Absence can be such a virtue! The three of us arranged to meet in the hall at eight thirty the next morning and I got ready for bed. It had been a long day. The ache of returning Thumper to his rightful owners came back in full force. I lay thinking of his dear furry face and form before drifting into sleep. The comfort of our few hours together stole over me, followed sharply by another memory-the sensation of being covertly watched while I stood by the ravine waiting for him to return from his foraging. Sometime later, I was vaguely aware of Ben creeping through the bedroom into his cubbyhole, and something in my muddled, half-submerged state shifted the ordinary into stealth, causing the echo of those padding footsteps to linger unpleasantly in my ears until sleep grabbed me back down into murkily disjointed dreams.
Suddenly I woke to lingering horror. In the nightmare the watcher in the woods had been Celia Belfrey, her features distorted into the ugliness of epitomized evil. Suzanne’s face was a beautiful, alluring version of mine. Witless creature to have put herself in the path of such hatred, but I should have screamed out a warning. Even a silent one would have shown willing. The suffocating powerlessness of dreams was a poor excuse. My chest hurt from the pounding it had taken, and slow, concentrated breathing was required before I felt steady enough to sit up and face the day.
A glance at my watch showed five minutes to eight, and a peek into the cubbyhole revealed that Ben was already up and undoubtedly occupied in toiling for Georges while very possibly also providing breakfast for every other hungry mouth. I had to rush in order to be downstairs to meet Mrs. Malloy and Livonia in the hall at the appointed time. Both had the well-ordered look of women who make Sunday church attendance a priority instead of shaking off bad dreams. Mrs. Malloy wore the hat on which the lamp shade had landed and a black satin suit with rhinestone buttons. Livonia was in a navy linen dress with a sweetly prim white collar. Very pretty she looked, with not a crease to be seen. My eucalyptus green skirt and blouse were riddled with them, and I regretted not wearing a cardigan even though the morning was delightful warm, with only fluffy lamb-shaped clouds appliquéd on the blue gauze sky.
Not much was said on the brief walk to the church. Livonia and Mrs. Malloy appeared lost in their thoughts, while I was still struggling to get the wheels churning. Mercifully, I had not made us late. We arrived at the church with five minutes to spare. Lingering in the entryway with its bulletin board and wooden racks of pamphlets, we were greeted by flapping hand gestures from a middle-aged man with a mechanically propelled walk, a port wine complexion, and miraculously black hair.
“Welcome! Welcome! Ever so lovely to have visitors at St. Mary’s in the Dell. Will you all be taking communion?” This question was asked in the manner of a maître d’ suggesting it would have been the teensy-weensiest bit helpful if we’d phoned ahead for reservations.
“Would it be inconvenient?” Livonia asked, while edging toward the archway leading into the dimness of the nave. My suspicion that she had caught a glimpse of Dr. Tommy Rowley was confirmed by the sight of his eagerly turned profile from the back pew.
“Not at all,” the man glanced flurriedly at his watch before flapping us forward. “Our vicar, Mr. Spendlow, who will be starting in a ticky-poo, will be delighted for you to come to the altar.”
“We’re not vestal virgins if that’s what you’re hoping.” Mrs. Malloy sounded sourer than may have been intended. The temperature dropped precipitously and I hastened to make clear we were the jocular sort.
“She was a nun in a former life and it wasn’t for her.”
“Oh, I see!” Clearly he didn’t. Beckoning Livonia, who had been inching toward Dr. Tommy’s pew, into our orbit, he bustled us up the aisle close to the front. “Will this suit? Good, good! Enjoy!” He faded into the wash of pale light seeping in through the stained-glass windows as we seated ourselves, receiving nods from two women already ensconced to our right. Surreptitious glances sideways and over my shoulder revealed a respectable attendance. Admittedly St. Mary’s in the Dell was tiny, but in this day and age Mr. Spendlow (judging from the clerical collar) now emerging from a side door to ascend the pulpit had reason for confidence that God could still draw a nice crowd. Livonia sat holding a hymnal close as if it were a dear, familiar hand. Mrs. Malloy whispered to me that this was nice, although a bit poky compared to St. Anselm’s.
“Wonder if the ancestral Belfreys is buried under the floor.”
I compressed my lips in prayerful contemplation.
“Have to be a terrible squash, bunk bed style.” Her whisper rose.
Livonia’s chin was tilted in hopeful stillness.
The air was a distilled blend of mildew and beeswax, with a hint of incense wafting down through the centuries. Mrs. Malloy adjusted the hat before reaching down for a kneeler, which she proceeded to tuck behind her back.
“Might as well make meself comfy.”
Our two pew companions had their stares cut short when Mr. Spendlow started his opening remarks. He was a man his early thirties with a-to me-surprising ponytail and stubble beard. Ever ready to make assumptions, I anticipated a hip approach to the service in general and the sermon in particular, but to my relief all proceeded along traditional lines. The choir sang in and out of key to the accompaniment of some invisible personage thumping away on an organ, a minimum of bobbing up and down was required, and the sermon was a frank talk, delivered in a sensible voice, on the requirement for positive action, extending beyond our nearest circle into the larger community.
“I am speaking, my dear friends,” hands grasping the front of the pulpit he leaned forward in an earnest search of faces, “of those occasions when we allow ourselves to stand idly by-telling ourselves that speaking up… reaching out with words of compassionate concern to those we sense are in trouble… would be unwarranted interference. But it is my belief that it is our sins of omission that…”
A snore to my left from Mrs. Malloy, who had succeeded all too well in making herself comfy.
“… that may come back to haunt us… with those unutterably sad words, if only. If only, I had asked what I could do to help. If only, I had uttered those words of warning…”
“Shush!” Mrs. Malloy uttered the word with sleepy ferocity.
I had to make matters worse by elbowing her in the ribs.
“Yapping on in church when people are trying to get a bit of peace!”
“He’s supposed to talk,” I whispered. “He’s giving the sermon.”
“That’s his excuse! Give a man a soapbox and he won’t get off till somebody starts throwing rotten tomatoes.”
Livonia was sinking down in her seat; our pew companions had converted their stares into glares. But Mr. Spendlow, after an amused-looking pause, continued to his conclusion.
Fortunately, after the final hymn and brief benediction, the congregation surged to its feet, making it possible to be borne outside on a tidal wave of humanity without revealing more than the tops of our heads. When I was able to see beyond a few inches around me, it was to note that Livonia wasn’t with us.
“Gone to make eyes at Dr. Rowley.” Mrs. Malloy is never at her best when still groggy with sleep. “A right shame, I call it, her continuing to lead Lord Belfrey on when it’s clear as daylight she’s fallen hook, line, and sinker for another.”
“The less of her, the merrier for you,” I was pointing out, when suddenly finding Mr. Spendlow at our elbows. That hat of Mrs. Malloy’s had to have been the giveaway.
“Thank you for not throwing rotten tomatoes at me.” He twinkled boyishly at her. The ponytail and suggestion of a beard reminded me of my cousin Freddy, and following Mrs. M.’s suitable abashed murmurings I congratulated him warmly on his sermon, adding my regrets that we wouldn’t be in Grimkirk next Sunday.
“A pleasure to have had you with us today. I’m sorry your visit to the area” (discreetly put) “has been shadowed by the car accident.”
“Terrible,” I said.
“I dreamed about it all night l
ong.” Mrs. Malloy stood looking tragic in black, only the rhinestone buttons striking too bright a tone. “That’s why I dozed off just now, instead of storing up every word you said, Vicar, as is my usual way when at church. Much prefer it to the pictures. Always have, isn’t that right, Mrs. H?”
“What?” It had suddenly struck me as surprising that Mr. Spendlow hadn’t referred to the accident during the service, requesting prayers for the deceased.
“I understand she-Suzanne Varney-was a friend of your wife?”
“That’s right. Ingar was shattered when she heard. Ah, here she is now.” The assembly of congregants had thinned, heading toward their cars or proceeding on their way on foot. Turning, I beheld a tall, Nordic-looking blonde, with the long-legged walk and vigorously healthy aura one imagines gained from camping next to fiords or skimming over frozen lakes on ice skates. There followed a few minutes of politely generalized conversation before Mr. Spendlow was corraled by the gentleman with the miraculously black hair, port wine complexion, and flapping hands.
“Dear Stanley,” Mrs. Spendlow’s eyes followed affectionately, “he’s the head verger and utterly convinced St. Mary’s would crumble to rubble without him. And he’s absolutely right. My husband counts on him for so much. Oh, no! He’s dropped his pocket handkerchief. Excuse me while I…”
“I’ll take it to him. That’s the trouble with men, need constant looking after. A woman’s willing lot!” Mrs. Malloy teetered off in her high heels. Martyrdom on route to canonization after the rocky start to her day.
Seizing the moment, I brought up Suzanne Varney. “We’d heard she’d decided to come in a day ahead to spend time with a friend. And Celia Belfrey, whom I met when looking for the owners of a lost dog,” it was still incredibly hard to mention Thumper, “told me you were that person. I’m so sorry.” How to ask what they had talked about without appearing ghoulishly curious?
“Trust that woman to be in the know! For someone who rarely leaves the house, especially now she has that downtrodden-looking assistant, she’s next to omniscient.”
“Apparently Ms. Varney stopped at Witch Haven to ask directions to the vicarage.”
“That was it, was it!” Ingar Spendlow brushed back a long lock of straight silk hair. “Sorry to sound spiteful, but Celia Belfrey is a horror! She’s spread it around I’m an atheist because it’s the last thing a clergyman’s wife is supposed to be, although I can’t see why not. She plays into assumptions that because I was born in Sweden-that hedonistic haven-and because my thing isn’t organizing the annual bazaar, I have to be godless and my husband should be dispatched with a boot to the rear.” She looked around and, seeing nobody close, continued: “Celia Belfrey is one dangerous woman. If I were Lord Belfrey, I’d be on the alert for her sticking a spoke in his reality bridal search. It’s not in her to tolerate her father’s heir-or anyone else, for that matter-living happily ever after at Mucklesfeld.”
“I’m not one of the contestants,” I explained.
“Poor Suzanne!” Another glance to assess the all clear. “No, I’m not suggesting that accident was rigged, that would be going too far, although I remember her as an excellent driver. We were never extremely close, but I always liked her. She was the one who wasn’t religious-the idea of people praying for her soul would have offended her, which is why my husband did not refer to her or the accident during the service. But interestingly, I believe she wanted to talk to me because of my perspective as the wife of a clergyman. Aren’t people contradictory? Lovably so.”
“Did she want to discuss the wisdom of being a contestant on Here Comes the Bride? Any ethical concerns, for instance, that she might have about doing so?” Should I come straight out with my knowledge-gained from his lordship-that he and Suzanne had a prior acquaintance? I suspected that Ingar Spendlow’s loathing for Celia Belfrey had goaded her into saying far more than she normally would with a complete stranger. But how far could I push without appearing too nosy? Or was that question now moot? Mr. Spendlow was heading back to us, still in the company of Stanley-purple silk handkerchief restored jauntily to his breast pocket. “Suzanne wanted to talk about her anger, how vengeful it made her feel. The hate eating away at her, made more explosive by having been kept bottled up. I asked about friends, but she said she didn’t have any-only acquaintances, except for me, and we hadn’t seen or corresponded with each other in years. She said if she believed in anything, it was fate bringing us together. But that was as far as she got. I received an urgnt phone call from a parishioner who needed to see me immediately…”
There was no time for more. Mr. Spendlow placed an arm around his wife’s shoulders, clearly eager to talk about Stanley’s suggestion of chair placement in the church hall for the youth concert that night. Mrs. Malloy, Livonia, and Dr. Tommy waited a short distance away, and how long could they be expected to stand admiring the parking area? I said my goodbyes to the accompaniment of a particularly coy handshake from Stanley-his parting words resounding in my ears as I rejoined my little group. Had anyone commented on my resemblance to the last Lady Belfrey? Such a charming looking young lady she was. A sad loss for the parish and (obvious afterthought) her husband. He had not added and her stepdaughter.
“Oh, there you are, Ellie.” Livonia beamed at me with surprised delight, rather as though I had stepped out of a lifeboat after being feared lost on the Titanic. “Imagine, Dr. Rowley,” looking shyly up into his equally radiant face, “being at the very same service! He could have been at the eleven o’clock, or he could have been at this one and we…”
“How are you today, Mrs. Haskell?” He executed more of a bend than a bow over his round tum. A gentlemanly formality that thrilled one of us to the core, warmed my heart, and produced a glower from Mrs. Malloy.
“I should try fainting next time I go somewhere and get to be an invalid for the rest of me life. ’Course, not everywhere’s as conducive to a good old-fashioned attack of the vapors as is Mucklesfeld. Did my fellow contestant here tell you, Dr. Rowley, about the white rat jumping on the ghost’s wig?”
“No! My dear,” reaching for Livonia’s blatantly willing hands, “what a ghastly experience for the tender female!” Was this the first time it had occurred to me that Grimkirk’s local GP might share with some amongst us a predilection for the swoonier romance novel? I pictured him sitting up in bed at night, wearing striped pajamas, a tear trickling down a plump cheek as he hoped against hope that Wisteria Whitworth and Carson Grant would defy the odds against their walking down the aisle to soaring strains of “Oh Perfect Love.”
“The truly gruesome thing,” Livonia looked deep into his eyes, “was that for a moment she didn’t seem aware that anything-let alone a rat-was on her head. She had this fixed, quite dreadful grin on her face!”
“Ghosts are above worldly disturbances,” Mrs. Malloy retorted loftily.
“But she wasn’t one, just someone pretending to be Lady Annabel Belfrey with her head stuck back on after being guillotined.” Livonia clung ever more tightly to Dr. Tommy. “Even Molly Duggan realized that, or she would have fled Mucklesfeld along with Wanda Smiley. Poor Molly! She is even more timid than I am… or was before embarking on this mission of self-discovery.” She explained who she was talking about to the entranced but also suddenly anxious-looking Tommy.
“So you’re now one contestant down.” It should have been clear as glass to Livonia why this worried him, but it had to be remembered her relationship with Harold had given her no reason to believe herself the sort of woman to arouse jealousy in the heart of a man. Sweet, guileless Livonia! Or was she singing exactly the right song for a duet?
“I think that worked to Georges LeBois’s plan.” I said. “Six, five… then four, three, two, until there is one.”
“Meanwhile, we, the contestants, have an event in mind, as was the brainchild so to speak of Mrs. H here.” Mrs. Malloy adjusted the hat to a more imposing angle. “She found out from your cousin Celia that there used to be an archery contest
held every year at Mucklesfeld. So we thought we’d put one on to show we can get together as a group to bring back something from the good old days. ’Course, I’d rather set the thing up meself-too many hands in the pastry don’t work to my way of thinking-but there’s some already as resent me getting in late in the game, so it’s go with the flow. Just family invited, so we hope you’ll come, Dr. Rowley. Tomorrow, if poss, is what was decided. Afternoon would be best, but there’s you and your patients…”
“Will you be able to come?” Livonia, no longer holding Tommy’s hands but seeming woven to him by invisible cords, asked with no attempt to feign indifference.
“Delighted! No afternoon or evening surgery on Mondays.”
“That’s what his lordship said when we-well, Judy Nunn specifically-told him about the idea. He also said Miss Belfrey might be receptive to the idea of coming herself and agreeing to her handyman coaching the participants on use of the bows and arrows if you asked her.”
“I would gladly have done so,” Tommy looked both fervent and crestfallen, “but I’m afraid Celia and I had a falling-out last night. She said some things about… about Aubrey’s marriage plans to which I took grave exception. And in the ensuing exchange of words she ordered me never to darken the doors of Witch Haven again.”
It was an easy guess that Celia Belfrey had made derogatory remarks about the sort of woman who entered TV reality shows in search of a husband. Probably she was repeating what she’d said on earlier occasions without more than a token mumble of protest from Tommy-why bother upsetting the old girl to no purpose? But this last time would have been different; he could not allow her to malign the intent of even one of the contestants-not if he were to meet Livonia again pure of heart. I doubted that Celia would want a permanent breach, not out of any affection, but because Tommy had to be her main source of information regarding Lord Belfrey and what he had in store for Mucklesfeld. Meantime, the breach provided me with an opening that I felt driven to seize if I were to obey my conscience as Tommy had done.
She Shoots to Conquer Page 22