh, my
goodness, he doesn’t know, does he?’ Realisation dawned on Josephine’s face.
‘Oh, but I don’t suppose he’d care, anyway, knowing the sort of man he is. But
even so, you must tell him, you must tell him what he’s done.’

‘No,
and you won’t tell him either.’ Isabella said firmly. ‘And anyway, it was only
a servant.’

‘How
can you be so callous?’ asked Josephine, angrily. ‘Honestly, Isabella, I wish
you’d grow up and stop being so selfish. She may only have been a servant, as
you put it, but she mattered, of course she mattered. And besides, what about
the other servants? How do you think they feel? It’s not fair on them. You
don’t think it was an accident, do you, Robert spilling hot soup on Hugh.’

‘Oh,
that was rather funny, wasn’t it?’ giggled Isabella, ‘You should have seen
Hugh’s face, I thought he was going to explode.’

‘Issy!’
said Josephine, shocked. ‘Of course it wasn’t funny. Hugh could have been
seriously hurt. And besides, Robert’s lost his job because of it.’

‘Oh
well, I’m sure you’ll talk Father round.’

‘Well
of course I’ll try to. But Issy, why are you marrying Hugh? It’s obvious you’re
not in love with him and even you wouldn’t marry someone just for a title, not
someone like him, anyway. Are you in some sort of trouble? You’re not –.’

‘No!
Please, Josephine, don’t try to interfere. I’m marrying him and that’s all
there is to it.’ She looked at her sister, anxiously. ‘Look, I do love him in
my own way. Well as much as I’ll ever love anyone.’

‘I
don’t believe you.’

‘Well,
we can’t all be like you, can we?’

‘What’s
that supposed to mean?’ demanded Josephine.

‘Having
romantic notions about marriage. And we can’t all be the dutiful little daughter
staying at home looking after Father. I couldn’t bear to be cooped up here in
the wilderness with absolutely no society to speak of unless you count the
vicar and the country doctor and solicitor. I’d simply go mad. I want to see
the world; I want to experience everything. Oh, it’s alright for you,’ she
added dismissively, ‘it’s exactly what you want, to be shut up here.’

‘How do
you know that’s what I want, or what I’m like come to that?’ asked Josephine.
There was a strange note to her voice which made her sister look at her
curiously. ‘Have you ever bothered to ask or try to find out? How do you really
know that I like being shut away here, as you put it?’

‘But
you love living here, you’re always saying how much you do.’ Isabella looked
surprised.

‘Yes,
of course, I do but …’ Josephine faltered, suddenly looking dejected.

‘What
is it?’ Isabella felt a surge of curiosity, all her interest was transferred to
her sister now.

‘Oh,
it’s nothing, really. I’m just being silly, just ignore me.’ She thought,
haven’t I already said those words before this evening? I’m going to go mad if
I don’t tell someone soon, but I can’t tell Issy and I can’t tell Hallam.
They’d never understand. They’ll find out soon enough and then they’ll hate me
for what I’ve done. They’ll never have anything to do with me, they’ll…

‘Oh,
don’t cry, Josephine, I can’t bear it.’ Isabella came over to the bed, sat down
and put her arm around her older sister’s shoulders. ‘Don’t cry old thing,
there’s no need. I know I’ve been rather beastly. I admit I’ve behaved badly,
but I thought you were over him. I never really thought that you were ever that
keen on him anyway. But please don’t cry.’

‘There’s
every need for me to cry, if only you knew. And it’s got nothing to do with
Hugh, I’m quite over him. But I’m scared, Isabella, I’m scared about what’s
going to happen.’

‘So am
I,’ said Isabella, slowly and with feeling, ‘so am I.’