‘Yes, my clever dear, but you were wise enough to know to appear mute whenever you visited. It is my belief that, at times, young children, faced with dire threat, develop their intelligence with great rapidity in order to deal with the situation. Even at that age, you were wise enough and witch enough to know in what danger you were, each time you were left here. A very, very bright little girl. The payoff, of course, was that in other ways you did not develop,’ Senara observed dispassionately. ‘In short, we knew that in some ways, you would never grow up.’
‘Oh dear,’ replied Amanda sympathetically.
‘But then one day your grandfather said he didn’t think you needed to and would do extremely well with some of the adult odds and ends missing.’
Amanda laughed. ‘Yes, that does sound just like Grandpa.’
‘And he’s at the gate. Come on, let us leave this place. Done your job?’
‘Yes. I don’t think I’ll mention the area beneath us, when I give these plans back to Mr Keast.’
‘Quite,’ agreed Granny, as her granddaughter locked the front doors behind them.
Beyond the gates, they found the men leaning on their cars and chatting. Trelawney had returned after an hour and a half, just in case. He was finding it much easier to engage with the transitioned Perran without the intimidating presence of Senara.
‘Grandpa! Is that a Rolls Royce? Very fine.’
‘Come to get your Granny in style. Must be off, bian. We’ve got a daffodil show to go to.’
‘See you both in due course,’ Senara added with a wave, as they disappeared, in more than one way, down the road.
Trelawney and Amanda got into the Mondeo.
‘Before I ask you how you got on,’ said the inspector, ‘my father has invited us for dinner, and your Uncle Mike too. If that’s too much for you …’
‘Well …’ She felt at first overwhelmed by the idea of meeting Mr Trelawney but then … ‘Of course. It’s most kind and will give me a chance to thank your father for his kindness and hospitality. And I want to tell Uncle Mike what’s happened.’ Amanda suddenly got out of the car.
‘What’s wrong, Miss Cadabra?’ called the inspector ‘Have I said ...?’
But she was pointing to the grey feline slinking through the Cardiubarn Hall gates as though he owned the place. Amanda opened the back door and Tempest settled himself on the seat.
‘Sorry, Inspector. Yes, let’s go to Trelawney House, shall we?’
‘“Trelawney House”? How grand-sounding. My father’ll like that!’
Kytto received a polite handshake and heartfelt thanks from Amanda. Mike got a hug, and everyone acquired a glass of sherry handed out by Thomas.
Amanda accepted hers appreciatively. ‘Thank you. I rather think I need this!’
‘Yes,’ agreed Thomas. On the way, she had furnished him with a short version of the revelations she had received, in the depths of Cardiubarn Hall.
‘Dinner’s not quite ready, but shall we sit down?’ suggested Kyt. ‘Miss Cadabra, do you have news? Are you comfortable with telling us?’
‘Er yes … You see … I was really, very lucky.’
‘Yes, I feel that way whenever my father tries to poison me,’ Trelawney chipped in.
‘Hush, Thomas,’ replied Kyt, suppressing a smile.
‘Go on, Amanda,’ encouraged Hogarth.
‘But I was. You see, normally, according to the Cardiubarn custom of disposing of anyone undesirable, they would have simply bumped me off. However, thanks to Granny and Grandpa’s involvement and my allowing them to think I was mute and ninepence to the shilling into the bargain, they didn’t have to do that. I remember someone saying, down in that crypt place, it would have been an unnecessary complication.’
Amanda was gathering confidence in addressing her audience. She was now speaking with a brightness that Trelawney senior was finding fascinatingly incongruous, if a little disorientating.
‘So instead,’ she continued animatedly, ‘they did something really quite ingenious. They cast an asthma spell on me that would not take immediate effect. Instead, it struck some time later. The idea was that I would pop my clogs in hospital and it would, of course, be recorded that I’d done so of natural causes. Job done, all right and tight, as Humpy would say,’ she added as an aside to Trelawney.
‘But my dear,’ interjected Kyt, greatly moved. ‘This is appalling. You must have been deeply distressed by the revelation that … that your own parents were involved in an attempt to … to murder you!’
Amanda considered this for a moment with her head titled to one side.
‘Well, if I’d known they were my parents or had been in the least bit attached to them, I dare say I should have been most put out.’
‘Put out?’ Kyt looked at her in bemusement.
‘Yes. If,’ she continued, feeling further explanation was called for, ‘my grandparents had made a sorcerous attempt to put me out of existence, then it would have quite traumatising.’
Although, Amanda reflected, if it had been Granny, I’m sure she would have succeeded first go, to give credit where credit’s due. She went on aloud,
‘However, thanks to some vestige of physical resilience or the love and efforts of Granny and Grandpa, I failed to realise the family’s expectations and breathe my last. So … what were the Cardiubarns to do? There was only one thing that could be done: recall me to Cornwall and the Hall and finish the job, maybe by topping up the spell. So, then Granny got the letter telling her to take me back to them. Consequently, she had to act. And the rest is history. But I haven’t come to the most startling thing.’
Ding!
‘Ah, that’s the timer for the first course,’ explained Kyt. ‘Please don’t let me miss anything’ He looked at his son in a marked manner, ‘Thomas, give me a hand?’
Chapter 55
Popping The Question
With the kitchen door closed and the first-course soup on the hob switched off, Trelawney senior turned to his son.
‘Is she always like that?’
‘Sorry, Dad?’
‘So ... so sanguine!’
‘About her family trying to dispatch her? Frankly, yes. It’s one of
