I flew downstairs to the parlour, which was empty apart from more aromatic evidence that Jack had been there. Could he really have been so unscrupulous as to take my keys and look for the household book in my absence, or did I have a nasty, suspicious mind? I hated the thought that he might have even touched Alys’s coffer…though if he had opened it, he would have been disappointed to find only a Victorian book of bible stories inside.
While I was still standing there, undecided, the man himself startled me by sticking his head round the door. ‘There you are, darling! I’ve been looking for you. I hoped you would come back alone.’
‘Have you already been in here today?’ I asked him sharply.
‘Yes, of course—upstairs, downstairs and in my lady’s chamber,’ he said, smiling innocently.
‘Oh,’ I said lamely, wondering if I’d misjudged him. ‘Why were you looking for me, Jack?’
‘To apologise for putting brandy in the punch—but honestly, it was only a smidgen out of my hip flask to liven it up, not much at all. I’ve already apologised to Aunt Hebe and she’s forgiven me,’ he said virtuously. ‘We’ve kissed and made up, and I think you and I should kiss and make up too, Sophy, after all those horrid scenes.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said, which was no more than the truth.
‘Yes, it does. Mel is such a bitch! She’ll say—or do—anything when she’s in one of her jealous rages. But just because we had a quick fling years ago, it doesn’t mean I can’t fall for someone else now, does it? She just can’t bear to let any man go.’
‘True, I think she’s mending her bridges with Seth right now,’ I agreed. ‘But, Jack—’
‘Come and sit here on the sofa with me, Sophy, I want to talk to you,’ he said, looking very serious.
I did, but as far away from him as possible, poised for a fast flight if he started to get smoochy. Alys’s warning presence was so evident that I was surprised he wasn’t aware of the sudden chill in the atmosphere.
‘We’ve got to know each other very well, haven’t we? I knew practically from the first minute I saw you that you were the one for me, and I could tell that you felt the same. Maybe I rushed you a bit too much, but—’
‘Jack,’ I interrupted, ‘please don’t!’
He shuffled along sideways like a parrot up a perch and took my hand. ‘I know I got things wrong at the start, maybe let pride stand in my way, but now—well, now I see things more clearly. I love you, Sophy!’
To my horror he got down on one knee and presented me with a ring, a huge, flashing diamond. ‘Marry me, Sophy. You can open the house if you must, do exactly what you like—just say you will marry me. We’ll have a long engagement and—’
‘No, Jack,’ I began, trying to snatch my hand away as he pushed the ring onto my finger. ‘I’ve been telling you for weeks that I don’t feel that way about you.’
‘Perhaps you still can’t quite believe that I love you, but by the time we get back from the Caribbean you’ll be as mad about me as I am about you,’ he said confidently. ‘I’ve even sent the notice of our engagement to The Times already—that’s how serious I am.’
I was tugging at the ring, trying to get it off, and starting to feel angry. ‘For goodness’ sake, Jack! I really don’t feel like that about you in the least and I don’t want to marry you!’
He attempted to take me in his arms just as Charlie, alarmed by my raised voice, sank his teeth into his ankle.
‘Bloody hell!’ Jack roared, and letting go of me, kicked him away.
Charlie yelped, and I swept him up into my arms and kissed the top of his silky, indignant head. ‘Darling, are you all right?’
Lucy burst in. ‘What on earth is happening? It sounded like a massacre in here! Is Charlie hurt?’
Then she noticed the blinding flash of the ring still on my finger. It would be a bit hard to miss—vulgar simply wasn’t in it. ‘Mum!’
‘It’s not how it looks,’ I said hastily. ‘I just can’t get it off. I think it will take soap.’
‘Oh, come on, Sophy, we can tell her—we’re engaged,’ he announced to Lucy.
‘No we’re not! I keep telling you, Jack, I’m not marrying you. I’m not even going to Barbados with you. Not, not, not.’
‘She doesn’t love you that way,’ Lucy explained to him kindly. ‘I could have told you that.’
‘And you’d better take that announcement out of the paper again,’ I said. ‘Honestly, to think you could do that without asking me first!’
‘I did ask you, and you said you just needed a bit more time to get to know me,’ he protested.
‘No, that’s what you said.’
He’d thought he could sweep me off my feet, but I could see it was finally and belatedly dawning on him that it wasn’t going to work.
‘Could you leave us alone?’ he asked Lucy and she looked at me doubtfully.
I nodded at her.
‘OK—but I’m just next door if you want me. Come on, Charlie.’
When she’d gone, he said discontentedly, ‘I can’t believe you really mean it.’
‘I do. Sorry, Jack, I’m not in love with you and I never will be.’
‘Is it Seth? Mel thought you were getting too close. But she’s determined to have him—and what Mel wants, she gets.’
‘No, of course it’s not Seth—it isn’t anyone. I simply don’t want to marry again, and I don’t need to. Winter’s End will always be your home, too, but you must stop all this.’
‘You can’t blame me for thinking you were in love with me. You led me on,’ he said crossly.
‘I know I did at first, and I’m sorry,’ I said contritely. ‘I soon realised I didn’t feel that way about you, though I am very fond of you, Jack.’
‘That’s not good enough! Winter’s End should be mine. That’s what William really wanted—for us to get together. That’s why I borrowed money on my expectations—and now I’m overstretched and it’s all your fault. If you won’t marry me, the least you can do is help me out.’
I looked at him, puzzled. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Increase the loan against Winter’s End to bail me out, until my company’s back in profit again,’ he said sulkily.
‘Absolutely not!’
‘Look, it’s just a temporary fix I’m in—but it’s your fault that I need the money. It’s not fair!’
‘I’m sorry,’ I said finally and, looking furious, he slammed out of the room.
Lucy came back in, carrying Charlie. ‘Seth is so much nicer than Jack. I don’t know what you ever saw in him.’
‘Nice Seth is at this moment shacked up in the lodge with Nasty Mel and, for all I know, will be jetting off to Barbados with her after Christmas.’
‘I’m sure he won’t. Anyway, we need him, there’s lots to do.’
‘Tell me about it!’ I snapped, sinking down onto the sofa.
‘There’s no need to be ratty with me, just because you made a mess of things,’ she said, hurt.
‘Sorry, darling, it’s just been a bit of a day, to say the least.’
‘Hebe told me what Ottie said about your father being one of the Pharamonds,’ she said, plumping down next to me on the sofa.
‘Yes, I’ve just been to see her and it’s true. It’s nice to know for sure, but I’m not going to approach the family. They know nothing about it, so there’s no point in raking it all up.’
‘It doesn’t matter to me,’ Lucy said. ‘Mum,’ she added, having gone into a trance for quite five minutes, ‘Guy has to go back to work on Tuesday, so I thought I would go back over there with him for a couple of days, if you don’t mind. We have a lot of catching up to do.’ She sighed. ‘I hadn’t realised how much he’d changed…’
‘No, that’s fine,’ I said, though feeling a bit hurt that she was leaving me so soon.
‘He’ll probably come back here with me at the weekend, if that’s all right?’
‘He’s always welcome here. We’ll keep the old nursery bed
room ready just for him, if you like, then he can come and go as he pleases.’
‘Thanks, Mum!’ she said, giving me a hug.
‘Where is Guy at the moment?’
‘In the stillroom with Aunt Hebe. When she found out he was a biochemist, she said she had one or two things he could help her with.’
‘Oh?’ I wasn’t sure if that sounded ominous or not. ‘Anya’s off to Scotland for the New Year, but she’ll be back well before Valentine’s Day, though she says she won’t stay in the house, she’ll live in her van somewhere on the estate.’
‘She seems to have got on well with that policeman—Mike, is it?’ Lucy said, interested. ‘He’s nice—maybe she will stay with him!’
‘Maybe. You can never predict what Anya will do, so we’ll have to wait and see.’ I made up my mind, since the day had been one of confessions and revelations, to add one more.
‘Lucy, there’s something I have to talk to you about,’ I said, and told her about her father making contact. ‘I didn’t want anything to do with him, but perhaps I should have asked you how you felt before telling him to get lost?’
‘I don’t want anything to do with him, either. We’ve managed fine without him up until now, haven’t we? And I don’t believe all that stuff about not finding us was true, do you, Mum?’
‘No, to be honest. I think he must be hard up and when he spotted the article in the paper thought I’d come into money. I don’t suppose we’ll hear from him again.’
‘Good,’ Lucy said. She got up. ‘I’ll go and make some tea and bring it through. You look as if you need it!’
Jack had slammed his way right out of the house and didn’t reappear for dinner, though Mel’s mother, Chloe, phoned later to say that he was dining there.
That was another surprise—I thought Seth would be too preoccupied with Mel to turn up, but no, he suddenly appeared in the kitchen while I was trying to get that damned ring off. Mrs Lark had suggested immersing my hand in icy water for ten minutes and then applying soft soap, and I had just succeeded in finally wrenching it over my knuckles when he came into the kitchen. In fact, the ring shot off and landed at his feet, shining with soapy iridescence.
‘There, that’s off,’ Mrs Lark said with satisfaction. ‘Jack gave it to her, Seth, only it was too small and her finger was swelling up.’
Seth, expressionless, picked it up and handed it back. ‘Should I congratulate you?’
‘No,’ I said shortly, but felt in no mood for explanations. He wasn’t looking in the best of tempers himself, so things mustn’t have gone well between him and Mel. But then, it was his own stupid fault for having an affair with her in the first place.
Aunt Hebe was upset that Jack was not at dinner, presuming, correctly, that he and I had had an argument. But apart from that the meal went quite well. Lucy and Guy were in good spirits, Anya was cheery, and even I was reviving with the relief of actually having got it through Jack’s thick skull at last that I wasn’t going to marry him.
Ottie was in an expansive mood, due to having finished the sculpture, and then downed a bottle or so of champagne. In fact, she insisted on sending Jonah down to the cellars to fetch a couple of bottles up, and got the Larks in to have a glass while toasting many Happy Christmases to come.
Only Seth remained quiet and gloomy.
Chapter Thirty-three: Dodgy Dealings
Joan has brought my household book as I requested, so that I might add some words to it, directed to my precious child. I must be guarded in what I say: she will take it with this, my journal and lock them away.
From the journal of Alys Blezzard, 1582
Jack reappeared at breakfast on Christmas morning, chastened, ingratiating and apologetic, though he tended to avoid my eye and I knew he was still feeling furious and aggrieved.
For the sake of Aunt Hebe we all pretended nothing had happened, even though everyone knew by now that he and I had had a row, and about the ring.
Come to that, my finger was still sore and swollen.
Like me, Anya is not a chatty person early in the day and once Jack had got his normal bounce back again and gone all cheery, I could see her wanting to kill him.
Lucy and Guy were the last to come down, and too wrapped up in each other to notice much at all, so I hoped this was True Love. I know Anya felt exactly the same—we just never thought it would happen.
Lucy was wearing a jewelled crown that had been in her Christmas stocking, and Guy a pirate scarf. Aunt Hebe gave them a slightly puzzled look, but said nothing. She probably thought they were the latest fashions.
We indulged in an orgy of unwrapping in the drawing room, while Charlie disembowelled a doggie stocking of treats on the priceless, if threadbare, rug.
The gifts ranged from the mundane (Jack had bought everyone a box of chocolates, though apparently he and Seth exchange a bottle of whisky every year, in some pointless male ritual), through the unusual (Anya’s recycled tin and paper jewellery and my little patchwork lavender hearts), to the bizarre (Ottie gave everyone a decorative hen, made in Africa from strips of old plastic packaging and twisted wire).
Seth’s, which he’d delivered to the house earlier in a trug, were all small potted plants—except mine, which was a single moss rosebud tied up with a sprig of greenery.
‘He’s cut one of his roses—for me?’ I said, amazed.
‘Strictly speaking, he’s cut one of your roses, for you,’ Ottie said with a grin. ‘One of the old moss roses does sometimes have a flower or two at Christmas, though it’s not like him to sacrifice it.’
‘No, it isn’t!’ I agreed, stroking the closed petals with one finger to check it was real. ‘What’s this green stuff?’
‘Myrtle,’ Aunt Hebe said, giving me a strange look. ‘Moss roses and myrtle…’
I went to fill a bud vase with water for my rose, which I carried up to my bedroom.
Downstairs everyone was still unwrapping and exclaiming, so I took the opportunity to quietly hand the ring back to Jack. ‘I hope you can get a refund. It looks valuable,’ I whispered, embarrassed. ‘I got soap all over it, but I washed it off.’
‘Thanks,’ he said shortly, pocketing it, then noticing Aunt Hebe’s eye upon us, kissed my cheek and said with a falsely bright smile, ‘Happy Christmas, Sophy!’
He adjusted the blue cashmere scarf that Aunt Hebe had given him around his neck with a flourish and announced, ‘Now I’m going to take my favourite aunt out for a drive! Come on, Hebe—a bit of fresh air will give us an appetite for dinner.’
‘But it’s starting to snow,’ I pointed out, for though the day had started off clear but freezing, leaden clouds had been gathering and the first flakes had begun to fall.
‘Oh, it won’t come to anything,’ he said confidently, ‘the forecast said a light scattering at the most,’ and Aunt Hebe allowed herself to be persuaded.
After they had gone, I slipped away and went out to the camper van, checking no one was watching me. It had occurred to me that now Jack had checked Alys’s coffer, he wouldn’t bother again, so I could safely return her book to its rightful place—which is what I was longing to do. I just felt it was like putting the last piece of the jigsaw together, the vital bit.
And Alys must have felt the same, for as I locked her treasure away I felt her presence and a soft, satisfied sigh echo through the room.
The other book I replaced in the van. It would be a dead giveaway if Jack saw it lying around the house!
Seth arrived with Mike, and I thanked him for his present and said what a lovely gesture I thought it was. ‘But you shouldn’t have cut one of the roses off, just for me.’
‘It was that or dig the whole bush up,’ he said obscurely, then smiled. ‘But I’m glad you like it.’
Lucy and Anya had found some games in the cupboard next to the drawing-room fireplace, and we’d all been happily playing Cluedo for ages when Jack and Hebe came back and put a damper on things. I could see from Hebe’s expression when she saw me tha
t he had been giving her his version of events, but she also looked worried and upset, so he’d probably spilled the beans about his financial problems too.
Actually, I did feel a little guilty about those, even though it wasn’t my fault he’d got into such difficulties. But certainly not guilty enough to risk losing Winter’s End by bailing him out.
Ottie glanced at her sister with a worried expression and Seth and Jack didn’t look at each other at all: suddenly, there weren’t so much hidden undercurrents in the room as hidden rip tides. It was quite a relief when Jonah came in to say that dinner was ready.
The table in the morning room had been extended and covered with a crimson cloth, and there were crackers and linen napkins folded into crisp stars by every place setting.
Lucy, Guy and Seth helped to bring the food to the table, and then Jonah and Mrs Lark sat down with us to eat it.
It’s amazing how much good humour can be restored with a turkey dinner, a couple of glasses of good wine, crackers and silly hats.
Anya and I offered to clear away the remains afterwards, while the Larks left for their usual visit to relatives, and Mike and Seth gave us a hand.
Afterwards I took coffee and mince pies through to the library, where Hebe and Ottie were watching television in unusual amity and Lucy and Guy had started to lay out the pieces of an enormous jigsaw on the billiard table, but there was no sign of Jack.
‘He’s gone round to visit friends; he thought it would cheer him up,’ Hebe explained, looking at me reproachfully. ‘And luckily he was right about the snow—the merest sprinkling.’
‘But very pretty, and I’m so stuffed with food I think I need a walk,’ I said quickly, before Ottie asked why Jack should need cheering up. I could see the question was hovering on her lips.
‘Good idea,’ said Anya, and Mike and Seth said they would come too, though I hadn’t the heart to wake Charlie up and drag him out with us, he looked so blissfully rotund and replete.
We started off down the drive together, the crystalline snow squeaking beneath our boots, but had soon split into two pairs, since Anya and Mike lagged behind us.
A Winter’s Tale Page 34