Beauchamp Hall

by Danielle Steel

  “Me too,” Beatrice agreed, munching on a perfectly trimmed lamb chop left over from the wedding. The food had been superb.

  “So tell us about Paul,” her brother teased her and she gave him an evil look.

  “Mind your own business. And yes, I like him. But he’s divorced and has two children I haven’t met yet, who will probably hate me. Both teenage girls.”

  “At our age, most people have been married and are divorced with kids,” Winnie said practically. “And if they haven’t been married, they’re weird.” Freddie looked insulted the moment she said it.

  “I’ve never been married and I’m not weird,” he defended himself.

  “You’re just crazy, that’s different,” Beatrice said easily.

  “I’m not crazy or weird, I just haven’t found the right woman.”

  “Well, you’ve certainly auditioned enough of them,” his sister reminded him.

  “I’ve reformed,” he said weakly. “I don’t think I’d want a big wedding like that if I got married,” he said, thinking about it.

  “Neither would I,” Beatrice agreed. “I think I’d elope to Las Vegas, or somewhere else vulgar and fun. I don’t want all that formal stuff, hundreds of guests and a white dress trailing down the stairs. I’d probably trip and fall flat on my face. But it was certainly pretty. They’re stars, so people expect all that, and after thirteen years, she earned it.”

  “Her father looked happy,” Winnie commented, enjoying rehashing the wedding with them. It was like having roommates, which they were in a way.

  “If you drank as much as he does, you’d look happy too,” Freddie added. “And he had a flask in his pocket.”

  They sat in the library afterwards, and Freddie poured them each a glass of port as Winnie groaned.

  “I think I’m becoming an alcoholic. Are we drinking too much?”

  “I don’t think so,” Freddie reassured her. “I wonder what the footage for the reality show looks like.”

  “Gorgeous, I hope,” Beatrice said, and stood up when she finished her drink. “I’m going to bed before I pass out. I’m sleeping till noon tomorrow.”

  Winnie and Freddie sat talking for another hour after that. He made her laugh, telling her stories about Eton, and the pranks he used to play on his teachers and friends.

  “Were you and Beatrice always close?” she asked him.

  “We hated each other growing up, and then I turned around one day and we were best friends. Especially after our parents died. We were both very young, and she needed a big brother to protect her. And once she grew up, I could go back to being an adolescent,” he said, and she laughed. “But lately, I’m growing up or getting old. This business of ours has forced me to be responsible. I think I rather like it.” He seemed surprised.

  “I’ve noticed. It suits you. I like you as a grown-up,” she commented.

  “I think I do too.” He looked at her for a moment, and held her hand. “You’re a brave woman, Winnie. I admire that about you. It took guts for you to come here all alone.”

  “Brave or foolish, I’m not sure which. But it’s worked out well. I’ve been very lucky.” She smiled at him.

  “So have we,” he said gratefully.

  He walked her back to her house then, kissed her on the cheek, and looked serious when he left. After that she got into bed and watched an old episode of Beauchamp Hall before she fell asleep. It was almost Christmas, but with the success of their first wedding, she felt as though she’d already had the best Christmas gift of all.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Christmas was a quiet affair, and anticlimactic after the excitement of the wedding. They shared a simple dinner in the kitchen, reminiscing about their childhoods, when their parents were alive, and they relaxed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Winnie called Marje and Erik and spoke to the kids, and the day after Boxing Day, they got to work, to get everything ready for the first mystery weekend.

  The preparations were almost as complicated as those for the wedding had been. They were doing it on New Year’s Eve, so everyone’s expectations were heightened.

  Winnie had written the script for the mystery with Freddie’s help. Beatrice and Winnie organized the costumes. There were maps and clues to hand out. The food had to be flawless, the rooms perfectly prepared. They had put appropriate accessories with each outfit. The evening was going to be black tie, evening gowns for the women. The murder was to occur the night they arrived, and be solved by the time they all left late the next day. The weapon, cleverly concealed somewhere in the house, was used as part of the guessing game and would have to be found and identified.

  The whole process was intricate, and the three partners worked hard on it before the guests arrived. Not all of them spoke fluent English. There were twenty people in the group, among them a couple of Italians, a very exotic-looking French woman, a Turkish man, and the rest were English. The reality show crew was on hand to film it. Paul had come with them, and Beatrice looked pleased to see him, especially since it was New Year’s Eve.

  Everything went off smoothly during dinner, while Winnie and the Havershams supervised and Paul hovered near the guests, offering to help. After dinner, the guests were sent off to various locations in the castle to do errands they’d been assigned as part of the mystery, which was confusing for the film crew, who weren’t sure which group to follow. Paul instructed them to stay with each group for a short time.

  And then a scream rang out, according to the script, when a body was found in the main salon. It was the French woman, who was supposed to be dead, but was actually lying in an enticing position, smoking a cigarette.

  “You’re supposed to be dead,” Beatrice reminded her. She spoke no English, so Beatrice repeated it in French.

  “I am dead,” she assured her. “I am smoking in the afterlife.” The others circled around her, trying to guess how she had died.

  “From smoking,” someone suggested, and Freddie and Winnie tried not to laugh. They were a group of friends who had all chipped in for the evening, as a fun way to spend New Year’s Eve. And the price they were paying was appropriately steep.

  The guests were offered after-dinner drinks from a large silver tray that was a Haversham heirloom, and the smoking corpse ordered a cognac.

  It was finally decided, per the script, that she had been strangled with her pearls, and there were lengthy interrogations about where they had last seen her alive and when.

  Beatrice put music on then, and the murdered French woman got up and wanted to dance.

  “Is it a language problem?” Freddie whispered to Winnie. “Or is she just difficult?”

  “Both, I think,” Winnie whispered back, as Beatrice gave them pleading looks to rescue her. Freddie took over as the police detective, and narrowed it down to nine possible murderers, which was several too many. The guests were all dancing by then, and put the murder on hold.

  “They’re not following the script,” Beatrice complained with immense irritation. “Who has the script? Do you have it?” she asked Winnie.

  “I gave it to Freddie,” she explained.

  “I don’t have it.” He looked blank.

  “Sorry,” Paul said, pulling it out of his pocket. “I forgot to give it back to you.”

  “I’m not sure they care who killed her,” Freddie commented.

  “I don’t blame them,” Beatrice said. “I’d like to kill her myself.” And Paul laughed.

  “It’s going to make a great show, so don’t worry about it,” he told them. “Murder goes awry at Haversham Castle. Do you want to dance?” He had finally stopped calling Beatrice “Your Ladyship,” which was a relief. They all began dancing to the music Freddie had set up on the sound system. The guests were dancing too. A few minutes later, Freddie and Winnie joined them. It was almost midnight. As the hour approached, Freddie began
a loud countdown to warn them, and at the stroke of midnight, he blew a horn and put “Auld Lang Syne” on the sound system, and all the guests kissed each other, far more ardently than he had expected. They were still kissing when the song ended, several with their tongues halfway down each other’s throats and their bodies pressed together.

  “Now what do we do?” Freddie asked his support group. “They’re still kissing.”

  “At least they haven’t taken their clothes off yet,” Paul said and kissed Beatrice with equal ardor. And they didn’t come up for air for a long time either.

  “Oh, sod it,” Freddie said, took Winnie in his arms, and kissed her.

  “What are you doing?” Winnie said, shocked for an instant. She hadn’t expected it, and thought he was kidding.

  “Don’t worry, it’s in the script,” he insisted.

  “No it’s not, I wrote the script.”

  “Yes, it is, I added it,” he said, and kissed her with all the pent-up passion he’d felt for her since he’d met her, and she melted into his arms and kissed him back. They were still kissing when Beatrice and Paul stopped and looked at the scene around them, which the film crew was recording diligently. The mystery guests were starting to grope each other. Winnie and Freddie had come apart by then, as Beatrice stared at her brother.

  “Do you realize you just kissed Winnie? Are you drunk?”

  “Not yet, but I’m considering it. And yes, I do know I kissed her. It was intentional, not an accident.”

  “That’s like kissing your sister!” she said, looking outraged. “She’s family!”

  “Not exactly. Although I hope you kiss like that, for Paul’s sake.” As Freddie and Beatrice were discussing it, the guests hurried up the stairs in pairs to disappear into their rooms, the murdered woman among them, her arm linked through the arm of one of the Italians, whom she hadn’t arrived with. His wife was with the Turk.

  “Wonderful evening,” they all murmured as they rushed past their hosts. “Great party!…So much fun…” And with that, the last of them disappeared, their doors closed, and Freddie, Winnie, Beatrice, and Paul were left alone in the grand salon and started laughing. It was obvious what the guests had gone upstairs to do, to celebrate the New Year, hopefully in pairs, not in groups.

  “Maybe they’re a sex club of some kind,” Freddie suggested.

  “Aren’t they a little old for that?” Beatrice responded, as Paul’s film crew came over and asked if they should continue filming.

  “I don’t think so, they all went to bed. You can stop now,” Paul told them.

  “Should we film you?” they persisted.

  “No, that’s fine.” Freddie suggested the crew each have a glass of champagne, which they did, conferring quietly with each other, as Freddie looked at Winnie intently, dropped quietly to one knee in front of her, and gazed at her lovingly as she stared at him, and Beatrice looked at him in astonishment.

  “Freddie, what are you doing, for God’s sake?”

  “I’m proposing to Winnie,” he said, never taking his eyes off her face, and she started to smile and look shy.

  “Now?” Beatrice scolded him. “Are you mad? You’ve never been married before.”

  “No, I haven’t, so I’m free, which is a good thing. If I weren’t, this would be awkward. It’s already hard enough.” Realizing that he was serious and something major was happening, Paul signaled frantically to his camera crew to get the cameras rolling again.

  “Winona Farmington,” Freddie said in a louder voice, as he reached for Winnie’s hand and held it, “I’m totally mad about you, and have been from the first time I laid eyes on you, and I can’t wait a moment longer to share my life with you. Will you marry me?”

  “Freddie, for Heaven’s sake,” Beatrice complained. “Can’t you do something like that in private?” She saw the cameras rolling then and shrieked. “Oh my God, you just proposed on a reality show. What’s wrong with you?”

  “Nothing,” he assured his sister. “Winnie, will you?” he asked the woman he wanted to marry in a gentler voice, oblivious to the cameras rolling, and Paul was beaming. It was the best show they’d filmed in years.

  “Yes,” Winnie said in a hushed voice. “Yes, I will.” Freddie stood up and kissed her then, as Paul’s crew got the kiss and their smiles afterwards, and Beatrice rolled her eyes.

  “I can’t believe you just did that. How can you be so undignified? You proposed on a reality show, Freddie.” Her feathers, and her nerves, were seriously ruffled by the entire evening. “Congratulations of course, and best wishes to the bride.” She kissed Winnie on the cheek and glared at her brother. “You’re incorrigible, and I thought you’d finally grown up.”

  “I think I have,” he said, undaunted by his sister.

  “Now we can be sisters,” Beatrice said, smiling at Winnie. “And you will be the Marchioness of Haversham.” The thought of it suddenly hit Winnie like a lightning bolt.

  “Oh my God. How do you do that?”

  “It’s easy,” Freddie said, still holding her hand. He looked over at his sister then. “I tried to get Grandmama’s ring out of the safe to give her when I proposed, and I couldn’t get into it. Did you change the code?”

  “No, it sticks,” she informed him, as Paul told the cameraman they could stop rolling film. They had everything they needed. The newly engaged couple then retired to a quiet corner and he kissed her again, more discreetly, as Paul walked Beatrice to one of the other couches.

  “I need a drink. This has been a ridiculous evening. We have to work on these murder evenings a little more,” Beatrice said, looking exhausted.

  “They were a tough group,” Paul said comfortingly, and then kissed her, and both couples sat lost in their own worlds for a while until Beatrice said good night to Paul, announcing that she was going to bed. He left without bothering Winnie and Freddie, and a little while later, they got up, Freddie found her wrap, and walked her to the dower house. The cameraman had disappeared with Paul.

  “Do you really mean it?” she asked as he walked her home. The proposal had been so crazy and theatrical, she wasn’t sure if it was a joke. It didn’t feel real yet.

  “Of course I mean it. I wanted to propose to you on New Year’s Eve. I decided weeks ago. Tonight just got a little out of hand. The delivery was not as smooth as I would have liked. When do you want to get married? Let’s do it soon. And where?”

  “Here,” she said without hesitating. “Just us and our sisters. I want to get married in this house. That’s my dream.” They had reached the dower house by then and it was cold outside. They were both shivering. “Do you want to come in?” She looked at him lovingly. He nodded in answer to her question, she opened the door, and he followed her in, to finish what he had started.

  * * *

  —

  Their first murder group appeared at noon on New Year’s Day and ravenously ate breakfast. They left as soon as they had finished, although they weren’t supposed to leave till that afternoon. But they all seemed very happy. They thanked their hosts profusely, and said it had been perfect, just what they’d hoped for. They added generous tips to the bill, and looked delighted when they left. The mystery remained unsolved and the designated murder victim looked hale and hearty, with a cigarette pressed to her red lips when she left.

  “I think we need to work on that script some more. She was the most uncooperative murder victim I’ve ever seen,” Freddie said.

  And with that, Beatrice came up to her brother and put something in his hand discreetly. “I think that’s what you were looking for.” He glanced at it, and recognized the beautiful rose-cut oval solitaire diamond that had been their grandmother’s. He nodded and smiled at his sister and slipped it on Winnie’s left hand. She looked down at it in amazement.

  “I love you,” he whispered to her and kissed her, as Beatrice walke
d away quietly, smiling.

  They called Marje a little while later and told her the news, and she laughed and cried, and couldn’t believe what had happened.

  “And you’re going to be a marchioness. I can’t even pronounce it.”

  “Neither can I,” Winnie said happily.

  “I’ll teach you,” Freddie whispered, and they smiled at each other, as Winnie thought how incredible it was.

  It had started with two DVDs in the white elephant game at Christmas in Michigan a year before. They had turned out to be the best gifts she had ever received and the key to her future. The dream had become a reality once she had the courage to pursue it. Who could have known? Who could have dreamed it or imagined it? Beauchamp Hall had changed her life. And in turn, she had come to Haversham and changed the lives of those who lived there. Reality had turned out to be so much better than her dreams.

  To my wonderful children,

  Beatrix, Trevor., Todd, Nick,

  Samantha, Victoria, Vanessa,

  Maxx, and Zara,

  May you always have the courage

  to pursue your dreams,

  and may all your dreams

  come true!

  I love you with all my heart and love,

  Mom/d.s.

  By Danielle Steel

  BEAUCHAMP HALL • IN HIS FATHER’S FOOTSTEPS • THE GOOD FIGHT • THE CAST • ACCIDENTAL HEROES • FALL FROM GRACE • PAST PERFECT • FAIRYTALE • THE RIGHT TIME • THE DUCHESS • AGAINST ALL ODDS • DANGEROUS GAMES • THE MISTRESS • THE AWARD • RUSHING WATERS • MAGIC • THE APARTMENT • PROPERTY OF A NOBLEWOMAN • BLUE • PRECIOUS GIFTS • UNDERCOVER • COUNTRY • PRODIGAL SON • PEGASUS • A PERFECT LIFE • POWER PLAY • WINNERS • FIRST SIGHT • UNTIL THE END OF TIME • THE SINS OF THE MOTHER • FRIENDS FOREVER • BETRAYAL • HOTEL VENDÔME • HAPPY BIRTHDAY • 44 CHARLES STREET • LEGACY • FAMILY TIES • BIG GIRL • SOUTHERN LIGHTS • MATTERS OF THE HEART • ONE DAY AT A TIME • A GOOD WOMAN • ROGUE • HONOR THYSELF • AMAZING GRACE • BUNGALOW 2 • SISTERS • H.R.H. • COMING OUT • THE HOUSE • TOXIC BACHELORS • MIRACLE • IMPOSSIBLE • ECHOES • SECOND CHANCE • RANSOM • SAFE HARBOUR • JOHNNY ANGEL • DATING GAME • ANSWERED PRAYERS • SUNSET IN ST. TROPEZ • THE COTTAGE • THE KISS • LEAP OF FAITH • LONE EAGLE • JOURNEY • THE HOUSE ON HOPE STREET • THE WEDDING • IRRESISTIBLE FORCES • GRANNY DAN • BITTERSWEET • MIRROR IMAGE • THE KLONE AND I • THE LONG ROAD HOME • THE GHOST • SPECIAL DELIVERY • THE RANCH • SILENT HONOR • MALICE • FIVE DAYS IN PARIS • LIGHTNING • WINGS • THE GIFT • ACCIDENT • VANISHED • MIXED BLESSINGS • JEWELS • NO GREATER LOVE • HEARTBEAT • MESSAGE FROM NAM • DADDY • STAR • ZOYA • KALEIDOSCOPE • FINE THINGS • WANDERLUST SECRETS • FAMILY ALBUM • FULL CIRCLE • CHANGES • THURSTON HOUSE • CROSSINGS • ONCE IN A LIFETIME • A PERFECT STRANGER • REMEMBRANCE • PALOMINO • LOVE: POEMS • THE RING • LOVING • TO LOVE AGAIN • SUMMER’S END • SEASON OF PASSION • THE PROMISE • NOW AND FOREVER • PASSION’S PROMISE • GOING HOME