English Trifle

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “Mrs. Hoffmiller,” he said, looking at her with fearful eyes. “You have to believe I came about that note only by chance.”

  “Then you had better explain what chance that was,” Sadie said. “Liam is getting his father out of here and then he’s coming back for everyone who’s been involved in this. You have one chance, right now, to set yourself apart from everyone else. The question is whether or not you’ll take it, or if you really think the Melcalfes won’t throw you under the bus the first chance they get.”

  Grant looked away and was silent for several seconds before raising his eyes to meet hers. “Mrs. Hoffmilller,” he said, a slight pleading in his voice. “You don’t understand what it is you are asking me to do.”

  Sadie didn’t answer immediately. He was probably right, she didn’t understand how hard this was for him. But that was because Sadie knew the difference between right and wrong, while this household seemed to operate within a skewed version of ethics. “I am asking you to do the right thing,” she responded, “finally.”

  Grant looked at the note for several seconds and when he looked up at her once more she had the impression that he’d made some kind of decision. “But what is the right thing?” he asked. “I have been asking myself that question for a very long time and have been unable to find the answer.”

  “It’s simple, Grant. The right thing to do is tell the truth.”

  “And turn my back on my wife?” he asked.

  Sadie hedged for a moment on whether or not she should tell him that she knew about Essie. In the end, she chose to let him tell her. “Your wife?” she repeated, technically not lying, like she would have been if she’d said something like “I didn’t know you were married” or “What are you talking about?”

  Grant regarded her speculatively for a moment. “You have not heard about my wife?” he asked, sounding surprised. Sadie shook her head and noticed that Grant visibly relaxed. So much so that he no longer looked like a butler. The stiffness was gone. Instead he just looked like a careworn old man—though he wasn’t much older than Sadie was.

  “My Essie has not been well, Mrs. Hoffmiller,” Grant said, a softness to his voice. “I was promised that so long as I played my role, she would be cared for.”

  “So they bought your assistance,” Sadie summed up. “But Liam knows what Austin and Dr. Melcalfe have been doing to the earl. He knows that you and Austin, and likely the rest of the staff, were in on it.” She held up the note. “And this was in your room. You said you came upon it by chance—what chance was that?”

  Grant shook his head. “I can’t say.”

  “Why?” Sadie asked in sharp annoyance. “Because you work for them? Because they blackmailed you into helping with this scheme? Because you have some misguided belief that because they have money and prestige that they truly are better than you? It’s not true, Grant, none of it. Liam can help you any way they’ve been helping you, but you can accept his help with a clear conscience. You can help the man who gave you this job in the first place by coming clean.”

  Grant shook his head again, making Sadie want to scream, and yet his expression looked truly apologetic. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hoffmiller, I understand what you want, but I can’t give it to you. Essie is expecting me, and I haven’t seen her for such a long time.”

  The holiday. Sadie hadn’t thought of that. “You won’t tell me because you might not see your wife if you do?”

  “I certainly won’t see my wife if I talk to you now. Everything I’ve done is for Essie, don’t you see? There is so much I can’t do for her, but I can do this. She’d have never gotten into Bethelridge without the . . . their assistance.”

  Though Sadie was anxious to hear more, she had already played dumb in regard to Essie’s existence. It would seem suspect if she suddenly knew everything about her now. “Bethelridge?” she repeated. She justified the fact that pretending she didn’t know wasn’t technically lying. Her pastor might not understand, but she felt sure God would.

  “A treatment facility,” Grant said. He moved toward the window, looking out at the overcast sky. “Essie is an alcoholic. Bethelridge is the best treatment facility in the UK. I could never have afforded it alone. But they could.”

  “Austin?”

  “Lord Melcalfe and his father,” Grant clarified. He stepped back from the curtains and looked across the acres and acres of woods that stretched out behind the estate.

  “And they also arranged for legal help for Mrs. Land’s son?” Sadie asked, wanting to fill in as many blanks as possible.

  “Rupert would have gone to prison without their help—theft,” Grant said, still looking out the window. “They knew we would do anything for the people we love.”

  Sadie held up the note again. “Even kill John Henry?” she asked.

  The color drained from Grant’s face, which shocked Sadie a little bit because she expected him to defend himself, not look horrified. What if he had killed John Henry? He should have been making tea when it happened, but if anyone knew how to sneak through this house it would be him. And yet it still didn’t gel in her mind. If he were willing to do all this to protect Essie and keep her in treatment, why would he risk everything by killing John Henry? But maybe he would truly do anything for Essie—even murder. Her brilliant idea of getting answers from Grant when no one knew where she was didn’t seem so brilliant all of a sudden. But it was too late to turn back now so she pushed forward.

  “He was going to tell Liam what was really happening and that would ruin everything, right?” she said. But why would John Henry give the note to Grant to give to Liam? That didn’t make sense and Sadie couldn’t bring herself to confront Grant directly with the possibility that he’d murdered the other man.

  Grant had been staring at the floor, but then he looked up at Sadie. “If I tell you what I know, I won’t be able to see Essie. Bethelridge is in Blackpool, several hours from here. I don’t know when I’ll have another chance to see her if I don’t take advantage of it now.”

  It was ridiculous that the man would put all his morality on one side of the scales, and a visit on the other. And yet she remembered Essie’s letter, and she could only imagine how much he missed her. “So, the sticking pin is visiting Essie, not divulging what you know?”

  “Essie needs me,” Grant said strongly. “I have already determined to go to the police upon my return, after I’ve made arrangements for Essie in case she has to leave Bethelridge once I confess what I know. I’ve been feeling for days that things are about to change, that secrets won’t be secrets for much longer, but I can’t abandon my Essie. She needs me.”

  She could hear the question he hadn’t asked—would Sadie let him leave for his visit with his wife if he told her what he planned to tell the police anyway? It was more temptation than Sadie could turn away from and although it nagged at her to be giving in, to be sidestepping the police, she believed that without Grant’s information, Liam would never find the answers he was looking for.

  “I won’t stop you from your trip,” Sadie said. “And I’ll talk to Liam about continuing Essie’s care if you will tell me what you know. Where did you find this note?”

  Grant visibly relaxed again, and his eyes no longer looked frantic and scared, but rather resigned to whatever might lay ahead. “I came upon that note in the bin in Lord Melcalfe’s room last night when I turned down the bed.”

  Sadie weighed out each word carefully in hopes of discerning whether or not he was telling the truth. “I thought the maids were the ones who turned down the beds,” she questioned, still watching him.

  “Usually,” Grant said, letting out a breath and looking at his shoes. “But I had reason to take care of it myself last night.”

  “What reason?”

  He paused again, then shook his head slightly and turned toward the window. “Lord Melcalfe was at Southgate before he claims to have arrived.”

  “What do you mean?” Sadie asked, remembering Austin’s entrance to the library
. “When?”

  “After Kevin arrived to take you and Miss Hoffmiller to Heathrow, I had him go up to your room to retrieve your bags,” Grant explained. “While Kevin was gone, I saw Lord Melcalfe.”

  “Where?” Sadie said.

  “I don’t know where he parked his car, but he came around from the back and was walking down the drive—staying close to the trees on the east side.”

  “Does he know you saw him?” Sadie asked.

  Grant shook his head.

  “Did you tell the police?”

  Grant shook his head again.

  “For heaven’s sake, why not?” she exclaimed. Everyone was so busy hiding things that it was a wonder the police had figured out anything at all. Of course she didn’t count herself in with the group she was silently berating—she’d only kept back small things.

  Grant’s face took on some color. “You have to understand, Mrs. Hoffmiller, that in my line of work, keeping secrets is a must. It is an unwritten rule that staff does not report on the comings and goings of the family they serve. It is our job to serve and protect those we work for and we strive to fulfill that expectation.”

  It was all Sadie could do to keep from berating this man about the protection he’d afforded the earl—the man who had hired him in the first place. However, she knew his divulging of this information was tenuous at best and she didn’t dare put him on the defensive. “So, Austin could have killed John Henry?” Sadie summed up, ignoring his talk about the unwritten rules. She could tell that he knew those rules didn’t matter anymore, even if he felt the need to explain them to her. “What time did you see Austin?”

  “Lord Melcalfe,” Grant corrected automatically. “Just before I began preparing the afternoon tea—I’m afraid we were all running behind. Tea was supposed to be served at 4:00, but it was almost 4:15 before I served you and Miss Hoffmiller in the sitting room. Then I went outside, sent Kevin to your rooms for your bags, and saw Lord Melcalfe. Kevin returned and made a phone call while I watched to see if Lord Melcalfe returned.”

  “You told us you were smoking,” Sadie remembered.

  “I would never smoke out front,” Grant said, almost as if he was disappointed anyone would believe him capable of such a thing. “But I walked the front grounds for several minutes looking for a sign of Lord Melcalfe—the same time you were calling for help.”

  “And Austin doesn’t—”

  “Lord Mel—”

  “Oh, stop it!” Sadie said, loosing her cool that these silly titles were getting in the way of this powerful information. “He is not my lord and I will call him Austin if I want to!”

  Grant considered this and then nodded his acceptance.

  Sadie cleared her throat, in part to cover her embarrassment at completely flying off the handle. In her defense she was rather tense. “And Austin doesn’t know you saw him?” she asked again.

  Grant shook his head. “When I called him from the kitchen, I asked how far away he was. He claimed to be in Exeter, but he arrived at the estate within only a few minutes and then insisted he hadn’t been at the estate earlier. I turned down his bed and looked through his room, wondering if I could find anything else to support his earlier presence at the estate. That’s when I found the note in the bin.”

  Austin had some kind of arrogance to simply throw the note away. Grant continued. “I couldn’t tell the police because it would tip off everything else and I’d likely be detained from my visit to Essie.”

  Sadie had to hand it to the man, he was devoted to his wife. It was sweet, in a twisted and completely unethical sort of way.

  “Grant,” Sadie asked, turning the conversation slightly. “Why was Austin doing this? The earl had paid for his schooling, hired him on as a manager. Why would he turn on him like this? What was his motive? Was he stealing from him?”

  “Not yet,” Grant said.

  Sadie couldn’t have looked more confused if she’d tried.

  “The earl was dying, and Lord Melcalfe needed to change certain documents that would ensure his grandmother was cared for and that his position was secure once Master Liam took over the earldom. None of us knew what would happen when Master Liam took the title.”

  So Grant thought they were keeping the earl alive, not killing him? It was on the tip of Sadie’s tongue to tell him the truth—but she wasn’t convinced he was worthy of that trust just yet. “Forgery,” she summed up. “Forgery that would make sure Liam didn’t leave Lady Hane or Austin out in the cold?”

  Grant nodded. “Inheritance tax for nobility has gone up a great deal in the last several years, often necessitating that the heir sell off holdings in order to pay the taxes after the title holder dies. The earldom is profitable, but not so much that Lady Hane and Lord Melcalfe didn’t have reason to question their own future once Master Liam was in title. They were also working on having Lord Melcalfe become executor of the estate.”

  “And the earl hadn’t already addressed that in his estate planning?”

  “The earl didn’t expect to die so soon. As I understand it, his will was quite simple and left everything to Liam—with no contingencies.”

  “Before the earl became ill,” Sadie said, “did he seem distrustful of Austin in any way?” In the library last night Liam had said his father wanted him to come back to England—was that because he suspected something might happen? Was keeping his girlfriend a secret the earl’s way of protecting her somehow?

  Grant paused, and then nodded. “A few weeks before his health turned, I came upon the earl in the library.” Grant looked at the floor before continuing and Sadie imagined it was hard for him to part with secrets he felt responsible for keeping. However, she was grateful that he was doing so. “He had moved a section of shelf—something I’d have thought far too heavy for him to move alone—and beneath it was an open hole.”

  “A hole? In the floor?” Sadie asked.

  “I believe it was a floor safe,” Grant added. “A floor safe I knew nothing about. He was putting a book inside of it.” He moved his hands to show the dimensions that seemed about six by ten inches or so.

  The Martin family Bible?

  “Do you know what the book was?” Sadie asked.

  Grant shook his head. “No, and because it was obvious that the earl was acting in secret—it was the middle of the night after all—I chose not to disturb him.”

  “So he doesn’t know you know about the safe?”

  “I informed the earl the next day that I had seen him. It didn’t seem right to keep it from him. I promised him that I would keep his confidence and he said that the items in that safe were no concern of mine, but priceless to him—that he’d had the safe put in at the New Year when the staff took their annual holiday. I guess almost exactly a year ago, wasn’t it?” He paused for a moment and then continued. “He asked me not to tell anyone about it, specifically Lord Melcalfe. I agreed and that was the end of it, we never discussed it again.”

  “And you didn’t tell Lord Melcalfe?” Sadie questioned. “Even after the earl was incapacitated and Lord Melcalfe was running things?”

  Grant cleared his throat. “I chose to hold onto that information in case it became important—as I said, I had a lot I was protecting.” There was a look on his face that seemed to hope this was the right moment to tell this particular secret.

  Rather than respond right away, Sadie contemplated the situation. Liam knew his father had the family Bible four months ago. Grant had seen him putting something “priceless” into the safe a few weeks after that. Both Grant and Liam seemed to suspect that the earl was growing distrustful of Austin. And now, the earl was in an unnatural coma. Was it too far-fetched that perhaps the Bible could have essential information that would cause all of Austin’s plans to crumble around his high-polished riding boots? Sadie met Grant’s eye again. “Thank you, Grant,” she said, smiling, anxious to share this information with Breanna and Liam. “I know it’s not easy for you to talk about these things, especially to me. I promi
se you that I will do everything in my power to see that Essie remains in treatment. Liam will be very grateful for your help.”

  Grant nodded slightly, and then let out a breath before straightening back to his butler stance. “Thank you, madam, will that be all?” he asked.

  “Yes, I think so,” Sadie said, even while scanning the corners of her brain to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. Oops, she had. “One more thing,” she said as Grant’s face had begun to relax. It was instantly on guard again. “Tell me about Lacy.”

  “Lacy,” Grant repeated. “What do you want to know?”

  “Anything you can tell me.”

  “Well, I can’t say I knew her well,” Grant said. “She came to Southgate nearly a year ago. We knew from the start that she was involved with Lord Melcalfe but that we were to pretend we didn’t know. She was far below his station, and everyone knew it, but we liked her well enough. Honestly, I believed their relationship would play itself out as most of that type do and one day she would be gone just as easily as she’d arrived.”

  “Did she know about what was happening here at the estate?”

  Grant shook his head. “No, Lord Melcalfe had made it very clear to all of us that Lacy was not to be party to any of this. We understood that he was protecting her from a side of himself he was not proud of, but when you work for nobility you come to expect such duplicity of character.”

  Well, obviously Sadie had never come to expect such things. She called such duplicity hypocrisy. “Do you know why she left yesterday?” Sadie asked. “She said that someone told her to leave if something happened to John Henry.” At least, that’s what Sadie thought Lacy had meant.