by HANNA, H. Y.
The kitten nuzzled her neck again, bringing her back to the present. She gave it a final cuddle. “Sorry, sweetie,” she said. “You have to stay here. You’ll have a good home here at the Manor.”
She walked over to Bran and gently deposited the kitten next to him. The little cat climbed over the mastiff’s enormous front paws and curled up against his massive chest. Bran looked down, a perplexed expression on his face, then he sniffed the kitten very gently.
“Meew…” said the kitten sleepily, snuggling even closer.
Bran hesitated, then carefully lowered his great head down next to the kitten. He sighed gustily, then closed his own eyes. A few minutes later, Caitlyn could hear him snoring, accompanied by the faint purring from the kitten nestled against him. She smiled, feeling her heart melt a little.
Turning, she tiptoed out of the coach house and began making her way back up the hill, towards the chocolate shop.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Whew!” Caitlyn sank gratefully into a chair. Every part of her ached. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so tired. Her feet were sore from all the walking she had done that morning, followed by standing around all day; her arms ached from holding paintbrushes and lifting and carrying. And yet together with the physical exhaustion was a great sense of satisfaction. She glanced over at her cousin. Pomona was sprawled on the chair next to her, but she too had a contented smile on her face.
“We did a lot, huh?” she said.
Caitlyn nodded. “Yeah, I can’t believe we did it all! When you said you wanted to repaint the walls today and put in that window display, I never thought we’d get it all done.”
“Now we just need to get some tables and chairs,” said Pomona with satisfaction. She waved a hand towards the other corner of the chocolate shop. “We could put a couple there along that wall… and one next to the window to replace the window seat that we lost. Oh, and maybe we could get a couple of bar stools to put next to the counter…”
There was a sound behind them and Caitlyn turned to see the Widow Mags hobbling out of the kitchen, a steaming mug in each hand.
“Here,” she said, handing them each a hot chocolate. “This will give you a lift.”
They raised the mugs to their lips and sipped slowly. The rich hot chocolate flowed down Caitlyn’s throat and spread like a warm glow through her entire body. Suddenly, her head cleared, her fatigue was gone, and she felt as if she could spring up and run a marathon.
“Wow!” said Caitlyn, looking up at the Widow Mags. “What did you put in this? It tastes… incredible. A bit strange but incredible.”
The old woman smiled. “It’s a special recipe. Hot chocolate with cinnamon and nutmeg, and a hint of cayenne chilli pepper. And a few other extras.”
“Man, this is like the best pick-me-up I’ve ever had!” said Pomona, her eyes wide as she took another gulp. “I’ve had hot chocolate with chilli in it before, but it tasted nothing like this—”
“Ah, but you have not tasted chocolate the quality of mine,” said the Widow Mags. “I only use the finest cacao beans, specially imported from the forests of Ecuador, and pounded into powder by hand. But the secret of the recipe is not only what I put in it but how I put it in.”
Pomona’s eyes widened. “You mean, with a spell?” she asked, delighted.
“A spell is nothing more than a recipe of sorts,” the Widow Mags said. “Certain ingredients, in certain quantities, in a certain manner.” She turned and fixed her gaze on Caitlyn. “I could teach you to do it too… if you wanted to learn.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
“I… I don’t know,” said Caitlyn breathlessly. “I haven’t really had a chance to think about it…”
The Widow Mags gave her a fierce look. “Think about it.”
Then she turned to Pomona and said, almost grudgingly, “The shop looks very nice.”
Pomona flushed with pleasure. Coming from the Widow Mags, that was high praise indeed! “Th-thank you,” she stammered.
“I’m going out now. Will you be all right for dinner?” the Widow Mags asked gruffly. “I don’t know if there’s enough food left over from last night.”
“You’re going out?” asked Caitlyn.
“I have an appointment with the physiotherapist… to help with my arthritis,” said the Widow Mags, looking disconcerted at having to admit a weakness. “She lives in a nearby town. Bertha will be arriving in a few moments to take me.”
“Don’t worry about dinner—we’ll manage,” said Caitlyn with a smile. She was touched that the old woman was worrying about them. “We can always head down to the pub and grab something there if we get stuck.”
The old woman nodded and returned to the kitchen. Caitlyn turned to her cousin and said, “What do you say? Want to go to the pub? The food’s not great but it’s not too bad.”
“Well, actually…” Pomona looked slightly embarrassed. “I’ve got a date.”
“A date? With whom?”
Pomona smirked. “With David Allan.”
Caitlyn looked at her in surprise. She remembered the young salesman showing up again earlier that day. The excuse he had given was another cup of hot chocolate but it wasn’t hard to guess the real reason for his visit. Especially when Caitlyn had glanced across the room and seen him leaning against the counter, hanging onto Pomona’s every word as she prepared the hot chocolate and fluttered her eyelashes at him in her best flirtatious manner. He had looked absolutely besotted. Still, Caitlyn hadn’t thought he would ever work up the courage to make the first move.
“Wow, did he ask you out?” she said.
Pomona rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. “I didn’t think he was ever gonna get around to it! I kept giving him, like, all these hints and openings, but the guy is just too damn shy… Anyway, he did finally get around to it.”
“So where are you guys going?”
Pomona smiled. “A midnight picnic in the woods. It was David’s idea. Isn’t it romantic? I would never have thought that he’d be the type… but I guess people can surprise you.” She winked at Caitlyn. “You know what? He’s a really sweet guy. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s time I stopped dating bad boys and went with, like, someone nice.” She ignored Caitlyn’s cynical look and gestured to her clothes. “D’you think I look okay?”
Caitlyn thought Pomona looked a lot more than okay. Even at the end of a long day, her cousin still looked like she could star in an MTV music video. She had brought a change of clothes and today was dressed in a pair of black denim shorts which moulded itself to her full hips, whilst her orange halter neck top made her tanned skin seem to glow with health. Her honey blonde hair was styled in beachy waves around her face, framing her pretty features.
“Oh no, you look hideous. Those clothes are just too frumpy,” said Caitlyn, screwing up her face in mock horror.
Pomona laughed, then got up from her chair. “Okay, I’m just gonna run up and freshen up in your bathroom, put on some more deodorant and fix my hair. If David arrives, tell him I won’t be long!”
As Pomona disappeared upstairs, Caitlyn saw three figures enter the chocolate shop. The first two were Bertha and Evie, and her eyes widened as she recognised the third. It was Amy Matthews. She hadn’t seen the gamekeeper’s wife since yesterday morning, when she had caught Amy in the stillroom. Facing the pretty young woman now, she felt slightly ashamed of her suspicions. It seemed ludicrous to think that Amy Matthews could be a murderer.
“Hi,” Caitlyn said, getting up from her chair.
Amy smiled shyly at her. “Hullo. I saw Bertha and Evie coming over so I tagged along.” She lifted a ceramic casserole dish. “I made some braised beef stew. I thought… if you and your cousin didn’t fancy going down to the pub…”
“That’s really nice of you,” said Caitlyn, feeling even more ashamed now. “My cousin’s going out on a date but I would love—”
“Pomona’s going out on a date?” Evie interrupted eagerly. “Wi
th who?”
“Er… with me.” There was a diffident cough behind them and they turned to see David Allan standing bashfully in the shop doorway. He looked very nervous and, in one hand, he held a bunch of flowers. “Um… Is Pomona around?”
“I’m here!” said Pomona, appearing suddenly through the doorway behind the counter. She sashayed out, followed by the Widow Mags.
“H-hi.” David blushed and held out the flowers. “Th-these are for you.”
Pomona beamed at him. “For me? How gorgeous! You’re such a gentleman, David.” She gave everybody a little wave. “Well, don’t wait up for us!”
She linked her arm through David’s and dragged him, blushing, out the door. Caitlyn wandered slowly over to the doorway and watched them walk away down the lane. Pomona was chattering away to David while he watched her with a besotted grin on his face. They did look very sweet together. Caitlyn smiled. Who knew? Sometimes the most unlikely romances seemed to spring up out of nowhere. She smiled again as she watched them getting smaller in the distance, Pomona’s voice fading now, but she could still hear David laughing, a deep laugh which seemed slightly incongruous from such a shy, weedy guy.
Caitlyn went back into the shop where she found Bertha trying to help the Widow Mags into a coat and the old woman saying pettishly, “Don’t fuss! I can manage by myself!”
Next to them, Evie was talking to Amy, chatting excitedly about Pomona’s budding romance.
“It’s so romantic—just like in a novel!” Evie sighed. “Do you think they’ll get married?”
Caitlyn burst out laughing. “I think it’s a bit early for that, especially if you know anything about Pomona.”
“David seems like a nice young man,” said Amy. “I mean, even Stan was happy to talk to him, and normally he would have sent door-to-door salesmen packing.”
“Don’t tell me David was trying to sell you a retirement home as well?” said Caitlyn with a grin.
Amy laughed. “Well, not a retirement home exactly. I came home one evening a few days ago to find him having coffee with Stan. He was trying to get Stan to invest in a development farther up the railway line. The brochure looked beautiful. Modern two-bedroom cottages with built-in wardrobes and fitted kitchens, and a small garden. And they had all these finance plans to help first-home buyers.” She sighed, then said bitterly, “Of course, David didn’t realise that any money Stan had would go on the drink first.” She shrugged. “Anyway, he said he’d be back the next day with more details, but then… Stan got killed that night and I suppose he felt too embarrassed to bother me again.” She glanced at her watch. “Oh, I’d better go.” She pointed to the casserole dish in Caitlyn’s hands. “Make sure you have that while it’s hot.”
Caitlyn nodded. There was the most delicious smell coming from the dish and she realised suddenly that she was hungry. But even as she looked at the casserole, she had another uneasy thought. Should she have been eating anything from Amy Matthews? It was ridiculous to think that the gamekeeper’s wife could be a murderer and yet… Caitlyn couldn’t quite push the image of Amy reaching up for the belladonna extract out of her mind.
She looked back at the other woman. Would the poisoner eat her own food? “Won’t you stay and have some with me?” she asked.
“No, I’ve got to get back. I… um…” Amy blushed slightly. “James—I mean, Lord Fitzroy—is coming over tonight. To… to discuss my cottage and my situation. He said he might be able to help me find some work.”
“Oh.” Caitlyn felt a little stab somewhere inside her. Of course, James would want to help Stan Matthews’s widow—she was a tenant on his estate and he was a good landlord. Still, she noticed that Amy looked very pretty tonight, with the bruise on her face now fading and her delicate English-rose complexion highlighted by her soft blonde hair, which had been let down to frame her face. Caitlyn wondered suddenly if James was really coming to see Amy to help with work or for more personal reasons. Then she hastily pushed the thought away. It was none of her business anyway.
A few minutes later, it was just her and Evie left in the chocolate shop. Caitlyn looked at the casserole again, then carefully placed it on the counter.
“That smells delicious! Amy must be a really good cook,” said Evie, inhaling appreciatively. She lifted the lid and looked inside. Chunks of tender beef sat in a rich sauce, next to sliced carrots and potatoes.
“Uh… maybe we should eat something else,” said Caitlyn hastily, pushing the lid back down over the casserole dish.
Evie looked at her in astonishment. “Why?”
“Um… I’ve heard that it’s really bad to eat beef at night. It’s… it’s the latest Hollywood secret, didn’t you know? No beef after 4 p.m. It’s how all the stars stay so slim and toned. It… er… the beef contains proteins that cause cellulite. There’s just been a new study that proved that,” Caitlyn lied glibly.
“Really?” Evie’s eyes were wide. Caitlyn could see the girl’s vanity warring with her desire to taste the dish and was relieved when vanity won. “Okay. I guess we’d better not have it then. Such a shame to waste it though.”
“We can heat it up again for lunch tomorrow,” Caitlyn said, thinking to herself that she’d make sure to throw the stew out in the meantime, when Evie wasn’t looking. It was a terrible waste of food but… better safe than sorry.
She shut the front door and went around closing the window shutters and tidying up the shop. Evie followed her, chattering excitedly about Pomona—what Pomona had done, what Pomona had said, how Pomona had slept last night, what Pomona had had for breakfast that morning… It sounded like the teenage girl was developing a serious case of hero-worship for her cousin.
Caitlyn only listened with half an ear. Something was nagging her—something more than a poisoned casserole dish… or James coming to see Amy tonight… She felt like there was something she had missed… Something important… but what? Caitlyn frowned. She had no idea.
“…and Pomona is so fabulous! I mean, she just makes things happen, you know?” Evie babbled on. “Blimey, I wish I could be like her! She’s not even a witch but she can do all these amazing things—like make men just fall in love with her! I mean, look at David Allan. It was like she cast a love spell on him, wasn’t it? And when he wouldn’t ask her out, she made him do it!” Evie giggled. “She told me the secret is to get men thinking you’re special and mysterious. Like the way she told David she saw a vision of Stan Matthews with the murderer—”
“What?” Caitlyn froze. “Evie—what did you say?”
Evie blinked at her in surprise. “I was talking about the way Pomona got David to ask her out.”
“What do you mean? Didn’t he ask her out on his own?”
“Well, he was taking ages and Pomona said she got fed up waiting for him to make a move, so she decided she would make herself sound even more interesting and mysterious. She told him that she had psychic abilities and that she had seen a vision of Stan Matthews walking up the hill to the stone circle—with the murderer next to him.”
Caitlyn stared at the other girl, an uneasy feeling creeping over her.
“It worked brilliantly!” Evie giggled. “Pomona said David got really interested and kept asking her if she could see the identity of the murderer from her vision. When she wouldn’t tell him, he asked her out to dinner.”
Caitlyn felt the uneasy feeling turn into a sickening churn in her stomach. Her mind was racing. She closed her eyes and thought of the vision again: The forest behind the chocolate shop… the outline of the trees silhouetted against the night sky, and the hill stretching up into the distance… and in the foreground… two figures… Stan Matthews… with a dark figure beside him, a hand on Stan’s shoulder… the rumble of their conversation… Stan was gesticulating, talking, swearing… the figure throwing its head back and giving a deep belly-laugh…
Caitlyn gasped and opened her eyes. Now she was seeing another image—this time of Pomona and David walking away down the lane… Pomona ch
attering away… and David laughing… a deep laugh…
It had struck her at the time. She had thought that it was because it seemed incongruous for such a shy, weedy man to have a laugh like that—but now she realised that that wasn’t the reason. It was because the deep laugh had sounded familiar.
It was the same deep laugh she had heard in her vision.
The laugh of the murderer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Caitlyn yanked the front door open and ran down the lane, heading for the village green. But, of course, she knew it was hopeless. They were long gone. She stopped at last and hesitated for a moment, undecided, then she turned and ran back to the chocolate shop. She found Evie still standing in the same place, looking bewildered.
“Listen, Evie—do you know where they’ve gone?” she demanded. “Did Pomona tell you?”
The other girl shook her head. “N-no… Pomona only said they were going for a night-time picnic, somewhere in the woods. I don’t think she knew herself. I think it was meant to be a surprise.” She brightened. “But it’s a full moon tonight so they’re probably going to be in a clearing, where they can get a clear view of the sky.”
Caitlyn chewed her lip, trying to ignore the feeling of panic, trying to think. But all she could focus on was how she had missed seeing the truth. It had been right there, under her nose, the whole time. Oh, he had been clever—he had hidden it well. Everyone had only seen a shy, sweet young man. No one had paid him much attention. Not when there were more appealing suspects like the Widow Mags, a witch-like old woman feared by the local villagers, or Hans van Driesen, a swaggering big game hunter who unapologetically admitted that he enjoyed killing animals. Or even Amy Matthews, a poor abused wife who had easy access to belladonna extract and who had great motive and opportunity to kill both victims.