by Agatha Frost
“That’s not what that means.” Blair rolled her eyes and slapped his hand away from the tartan tin. She secured the lid, and much to her brother’s dismay she put it back on the shelf with the other similar tartan tins. “I’m going to bed before Rory shows up and starts putting in crazy orders.”
“Good idea,” Julia agreed as she let out a yawn. “It’s been a long day.”
Julia slid off the stool and took off her apron. She paused and turned as Benjamin grabbed at the magazine. It slid out of his buttery fingers and off the table. He let out a groan before bending over to pick it up.
“Are you sticking around at Seirbigh Castle, Benjamin?” Julia asked, suddenly remembering what Charlotte had said about his position soon becoming vacant.
“I have no plans to leave,” he said as he clumsily opened the magazine. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason,” Julia lied, deciding it was best not to let the poor man know that he was likely to be fired from his job in favour of his predecessor if Charlotte had her way. “Goodnight.”
Julia grabbed her bag and made her way up the winding stone stairs, through the empty dining room, and back towards the entrance hall. She stopped in her tracks when she spotted DI Fletcher slapping his hand repeatedly on the reception bell.
Julia dropped her head and attempted to hurry past him, but he stepped into her path, his hands in his pockets, and his youthful face filled with a smug expression.
“Off to bed so soon?” he asked, a well-groomed brow arching up his smooth forehead. “Or are you going back to the village to badger more of my witnesses?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Julia said, looking him dead in the eyes. “Excuse me, DI Fletcher.”
The young man stared down at her for the longest moment before finally relenting and stepping to the side. Julia rolled her eyes and pressed forward, ready to crawl into bed.
“Stay out of my investigation,” he called after her as she pulled on the door leading to the second part of the castle. “A baker should know her place.”
Julia glanced over her shoulder, her cheeks burning brightly. She could think of one hundred and one things she could say to the little boy in a man’s suit at that moment. She shook her head, deciding it wasn’t worth it. Letting the door swing in its frame, she hurried along the dark corridor, ready for her bed. If she had money in her pocket, she wouldn’t have bet on Detective Inspector Jay Fletcher solving the case before she left the castle.
“Don’t count me out just yet,” she whispered to herself in the dark as she made her way up to her bedroom. “Don’t count me out.”
Chapter Eight
Julia wandered around the castle in the dark, the scent of heather and moss deep in her nostrils. She tried to wiggle her nose to get rid of the smell, but she couldn’t quite feel her face.
Something banged in the dark. Julia spun around, but the castle walls shifted around her. Ancient bricks crumbled away, dust and debris falling from every angle. She ran for her bedroom door, but it fell away with the rubble. Skidding to a halt, she looked beneath her as the floor fell away. She could see the loch below, rippling and moving, and completely black. It was inviting her in, but she knew she had to stay away.
A woman’s shriek pierced through the dark. She crammed her hands up to her ears as she looked for a way out, but the floor continued to fall away. She stepped back and leant against the castle wall, but it betrayed her. As she fell towards the dark loch below, the sky swirling above her, the shrieking grew louder and louder, distracting her from her impending death.
Before she hit the loch, Julia bolted up in bed, sweat pouring down her burning face. As she panted for breath, she looked towards the piercing strip of sunlight seeping in through the heavy curtains. She realised it had just been a nightmare. She looked down at her bedroom floor, and it was still well and truly intact.
What was real, however, was the shrieking. Sue bolted up in bed, her hair matted and sticking up on one side. She looked around the room before landing on Julia.
“Was that you?” Sue whispered. “What time is it?”
Julia squinted at the small clock on her bedside table. It was only a little after six. The woman shrieked again, forcing them both out of bed and straight over to the far window.
Julia tore back the curtains, the bright morning sun blinding them both. She forced her eyes to stay open and adjust so she could see the commotion that was happening below. Squinting into the light, she saw a flash of red hair and a flash of black. She realised she was watching Rory attempting to drag Mary out of the castle.
“You have no right being here!” Rory cried as he hauled Mary towards the bridge. “Ex-wives don’t have rights!”
“But I’m not an ex-wife,” she screamed, thrashing against him unsuccessfully. “Henry was my husband!”
With his arms around her waist, Rory picked Mary up like she weighed no more than a bag of flour and carried her over to the bridge. For a moment, Julia thought he was going to throw her over the edge and into the murky loch below.
“It was a clever trick trying to destroy the divorce papers, but my father wasn’t stupid enough to only have one copy,” Rory cried, his Scottish accent growing thicker the louder he became. “You’re not getting a penny of his fortune or a single brick of this castle!”
Julia was about to suggest they go down and help her, but a loud and persistent knock at the door startled them both. Sue hurried over and let Dot in. Julia wasn’t surprised to see her.
“What’s that racket?” she cried, her hair a mess, and her eyes still half closed as she stumbled forward in her floor-length white nightie. “I can’t see from my window.”
“Rory is trying to kick Mary out,” Sue whispered as Dot wrestled her way through the curtains to push in front of Julia.
“Didn’t Henry already try that?” Dot exclaimed as she pushed her nose up against the glass. “She bounced right back like a boomerang and then a man turned up dead. If I were him, I wouldn’t mess with her. She’s obviously cursed.”
“Gran!” Julia cried with a sigh. “Now isn’t the time.”
Rory dropped Mary on the edge of the bridge and pushed her in the direction of the cars parked on the other side. He said something to her that they couldn’t hear, which elicited even more shrieking. Mary charged at him like an angry bull, but Rory was twice her size and built like a rugby player, even if he was wearing a sharp business suit.
“Just go!” he yelled, pushing her to the ground. “Nobody wants you here. Don’t you get that?”
Mary let out a sob and melted into the ground. Rory hovered over her for a moment, before tossing something at her feet and turning on his heels with a shake of his head. As though nothing had happened, he adjusted his cufflinks and set off back towards the castle. As he walked, he glanced in the direction of Julia’s window, and all three of them jumped back. She couldn’t have been sure from her distance, but Julia was somehow certain he knew they had been watching.
Julia ran across the room and tore open her bag. She dug around for the slip of paper, and when she found it, she grabbed her phone and pulled up the internet browser once more. She quickly typed in the address, and she wasn’t surprised to discover that the address belonged to a solicitor’s office that specialised in divorces. It brought back memories of her own divorce, and her heart ached for Mary. Still in her nightgown, she hurried out of the room and made her way through the castle.
The clouds above were thick and pale, and fog had consumed the loch, blocking off the beautiful view and closing them in completely. Julia hurried through the castle entrance, the gravel underfoot scratching at her soles.
Hitching up her pale pink nightie, she walked as quickly as she could to where she had seen Mary, but she needn’t have bothered. Mary hadn’t moved an inch and was still slumped against the wall, sobbing into her hands. Julia hung back for a moment, clearing her throat to announce her presence.
Mary looked up at Julia, her brows tight and
her eyes swollen. Her face was bare of any makeup, and she looked as though she hadn’t been awake for long. Julia wouldn’t have been surprised if Rory had dragged her out of bed intentionally in the early hours of the morning for maximum impact.
“What?” Mary barked, her voice coarse. “Come to gloat?”
“Not at all,” Julia said softly, hurrying forward and crouching down. “Can I sit down?”
“Do what you want,” Mary snapped, a little less harshly this time. “It’s not like I own the place.”
She let out a small bitter laugh before another flood of tears consumed her. Julia sat on the cold ground next to her and leant against the cold stone wall. She looked up in the direction of her bedroom, sure she could make out the shadows of Dot and Sue twitching at the curtains. She was almost certain they were talking about how she should have stayed out of things, but that wasn’t Julia’s style. She couldn’t stand by and watch another woman cry; not after already doing that on her first day in the castle.
“I’m divorced,” Julia whispered, nudging Mary’s shoulder. “Only recently too. We separated well over two years ago, but I dragged out signing the papers for as long as I could. I didn’t want the man back. I was happy to be rid of him, but I couldn’t get past the notion of being a divorcee before I had even turned forty. Then I realised that was an old-fashioned way of thinking, and I’ve even met a great man who is ten times the man my husband was.”
“I’m not divorced,” she said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I’m widowed. We might have worked things out.”
Mary’s sobs restarted, letting Julia know that Mary didn’t believe that any more than she did. Julia slid her arm around her shoulders and pulled her in. To her surprise, Mary melted into her side like a child against its mother, despite Julia being the younger one.
“There’s still life out there for you,” Julia said, squeezing hard. “Beyond this castle.”
“So you’re saying I should just give it up?” she snorted, tucking her hair behind her ears. “It’s rightfully mine. The divorce was never finalised. Like you, I was dragging my heels, but Henry had had enough. He threw me out, and then – and then he was murdered. I loved him.”
“There are kinder men to love.”
Mary sniffled and looked hopefully at Julia. For the first time since she had arrived, Mary smiled at her, and it felt genuine. Julia immediately discounted any involvement in Henry’s murder. She felt foolish for even doubting the sincerity of the poor woman’s tears.
“I thought I was different,” Mary said with a small laugh. “I knew I was number four, but I thought he was a good man.”
“Doesn’t it always start out that way?” Julia asked as she rested her head on the wall and looked up at the milky sky. “Mine packed all of my things into black bags, put them on the doorstep, changed the locks, and informed me with a note that we were over. He didn’t even write it. It was his secretary’s handwriting. That’s who he left me for. She was ten years younger than me, and twenty pounds lighter. Blonde, too.”
“Maybe all men aren’t so different,” Mary said with a small laugh. “I didn’t want to believe the rumours, but the castle walls talk. I kept hearing that he was going behind my back with the guests and even the staff, but I didn’t want to believe it. It was easier to pretend everything was okay and ignore the obvious, just to keep up the charade.”
Julia knew that feeling all too well. Now that she had some distance from her own marriage, she knew she had been sucked in by his charm and wit, but the rest had been nothing more than a sham. She had happily played along if only to say she was in a happy marriage. She almost couldn’t believe she had ever been that woman.
“What are you going to do now?” Julia asked carefully, glancing up to her bedroom window where they were still being watched.
“I’m going to fight,” she said sternly as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “That man owes me that much, doesn’t he?”
Julia didn’t say anything. She hadn’t asked for a penny during the divorce, even though Jerrad had more than a large pot of savings. She had wanted to get out with her hands clean and only take what she had earned for herself. Years of working in the cake production factory had given her just enough savings to set up her café and a little left over to put down a deposit on a mortgage for her cottage. She looked up at the castle, wondering if she would have acted any differently if the stakes were higher. She would like to think it wouldn’t have made a difference, but she knew it was easy to say that on the other side.
“What about Charlotte and Rory?” Julia asked. “They’re not going to give this up easily.”
“They’ve wanted to get their grubby hands on this place for years,” Mary said, suddenly sitting up straight and shaking off Julia’s hand. “I need to see my lawyer. I’m not vanishing like they want. If those brats want a war, it’s a war they’ve got.”
Mary stumbled to her feet and turned to the castle. She inhaled the fresh morning air and closed her eyes as she tucked her long black hair behind her ears once more. She straightened out her black silk pyjamas and picked up a set of car keys that were on the ground, no doubt tossed at her by Rory.
“Why don’t you come down to the kitchen for a cup of tea?” Julia suggested as she struggled up to her feet. “They never go down there. I’ll even cook up some breakfast.”
“I need to go,” Mary said, looking to the end of the bridge where three cars were parked. “Those two are going to be doing everything they can to freeze me out. I need to catch up. I thought doing my job and acting like everything was normal might have been enough, but they’re sneakier than that. I even tried burning the evidence of the impending divorce, but of course, they have copies! Henry was a clever man, but I’m clever too. They were letting me think I was safe here so they could pull the rug from under my feet, but the joke is going to be on them. The man was my husband. I was his next of kin.”
“Didn’t he have a will?”
“I was his fourth wife,” Mary said as though it was evident. “I doubt that man has changed his will since his precious Sandra died. We were all just stand-ins on his arm, and I was one of the unlucky idiots to fall for it. Thank you, Julia. You’ve really given me some perspective.”
Mary quickly hugged Julia before hurrying along the narrow bridge to the cars at the bottom. She jumped into a silver one and sped off into the distance, her tyres screeching and sending gravel flying as she did. Julia watched as she zoomed around the corner and disappeared into the hills. Turning back to the castle, she looked up to her bedroom window and sighed. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that she had made things worse, not better.
After returning to her room and explaining what had happened to Dot and Sue, Julia quickly dressed and set off towards the kitchen to help Blair with preparing the breakfast. On her way, she was surprised to see Charlotte behind the counter, looking as void of personality as she had on the day they had arrived, and even more surprised when Charlotte looked to Julia as though she had been expecting to see her.
“Ah, Julia,” Charlotte said after quickly swallowing her tea and placing her mug under the counter. “If you’re on your way down to the kitchen, you’ll have to stop I’m afraid. I haven’t been myself these last couple of days, and I didn’t pause to think that you’re not insured to work here. If anything happens, we’d be liable, and a lawsuit is the last thing we need right now. There’s so much paperwork to sort out, and a funeral to plan.”
“I’m a very careful cook,” Julia insisted. “And suing people isn’t my style. Honestly, I actually enjoy helping out.”
“Even so, I can’t take the risk,” Charlotte said as she flicked through a book under the counter. “I’m going to have to insist you don’t go anywhere near the kitchen, or I’m afraid I’ll have to take some kind of action. I’d hate to see your gran and sister suffer for your actions.”
Charlotte suddenly looked up at Julia, their eyes connecting for a brief sec
ond. Despite the reception friendly smile, Julia was in no doubt that Charlotte had just threatened her. Deciding against arguing, Julia turned back on her heels and headed back towards the door she had just come through. She couldn’t help but think Charlotte was trying to stop Julia from speaking to Blair, and she didn’t know why, but it only made her want to speak to her more.
“Oh, and Julia?” Charlotte called after her as she yanked on the door. “We’re having a celebratory dinner tomorrow night in our private drawing room. It’s a tradition my father was very keen on doing for our guests every Sunday night, and I would like to continue it, especially since we had new arrivals last night. I hope to see you and your family there at seven.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Julia said without a second thought.
Julia yanked on the door and hurried along the corridor and towards the sweeping staircase up to her bedroom. She couldn’t believe any daughter grieving for her father would be throwing a celebratory dinner only days after his murder. She was beginning to wonder if Charlotte had any human emotions after all.
“Where are you going?” Dot exclaimed when they met in the corridor on the floor of their bedrooms, a towel draped over her shoulder. “I thought you were helping Mary Poppins down in the cellar?”
“Charlotte has just informed me that I’m forbidden from going down there,” Julia said with a sigh as she scratched the back of her head. “Something to do with insurance, but it sounded like an excuse to me. She’s up to something.”
“Well if she is, let it go!” Dot cried as she hooked her arm around Julia’s. “We only have the weekend to enjoy the spa before we’re back in Peridale and then we never have to think about this place again. I’m not taking no for an answer, young lady.”
“Where’s Sue?”
“Honking her guts up,” Dot said with a roll of her eyes. “Food poisoning by the sounds of it. It turns out that your little friend isn’t such a good cook after all. I’ve already called down and told them to count us out for breakfast. Turns out two couples checked in last night, so she’ll have plenty more victims to poison with her cooking. Maybe it’s best you stay away from her. I don’t want her shoddy standards rubbing off on you. Sue said she’ll join us when she’s feeling better.”