“A couple of years ago at Christmas.” Her face unfroze and tears melted her blue eyes. “It was such a lovely surprise; usually he gave me a wall calendar. Mrs. Knox said she couldn’t think of anything more thoughtful, but the gloves-navy blue leather-I just couldn’t believe he’d got the fit so right. I’ve always been a little vain about my hands.” She held them out-nicely shaped, with slim fingers and oval nails coated with clear varnish. “Mummy said once that they were the prettiest thing about me.”
How flush with the compliments!
“I know it sounds silly,” Livonia looked more directly into my eyes than she had yet done, “but sometimes on nights when I was feeling down about how things were going with Harold I would take the gloves to bed with me and sleep with them under my cheek. When I set off in the car at a little after two this morning, I wore them not just because my hands were cold but because they made me feel that I hadn’t completely burned my boats. What perhaps I haven’t made clear is that even if by the longest of chances Lord Belfrey chose me for his bride, I wouldn’t agree to marry him. I’d thank him, then tell him he’d be much better off with the runner-up. I just had to-and call it spite, that’s what Mrs. Knox did-show Harold that I’d been his doormat long enough.”
“And quite right, too!” The dog added applause by thumping the floor with his tail.
“But as soon as I set off, all the courage I’d squeezed up by talking to myself for hours began to seep away. I couldn’t believe I was doing something so completely out of character. Yet I kept on driving.” She paused. “I expect you’re wondering why I allowed myself so long to get here, arriving hours before the appointed time, but I was afraid of getting lost-my sense of direction isn’t good and I’m a nervous driver.”
“Did you run into last night’s fog?”
“A few patches of mist, but not enough to terrify me, and there wasn’t a horrible amount of traffic. For once in my life I didn’t make one wrong turn, so there I was parked outside the gates with the sun not yet up. I knew I’d have to take off again before someone looked out a window and came down to investigate and I’d come across as a pitiful idiot. But my legs were shaking and I was afraid I was going to faint.”
“I’ve been there,” I said in heartfelt tones.
“So I got out of the car to breathe in the fresh air, and after a moment took off my gloves to feel if my face was perspiring. I had them in one hand when he,” pointing at the dog, “was suddenly there… racing around me in circles. My head started spinning and I dropped the gloves and he grabbed them up. I tried to tell him to put them down, but nothing came out, and the next second he’d raced off down the drive with them. I suppose I flipped. I was never a runner-Mummy said nice little girls shouldn’t run and even when I had to be in a race at school I walked.”
“Same here,” I said. “I’d have been last either way.”
Livonia Mayberry inched her hand toward mine to touch my fingertips. “But this morning I did run, if you could call it that, and every few yards or so he’d turn back and look at me and I had this mad thought that he was laughing at me-the way I knew some of the girls at the bank did-and I actually screamed at him to stop. Which of course made him take off faster than ever.”
“Bad boy!” I told the miscreant, who abjectly licked my foot, causing Livonia to back up on the bed. “You’re sure he still had the gloves in his mouth at that point?”
She nodded. “We reached the end of the drive, which seemed a mile long, and came to a low wall; he went through an opening and started to go down the slope. It looked steep even in the early morning light, and I could see that there were a lot of stones and rocks among the undergrowth, but didn’t think about wrenching my ankle. All I thought was that if he dropped the gloves down there, I might not be able to find them. The thicket at the bottom looked like a wilderness.”
I was momentarily distracted by the sober realization that this was probably the place where Suzanne Varney’s car had taken its fatal plunge.
“Fortunately, he turned back and bounded off across the lawn. There was no way I could have got near to catching up with him, even if the ground had been level; besides, it was like an obstacle course, with overgrown flowerbeds popping up in front of me. He stopped close to the building, and when I came panting up, I saw the fire escape. He gave a bark that sounded like”-she winced at the memory-“a ghoulish chuckle, and up he went.”
“But wait a minute,” I said slowly. “If he barked, he must by then have dropped the gloves.”
The blue eyes stared at me in stunned amazement. “I didn’t think! I… you know the rest. Harold would say this proves that I shouldn’t be let loose a mile from home.”
“Rubbish!” I said, rising from the bed. “I’m getting dressed and we’re going down that fire escape to find those gloves. I think you do need them for the time being, as a reminder of just how little you got out of your relationship with Harold and how much more is waiting for you now you’ve escaped his clutches.”
“But I can’t stay here. When Lord Belfrey finds out about my foolish antics, he wouldn’t want me as one of the contestants. He’s in search of a sensible woman, capable of keeping her head at all times.”
“I don’t believe he’d blame you an iota for going after your property.” His lordship’s charming… captivating image rose before me. “If this is his dog, he’d be the one making the apologies. Anyway, how’s he to know anything about it if you don’t want him to? I’m not going to tell him and neither, I’m sure, will our naughty friend.”
The dog appeared to take this designation as a compliment.
“You’ve been so kind.” Livonia’s voice trembled. “But I’m still so shaken, I think I’ll have to go back home.”
“Is that what your father would think best? You’ve told me how important it was to him that you make a new life for yourself. Maybe he thought that would mean marriage to Harold, but are you sure of that? What if he hoped you would spread your wings in an entirely new direction?”
She stared at me, her face solemn. “Mrs. Knox says that both Mummy and Daddy would be aghast by my present behavior. But I have the feeling that Daddy always wished that he’d had it in him to take more chances in life. And I don’t think he liked Harold all that much.”
“Then stay for him.”
“Perhaps if you were going to be here for the week.”
The imploring look got to me. If ever anyone needed someone in her corner, it was this woman. Yet even if I were to think about staying on, I couldn’t imagine Ben going for the idea. True, his parents would be more than willing to continue holding the fort at Merlin’s Court and the children would delight in the additional time with their grandparents. My cousin Freddy would cope at Abigail’s on his own. But Ben would not wish to impose any longer than necessary on his lordship’s hospitality. And why would Lord Belfrey want two extra people hanging around during the filming of
“You won’t be alone with strangers,” I said gently. “Your friend will arrive in a few hours with the other contestants.”
“But she isn’t a friend,” replied Livonia. “Suzanne Varney is no more than an acquaintance. Very pleasant but…” She stared at me, obviously seeing the shock in my eyes. “What is it? What have I said?”
There was no getting round it. I had to tell her.
“Dead!” she whispered. “I can’t believe it!”
“But it’s true.” I put my arms around her and felt no resistance. “A terrible tragedy. You, on the other hand, are here with the promise of a future ready to unfold.”
So glib in giving advice! Did the restless spirits of Mucklesfeld Manor already have me in their clutches?
5
W e found one of Livonia Mayberry’s gloves at the foot of the fire escape, or to be more exact the dog-which I had come to think of as Thumper-performed this feat, bringing it to me with a look of undeserved pride. Thanking him profusely, I told him without much optimism to fetch the other one. This command sent him rushing around in circles, and I was about to accept that Livonia and I would have to go in search ourselves when he dashed forward, veered first to the left and then to the right, before returning with the glove dangling from his mouth.
They were, as advertised, navy blue leather. Luckily, they did not appear to have been chewed, but neither did they look as though they had been purchased at Harrods or some exclusive boutique. More likely, I thought spitefully, Harold had bought them on sale in a bargain shop and congratulated himself that Livonia-as had proved true-would be in transports at his thoughtfulness.
