The Tormented

by Sarah Sheridan

  Sister Veronica nodded. This decision of Maud’s was easier for her to understand. Although totally criminal and heinous, Maud’s act of freeing Ophelia from Digby’s terrorising was almost fathomable, especially as she felt she had nothing to lose.

  ‘I don’t suppose you understand me, Sister,’ Maud said. ‘You’ve never had any children, you’ve never felt the all-consuming love that comes over a parent, where you would do anything – literally anything at all – to make sure your child is looked after and happy.’

  ‘No,’ Sister Veronica said. ‘But my life has not been without tragedy, Maud. It seems you and I never really got to know each other, and if that’s my doing then I’m very sorry.’

  ‘I’m sorry too, Sister,’ Maud said, her hand going to a shelf and retrieving a long strand of thick garden wire. ‘Especially because of what has to happen now. You are not so bad, I can see that now. Interfering, but with a good heart. I am truly sorry for what I’m about to do.’

  ‘And what’s that?’ Sister Veronica said, her eyes on the wire.

  ‘Kill you,’ Maud said, her fat hands grasping the wire at each end and bringing it up towards Sister Veronica’s throat. ‘Can’t you see that you know too much now?’

  42

  ‘Florence,’ Rufus shouted through the letter box. ‘I know you’re in there. Have some God-damn courage and come and open the door this instant.’

  Florence, now lying on one of the sofas in the living room, closed her eyes.

  ‘I’m so sorry about him.’ Araminta stroked her aunt’s hair. ‘He doesn’t usually get this bad when he’s drunk, he must have had loads. Just ignore him and he’ll have to go away and sleep it off somewhere. I’m furious with him, Auntie Florence. Right at this moment I could murder the man.’

  ‘Don’t talk like that, dear,’ Florence said, her voice weak. ‘I think we’ve had enough deaths round here for one Christmas, don’t you?’

  Lucie’s voice floated over to them. She was in the corner, talking to Neil on the phone.

  ‘No, I can’t come back at the moment,’ she was saying. ‘Yes I know I said I was coming back today but something awful happened to Auntie Florence, she collapsed, I thought she was going to die, Neil. I have to stay here, just for a bit longer, until I know she’s all right.’

  The busy sound of a group of vehicles trundling down the drive with their sirens blaring filled the living room, and in seconds blue flashing lights were shining through the windows and bouncing off the mirror on the wall.

  ‘Ah, the paramedics and police are here at last,’ Wilfred said, sounding happy. ‘They took their time. There must have been another emergency in Northampton or something.’ He went off to open the front door. ‘Hey,’ Florence heard him shout. ‘Don’t push past me like that, Rufus, you just hurt my arm.’

  Florence turned her head to find a bedraggled bunch of three grouping before her; Rufus, Steven and Romilly. The sour stench of alcohol exuding from them was too much, it made her stomach lurch again, and she turned her head away. Why was this Christmas so hellish? And to think, she’d invited her cousin Veronica here to try and get to the bottom of the poison pen letters, only to have her unwittingly plunged into the murky events of the last few days. Giles’ murder and the sickening sight of Digby dead on the hall floor almost made the horror of the letters diminish to ridiculousness. Almost, but not quite. And here Rufus was, out of his mind again on alcohol, standing shouting at her in the soft glow of the Christmas tree lights. It was all too much, she didn’t think she could take any more. She was going to find V and make a plan for them both to leave the house as soon as possible, try and find an immediate cottage to rent somewhere. She so desperately wanted to get away from everything, it was a physical feeling in her blood, willing her – urging her – to travel far away from it all.

  ‘Go away,’ Araminta shouted at her husband and the other two. ‘How dare you just barge in here when my aunt’s feeling so unwell. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Get out this instant. Officer?’ she called to the uniformed man who had just entered the room. ‘Please escort my husband off the premises. He’s causing an unwanted scene.’

  ‘I haven’t even started causing an unwanted scene, actually, Minty,’ Rufus shouted back, his voice thick and rough. ‘I’ve come to talk to Florence – and everyone else – about her bastard husband, that crook Giles. Florence is involved in his dirty plans up to her neck, too, I’d bet my last pound on it. No, I’m not going away, Minty. Steven and Romilly and I are going to stay here until we get some answers.’

  ‘What’s going on here now?’ Florence heard DI Ahuja’s voice cut through the commotion. She tried to sit up, but immediately felt dizzy and leaned back again.

  ‘Lucie?’ she said, as she saw her niece ring off. ‘Where’s V? I need her here now. Please find her.’

  ‘I don’t know where she is.’ Lucie walked towards her. ‘I had a quick look before but she seems to have disappeared. The last time I saw her was just after you collapsed. She went off saying she was going to make a quick check on something, but never came back. Maud’s vanished too.’

  ‘Oh no.’ Florence shook her head, her face pale. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Veronica’s not the vanishing type. Something must have happened. Quick, let’s all go and look for her.’

  ‘Nobody,’ Rufus shouted, his voice uncontrolled, ‘is going anywhere, until Florence gives me all my money back.’

  It was in the silent few seconds that followed his outburst that Sister Veronica’s faint, desperate, guttural shouts for help could be heard.

  43

  For someone who’d only been given a few months to live, Maud turned out to be surprisingly strong and persistent. It was all Sister Veronica could do to keep kicking her away. Now on the floor, with her feet peddling the woman away from her, she could feel a wetness running down her neck from where Maud had initially nicked her with the wire. She stared up into the woman’s face. Now that she could see her at close quarters, Maud did look ill. Sickly in fact; her skin was grey under the rouge, and she had dark blue bags under her eyes. Her hair was thinning, perhaps from some treatment or other, and there were sparse patches in places on her scalp that she must have kept disguised with her hairstyle. Why hadn’t she noticed all this before?

  ‘Help!’ Sister Veronica shouted again, her throat now sore from all the yelling. Where was everybody? ‘Florence? Anyone? Help me! I’m in the greenhouse.’

  ‘No one’s coming.’ Maud tried a new angle, stepping on Sister Veronica’s short legs with both feet to keep them pressed down. Regretting her small stature, Sister Veronica struggled and tried to twist away, but in vain. ‘If they could hear you they’d be here by now, wouldn’t they, Sister? Now stop making this harder for yourself and just lie still.’

  ‘Absolutely not.’ Sister Veronica attempted to thrash her legs to move Maud off them, but the woman was so heavy she couldn’t lift them at all. Maud, holding the thick wire taut, was now leaning towards her neck. Sister Veronica pounded at her, pushing her away with her hands, but she couldn’t keep the giant weight of the woman off her for very long. She could feel her strength running out despite the adrenaline pumping through her veins. It must be all the rich food she’d eaten recently, she thought, it had sapped her energy, turned her into a lethargic lump.

  ‘Agh,’ Sister Veronica shouted, her arms giving way. Maud’s hands that held the wire taut plummeted towards her neck and an icy pain sliced through her.

  She heard the greenhouse door slam open and four police officers crowded into the cramped space, immediately pulling Maud away from her and removing the wire. Warm wetness oozed from her neck and when she looked down she saw her shirt was now soaked with blood.

  ‘Maud Beresford,’ one officer said, slightly out of breath as he and a colleague restrained her. ‘I’m arresting you for attempted murder.’ While he read Maud her rights, another officer bent down to see to Sister Veronica, her kind eyes swiftly raking over the wound on her n
eck.

  ‘The paramedics are outside,’ she said in a soothing voice. ‘Once we’ve secured and neutralised the scene they’ll come in and take good care of you, okay? Try not to worry, everything is going to be all right now.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Sister Veronica said, her voice weak. She knew, from the fact she could still talk, that the wound must be mostly superficial, which was a blessing – all things considered. ‘Officer? You might want to take that plant over there with you for testing.’ She pointed at a shrub with green leaves and bright red berries, taking care not to move her neck or head. ‘I’m no expert, but I believe that may be rosary pea. It looks Christmassy but in fact has deadly properties, and if I’m correct then Maud somehow used the abrin in it to poison Giles to death. And she somehow tried to poison Florence earlier too, at lunch, but luckily Flo brought up her food before the toxic properties had a chance to take a good hold. Maud must have put something in her meal when she was helping Mrs Hardman in the kitchen.’

  The officer looked at her, a surprised expression on her face.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’ll get someone to bag the plant up.’ She turned round to relay the information.

  ‘Nosy old weasel.’ Maud turned and spat the words at the nun as she was being pushed out of the door, plants being knocked over on either side, her expression so different from her usual benign one. ‘Just couldn’t keep your nose out of my business, could you? You’ve ruined everything now.’

  ‘Actually, you interfered with my business, Maud,’ Sister Veronica said, hauling herself carefully into a sitting position, feeling more blood fall down her. She shivered, the icy blast now coming in, going right through to her bones. ‘You attacked my family. You may think that what you did for Ophelia, you did out of motherly love. But it’s a twisted kind of care you showed, Maud. No one should have to die for someone else’s gain. You harmed my family, and you tried to kill Florence, and that is very much my business. But then you’ll have time to think about all that in prison, won’t you?’

  ‘Oh, I won’t be there for long.’ Maud shot her a sick grin. ‘I’ll soon be going somewhere much more enjoyable.’ The officers who were holding her arms finally managed to shove her through the door and out into the whirling snow. Sister Veronica heard one of them say, ‘What’s she talking about? She’s not going anywhere else soon.’

  ‘No idea,’ the other replied.

  As the paramedics rushed in and prepared Sister Veronica with gentle expertise for the stretcher, a deep exhaustion washed through her and she felt her eyelids closing. She could hear Florence’s voice outside the greenhouse, near hysterical, asking for news of her ‘dear, brave cousin’, and being reassured by an officer that ‘yes, the nun has been attacked but she’ll live, she just has to go to hospital to be looked after.’

  As the two halves of the stretcher slid underneath her, and she was picked up off the floor, with gauzes and sterile cloths adorning her neck, Sister Veronica felt herself sliding into a welcome sleep. Just before she succumbed completely to it, a beatific smile crept across her face. The awful feeling of impending doom, the warning that evil was in her midst that had tormented her since her arrival at Chalfield Hall, had finally gone. She gave way to a peace she’d craved for days, and enthusiastically fell into a deep slumber.

  44

  ‘Merry Christmas, V.’ Florence’s anxious face appeared next to her own. ‘How are you feeling?’

  Sister Veronica opened her eyes. She was lying with some grandeur on one of the living-room sofas, having been allowed to return to Chalfield Hall early on Christmas morning. Florence had been the perfect nurse since she’d arrived home, hardly leaving her side, except to bring her drinks with straws, easy-to-eat snacks, and painkillers. The large white bandage covering the best part of the front of her neck hid a long scar that had required a few stitches in places. Maud, she’d been told, had admitted everything to DI Ahuja while being questioned at Northampton police station. She’d apparently said it had been easy to poison Giles, and that she’d made him a separate pot of berry sauce using the rosary pea berries, and had put it on his plate while helping Mrs Hardman to carry in the meals that night. No one had suspected a thing at the time, she’d said, and her former secretarial job in the council’s environmental hazards department had given her all the knowledge she needed about how best to go about her deed. She had tried to finish Florence off, too, but the bloody nun had made the woman be sick and had ruined everything. She was looking forward to death, apparently, and was completely unapologetic about her actions, especially about killing Digby, an act she was reportedly rather proud of, saying it had freed her daughter and grandson from the clutches of a monster. The news that Giles’ business was in bankruptcy, however, had not gone down so well with Maud, by all accounts, and had resulted in her collapsing and becoming hysterical.

  ‘Oh, fine,’ Sister Veronica said, shifting round to look at her cousin, and wincing at the pain caused by doing so. ‘Just a bit sore.’

  Florence smiled at her, tears in her eyes as she looked from the bandage to her cousin’s face.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘You saved my life, V. If it hadn’t been for your courage, I’m absolutely sure Maud would have finished me off for good. I can’t believe I never suspected her, looking back at all the signs. Thank you so very much.’

  ‘You don’t have to keep saying that, Flo,’ Sister Veronica said, giving a small smile. She reached out and patted her cousin’s shoulder. ‘You would have done the same for me, if the tables had been turned. I’m just glad you are okay, and that the poison didn’t affect you too much yesterday. I couldn’t have coped if you’d come to serious harm. Anyway, how’s Ophelia doing? It must have been an awful shock for her, suddenly finding out the truth about Maud.’

  ‘She’s getting there,’ Flo said, sighing. ‘Poor creature, she’s been through so much. And to think we all suspected her of Digby’s murder, kept shooting her suspicious glances. And now she finds out Maud is not only her mother, but murdered two people, thinking it was in her long-lost daughter’s best interests. Goodness gracious, this has been an unusual few days to say the least. Ophelia’s still upstairs with the police psychiatrist, who’s an absolute angel, by the way, working wonders with her. She’ll be all right, I think, with time.’

  ‘Well, it’s only natural that we all thought the girl did it, under the circumstances,’ Sister Veronica said, her voice gruff. She’d thought it had been Ophelia, too, and was questioning her own judgement about that. The simplest answer isn’t always the right one, she thought. Always look deeper into things, Veronica. Listen to your gut feeling. ‘Who’s looking after Sam?’ she said.

  ‘Well.’ Florence’s expression brightened. ‘You’ll never believe it, but Coco has really stepped up to the mark, since the whole kerfuffle yesterday. She’s really taken him under her wing, in a way she’s never done with Wilfred. I think that what happened with you shocked her into growing up a bit. They are doing some art in the kitchen, Coco’s teaching him about all the different colours and how they go together. She’s brought loads of her art supplies down. She even told him she might go to art college one day, which is an absolute turnaround and a wonderful step forward for her. And you’ll never guess what, V…’

  Sister Veronica looked at her.

  ‘Coco came to find me this morning and actually apologised for her behaviour.’ Florence shook her head, smiling. ‘I couldn’t believe it, she’s never said sorry for anything before. It actually brought tears to my eyes, and I gave her the biggest hug.’

  Sister Veronica chuckled.

  ‘Well, silver linings and all that. Good, I’m glad to hear it. There’s hope for Coco yet then,’ she said.

  ‘Can we open our presents yet?’ Wilfred called from his place next to the tree.

  ‘Soon, darling,’ Florence said, turning to him. ‘Won’t be long now. Gosh, we’re a much smaller party at Chalfield than we started with, aren’t we? Araminta’s told Rufus to st
ay at Steven’s house for the time being. She said she needs time to think about their relationship. She understands why he is so angry about what Giles did, but seems rather disgusted by his behaviour yesterday, as am I, incidentally. Perhaps he’ll take a leaf out of his wife’s book and ease up on the drinking. If not, well, who knows what will happen between them…’

  ‘Good for her,’ Sister Veronica said. ‘Show’s she’s got backbone. Some time apart will do them both good. So who’s left in the house now?’

  ‘Just you, me, Wilfred, Coco, Magnus, Cecily, Barnaby and Araminta. Oh, and Mrs Hardman – who is cooking up a mouth-watering Christmas lunch in the kitchen. Romilly went back home last night with her tail between her legs, and I have a feeling we won’t be seeing so much of her from now on, which will do her children no end of good, give them a chance to start feeling much better about themselves, hopefully. Lucie caught an Uber home early this morning. She’s much happier now, though, after what I explained to her.’ Florence’s eyes twinkled.

  Sister Veronica shifted herself up a bit.

  ‘What do you mean, what you explained to her?’ she said.

  ‘Well,’ Florence said, a smile playing on her lips. ‘I’ve decided to sell Chalfield Hall. It’s the only way forward, and to be honest, as you know, I’ve never really liked the place anyway. It’s a money pit, and has always felt soulless to me, and after everything that’s happened this Christmas I wouldn’t be happy here now anyway. Not with all these memories. Especially since I found out about Giles’ embezzlement and his affair with Cecily. With the proceeds, I can pay off Giles’ business debts, give all his workers their outstanding wages, and pay back Rufus’ investment, and I’ll have enough left over to buy any gorgeously pretty cottage of my choice, plus one for Magnus, Coco and Wilfred. And, of course, a large share will go to Ophelia and Sam, so they can start a fresh new life together.’