Chapter Thirty
‘Theo! Surely you weren’t intending to leave without me?’
Vera, breathless, had just caught up with the doctor on the drive in front of the house. In her haste she had come out without hat, coat and gloves and stood shivering in the weak December sun.
‘Go back inside, Vera,’ Theo answered, dismissively. ‘You’ll catch your death dressed like that. Don’t worry. I’ll send my man back with the car for you just as soon as I’ve got to my lodgings. He’ll take you back to the vicarage.’
‘What are you talking about, Theo? We’ll leave together of course, the way we came. If you just give me half an hour or so, I’ll arrange for my case to be packed and I’ll be with you.’
‘No, Vera.’
‘What do you mean “No, Vera”? Why, you are being quite absurd. It would be a nonsense to leave separately, what would everyone think?’
‘What would everyone think?’ Theo looked at her in disbelief. ‘The truth of course. It’s no good, Vera, don’t you see? We can’t just pretend that nothing’s happened. I fell in love with someone else.’
‘Don’t … don’t say that,’ Vera said quickly, almost going so far as to try and cover her ears. ‘You were just temporarily besotted, that’s all. All the men were. I can’t say I’m surprised. She was very pretty and charming, and of course you all thought she was very rich. But you would have got bored of her, I know you would –’
‘Vera –’
‘No, don’t say anything more about it. I don’t want us to go over it, it doesn’t do any good. It happened, and I don’t say that you didn’t hurt me very much, but now I just want to forget about it.’
‘Vera, it’s no use. Oh, if only you wouldn’t be so nice about it all. Don’t you see that it only makes things worse?’ Theo tore at his hair in exasperation. ‘I behaved very badly, I know, like a complete rotter and I can’t tell you how awfully I feel about it all. You deserved better than that. Why, even Cedric had a go at me about it. He pretty well gave me my marching orders.’
‘It doesn’t matter, Theo, none of it matters at all now.’ Vera clung at the sleeve of his coat and he threw off her hand in an irritated fashion.
‘It matters a great deal, Vera. It showed me that I didn’t love you, not in the way you love me anyway and certainly not enough for us to get married.’
‘I don’t care. I don’t care if I love you more than you love me. I’ve always known it. In a couple one party always loves the other more. I love you enough for both of us –’
‘No, Vera, it really won’t do, not for me, not now I know what it is to really be in love.’ He held her hand and spoke more gently. ‘If only I could make you understand. When they told me that Emmeline … I shall always think of her as Emmeline not Jemima … wasn’t an heiress, that she wasn’t who she pretended to be, I went to pieces. But not for the reasons everyone assumed. It was because it meant that there would have been no obstacle to us marrying. She wasn’t far above me socially as I had thought. The wife of a country doctor might have suited her quite well.’
‘What about me?’ pleaded Vera, clutching at his hand, ‘I’ll make you a good wife, you know I will. We belong together, you know we do.’
‘No we don’t, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you Vera. I don’t doubt for a moment that you think you love me, but it’s not real, it’s too much. Frankly my dear, it’s suffocating. Not only that, I find it rather frightening. Look what it made you do. If you hadn’t written that stupid, spiteful note, Emmeline … no, I must call her Jemima … would never have been in that maze. And you left her there, Vera, cold and frightened. You left her there to get murdered.’
‘But I had no idea that would happen. I wasn’t thinking properly. I was so upset … I …’
‘Yes, and don’t you see that only makes it worse,’ said Theo more quietly. ‘It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. I know you wouldn’t have done what you did if it hadn’t been for the way I behaved. The girl is dead because of what we did. Don’t you see, Vera? Every time I look at you I’ll be reminded of what we did. I can’t live my life like that, and neither can you.’
‘But I …’
‘And besides, Vera, my dear,’ said Theo kindly. ‘You deserve a better husband than I will ever be.’
‘Did you suspect that Felix might be the murderer?’ asked Rose, as she and Emmeline walked in the grounds later that day. ‘Are you awfully upset?’
‘I did rather wonder if it might be him,’ admitted Emmeline. ‘It was when he joined me in the gardens yesterday. The inspector had permitted us to go outside for some fresh air, if you remember. You were walking in another part of the gardens with Cedric. Felix told me he thought I had killed Jemima. Of course I realise now that he said that to make himself appear innocent in my eyes, but I didn’t know that at the time. He said that he would stand by me and protect me the best he could.’
‘Did he indeed?’
‘Yes, but I remember thinking it rather strange at the time that he should assume I was guilty of Jemima’s murder. It made me wonder whether he was really as fond of me as he appeared to be. I suppose it made me a little wary of him. And … then he made the mistake of referring to Jemima as Jemima not Emmeline.’
‘Did he indeed? That was very careless of him.’
‘Yes, wasn’t it? I thought it might just have been a mistake, but it did make me wonder.’
‘Yes, it must have done,’ Rose said sympathetically.
‘But really I was suspicious of everyone, even you. I didn’t know who to trust. I was frightened you see. I didn’t know whether Jemima had been killed in mistake for me. Was I really the intended victim? All I could think about was how important it was that no one knew who I really was. I’ve been frightened ever since I came to Sedgwick that something dreadful would happen. And that it should have happened to Jemima … I … I can’t bear to think about it.’
‘You haven’t had a chance to grieve yet,’ said Rose, putting her arm around the girl’s shoulders. ‘You’ve been too frightened.’
‘Yes, you’re right. And I can’t quite believe that it was only yesterday that it all happened. I’m so glad Father is here. He feels that he is in some way to blame for Jemima’s death, you know, which is quite ridiculous. He thinks that, if he hadn’t been so protective of me, we wouldn’t have felt the need to run away, as he puts it.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes. We won’t be returning to Scotland, or at least, if we do, only for a little while to arrange matters. We’re not going to be hiding ourselves away any more from the rest of the world. Father says he wants me to see more of life. He’s even talking about buying a town house in London.’
‘I’m so pleased. I think it’s just what you need. Perhaps we can meet up when you’re in London? You could even come and visit the dress shop where I work.’
‘Yes, I should like that very much,’ said Emmeline.
‘We should invite Vera too,’ said Rose. ‘I have a feeling that she and Theo won’t be getting married. It’s the best thing for her, even if she doesn’t realise it yet. But she’ll need some cheering up.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Emmeline. ‘I might invite her to stay with me for a while in London. Jemima behaved rather badly towards her as far as Dr Harrison was concerned. I’d like to make amends if I can.’
‘Darling, do you think it’s all over now?’ asked Cedric. ‘Can I have you all to myself now? Theo and Vera have left, separately as we know. Count Fernand, or whoever he was, has caught a train to London, and Emmeline and her father will be leaving in the next couple of hours. Thistlewaite’s been arrested, so there are no loose ends that we need to tie up, are there?’
‘No, darling, not that I know of,’ said Rose. ‘Sergeant Lane told me that they found Vera’s plan in Felix’s pocket, and that when they showed it to him he went completely to pieces and confessed to everything.’
‘Let’s hope that Lavinia won’t be inviting any more people to stay w
ho she knows absolutely nothing about.’
‘Don’t be too hard on her, darling.’
‘Rose, darling, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. I want to ask you … I mean. I would have done before, but what with Lavinia and her friends turning up like that …’
‘Yes?’ said Rose, conscious that her heart was beating rather loudly in her chest. Part of her wanted him to go on, and another part of her wanted time to stand still so that she might savour this moment.
‘Yes … I … I … You do love me, don’t you, Rose? Say that you do. You know how I feel about you. Well, what I have to ask you is this … Will you –’
‘Oh, there you two are,’ said Lavinia coming across to them. ‘Manning told me he’d seen you wandering off to the lake. Are you hiding from everyone?’
‘Yes, from you,’ said Cedric rather rudely. ‘Now, do go away, Lavinia, there’s a dear.’
‘No, I shan’t,’ said Lavinia. ‘At least, not yet. Is it true that Felix was a jewel thief and murdered Emmeline who was really Jemima? And that Jemima is really Emmeline and that the count isn’t a count at all?’
‘Yes. Now do go away, Lavinia.’
‘So no one was who they appeared to be.’ Lavinia said rather sadly. ‘I daresay if I had known that Jemima was really Emmeline Montacute then I suppose I might have made a little more effort to get to know her.’
‘Go away, Lavinia.’
‘Only on the condition that Rose says yes.’
‘What?’ said Rose. ‘But I thought –’
‘Well, I think it would be rather nice, don’t you? Ceddie and I really don’t want to be rumbling around in this house all by ourselves. I think it’s a wonderful idea of his inviting you and your mother here for Christmas, don’t you?’ She smiled at them sweetly. ‘That is what you were going to ask Rose, isn’t it?’
‘Well … yes … among other things,’ mumbled Cedric, going rather red and looking at the ground.
‘Well,’ said Lavinia. ‘I’m so glad. Now what shall I do? Shall I join you for a walk by the lake? Or shall I go back to the house?’
‘Go back to the house,’ said Cedric bluntly.
‘Oh, all right. I suppose I should leave the two of you alone so that Cedric can ask you … the other thing, Rose.’
Lavinia smiled sweetly at them again, but this time Rose noticed there was a twinkle in her eye, and that when she ran back to the house she was almost skipping.
03 - Murder at Sedgwick Court Page 30