Tucker's Inn

by Tucker's Inn (retail) (epub)

  She had gone too far and I think she knew it, but she held my gaze defiantly all the same.

  ‘Antoinette,’ I said fiercely, ‘I know you don’t like my being here, but I would remind you it is not of my choosing. Your father insisted on bringing me here – against my will, I may say. The moment I can see my way to making other arrangements, I shall do so, and you will not have to put up with me any longer. Until then I am afraid we shall just have to get along as best we can.’

  ‘If you say so.’ She turned, flouncing towards the door, then stopping abruptly and turning back to me. ‘Why did he bring you here?’ she asked unexpectedly.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  I had asked myself the same question over and over. It wasn’t that he had wanted to put a tenant innkeeper into Tucker’s Grave immediately; he had boarded the place up. And I couldn’t see why he should be sufficiently concerned about my welfare, moral or otherwise, to impose me upon his household. I was nothing to him, nothing at all. Even the vague dark remarks about my safety were unconvincing. My father’s murderers had come to the inn to see him and he had invited them in. The subsequent quarrel that had resulted in his death had been between them; I could not see the men, whoever they were, coming back to harm me. Though I had to admit what I found most disturbing – the thing I could not forget nor explain – was that he had invited them in.

  I had tried to tell myself he had thought they wanted a bed for the night, yet I still felt instinctively it was more than that. He had not wanted me to know what was passing between them – he had sent me back upstairs. He had not asked me to raise the alarm, or sought help from the burly coachman sleeping upstairs. And the conclusion I could not escape, however reluctant I was to admit it, was that he had known his killers.

  Yet none of this was good reason for Louis to have boarded up the inn and brought me here.

  ‘I don’t know, Antoinette,’ I said. ‘I have to admit I am as much in the dark as you are.’

  ‘Well,’ Antoinette flashed, ‘it wouldn’t have happened if my mother was still alive, that I do know.’

  My curiosity stirred, I admit it.

  ‘Your mother is dead, then?’ I asked before I could stop myself.

  ‘Well of course!’ Her tone was biting sarcasm. ‘Where did you think she was?’

  ‘I don’t know that either,’ I admitted. ‘Has she been dead very long?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ she said airily. ‘I killed her, I think.’

  ‘You mean she died giving birth to you?’

  ‘No. She died of a fever. But I gave it to her.’

  ‘Ah!’

  ‘She was very beautiful.’ For the first time I saw some animation in Antoinette’s delicate face. ‘She had chestnut hair and green eyes, and every man she ever met fell madly in love with her. She was French, you know.’

  ‘Oh!’ I said, surprised. ‘I thought that was your grandmother.’

  ‘My grandmother was French too. Her father was a merchant who traded with my grandfather. But Mama – Mama was high-born. An aristocrat. Oh yes, I have French blood on both sides, from my father and my mother. That’s why I am called Antoinette. That’s French, too.’

  ‘I know that much,’ I said, smiling. I was anxious to keep this conversation going, both because it was the first real communication I had shared with Antoinette, and because I was curious, more curious than I had any right to be. ‘Your father must miss her very much.’

  She tossed her head. ‘Oh, I don’t think so. Papa is interested in nothing but business and making money.’

  ‘I’m sure that’s not so!’ I felt bound to protest, though from what I had seen I could not help feeling it was not too far from the truth.

  ‘And when I am bad, he says I am too much like my mother,’ Antoinette went on.

  ‘He says that? To you?’ I was shocked.

  ‘Not to me. I’ve heard him say it to Uncle Gavin. But he wouldn’t say that if he had loved her, would he? Not when he thinks I’ve been bad.’

  ‘I’m sure he doesn’t mean it in the way you think,’ I said feebly. ‘I expect he simply means that she was high-spirited and perhaps a little wilful.’

  She shrugged. ‘I don’t care, anyway. I’m glad I’m like her. Anyway, I’m going for my ride now, and please don’t try to stop me.’

  ‘Antoinette…’

  ‘I know,’ she said impatiently. ‘Papa told me he thought you would be company for me, and I expect he said much the same to you. But I don’t need your company, and I certainly don’t need you mollycoddling me.’

  I sighed. For a few minutes I had thought I was actually getting through to Antoinette in some way. Now, once again, she had become the sullen, defiant child I had seen on the first night I had come here.

  ‘Well, take care anyway,’ I said.

  She shot me a disdainful look and left the room. A little while later I saw her galloping off down the drive on Perdita, her sleek bay, and once more I was alone with my memories and my thoughts.

  * * *

  I had been at Belvedere House for almost two weeks and I did not like the enforced inactivity. I was used, after all, to being kept busy from dawn till dusk and falling exhausted into my bed at night. Now I had nothing to occupy my days and far too much time and opportunity for brooding.

  One morning I woke to see that at last the rain had stopped and the fog lifted. The view from my window was breathtaking – a wintry blue sky stretching towards some admittedly threatening clouds on the far horizon and pale sun shining on the acres of deer park that fronted the house. Somehow the improvement in the weather fired a sense of resolve in me. If this was to be my life for the time being, then I must make some attempt to live it, or fade into the sort of weak, useless woman I had always despised.

  When I went down to breakfast I found Louis already there, tucking into a hearty plate of bacon and kidneys, and as soon as I had fetched myself some food from the chafing dishes lined up on the sideboard, I broached the subject uppermost in my mind.

  ‘You said you would like me to do some secretarial work for you in order to earn my keep,’ I said. ‘Well, I am ready to begin.’

  Louis looked up at me, eyeing me closely. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said firmly. ‘Quite sure.’

  ‘Very well. Come to my office when you have finished your breakfast and we’ll make a start. I think I can spare the time to show you the books before I have to go out.’

  I felt a little flush colouring my cheeks. Stupidly, it had not occurred to me that to begin with I would be more of a hindrance than a help.

  If I had imagined, though, that I would be working alone with Louis, I was mistaken. When I presented myself at the door of his office, half an hour or so later, I saw that an elderly man was already there, engaged in writing in a ledger with a spidery hand.

  ‘I don’t think you have met Mr Bevan,’ Louis said. ‘He hasn’t been well enough to come in for the past couple of weeks – the ill weather we have been having makes his chest bad. As luck would have it, he has chosen this very day to return to work, though I’m not altogether certain he is well enough.’

  As if in confirmation of his opinion, the old man began hawking noisily, but when the coughing fit subsided I fancied I saw in his faded eyes the same resentment I had encountered over and over again since coming to Belvedere House. No one wanted me here, least of all this faithful old servant, who no doubt saw himself being edged out of the position that was his whole life.

  ‘It seems that after having had to fend for myself for too long, I now have an abundance of assistance,’ Louis went on easily. ‘But at least it means I can leave it to Bevan to familiarize you with our methods of working. As I think I mentioned earlier, I have to go out and make some calls, and since Bevan is here, I can leave without delay.’

  For no reason I could explain, I was aware of a stab of sharp disappointment.

  ‘I’ll leave Flora in your capable hands, then,’ Louis said, and strode out, leaving
us alone.

  ‘I don’t know what it is he wants me to show you,’ the old man grumbled, hawking again.

  ‘Just how things are done, so that I can be of some use if I’m needed,’ I said, drawing on all the reserves of tact that I had perfected through years of dealing with awkward guests and customers. ‘If you should be taken poorly again you wouldn’t have to be worried about the work piling up here if I could deal with some of it for you.’

  ‘Hmm.’ He squinted up at me. ‘You won’t be here for that long, will you?’

  ‘I… I don’t know,’ I said, startled by his remark.

  A small ironic smile twisted his shrunken lips. ‘No, I don’t think you’ll be here long. Miss Antoinette will see to that.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

  ‘She can be difficult, Miss Antoinette. When she was younger she had governesses. They never lasted more than a few weeks or months.’ He shook his head, reminiscing. ‘She’s her mother’s daughter, and no mistake.’

  His words were almost an echo of what Antoinette herself had said, the curious, rather dark reference to Louis’ dead wife, whom he had dismissed on the first day I met him with the cold phrase: ‘I have no wife’, and whom he seemed reluctant to so much as mention, except, perhaps, when he was ruing Antoinette’s taking after her. And it occurred to me quite suddenly that this man must know all about the mysterious, nameless woman who had once been mistress of Belvedere.

  ‘You remember Antoinette’s mother, then?’ I said, unable to contain my curiosity a moment longer.

  ‘Oh aye, I remember her all right. Lisette wasn’t a woman to forget.’

  ‘It must have been a terrible thing when she died,’ I prompted.

  His rheumy eyes narrowed, he looked at me, looked away, and was silent.

  ‘She caught the fever and succumbed to it, Antoinette said,’ I persisted.

  ‘Oh did she now? Well, if that’s what you’ve been told, it’s not for me to contradict, is it?’

  My curiosity was well and truly roused now.

  ‘You mean she did not die of the fever?’

  Bevan shook his head. ‘Oh no, I won’t be drawn into gossip, Miss. I haven’t kept my position here all these years by gossiping. If you want to know about Miss Lisette, then you must ask Mr Louis. He’s the only one in any case that knows the whole truth of the matter, and what he doesn’t discuss with the likes of us, I doubt he’ll discuss with you. Now, shall I be showing you some of what we do here, or shall Mr Louis come back and find everything just as he left it?’

  ‘Yes, of course, I’m eager to learn,’ I said, and tried to put the disturbing conversation concerning Louis’ wife out of my head.

  Certainly I needed all my wits about me to take in the proliferation of facts regarding the business with which Bevan attempted to acquaint me, and all at once.

  He showed me the ledgers in which transactions were recorded, and fat files of correspondence with other merchants. He showed me addresses of contacts and carriers, and details of huge shipments of woollen cloth bound for the continent, and cargoes of wines and spirits, perfumes and silks coming in. If I had entertained any doubts about the legitimacy of some of the trading, they were quickly put aside, for it seemed to me everything was meticulously recorded, enough to satisfy the most industrious customs officer.

  ‘Mr Louis is very particular,’ he said when I commented on the complexity of it all. ‘He likes everything kept proper. Perhaps it would be best now if you were to just sit quietly and watch while I make up these books. I’ll tell you what I’m doing as I go along.’

  A very good idea! I thought. My head was spinning. How had I for one moment imagined I would be capable of stepping in and working at something so complicated, and of which I had no knowledge at all?

  Once during the morning I heard horse’s hooves on the drive and thought perhaps Louis had finished his business and was home sooner than he had thought to be, but when the study door opened it was Gavin who put his head round.

  ‘Flora!’ he said, surprised, when he saw me there, inky-fingered, and with strands of hair coming loose because I had been scratching my head as I concentrated. ‘What are you doing?’

  Bevan answered for me. ‘I’m teaching her the business, Mr Gavin, as Mr Louis has asked me to.’

  ‘Good heavens!’ Gavin looked amazed. ‘And how are you finding it, Flora?’

  ‘Complicated,’ I admitted. ‘But I’ll get there in the end.’

  ‘Clever as well as beautiful, eh?’ His wicked eyes teased me. ‘When my brother said he could make use of you as a secretary, I thought he meant nothing more taxing than dictating a few letters. Well, good luck to you! I wouldn’t like to have to contend with the paperwork the business generates.’

  Gavin, I could not help feeling, would in all likelihood prefer not to have to work at all, though the frequent trips he made abroad, ostensibly to strike new deals, were possibly to his liking. They were, I guessed, the sum total of his involvement, and even they had to be duplicated by Louis more often than not, judging by tidbits of conversation I had overheard.

  Gavin’s lack of commitment and inability to pull off profitable deals very likely lay behind Louis’ impatience with him, in my opinion. I had not been in the house for almost two weeks without realizing that. But his fecklessness was all part of his charm.

  ‘Louis not here?’ Gavin asked now.

  ‘Gone into Dartmouth on business, and even farther afield, if I’m not mistaken,’ Bevan said.

  ‘Oh well, I’m glad he’s keeping busy to make us a crust,’ Gavin remarked lightly, underlining my thoughts. Then he turned to me, his eyes challenging. ‘You don’t want to spend a lovely morning like this cooped up with a lot of dusty ledgers, Flora!’

  ‘The ledgers are not dusty!’ Bevan protested, as if such a suggestion was personally offensive to him. ‘They are well looked after, Mr Gavin.’

  ‘Oh, you know what I mean!’

  ‘Indeed I do know. But these ledgers, Mr Gavin, are what keeps you in comfort,’ Bevan scolded.

  Gavin ignored him, giving me the full benefit of his most charming smile.

  ‘Can’t I persuade you to come for a little stroll in the sunshine?’ he wheedled. ‘Tomorrow it will no doubt be raining again, and it’s wise to take advantage of what opportunities come one’s way in this life. In any case,’ he added, ‘I should very much like the chance to get to know you better. I’ve never yet been able to talk to you without Louis or Antoinette being there, and there is so much I would like to know about you, Flora.’

  He spoke almost as if we were alone, quite ignoring Bevan, and though I must admit to being just a little flattered, I felt quite discomfited by his all-too-obvious approach. Bevan, too, must have been put out, for he began a coughing turn, as if to remind Gavin of his presence.

  I mustered what I could of my dignity.

  ‘I don’t think it would be right for me to walk alone with you,’ I said.

  Far from being abashed, Gavin looked amused, and those tantalizing eyes held mine.

  ‘Even though you spend a great deal of time alone with my brother?’

  My metal was up, and my colour with it.

  ‘That is simply not true!’ I said furiously. ‘Louis and I are never alone! Apart from the carriage drive when he brought me here, I have never been in his company with no one else around. And I don’t care at all for what you are implying!’

  He laughed out loud then, a shout of delight.

  ‘Ah, Flora, I see you are a young lady of spirit! I apologize for my crass remark. I did not mean to imply that anything improper was occurring between you and my brother. Perish the thought! No, I’m simply jealous of him having your company here, whilst I am banished to the lodge like the black sheep Louis seems to think me.’

  ‘I accept your apology,’ I said, somewhat mollified. ‘But as for being banished – I can scarcely believe that. If you spend time in your own apartments in the lodge, surely that is because i
t suits you to have your privacy?’

  ‘Oh, my privacy is certainly important to me.’ Gavin chuckled, rather wickedly. ‘But believe you me, it’s banishment all right. Louis wouldn’t have me within a hundred miles of him if it weren’t necessary for the smooth running of the business and the fact that he promised my late mother on her death bed that he would allow me to remain in the lodge.

  ‘But we don’t want to talk about Louis, do we? Come now, have I persuaded you to take that stroll with me?’

  A little smile touched my lips.

  ‘I’m afraid not. Not today, at any rate. I’ve far too much to learn here, and I don’t want Louis to come home and find me shirking.’

  Gavin smiled back. ‘No, that would never do! Well, perhaps another day, Flora, when you are less busy – and less worried about proprieties.’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  ‘I shall look forward to it,’ he said. ‘No, I’ll leave you to get on with this very pressing lesson, and wait for my brother in the parlour.’

  ‘You’re likely to have a long wait,’ Bevan said warningly.

  ‘Oh, that’s all right. My time is my own today.’ He went out, closing the door behind him, and his footsteps echoed on the marble floor of the hallway as he crossed to the parlour.

  He was going to help himself to some of his brother’s good cognac, I rather thought. Waiting for Louis was just an excuse!

  ‘You were very wise, Miss Flora,’ Bevan said, looking up from the ledger.

  ‘Wise?’

  ‘To refuse to be seduced by Mr Gavin.’

  ‘I am sure he was not trying to seduce me,’ I protested, though I rather thought the opposite was true. ‘And I’m very sorry if his teasing caused you discomfort.’

  ‘Oh, I’m well used to Mr Gavin’s ways, don’t you worry. But like I say, you’d do well to give him a wide berth – and Mr Louis, too, if it comes to that.’

  For some reason my heart had begun to hammer very fast.

  ‘Louis?’ I echoed. ‘But Louis isn’t in the least like…’

  ‘They both spell trouble where the ladies are concerned,’ Bevan said darkly. ‘They set one another off, and always have. Steer well clear of both of them, that’s my advice to you. And now…’ He pulled the chair out for me to sit beside him again. ‘I’ve said a good deal too much this morning, Miss Flora. I’m just a garrulous old fool.’