Page 109 of A Good Heart is Hard to Find
‘What did Dante say?’
‘He said she could save the histrionics, because he’d already decided to let her hold a seance early this evening, on the understanding that she left the house tomorrow and never contacted him again, no matter what happened at the seance. I was surprised, because he’s so against that sort of thing!’
‘We were talking about it last nighta bit,’ I said. ‘And he feels it would sort of end the chapter if he let her do this one last time. And if anything nasty happens I’ll get Charles – the vicar – to sort it out, don’t worry.’
‘I don’t really believe in that medium stuff, do you?’ she asked. ‘But I do wish I’d never had this idea in the first place! What could I have been thinking of, when I knew how Dante felt about that sortof thing? Although at least by coming here I met Eddie!’ she added on a brighter note. ‘Sosomegood has come of it all.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed, ‘and I think you will be very happy together. You haven’t told Dante what you intend doing yet?’
‘No, we thought – after the guests have gone, you know? How was the haunting? Leo Bream and Frank Shakespeare are setting a camera up tonight in the hope of catchingBetsy on film, and Mrs Bream is going to operate a tape recorder, because they said there was a terrible faint scream just as the figure vanished.’
‘I’ll have to remember that,’ I said.
‘And they saw the figures of two lovers in the rose garden too,’ she added. ‘But not near enough to be clear. Was that you and Dante?’
‘Yes,’ I admitted.
Rosetta brightened. ‘I knew he really liked you! WhenI’m gone you and—’
‘Rosetta, your brother is years younger than me, and he doesn’t like me that much!’
‘He’s thirty-eight, old enough to know what he wants,’ she said. ‘And he’s so different since he met you: you’re good for him. I was afraid for him when he got home from Colombia, he was so desperately unhappy and seemed to blame himself for everything.Iblame a lot of it on Madame Duval.’
‘Mrs Bangs!’
We both grinned.
‘Reg is a nice little man,’ she said. ‘He helped me clear the tables after breakfast.’
‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier to help, but I worked for a few hours after the haunting, then slept in.’
‘Yes, Dante said, and that it was clear any lifestyle adjustments were all going to be on his side.’
I looked at her: ‘You mean, while I’m staying here?’
She shrugged.‘No idea.’
‘Well, what can I do to help you now? And where is everyone? It’s as quiet as the grave.’
Unfortunate turn of phrase! And they were none of them very quiet in any of my books.
‘They’ve all walked into the village together to explore, and then have lunch at the pub, thank goodness. Clara Williams is bringing the birthday cake later that Mrs Bream ordered for her husband’s surpriseparty – tea, cake and fizz in the sitting room at five. I’ve told Dante he’s got to be there, as Lord of the Manor. Will you come, too?’
‘I wouldn’t miss it for the world: Orla’s turning up to do a singing telegram.’
‘Yes, Mrs Bream asked if anyone did them locally, and I told her about Orla. Oh, and your Jason phoned up and saidhe’d be here about four, he’s closing his shop up early today.He’s nice, isn’t he?’
‘Yes he is, but he’s notmyJason – or not any more, I hope!’ I said, and she looked puzzled. However, she often looked puzzled, which was probably what made her a perfect match for Eddie, who understood nothing he couldn’t smoke or fix with his hands and did not care in the least. ‘It was always Orla he really fancied, I just side-tracked him with my kinky vampire gear.’
So I helped Rosetta for a while, and then she went off laden with a basket of vegetarian goodies for Eddie’s lunch, like Little Denim Riding Hood, and I thought I’d go and have a look at the rose garden in daylight to work up an appetite before I raided her supplies for lunch.
The rose garden, a formal affair of gravelled paths and trees like so many green pompoms on sticks, happened to be overlookedby Dante’s study window.
Unfortunately it was also overlooked by one of the wider loops of the drive up which Pa, with a reluctant entourage of Ma and Francis, was proceeding in search of one of his two twin ewe lambs.
He halted abruptly when he spotted me, then veered off into the shrubbery, which swayed wildly as at the approach of some large wild beast.
I cravenly contemplated bolting –but where to? He clearly wouldn’t be leaving until he’d satisfied himself that Jane wasn’t here. Might as well get it done with.
