‘And I’m pretty sure of Simon, Tom, Debo, Judy, Lulu and Cam. Cara’s the difficult one, but I think I can see a way to make her come, if she hasn’t already gone off with Kieran.’
‘You take it easy, don’t do too much,’ he said, then left me to get up.
Judy would rather I’d stayed in bed, but I felt fine, full of energy and hungry as a wolf, and while I ate several rashers of bacon and two eggs, I told them my plans for a blessing on the drive.
At first they were inclined to think it was the bump on the head giving me odd ideas, but eventually I talked them round.
And the vicar, who was a fairly recent incumbent and hadn’t even known about the accident, was very understanding when I rang and explained what I wanted. He thought blessing the spot and saying some prayers there was a perfectly reasonable plan.
The only problem was that, the next day being Sunday, it would have to be very early.
‘Seven thirty?’ he suggested.
‘Perfect, because at least then it will be quiet. Later, there are bound to be lots of people doing the haunted trail, or driving up to the antiques centre. It won’t take long. If you could pray for Harry and poor Hetty, our local ghost, then I’ll say a few words about the original accident, and that will be it,’ I said. ‘I feel it will give closure to me and everybody else involved.’
‘I’ll be there,’ he promised. ‘I’ll call at the Lodge and we can walk up together.’
When I told Rufus that the vicar was on board and Judy had offered to make sure Tom would be there, I added, ‘And I rang Simon straight after the vicar and he’s coming too. Apparently, there have been more ructions up at Grimside, with Cara insisting her two horses and her jewellery belonged to her, because they were gifts, and Sir Lionel forbidding her to take them. Though, actually, I think she might be right and she’s entitled to keep gifts.’
‘I would have thought so, and perhaps she’s attached to her horses.’
‘I suppose she must be, which makes her almost human! Simon said Sir Lionel’s had to go off somewhere today, and as soon as he’d left, Kieran arrived and started loading Cara’s stuff into her car and his, so I’d better try and get hold of her now.’
‘I had an old customer to deal with earlier, so I couldn’t get to Dan’s cottage, but he’s just turned up here,’ Rufus said. ‘I think he’s looking for me – I’d better go.’
‘Tell him he’s got to be on the drive at seven thirty tomorrow, or I’ll inform the police that it was he who tried to hit me.’
‘You devious woman!’ he replied, a smile in his voice. ‘I’ll ring you back when he’s gone.’
When Rufus called me, he said Dan had come to explain what happened.
‘According to him, he had no idea that Guy might be violent and he thought if he talked to Lulu, then he’d clear off back to France. Dan didn’t like the way Fliss was making up to him.’
‘Well, it’s true Dan’s never been violent, so that all sounds believable,’ I said. ‘Is Guy still at the cottage?’
‘No. When Dan got back there yesterday, Guy and Fliss were loading their bags into his car – and they’ve gone off together.’
‘You mean, she’s gone to France with him?’
‘That’s what she told Dan she was going to do. But if Guy thinks he’s found a replacement dogsbody for Lulu, then he’s mistaken his woman. In fact, he’ll find he’s taken a tigress by the tail.’
‘Serves him right, too, but it was a bit sudden, wasn’t it?’
‘Sudden is my mother’s middle name,’ Rufus said. ‘I don’t expect it will last too long, but at least it gets her out of my hair – and I don’t somehow think she’ll ever want to come back to Halfhidden again.’
‘It will take her a very long time to drink her way through a whole vineyard, too,’ I suggested.
‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ he said, brightening.
‘I’ll tell Lulu in a minute,’ I said. ‘But first, I’m going to send Cara a message she can’t ignore!’
‘What?’
‘I know everything. That should do it.’
It did, too, because she rang me within seconds of getting my message.
‘What on earth do you want now? I’m busy.’
‘I know, but I wanted to invite you to a blessing tomorrow.’
‘A blessing?’ she echoed blankly and then, when I enlarged on what was to happen, she said quickly, ‘No way! I’m off at dawn, once the horsebox driver turns up. I’m getting divorced and marrying Kieran, but I’m taking my horses with me.’
‘I’m sure you’ll be very happy together, but you really ought to come tomorrow – because you see, Cara, I’ve got my memory back and now I know exactly what happened.’
There was a small pause.
‘Everything?’
‘Yes. So if you aren’t there, then I’m going to make sure the whole story is splashed right across the daily papers. It’s so sensational, I’m sure they’d adore it. Think of the lovely twists – minor gentry, divorces, deception, affairs, marrying the ex-fiancé of the woman you’ve implicated in an accident she didn’t really cause …’
‘I’ll come,’ she snapped, capitulating. ‘But only for a few minutes.’
‘A few minutes are all it needs,’ I assured her. ‘Then – it’s over, forgotten, for ever.’
Chapter 34: Old Haunts
I woke up alone next morning, for although Rufus had come to dinner the previous evening, he hadn’t stayed late.
‘Have an early night and I’ll be down in good time tomorrow for when the vicar arrives. How are you feeling about it now?’ he’d said, as he was leaving.
‘A bit nervous,’ I confessed, ‘but sure it’s the right thing to do.’
‘A little angel voice told you, right?’ he said, half-teasing and I nodded.
‘Something like that.’
‘Well, I’m looking forward to getting it over, so we can put it behind us and move on with the rest of our lives,’ he said, and though he didn’t specify whether that was separately or together, the intensity of his goodbye kiss might have been a slight indication.
It was a dry morning and fingers of sunshine were filtering through the clouds as the circle of those closely involved with the accident slowly assembled in the shadowy, still hollow on the drive where, all those years ago, both a life and my childhood had come to an abrupt end.
Gareth, the vicar, who was a youngish man with bright copper hair, stood in the middle, waiting patiently until everyone had ceased to shuffle their feet.
I was hand in hand with Rufus, flanked by Lulu, Cameron, Judy, Debo and Tom, while Dan and Simon stood opposite, united in disillusion.
Cara, looking furious, arrived last, snapping, ‘This had better not take long – we’ve got to get off to Oxford.’
She didn’t add, ‘before my husband gets back and finds what I’ve done,’ but I guessed the subplot. Kieran hung about just behind her, looking daggers at me.
The vicar, seemingly unaware of any of these undercurrents, welcomed everyone and explained that we were gathered together to bless the tragic spot and to remember and pray for those whose lives had ended there, which neatly included Howling Hetty, should she be flitting about the woodland shadows.
Gareth had a light but clear voice, and I thought the very air seemed to quiver as he proceeded with the blessing and then led us into the Lord’s Prayer.
After the last ‘Amen’ had been spoken, he smiled benignly round the circle and announced, ‘Now Izzy would like to say a few words.’
I swallowed hard, let go of Rufus’s hand and stepped forward, and an array of faces – sullen, angry, puzzled or loving – looked back at me.
‘First, I’d like to thank you all for coming and say that I hope today will provide some kind of closure on the past for all of us.’
One or two people shuffled a bit, as if readying themselves to depart, so I carried on quickly, ‘I certainly need closure, because although I’d lost my memory of
the accident, it’s recently come back to me: all of it. I now know exactly what happened that night and I’m going to share that knowledge with you.’
‘But you promised you wouldn’t tell, if I came!’ Cara cried angrily, and everyone looked at her.
‘No, I only promised I wouldn’t give the whole story to the press, that’s all,’ I told her. ‘But what’s said today I hope will stay a secret between us.’
‘Go on then, darling,’ urged Debo. ‘We’re all agog.’
So I described how Harry had persuaded me to drive the Range Rover up from the pub that night, even though I hadn’t wanted to.
‘And I stopped to get out, as soon as we got onto the Sweetwell estate.’
‘But you can’t have got out,’ Simon said blankly.
‘No, I didn’t – but only because Harry pulled me onto his lap when I was going to and wouldn’t let me go. And then – and I’m sorry to tell you this, Simon – you climbed into the driver’s seat and drove on towards the house.’
He didn’t look quite as shattered as I’d feared he might. ‘I’d half-suspected that anyway,’ he said. ‘I sometimes thought I remembered being at the wheel, only Dad said—’
‘I was just trying to protect you,’ Dan interrupted, his face flushed with guilt, or anger, or a combination of the two. ‘I never said Izzy was driving, I only said she was in the front, which she was.’
‘I understand why you did it, Dan, and I can forgive you – though you lied when you said you’d seen Simon get out of the back,’ I pointed out.
‘So … you weren’t driving after all, but Cara let you take the blame all these years?’ Judy said, staring angrily at her.
‘We all thought she was going to die, so it wouldn’t matter if we said it was her fault,’ Cara protested, backing away slightly from all the accusing eyes. ‘Then when she didn’t die, it was too late to change the story.’
‘I expect you and Dan were highly relieved when I couldn’t remember anything about it,’ I said. ‘But now I do – or almost everything, because I can’t recall what made Simon swerve off the drive.’
But just at the moment the words left my lips, I suddenly had one of those time-ripping-open moments and the very last bit of the jigsaw dropped into place with a heavenly hint of the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus.
Harry, laughing, kept a firm grip on me as Simon gunned the engine and roared off up the drive. He took the bend too quickly and was almost into the hollow before he saw, too late, the white-clad figure of a woman standing there.
‘Howling Hetty!’ Simon yelled, jamming on the brakes and jerking the wheel, sending the Range Rover careering into the ditch …
‘It was Howling Hetty!’ I exclaimed. ‘She was standing there, right in the middle of the drive, where the vicar is.’
‘Nay, lass,’ Tom said heavily. ‘That was no ghost, but my Pauline – and it’s been on my conscience ever since. I thought I’d left her safely asleep at Spring Cottage, but I was later getting back than I intended …’
He exchanged a glance with Judy, and I thought I knew why he had been so late and felt so guilty.
‘She got out again?’ I asked, and he nodded.
‘Wandered off in her white nightgown. I found her in the woods later, when you’d gone to hospital, and I think she got the pneumonia that night that killed her.’
‘But she’d often managed to get out and you couldn’t be there all the time, Tom,’ Judy said, gently touching his arm.
‘No, what happened that night wasn’t your fault, any more than it was Simon’s,’ I told him. ‘Harry started the whole sorry chain of events himself, with a stupid prank.’
The vicar, who had been listening wide-eyed to these revelations, said he could see that today had brought not only closure, but forgiveness, and he was happy to have been a part of it. Then he bestowed another of his benign smiles on us and left, passing a small, red-faced elderly man on the way.
It was the cuckolded Sir Lionel Cripchet, and as soon as he spotted Cara, he yelled at her, ‘What have you done with the bloody horses?’
‘My horses? They’re on their way to a livery stables near Oxford. You just try and get them back and I’ll see you in court!’ she told him viciously, and then snapped over her shoulder, ‘Come on, Kieran, time to go!’
She brushed past her small, irate and gibbering husband with the stately elegance of a blonde giraffe and the moment of near-farce broke the tension that held the rest of us together. As slowly as they had arrived, everyone began to drift off again. Simon left with his father, and Judy and Debo took Tom with them back to the Lodge, followed by Cam and Lulu.
Finally, only Rufus and I were left in the hollow, which all at once seemed to have lost its still, dark, haunted air and was now full of fragmented, shifting sunlight and birdsong.
He put his arms around me and drew me close. ‘I love you – did I tell you that?’ he said, dropping a kiss on the top of my head.
‘No – but I don’t think I mentioned that I love you, either, did I?’
‘Not that I can remember and I don’t think something like that would have slipped my memory. So – shall we get married and live happily ever after at Sweetwell?’ he suggested.
‘I thought you had trust issues?’ I said, slipping my arms around his neck, so I could nestle closer.
‘I do, but an angel voice just told me that my heart was safe with you,’ he said gravely. Then, tipping my face up to his, he kissed me.
Chapter 35: Photo Finish
It was a warm day in June and the church bell, Little Knell, was joyfully clonking out to celebrate a double wedding as Rufus and I emerged from the church door hand in hand, closely followed by Cameron and Lulu.
The guests poured out after us and streamed towards the marquee on the Green, while the beribboned and excited dogs, released by Sandy, bounded around, barking.
We finally persuaded Dusty, Pearl and Babybelle to stand still long enough to be included in the family photographs, and then they were rounded up again by Sandy before they could find and demolish the refreshments.
‘What a heavenly day!’ I exclaimed blissfully, tossing my bouquet of white roses over my shoulder, where it was caught by Olly Graham’s fiancée, Josie, which was quite appropriate, since they were next up to get married. Lulu’s bouquet was snatched in mid-flight by Foxy Lane and I wondered if she had snared her gardener yet …
Rufus looked down at me and said, raising one dark eyebrow, ‘Almost as good as the real heaven?’
‘Just as good – but different. Heaven on earth,’ I explained, sighing happily. ‘And look how brilliantly everything’s worked out. At Sweetwell I’ll be close enough to keep an eye on the kennels, Lulu and Cam will be living in Spring Cottage with Tom, and Fliss is still in France, trying to drink a vineyard dry.’
‘And tomorrow, we’ll be in India,’ he added, for Cam and Lulu had postponed their honeymoon till after the main tourist season, so had offered to look after Izzy Dane Designs, too, while we were away.
‘This trip is going to be a mixture of business and pleasure,’ I told Rufus sternly.
‘I know which one should come first,’ he said, his green eyes full of love and, laughing, I went willingly into his arms.
Recipes
Lemon Marmalade Cake
Ingredients
6oz/175g softened butter
6oz/175g castor sugar
14oz/400g mixed dried fruit
3 large eggs, or four medium, lightly beaten
1 heaped tablespoon lemon marmalade
9oz/250g self-raising flour
Method
Preheat the oven to 325°F/170°C/gas mark 3.
Grease, and then line with baking paper, a seven- or eight-inch round cake tin.
Sieve the sugar and flour into a large mixing bowl and then add all the other ingredients. Stir well.
Turn the mixture into the cake tin and smooth the top, then place on a baking tray in the centre of the oven.
Af
ter an hour and a half, check it. If the edges are starting to catch, loosely cover the tin with foil and bake for a further three-quarters of an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Leave for about fifteen minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack. Remove the greaseproof paper.
The cake can be iced when it’s totally cooled.
Quick and Easy Lemon Glaze Icing
Ingredients
4oz/110g icing sugar
2–4 tablespoons of lemon juice, fresh or concentrate
Finely grated lemon zest, if liked
Method
Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and then slowly add the lemon juice until you have a spreadable, but not too runny, mixture.
Spoon onto the top and smooth out with the back of a spoon.
Missy’s Dog Treats
This fishy flapjack-style recipe from Pat Elliott was a huge success with my dog!
Ingredients
5oz/150g drained tuna
5oz/150g rolled oats
2 tablespoons of cottage cheese
Half a red apple, grated
A medium carrot, grated
A pinch of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of herbs – I used thyme and oregano
Cold water to mix
Method
Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C/gas mark 5.
Line a baking tray about 12 inches square, or a rectangular roasting tin, with greased tinfoil.
Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and slowly add the cold water, mixing well. You want to bind everything together, but not make it sloppy.
Spread the mixture evenly across the tin and smooth the top. This will make thin treats, rather than thick bars.
Bake in the top of the oven for twenty minutes, or until golden brown.
When cool, cut into training-treat size nibbles or one-inch squares. These are chewy, rather than hard, and should be stored in a plastic box in the fridge, though they can also be frozen.
Creature Comforts Page 33