01 - Murder at Ashgrove House (11 page)

‘Oh, there you are, Rose, I’ve been looking for you everywhere,’ Lavinia
said as Rose came out onto the terrace. ‘Aunt Connie said that you’d kindly
offered to look after Edith and have your tea with her in the morning room, but
that was ages ago. It really is too bad Edith making another scene. Poor
Cedric, it quite shocked him, you know, although he tried not to show it. It
was awful for Daddy too; he wasn’t there last time it happened so he had
absolutely no idea what to expect and so was very shaken by it all. He was as
white as a sheet when he and Cedric came out to join us, you’d have thought
he’d seen a ghost.’ Lavinia sighed. ‘I do hope Edith’s not going to ruin the
weekend, it really is too bad of her. I mean, it’s awful enough having Mother
here lecturing me all the time, without having Edith having hysterics.’

‘Mrs Torrington’s been through a lot, Lavinia, losing her only son in the
war. It can’t have been easy for her. She showed me a photograph of him and he
did look jolly like Cedric, you know. It must be hard for her when she sees
him. It must remind her of what she’s lost.’

‘Aunt Connie said that they didn’t really look that much alike, that it
was just in Edith’s imagination,’ said Lavinia dismissively. ‘You know, just
two young men of approximately the same age with a similar build and the same
hair colour.’

Rose blushed as a thought suddenly struck her. Was it possible that in
her own mind she had exaggerated the extent of the resemblance in the
photograph between Robert and Cedric, because her thoughts were on Cedric at
the time?

‘But anyway, that’s enough about her,’ Lavinia was continuing, ‘we’ve
come here to enjoy ourselves and we jolly well will, we won’t let Edith spoil
it. The boys have gone for a walk to the village; I said I’d wait for you. What
shall we do now? We could follow them or go for a walk around the grounds; you
haven’t seen it all, there’s parkland and a lake and woodland, but we’ll
probably explore that all tomorrow with Hugh and Cedric, they were talking
about taking a picnic. Or we could go to my room and have a good old gossip and
decide what we’re going to wear tonight for dinner,’ Lavinia looked distinctly
excited at this prospect, ‘we never really get the chance to have a good old
chat at work, do we, and I’m always so exhausted by the end of the day to go
out, that I’m no good to anyone.’

Rose would have preferred to go for a walk for she felt she had been
cooped up inside enough, but she could tell that her friend wanted to talk to
her about Lord Sneddon. So instead they returned to the house and went to
Lavinia’s room which, Rose noticed, was decorated far more extravagantly than
her own. For one thing, Lavinia had a canopy over her bed made from a soft
glazed gold chintz, with the curtains looped over wooden arms fixed in the
wall. At the windows, there were curtains in a floral chintz of regency
pattern, complete with covered, shaped pelmets and the dressing table,
considerably larger than the one in Rose’s room, was kidney-shaped with a
drapery of muslin over chintz complete with a three-sided, gilt-framed looking
glass fixed on the wall above, originally intended, Rose felt sure, for use
over a mantelpiece in a small drawing room rather than in a bedroom.

‘What a lovely room.’

‘Yes it is, isn’t it? I always have this bedroom when I come to stay; it
has great views over the garden and parkland, being so high up, as your does
too, of course. I say, I hope you’re finding your room alright, I know it’s
pretty small and not quite as lovely as this one, but I thought it would be
such fun if our rooms were next to each other and we’re far enough away from
Mother. It would be just so awful if her room was next to mine, she would be
coming in all the time telling me how to behave and what to do and how to
dress. Honestly, she treats me just like a child sometimes, you wouldn’t think
I was twenty-two the way she goes on. I really think she thinks Cedric and I
are still in the nursery. Poor Daddy, she treats him rather like that too.
Still, he can always seek refuge in his library and I don’t think he listens
half the time to what she’s saying to him. Oh, but enough about Mother. I want
to talk to you about, Hugh … Viscount Sneddon,’ Lavinia giggled, ‘what do you
think about him? Isn’t he gorgeous, just about the most handsome man you have
ever seen?’  

‘He is very good-looking,’ admitted Rose, ‘but I didn’t really get a
chance to talk to him much. You two seemed to be getting on like a house on
fire though’, she laughed. 

‘Yes, he really couldn’t have been more attentive to me if he tried. And
he is so fascinating; he knows lots and lots and has an opinion on simply
everything.’

‘Do you know him well?’ enquired Rose curiously.

‘Not really,’ Lavinia flung herself down on her bed. ‘Cedric and he
haven’t been friends that long, but Cedric’s brought Hugh to Sedgwick a couple
of times when I’ve been there, but there’ve always been other guests there too.
Before that I had seen him at the round of parties during the season, of
course, but he was always surrounded by loads of people that I never really had
the chance to make his acquaintance. This really is proving to be an unexpected
opportunity. I just thought it would be a quiet weekend, just the two of us and
Aunt and Uncle and Aunt’s dull old school friend. But I must say, I’m going to
try and make the most of it. For once Mother and I are in perfect agreement;
she’s desperate for me to marry someone like Hugh. Oh, to be a duchess. Just
think, I could even lord it over Mother.’

Rose looked at her friend with some concern. It would do no good though,
she thought, to tell Lavinia of her feelings of uneasiness when she had first
met Lord Sneddon. It was difficult to put her finger on exactly what had
unsettled her and Lavinia certainly wouldn’t thank her for it, she’d probably
think Rose was just being jealous and perhaps she was right. No, it was better
to keep quiet. She’d probably discover that she was being very unfair to the
gentleman and he couldn’t really be that bad, not if he was a friend of
Cedric’s.

Cedric. The name definitely had a certain ring to it. A few hours before
it had been a very ordinary name which meant absolutely nothing to her; now it
meant everything. Lavinia had spoken frequently of her brother and Rose, having
seen his photograph in the society pages, had been interested to hear about his
latest exploits. But everything was different now, now that she had actually
met him. She couldn’t think or imagine any other man but Cedric. His presence
seemed to fill the house and she knew that, whenever she thought back on this
weekend, it would not be Lavinia that she would remember or Sir William or Lady
Withers, or even the splendours of Ashgrove House itself and being waited on by
servants; no, she would remember it as the moment when she had met Cedric. Her
life would forever be split into two parts, the time before she met Cedric and
the time after. Right now she did not feel that she could ever be interested in
any other man. It was so silly, of course, and so very unlike her. She was
being totally irrational and idiotic, for she knew that nothing could ever come
of it, even if he happened, unlikely though it was, to feel the same way about
her as she did about him. Suddenly she wanted desperately to be alone so that
she could give herself up fully to her thoughts. So strong was the urge that
she had to bite her lip to stop herself from leaving the room with Lavinia,
totally oblivious to her internal turmoil, still in mid conversation.

‘…. so you see, Rose,’ Lavinia was saying, ‘I say, are you alright? You
don’t look quite yourself, you’re all flushed.’

‘It’s nothing, I’m just a bit tired that’s all. I thought I might have a
quick lie down before we have to dress for dinner.’

‘Jolly good idea, I might do the same. We’re bound to stay up late with
Cedric and Hugh being here. We’ll be sharing Martha, who’ll be acting as our
lady’s maid. She’s a house parlour maid really, but quite good; she’s acted as
lady’s maid for me before when I’ve not brought Eliza with me. Do you mind if
she sees to me first? My dress is a bit fiddly to do up and I need her to
arrange my hair. I’m desperate to look my best tonight. I want to make the
right impression, after all. You’re used to dressing yourself anyway, aren’t
you, although I dare say you don’t usually dress for dinner?’

When Rose got to the door she hesitated and turned back.

‘Your brother’s awfully pleasant, Lavinia.’

‘Yes, he is, isn’t he?’ Lavinia had now moved to sit in the chair in
front of her dressing table and was scrutinising her face in the mirror. ‘He’s
nice to simply everyone; he has an absolute knack of putting everyone at their
ease, everyone’s always talking about it. Mother finds him a complete godsend
when she has some awkward guest come to stay at Sedgwick and all my girlfriends
simply adore him. They’re all quite sure that he’s in love with them, it’s an
absolute scream. And the funniest thing is, Cedric has absolutely no idea the
effect he has on women; he really is a complete innocent. Mother’s always
convinced that some very unsuitable girl is going to take advantage of him.’

‘Goodbye, I’ll see you later, Lavinia.’

‘Yes, absolutely, I’ll knock on your door and we can go down together.
The dinner-hour here is a quarter to eight because Aunt and Uncle are terribly
old-fashioned, I’m afraid. They’ll want us all to meet beforehand in the
drawing room before we go in to dinner. But Cedric and Hugh mentioned the four
of us meeting twenty minutes earlier so we can have cocktails.

As the door closed behind Rose, Lavinia abandoned looking at her
reflection in the mirror and looked instead at the closed door, her thoughts on
her friend. She frowned, notwithstanding her constant fear that pulling such a
facial expression might cause wrinkles. For one brief moment, the gesture
obliterated her beauty. 

‘My dear,’ said Sir William walking into his wife’s room while dressing
for dinner that evening, ‘how is Edith now? Did she get over her shock?’

‘Oh, for goodness sake, William, how you men do fuss over her,’ replied Lady
Withers, slamming her hairbrush down onto the dressing table. ‘Why, I think
that woman’s got you all wrapped around her little finger with her helpless
act. I appreciate it must have been a bit of a shock to see Cedric again, but
really, she does make such a song and dance about everything. I knew she would,
which is why I was so anxious about Cedric coming to stay in the first place,
but when I told you, you didn’t seem that concerned about it. There’s no point
worrying about it now, William, it’s far too late.’

‘You’re quite right, my dear, but even so I’d like to know she’s got over
the shock.’

‘As far as I know, she has. I left Lavinia’s little friend to sit with
her a while. According to her, Edith soon rallied and intends to join us for
dinner.’

‘I see.’ Sir William sounded hesitant, even to Lady Withers.

‘Oh, do stop fussing, darling. She’ll have to do it sometime. If it’s not
tonight, it’ll be breakfast tomorrow or lunch or dinner. She’ll have to get it
over and done with sometime, so she might as well do so now. And Cedric will be
quite sweet about it all, you know he will. The dear boy will probably go out
of his way to be especially nice to her so that she doesn’t feel embarrassed.

‘And the precedence for dinner has all worked out rather well. Stafford’s
sorted it all out for me, because you know how confused I get about who you as
host should be escorting to dinner and who should go next and suchlike. He’s
written it out for me, least I forget. Now let’s see.’ Lady Withers picked up a
piece of paper from her dressing table and peered at it short-sightedly, ‘I
really must have a word with Stafford about his writing, it’s much too small,
one can hardly read it; now let’s see. Yes, you as host will take in Marjorie,
because she’ll be the lady of highest rank present. Next I, as hostess, would
have been taken in by the gentleman of highest rank, but unfortunately we are
going to end up with a partnerless lady as there is an odd number of guests. I
did try and think whether there was anyone among our acquaintance that we could
ask to dinner as a stop-gap, who would also be a good conversationalist, but I
could only think of Doctor Marsden and he is otherwise engaged. Next time I
really must insist to Edith that she brings Harold. It really is most unfortunate
because really the number of men and of ladies should be equal and Stafford
told me that if the number must be unequal, it is better to have more men than
women.

‘Anyway, the upshot is that Stafford thinks I should follow everyone in
alone. I did suggest to him that perhaps Miss Simpson wouldn’t mind going in by
herself, but he told me that wouldn’t be the done thing at all. Now let’s see
who goes next after you and Marjorie. Ah yes, we found this rather tricky, or
Stafford did, I should say, because you see the younger son of a duke comes
after an earl in the order of precedence but, as Lord Sneddon is now heir to
his father’s dukedom, Stafford thought he should be treated as if he was the
Duke’s eldest son, which means that he’ll come before Henry. So, Lord Sneddon
will be taking in Lavinia, which should please her very much, Henry will be
taking in Edith and Cedric, Miss Simpson, which is likely to upset Marjorie,
but really that can’t be helped, and then I’ll just follow them in. Stafford’s
worked out the seating at the table as well, which he’s written down on the
back of this bit of paper for you to familiarise yourself with.’ Lady Withers
turned over the paper. ‘Ah, yes having an odd number makes it jolly difficult,
of course, but he’s managed to arrange it so that Edith is sitting as far away
from Cedric as possible. She shouldn’t even be able to see him unless she leans
forward and peers around Henry and Miss Simpson.’