Shortbread and Sorrow

by Agatha Frost

  Charlotte returned the wink as she tipped her glass back to him. Julia sipped her wine, wondering if their behaviour was only obvious to her because she had been the one to put out the fire.

  “When?” Sue whispered quietly into Julia’s ear as the conversation started up again around the table.

  “Soon,” she replied, leaning in. “We’re waiting for two more guests.”

  Sue nodded and began tearing up the edges of her napkin, something she had done since she was a child whenever she was nervous. Julia was glad she was the only one who knew this, or else it would be a giveaway sign of what was to come.

  “I think you’re all going to enjoy the Cranachan for dessert,” Charlotte exclaimed loudly, her Scottish accent rolling the ‘r’. “It’s a traditional dessert made from whipped cream, whisky, honey, and fresh raspberries, with toasted whisky-soaked oats sprinkled on top. Ah, here it is!”

  At that moment, the doors opened again, and they all turned to see Blair pushing one of her trolleys into the room with nine of the desserts in small glass bowls on top. Through the open door, Julia caught a glimpse of Benjamin talking with Andrew in the hallway. Her stomach flipped, and she realised her time had come.

  Blair started serving the desserts with Rory, before making her way down the table. When she put Julia’s on the plate, she was sure it was hastier than the others. She reached Charlotte, and her hands began to visibly shake as she lifted the dessert from the trolley. As though in slow motion, it slipped from her fingers and landed with a splat in Charlotte’s lap. A gasp shuddered across the table as she jumped up and recoiled in horror, cream and oats staining her black and tartan dress. She turned to Blair and raised her hand above her head, ready to strike the child down. Blair cowered like a puppy about to be punished, but Charlotte dropped her hand and forced a smile.

  “Easy mistake,” she said through a strained laugh as she picked up a napkin and began to dab at the dress. “I wasn’t that hungry anyway.”

  Despite Charlotte’s backtrack, it didn’t stop Blair bursting into tears. She clutched her mouth, her eyes wide as she watched Charlotte attempt to wipe her dress clean. Charlotte struggled to laugh it off, but the poor girl’s eyes were filled with such obvious fear, it sent a cold shiver running through the room.

  A small yelp forced through her fingers as the tears rolled down her face, causing Benjamin to run into the room. He wrapped his hands around his sister’s arm, but she didn’t move, nor did she look away from the stain on Charlotte’s dress.

  “What’s wrong with her?” one of the women asked.

  “She’s in shock,” Julia said, standing up and sitting Blair in her seat. “Blair, just breathe. It’s not good for you to get worked up.”

  Blair’s eyes met Julia’s, and she dropped her hand, nodding her head as she forced back the tears. Julia recognised that fear. She had seen it in her sister only an hour ago in Henry’s bedroom.

  “Honestly, it’s fine!” Charlotte called out jovially. “I wasn’t going to hit her. It was just a reaction.”

  From the looks of the faces on the guests, it was obvious they were no longer lapping up Charlotte’s façade. Julia took this moment, turning to face Charlotte with a stern look in her eyes.

  “I wouldn’t put it past you to hit a pregnant woman, Charlotte,” Julia called out, turning back to Blair as she did. “I’m sorry, Blair, but your secret isn’t as safe as you thought.”

  Charlotte shuffled uncomfortably in her chair and tossed her long hair over her shoulder. The edge of her bruise peeked out ever so slightly from the edge of her dress.

  “What are you talking about?” Charlotte demanded. “I’ve had quite enough of your comments! You didn’t even pay for this trip!”

  “You know full well what I’m talking about, Charlotte,” Julia said confidently, forcing her shaky voice to steady. “I’ve put it together, even if nobody else has yet. I overheard you talking with Andrew. You wanted to get rid of Blair, but you didn’t want to fire her because she is pregnant and that could reflect badly on you. Of course, none of that matters now, especially after what you did tonight.”

  Andrew entered the drawing room at the mention of his name, lingering by the doors. Charlotte met his eyes, and behind her faux-confused smile, her eyes were filled with pure venom.

  “This woman is insane, I can assure you,” she said to the other guests, who were all staring intently at Julia.

  “I’ve put out your little fire,” Julia said as she begun to pace the room, glancing at the peephole. “At first I couldn’t figure out why you would want Andrew back here, especially when you already had a perfectly good groundskeeper, but then it struck me. You didn’t care about Andrew, but you knew what he cared about. You knew he loved this castle, and that was all he had. After your father cold-heartedly sacked him, Andrew would have done anything to get his job back, even if he pretended he didn’t want it anymore. Of course, you offered him more than his job to do what he did. You had to. Even the most desperate man wouldn’t do what he did for the sake of a job. What did you offer him? Money? A slice of the castle? Whatever is was, Andrew, I doubt she would have paid you.”

  “I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about,” Charlotte cried, laughing as blood rushed to her cheeks. “I’ve heard quite enough of this!”

  “You told Andrew to get rid of Blair, no matter what the cost,” Julia said, turning to look at the chef as she watched, just as confused as the guests. “But I guess you also told him to do the same to Mary. She was the only thing standing between you and owning this castle after your father’s death.”

  “I didn’t kill her,” Andrew protested.

  “I know you didn’t,” Julia said, dropping her eyes as sorrow swept over her. “But you’re an accessory to all of this. I couldn’t quite figure it out, but when I saw Charlotte tossing petrol around her father’s bedroom tonight, it clicked. She sent you to burn the remains of Mary’s car straight after she crashed so evidence of tampering couldn’t be seen. There was something quite peculiar about the timing of Mary’s death. Why let her come back to work and think everything was fine? Why send her away on that morning? Why that early? It’s because you wanted a reason, and witnesses, wasn’t it Rory?”

  Rory suddenly sat up in his seat, after having been watching the whole thing unfold with mild interest. “What did you just say?”

  “The fog provided you with a perfect cover-up for cutting the woman’s brakes. We all saw her speed off that morning, but that’s what you wanted. You made a public scene so that we all saw her drive off. You waited until four new guests checked in, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all in the corner bedrooms just so they could see. Even the police believed it was an accident, but why wouldn’t they? By the time she was found, her car was nothing more than a burnt-out shell. Petrol is quite a clever move, I must admit. It’s not like the car wasn’t full of it in the first place.”

  “It wasn’t my idea!” Andrew blurted out. “She made me. She said if I didn’t, I’d never work again! She was offering me half of this castle!”

  “Oh, Andrew,” Julia said, turning back to the groundskeeper once more. “You should never have believed her. Henry signed over the deeds to this castle well over a month ago, and I doubt Charlotte was just going to hand half of that over to you. While my sister and I were looking for evidence to pin Henry’s death on Charlotte, we witnessed her putting the whisky decanter and tumbler on Henry’s desk, which was stained with your DNA from your various secret meetings in the drawing room. She also had your mobile phone, and the wire cutters that I suspect Rory used on Mary’s brakes.”

  Andrew suddenly patted down his pockets and looked desperately to Charlotte. She picked up her glass of wine and took a sip, unable to look anyone in the eye but her brother.

  “I only told Rory to get rid of her,” Charlotte said bitterly. “I didn’t expect him to go so far. I had to clean his mess up somehow. For a lawyer, you sure are stupid, big brother. I didn�
�t kill my father, though. That’s where you are wrong.”

  “I believe that,” Julia said. “Why would you want to? He was dying anyway, wasn’t he? The man had cancer. It was only a matter of time. He decided to get rid of Mary so he could leave the castle to you, the only heir who wanted it. My guess is he was a proud man, and you were the only one to carry on his legacy, even if he could barely look at you. Of course, when you secretly took over, you realised that clueless Mary had run the business into the ground, and the castle would be worth more to you through the insurance pay-outs, which I suspect is what you and Rory have been up to these last couple of days. Making sure everything was watertight just in case you needed to resort to that. I can’t imagine selling a failing castle would be very easy, so the next logical step is to burn it to the ground and make it look like Andrew did it in a deranged act of revenge against your family. That’s why you wanted him back here so badly, to be your scapegoat. Who were the police going to believe? A grieving businesswoman, or a disgraced drunk? You weren’t happy enough just using the man as your puppet, you wanted to frame him for this and run off into the sunset with the money before any of this could catch up with you.”

  Charlotte furiously sipped her wine, her nostrils flared. Julia expected her to try and defend herself, but she didn’t say a word. All eyes looked expectantly to Julia to fill in the other pieces of the puzzle.

  “Of course, you’re not the only heir to your father’s castle,” Julia said. “You had competition.”

  “I never wanted this place!” Rory exclaimed. “It’s crumbling beneath us!”

  “I wasn’t talking about you,” Julia said with a heavy exhale. “Blair, who is the father of your baby?”

  Blair shook her head and looked down at her fingers, which were frantically knotting around her apron. Julia turned back to Charlotte, who subtly arched a brow as she waited to hear what else Julia had to say.

  “I don’t think you knew Blair was pregnant with your father’s child until recently, but when you found out, you knew she was carrying your baby brother or sister,” Julia said, turning back to Blair and resting a hand on her shaking shoulder. “You wanted to get rid of the girl so she wouldn’t cause any problems to your plan, but when you realised that wouldn’t work, you decided to step things up a notch. I suppose your meeting with Andrew this afternoon influenced your decision to resort to plan B.”

  “I told her I wasn’t gonna kill a lassie,” Andrew said, pointing harshly at Charlotte. “’Specially one with a bairn in her tummy!”

  “I believe you,” Julia said. “I don’t think you’re a bad man, Andrew, I just think Charlotte is a very persuasive woman. She was raised without a real mother, instead having to settle for a revolving cast of stepmothers, and a father who couldn’t look at her because she looked too much like the only woman he loved. You said it yourself how much they looked alike. I’m not surprised you turned out as cold and heartless as you did, Charlotte. With Henry McLaughlin as a father, it was almost to be expected.”

  Charlotte sucked her cheeks into her mouth before rolling her eyes and leaning back in her chair.

  “You’re not the first, y’know,” Charlotte said to Blair, sounding more authentic than Julia had heard her. “He’s been knocking girls up since as long as I can remember. He paid them off or convinced them to get rid of the baby, but you were stubborn, or he was getting soft in his dying days.”

  Blair rested her hand on her stomach, and out of the corner of her eye, Julia noticed Sue doing the same. She swallowed the lump in her throat and inhaled deeply.

  “I thought you shot your father, Charlotte,” Julia said. “But when I found out when Seirbigh Castle became yours, I realised there was no need for you to be that reckless. Maybe you would have if it hadn’t been for the cancer, but you didn’t.”

  “So who did?” Charlotte asked, sitting up and checking her manicure. “I’ve been dying to know since it happened. Let us in on your secrets, Julia, since you seem to know everything.”

  Julia walked over to Charlotte and rested her hand on her right shoulder. She squeezed hard, and Charlotte let out a small yelp before slapping Julia’s hand away.

  “A hunting injury,” Julia exclaimed as she walked around the table, glancing to Blair as she did. “People don’t realise the power a gun can have. They can cause quite the painful injury if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  Julia walked back to where she had been sitting. She picked up her wine glass and took a sip, making sure to dampen the sides as she did.

  “Can you hold this, Benjamin?” Julia asked.

  Benjamin reached out with his left hand. He awkwardly gripped the wine glass, but it slipped from his fingers and smashed against the wooden floor. He looked down to it, his face burning bright red.

  “Some people are quite ambidextrous,” Julia said quietly. “You are not one of those people, Benjamin.”

  “Ben?” Blair whispered, looking up at her brother.

  “He said it himself. Charlotte was a terrible hunter, hence her injury from a simple rifle. You had never fired a gun before coming here, had you Ben? You had to learn your technique on the internet, and I don’t doubt you picked it up quite well, which is why you decided to shoot Henry, rather than smother him in his sleep, or slip some poison into his food. You didn’t quite realise how much more powerful a shotgun was over a rifle, which is why you have been using your left hand this entire time. The awkward handshake, dropping the magazine, chopping wood one-handed, throwing the screwdriver badly, dropping this wine glass. You’re right-handed, not left-handed, but you’ve been trying not to use your right hand because of the pain in your shoulder. If a simple rifle can create a bruise as large as Charlotte’s was, what did Henry’s shotgun, which he made sure to let everyone know was loaded, do to your shoulder? Did it dislocate it?”

  Benjamin lifted his left hand awkwardly up to his right shoulder as he stared down at his sister. He mouthed something, before looking up at Julia.

  “You would have done the same,” Benjamin said to Julia before directing it to the rest of the room. “She is only nineteen! Any of you would have done the same.”

  “How did you find out?” Blair asked, both of her hands clutching her tiny stomach.

  “I suspect he overheard one of your conversations with Henry. It wasn’t like you weren’t in his room three times a day serving him his food. Benjamin had a knack for discovering this castle’s secret passages, so I don’t doubt he found the one leading up to Henry’s bedroom from the courtyard. Those types of secret passageways were built to be easily accessed in case of emergencies, which was why Henry’s was in his closet. You snuck up there to see where it led, and you overheard a conversation between Blair and Henry about their baby. You decided then you were going to kill the man, you were just waiting for your moment. You snuck into his bedroom when he wasn’t there, took the gun from his wall, and you waited for him to return. You shot him, and then you ran back down the passage, disposed of the gun, no doubt in the loch, and you carried on with your day. Nobody knew you knew about the network of secret passages here. Why would anybody ever suspect the new groundskeeper?”

  “He was threatening her!” Benjamin cried. “He told her if she didn’t get rid of the baby, he would make her regret ever being born!”

  “Blair got you this job here, so she wasn’t going to go through this alone,” Julia said, smiling down at Blair. “She was going to keep her baby regardless. She wanted to have the same relationship with her child as your mother did with you. It wasn’t like Henry was going to be around for much longer. You hoped if you concealed your pregnancy for long enough, nobody would ever figure out who the father was, and you could save as much money as possible. Even if you had known the castle was up for grabs, I don’t think you would have taken it. Out of all the people who lived in this castle, you were the only one who wanted to do the right thing.”

  Benjamin dropped to his knees and grabbed both of Blair’s hands in
his. He tried to look at her, but she couldn’t bring herself to return his gaze. Julia’s heart broke for them both. She understood why Benjamin did what he did, and if it was her and Sue in their situation, she wasn’t sure if she could say she wouldn’t have done the same.

  “I didn’t know he was dying,” Benjamin said as he started to cry. “I’m so sorry, Blair.”

  “Why are you sorry?” Charlotte cried. “You did us all a favour. Is this over yet? I’m exhausted.”

  “It’s over, Charlotte,” Julia said before turning to the bookcase. “DI Fletcher, you have to give the door a good push!”

  The bookcase creaked open and DI Fletcher, followed by five uniformed officers walked into the room, all of them sharing the same dumbfounded look as they blinked into the light.

  When Charlotte saw the uniformed officers, she suddenly jumped up from the chair and made for the door, but to everyone’s surprise, Andrew stepped in her way and grabbed hold of her.

  “If I’m going down, yer coming wi’ me, lassie,” he snarled through gritted teeth. “I’ve hated yer guts since the day you were born.”

  DI Fletcher handcuffed Benjamin, while the other officers advanced on Andrew, Charlotte, and Rory. Rory instantly started spouting about being a lawyer and how he was going make them all lose their jobs. Charlotte thrashed and screamed against Andrew, but despite everything, he did the right thing and held her securely until she was handcuffed. He immediately offered his hands for cuffing.

  When they were all taken away, Julia let out a relieved sigh and turned her attention back to the table. Dot gulped down her wine, and then Charlotte’s leftovers, before picking up her spoon to dig into her Cranachan.

  “No point wasting good dessert,” Dot announced, giving the rest of the guests an encouraging nod to join her. “I must say, the spa really is rather excellent, because I didn’t notice any of this going on. Top notch work again, Julia, my love.”

  Julia collapsed into Rory’s chair and reached across the table to grab Sue’s hand. They both looked at their gran as she wolfed down her dessert, and all they could do was laugh.