people. We’ve both heard the horror stories of what can happen when even the postman thinks he’s entitled to his cut.”
“I understand exercising caution, but not when it comes to the Edmondses. They’re the salt of the earth.”
“So Frances steals things!” Ariel gave one of her irritating giggles.
“Not from us.” Betty, looking suddenly deflated, sank down on the chair Tom had previously occupied. “Not once. Never! At other times, with other people, she can’t seem to help herself. It’s Frances’s particular quirk. We all have them.” She seemed pathetically small in the oversized green suit. Even her red hair looked too big. “Stop panicking, Tom. I got Frances calmed down by saying that of course she was welcome at the tea. I’d been concerned she’d find the rest of the company boring.”
“Does that include Ellie and Ben?” asked Ariel, through another giggle.
“Don’t be silly! Why have you still not washed your hair? The real reason I didn’t want them today is I’m afraid they’ll start telling their dirty jokes, and I can’t see that being our two vicars’ cups of tea.”
“Why does that matter if we’re in that disgusting room, with all those naked people on the ceiling?” All merriment had left Ariel’s face. She was back to her most disgruntled self.
“She’s speaking of the conservatory,” Tom said, catching my eye. “I don’t understand either. It’s like being in the Sistine Chapel.”
“Mrs. Cake says it was Lady Fiona’s favorite place to sit,” Betty responded.
“Then she’s disgusting,” blared Ariel.
“Her grandfather had that ceiling painted by a famous artist.” Betty pressed a hand to her brow. “When she married Mr. Gallagher, he thought it needed a little cloud cover, so she had that done. It’s a terrible shame there’ve been leaks from the bathroom above; we’ll need to get a plumber in to take a look, although Mrs. Cake thinks the damage may have been caused by one or the other of the Gallaghers allowing the bath to overflow.”
Betty stood up at the moment Mrs. Malloy came though the door to announce that her poem had ended up being twelve verses long. Did we all want to hear it from start to finish? Fortunately we were spared the solemn responsibility required of critics. Ben said that if there could be an exodus to the dining room he would bring in the food.
Lunch was, as expected, delicious. In addition to the omelets and my desired hubble-bubble, we had tomato basil soup and a spinach salad, followed by a luscious lemon souffle. Would tea that afternoon be an anticlimax? I offered to help with the washing up, but Betty insisted on taking that job. Ariel was given final marching orders to go and wash her hair. Mrs. Malloy, having put on her nylon and lace pinny, asked where she would find the paper doilies. Ben handed them to her. Tom wandered away like Mr. Gallagher’s ghost returning to the place where his body had been buried. I found myself remembering my unease in the west wing, as I crossed the hall to go upstairs and encountered Mavis coming down them with the bucket and mop.
“Hello,” I said, feeling a complete sloth. “Do you get to go home now and enjoy what’s left of Sunday with your family?”
She didn’t return my smile. “My husband’s a locksmith; he gets called out a lot on weekends. It’s always the time when people get stuck out of their houses and cars.” She didn’t add
“They must be relieved when he gets there. Are there any doors he can’t open?”
“Not Ed.” She thawed minimally. “I tell him he must have been a safecracker in a former life, or else it was in this one and he didn’t tell me. But no need to bother about any of that around here. You can walk in for the looking. I hope Ed”-her face closed down as she shifted the bucket from one hand to the other-“I hope my husband isn’t home wanting his dinner. Anyway, I’m ready to leave.” She came down the last of the stairs and brushed past me without answering my good-bye, and I went up to my room.
It was my intention to lie down on the bed for five minutes and think over the morning. But I fell almost instantly asleep and woke to find Ben bending over me, rubbing my shoulder and telling me it was gone two o’clock. Whereupon I staggered up, felt my way into the bathroom with my eyes half closed, and proceeded to splash my face with cold water. By the time I had pulled on a more afternoon sort of dress and redone my makeup and hair, he was gone. Would it be like this all week, I asked my face in the mirror, each of us playing musical rooms so we were rarely alone for any space of time? Was that how we both wanted it for the time being, while we each had other claims on our attention?
In the gallery I met up with Mrs. Malloy, looking resplendent as always, but I focused on the white lace- trimmed pinny.
“You don’t plan on wearing that at tea, I hope?” I said.
“ ’Course I do.”
“You don’t work for Tom and Betty. Admittedly, you’ve agreed to help out, as Ben has done, but to all intents and purposes he’s a guest and so are you.”
“No need to get on your high horse for me, Mrs. H! I know where you and me stand, but it strikes me I’ll get to do a lot more eavesdropping going around the room with a tray than sitting down next to one person.”
“You could be right, although I doubt you’ll get to hear Mr. Scrimshank confide to Lady Fiona that he’s embezzled her money and capped it off by murdering her husband when he became suspicious. That’s not exactly cucumber-sandwich conversation.”
“Well, there’s no telling what little nuggets I’ll pick up. By the way, have you been helping yourself to my toffees?”
“I haven’t been inside your bedroom.”
“Somebody has. The bed looked as though it had been bounced on, and that bag of toffees is half gone. Ariel, I suppose. And her talking about Frances Edmonds being a kleptomaniac. The child needs a good old-fashioned spanking. Still,” she mused soulfully, “like the poet says, a sweet’s a sweet for all that!” Concerned that this was a precursor to her asking if I’d like to hear her “Ode to Melody” in its entirety, I said we should get downstairs. To which she replied she’d take another scoot back to her room to make sure her eyebrows were on straight.
The long case clock was striking three as I reached the hall and came face-to-face with Lady Fiona. Having seen her portrait, there was no mistaking her. She had aged, as is said, gracefully. I explained who I was, and she said I could call her Fiona if I wished. She was very much the way I had imagined she would be at her present stage of life: tall and thin, with good bones, fine eyes, and a vague, drifting way of moving. I sensed that even when talking or listening, she would always be somewhat removed from the scene.
“The little girl opened the door for me and then vanished, saying she had to wash her hair before Mrs. Hopkins chopped off her head and it didn’t matter anymore. Family life is different today, isn’t it? In Nanny Pierce’s opinion, our parents had the sense to keep out of the way until they could make some useful contribution.”
“She said something like that to me yesterday.”
“I really must do something for her, take her out to luncheon this Wednesday; yes, I will mention it to her. I suppose she’ll be here?” Before I could answer she glided down the hall. “Really, I have neglected her sadly in recent months, but I hear she has some young woman living with her now at the Dower House.”
“Her great-niece.”
“I seem to remember there was one-and, I think, a brother. Didn’t turn out well. Gambled or drank to excess. Went to live in Ireland-or am I thinking of another family? The Bledstowes, from Cambridge… yes, I think now it was they. They had a dog that could play the piano.” She was now looking through the open drawing-room door.
“Will we be having tea in here?”
“In the conservatory. Betty thought you would like that.”
“Who? Oh, yes, that will be the new maid. The people who bought Cragstone came into money from an aunt in New Zealand, I believe it was. They’ll be able to take on plenty of help. I do hope they kept Mavis on. She hasn’t had an easy time. I seem to remember she grew up in an orphanage and had to sort rags in order to buy stockings.”
Before she could say that maybe she was thinking of a book she had read-I was pretty sure I knew the one-she drifted on down the hall and I entered the conservatory behind her. There was no one else there as yet, so we had our choice of sofas and chairs.
“I miss Cragstone,” she said. “Particularly this room.”
It
