The Bluebell Castle Collection

by Sarah Bennett

  What looked to be the remains of a tree filled the far end of the rectangle, its entire mass covered in ivy to the point that tis species was impossible to distinguish. Curious, Igraine went for a closer look, taking care not to trip where some of the flagstones had cracked and come loose. As she neared, she realised the base was too wide to be part of the trunk. Tugging at the ivy, she uncovered what looked to be a stone bench shaped to encircle the tree.

  ‘What have you found?’ Will knelt beside her, his strong hands helping to rip the stubborn ivy free in a matter of moments. ‘This is beautifully made.’

  Iggy brushed her hand over the cool stone, her fingers tracing the carved edge of the bench. She could imagine one of her ancestors sitting out here, relaxing with a book under the shady branches of the tree. ‘What a peaceful little spot this must’ve been back in the day.’ Will only grunted in response, his busy hands tugging and pulling at the ivy stretching away from the base of the bench.

  She watched him for a few moments, assuming he was just caught up in the act of removing the ivy. It was one of those tasks she found hard to stop once she started as there was something so satisfying about freeing spaces that had been smothered by its spreading tendrils. It was why she’d returned to the fountain this morning; the rip and pull was a great way to work off the frustration and anger-and, she could admit to herself now, the disappointment when she’d thought Will had been using his visit to the castle as nothing more than a means to escape some domestic drama or other. ‘I thought we were just taking a quick look,’ she said, her tone teasing.

  ‘There’s something here.’ Will lifted his head briefly, before turning back to his task. ‘I think it’s a dog.’

  Her brain went into full panic mode at the idea one of their beloved pets had somehow found its way into the garden. Scrambling down beside him, she yanked at the ivy. ‘Oh, God, did it crawl through a hole in the wall?’

  ‘Hey, steady, steady.’ Will’s hands closed over her wrists, stilling the frantic motion of her fingers. ‘It’s a carving, a little statue of some kind, not the real thing.’ Relief flooded her veins, so hot and stark she had to sit back on the ground to steady herself from the rush of it. He squeezed her wrists again. ‘I’m sorry if I freaked you out.’

  ‘No, no, it’s fine.’ She gave him a shaky smile. ‘Stupid really to think one of our animals might have got in here, I don’t know why my brain jumped that way.’ The next breath she took was steadier, the one after it almost back to normal. ‘I’m okay.’ She tugged her arms gently to free them from his grip, and he dropped them instantly, the expression on his face telling her he’d forgotten he was still holding them. Not liking the sudden awkwardness between them, she gave him a smile and an encouraging nod towards where they’d been working. ‘What type of dog is it, can you tell?’

  Returning her smile, he shook his head. ‘Not yet, hang on a minute and I’ll find out.’

  She sat quietly whilst he worked, her eyes transfixed by the ripple and roll of his thick shoulders where the movement of his arms pulled his T-shirt tight across his back. This close to him, the difference in their sizes was emphasised, but even with his cropped hair and that scar on his cheek, there was nothing intimidating about him. Though they barely knew each other, she had no qualms about being alone with him, hadn’t even paused for a second before climbing down into this garden without telling anyone where they were going. Her eyes flicked back to where the ladder rested against the wall, before she dismissed it from her thoughts. Will had touched her several times in the past hour, but only out of care and consideration. He’d given no hint his thoughts had strayed into untoward territories, which was more than could be said for the way she was admiring his physique.

  Feeling her ponytail drooping once more against her neck, Iggy adjusted it with a silent sigh. Of course, he wasn’t ogling her. He had shapely blondes like the one who’d been pouting from the inside cover of the newspaper this morning throwing themselves at him. Even if he and Melody hadn’t been dating as he claimed, she was still the kind of woman men fancied. They didn’t lust after women like her with too-big bottoms thanks to years in the saddle, and thread veins on their cheeks from too much time spent out in the sun and the wind. No, she had no need to worry about her virtue around Will Talbot, he was only interested in her professionally. And if that gave her a tiny pang of regret, well, too damn bad. Time to stop daydreaming and get back to the matter in hand. ‘How are you getting on?’

  ‘Almost there.’ Will brushed a last few stray bits of greenery aside, then swivelled on his heels so she could see past him.

  ‘Oh, it’s beautiful.’ Scrambling onto her knees beside him, Iggy touched a tentative finger to the floppy ear of the little statue of a sleek miniature greyhound, or whippet curled into a sleeping ball, its nose resting on its rear flank.

  ‘I think there’s another one here.’ Will pointed to where the end of a carved tail could be seen poking from the ivy he hadn’t yet cleared.

  ‘I wonder why they’re here?’ Iggy couldn’t resist stroking the sleeping dog, marvelling at how the sculptor had managed to render a shape and feel her hand recognised from soothing Nimrod or Bella, the family’s current pair of greyhounds. ‘She’s so lifelike, I keep expecting her to sit up.’

  Will touched a brief finger to the top of the dog’s neck then began to clear the ivy from the second statue. He worked more slowly this time, his big hands gentle and careful as they untangled the knots of vines to unveil a matched partner to the sleeping pup, this one sitting on its haunches, head raised at an alert angle, as though guarding something precious. At first she assumed he was protecting his sleeping mate, but then a glimpse of grey stone behind the pair caught her eye. ‘There’s something behind them.’

  Leaning forward, she pulled more ivy free until the tips of her fingers grazed over an indent in the stone. ‘I think it’s a carving of some kind …’ A handful of ivy came free all at once, the loss of resistance against which she’d been pulling almost tumbling her back onto her bottom. Will grabbed her shoulder to steady her, his fingers tightening to an almost painful grip as the two of them stared at what she’d revealed.

  ‘Oh.’ It was all she could manage before a stinging rush of emotion burned the breath from her lungs. Behind the dogs stood a simple oval marker, the shape clearly that of a gravestone even had it not been etched with heartbreaking lines of text that looked as fresh as if they’d been carved yesterday.

  Here lieth Ector and Kay Ludworth

  Born and died Dec 14 1893

  Thy hearts did not need to beat to steal all love from ours.

  Iggy wasn’t aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks until Will removed one of his gloves to pull a handkerchief from his pocket and hand it to her. She pressed the neatly folded square to her face. The warm, woodsy hint of his masculine aftershave had impregnated the material, and she breathed in deeply to settle herself as she mopped at the tears. ‘Sorry, I don’t know where that came from,’ she said once she knew she could speak in a steady voice.

  ‘It’s heartbreaking.’ His gruff response was enough to let her know how deeply affected he was by what they’d discovered. Wanting to offer him the same comfort she needed herself, Iggy grasped his un-gloved hand in her own. He squeezed her fingers in a brief, hard gesture before slackening his hold so their palms rested easy together. They stayed that way for a few minutes, holding a silent vigil to these babies who though forgotten by the family along the way, had never been alone with their carved companions to protect them.

  With one last stroke of the sleeping dog statue’s head, Iggy untangled her other hand from Will’s and pushed to her feet. Now they’d found the grave, she was reluctant to leave it half-uncovered as it was, but she simply didn’t have the time to give the garden the justice it deserved.

  As though he recognised the conflict in her mind, Will placed a gentle hand on her back and steered her towards the ladder. ‘Once you’ve got everything else sorted, you ca
n come back and restore things here. You know they’re here now, and doing what you can to safeguard your family’s future means they’ll be able to rest here undisturbed forever.’ He was right, but placing her foot on the first rung of the ladder and forcing herself to climb back over the wall was still one of the hardest things she’d had to do in a long time.

  Needing something to distract her from the aching sadness threatening to engulf her, Iggy persuaded Will to leave the ladder secured in the apothecary’s garden and led him along the path towards the castle which led to the servants’ quarters. Now she knew of the twins’ existence, she was even more drawn to his idea for turning the open ground on either side of the path into a children’s learning and activity space. Having this part of the grounds filled with the sounds of laughter and play would be a fitting tribute for those two little souls who’d never had a chance to shine. Her eyes drifted towards the woods farther over on the right and she wondered whether she could find a suitable space there to create a bit of a playground. Something with a rustic feel that would blend in rather than obtrusive metal climbing frames. Put it on the list.

  As they approached the castle, she pointed out features and explaining the general internal layout in more detail. ‘This wing contains the baronet’s apartments,’ she said as they rounded the end of the castle. ‘That’s the dining room where we had breakfast this morning, and you can see here the kitchen and the rest of the servants’ quarters are positioned directly behind it.’ Spotting Betsy, the family cook, bustling around inside, Iggy tapped on the window and gave her a wave which was returned along with a blown kiss.

  ‘You have a fantastic relationship with the staff,’ Will observed as he too gave the cook a quick wave. ‘I was really surprised this morning when you were teasing Arthur and that butler guy joined in. He looked like a real costume drama throwback in his uniform, and I’m not shy to admit it was a bit intimidating when he swept in, like he might tell me off for using the wrong knife or something.’

  Iggy almost laughed, but stopped herself at the last minute. She’d grown up with the protocols and etiquette of the castle and just took everything as part and parcel of normal life-well, what was normal to them, anyway. It’d been a shock to the system when she and her brothers had gone to boarding school and had to learn to fend for themselves. ‘You’ll probably think me terribly spoilt, but when I first went away to school, I didn’t know how to make a bed. It was just one of those things that had always been done for us, and I don’t think it even occurred to our father that we might need to know how to do stuff like that.’

  ‘What about your mum?’

  Iggy bristled, the way she always did the moment the subject of Helena arose. ‘She left when we were tiny, so it was only ever the three of us and Dad. And Uncle Lancelot and Aunt Morgana, of course.’ she amended, quickly. ‘She already lived here, but Lancelot moved back home after our mother ran off with the man who became husband number two.’ She clamped her mouth shut before spilling any more of her family’s dirty laundry. Damn him, he was far too easy to talk to.

  ‘Must’ve been hard for you to grow up without her. I was fourteen when my mum took off. I was old enough to understand why, but it still didn’t make it any easier. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for you to have her there one day and gone the next.’

  ‘I was too young to remember her.’ It was a lie she told herself, a defence mechanism to protect not only her own, but her father’s feelings. As she’d grown older, she’d come to understand the crippling guilt haunting him over the failure of his marriage, and she’d so wanted to reassure him that she’d not needed Helena to feel complete.

  But there were times, even now, when she could remember the feel of gentle hands running a brush through her hair, of the tickle of cashmere against her cheek as a smiling blonde woman gathered her onto her lap for a kiss, of the lingering scent of Chanel No. 5 perfuming the dark air of her bedroom after being told to ‘sleep tight’. Or perhaps she’d made the whole thing up, a collection of false memories invented by a sad, lonely little girl because the Helena she knew was nothing like the gentle woman from those tender moments.

  Feeling Will’s eyes upon her, Iggy forced her chin up and gave him a bright smile. ‘Let’s finish our walk around the castle and then I’ll get you the plans for the gardens. We can go out again tomorrow once you’ve had a chance to study them.’ And she could put some distance between them, get things back on a more professional footing and regain her equilibrium. Her eyes strayed towards the rangy stone buildings compromising the stable block. Yes. She’d get Will settled somewhere and take herself off for a ride.

  Chapter 9

  The sneaking suspicion that Igraine was trying to get rid of him had only grown during the rest of their whistle-stop circuit of the castle. She’d practically dragged him past the enormous round tower abutting the main structure. When he’d wanted to explore it, she’d waved him off without breaking stride, saying there was nothing to see as it was empty inside. He might have thought about taking offence, or at least wondered what he’d said to put his foot in it and make her eager to abandon him, but then he caught his first glimpse of the glass conservatory running along the rear of the castle and he had no room for anything else in his brain other than a desperate need to explore.

  Seeing his eyes light up, Igraine had let him into the conservatory via one of several sets of patio-style double doors and left him to go and fetch the plans. From the first blast of heated air hitting his face, Will knew this was going to be his favourite place in the castle. Heavy scents hung in the air-the rich loamy tang of moist soil, the exotic perfume of tropical flowers, even a sweet hint of banana he could almost taste on the back of his tongue. Intrigued, he began to explore, following the sweetness until he found not the shaggy cascading leaves of a banana tree, but a vine clambering along the back wall, its rich dark leaves interspersed with some of the biggest blooms he’d even seen.

  Stretching on tiptoe, he pressed his nose close to the nearest yellow-gold flower and drew in a deep breath. Vanilla and banana filled his senses, and he needed to close his eyes to try and absorb the complexity of the scent without the visual distraction of the huge flower.

  ‘It’s a cup of gold vine.’ Igraine’s soft voice at this elbow made him jump, and he glanced down at her with a startled grin.

  ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ Reaching up, Will touched a wondering finger to the shiny leaves.

  ‘It’s also a beast. If we don’t keep it in tight check it’d take over the place. Thankfully, some of the former gardeners put together a guide to everything planted in here. It’s been an invaluable guide, though I’ve added a few updates of my own as techniques have modernised.’ She gazed around the room, hands on her hips. ‘Eventually, I’d like to install an automatic watering system, but for now we do it all by hand.’

  The list of things that needed doing seemed never-ending, no wonder she’d been feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to manage everything on her own. ‘Will the new funds stretch to employing some replacement gardening staff?’ As soon as he’d asked it, he wondered if she’d think he was being intrusive. ‘Sorry, that’s none of my business, is it?’

  Thankfully, the smile she turned on him was friendly enough. ‘It’s fine. I was the one who brought up our finances in the first place. And to answer your question, I’d eventually like to set up a small, permanent team here.’

  Her face fell, and he could’ve kicked himself for raising something else on what must be a never-ending to-do list. He quickly pointed to the big roll of documents under her arm. ‘Those must be for me.’

  She handed them over. ‘Are you sure you don’t need me to stay and go through them with you?’

  Will wasn’t sure it was possible for anyone to sound less enthusiastic than she did in that moment. Glancing over her, he noted she’d swapped her jeans for a pair of fitted navy jodhpurs and her work boots for shiny black riding boots. The message was clear, she wa
nted to get out of there. ‘I’ll be fine. Besides, I’m not used to a partner when I’m putting ideas together.’

  ‘Okay. If you have any questions, we can go over them after dinner.’ She pointed to a set of internal doors. ‘The library is just through there if you want some space to spread yourself out a bit. Lucie’s taken over the mezzanine floor, but I’m sure she won’t mind you using the ground floor.’

  ‘Cheers.’ She was still hovering, as though in two minds as to whether she should leave him or not. ‘Go away, Igraine.’

  Her startled laugh chased the pensive look from her face and her step was light as she strode for one of the patio doors. He watched her go, unable to tear his eyes from her sleek silhouette. He’d never been on a horse in his life-hadn’t come close enough to one to touch it. Other than on the television, the only ones he could recall seeing in the flesh was the occasional police horse in central London, and those were definitely not the type you petted-even had he been so inclined.

  She’d probably grown up with it, it was the kind of thing posh people did, wasn’t it? He watched until she disappeared through the arch in the stable block, then turned away. If riding a horse was what floated her boat, so to speak, then good on her. Will was quite content keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

  Following the direction Igraine had given him, Will pushed open the door to the library and called out a greeting. ‘Hello? Lucie?’