Page 125 of The House of Hopes and Dreams
They’d listened to him with eyes wide and stunned expressions, but now Nick said quickly, ‘You can’t ring them till we’ve filmed down there!’
‘Why not? You couldn’t use the footage anyway, because it would be too gruesome and horrible,’ I said, with a reminiscent shudder.
‘But maybe Nick’s right and weshouldhave a record of it, Shrimp,’ Carey suggested. ‘Then perhaps later there could be an edited version for the series. And I might as well ring the police now, because they’re hardly going to race up here with their sirens on for an ancient skeleton, are they? It could be days before they turn up.’
‘When they do, they’re bound to notice that there’ve been loads of people down there,’ Sukes pointed out. ‘Perhaps we’d better say we all found it together, like the Famous Five.’
‘Six,’ I said, ‘and Fangy the dog.’
‘Good thinking, Sukes,’ said Jorge, and Carey picked up the phone.
I wasn’t going down those stairs ever again and anyway, Jessie’s little journal in the bonbon tin was calling to me. I wondered why she’d chosen to leave it down there.
Once the others had gone, I settled myself in Granny’s rocking chair by the stove with Fang snoring comfortably, if heavily, on my feet, and began to read.
I’d finished by the time they returned, slightly cobwebbed and over-excited, but it was just as well theywereback, because the police turned up with amazing alacrity and Carey had to descend into the depths all over again.
In fact, he seemed to be doing guided grisly tours all day, though mostly just to the top of the no-longer-secret stairs, before leaving the various officials and experts to get on with it. But finally, once a pathologist had officially declared life extinct (I could have told them that) and the bones very old, the skeleton was taken away for examination.
Carey, of course, hadn’t mentioned the Confession, or Jessie’s diary, for those were family secrets. He’d simply explained that he and his friends had come across the staircase when searching for more priest-holes.
It looked like the whole affair was officially destined to be an unsolved mystery and a gruesome page or two in the guidebook, which would have to be hastily revised before printing.
Nick and the gang had only really meant to call in on their way elsewhere, so eventually they reluctantly tore themselves away, but not before Carey announced that we were getting married.
‘At last!’ said Nick. I don’t know what he meant by that, unless he had a crystal ball.
‘Let Revells commence,’ joked Nelson, in his lovely, plummy deep voice.
‘I only said I’d marry you so I could get out of that hideous cellar. If you love someone, you don’t have to tie the knot officially, just because of some old traditions designed to hand women over like so much merchandise,’ I said stubbornly.
‘I want to tie you to me with as many knots as possible, traditional or otherwise,’ Carey said. ‘I’ll even promise to love, honour and obey you, if you like: you always boss me around, anyway.’
‘I felt just the same as you about getting married, Angel, until Jorgeproposed to me at your party,’ Sukes said, taking me totally by surprise. ‘But I’ll do it, if you will.’
Jorge gave me a pleading look from under his fringe.
‘There we are: you can have a double wedding and we’ll film it,’ Nick said. ‘All sorted!’
‘The film crew filming the film crew getting married?’ said Nelson.
‘And the main subjects of the TV series the film crew are filming,’ agreed Nick. ‘It’ll be awinningepisode – the viewers will love it.’
‘My mother will probably have other ideas about the venue,’ Sukes said firmly.
‘And I’m not sure either of us want to get married just because it makes good TV,’ I said, but I don’t think anyone was listening. Carey certainly wasn’t.
‘I think you should have one of those Victorian rings with a band of coloured jewels that spell out a message,’ he told me, slipping his arm around my waist.
‘Help?’ I suggested, but under the onslaught of his blindingly wonderful smile, the last of my resolve was melting away faster than a snowball in summer.
When we were finally alone again, which felt like the first time for at least a week, I told Carey he should take Jessie’s memoir into the sitting room and read it, while I broke out one of Molly’s seafood paellas for dinner.
‘It’s quite short, so it won’t take you long, but there are a few surprises in there – and one or two disturbing revelations.’
‘Oh, no, I’m not sure I can take any more family skeletons at the moment,’ he groaned, but did as I suggested and had just turned to the last page when I took the tray through, laden with two plates of paella and a couple of glasses of rosé.
‘I see what you mean,’ he said, looking up. ‘I’ve skimmed the earlier bits but read all of it from when she gets to Mossby.’
