“Of course not, you idiot! It all went like clockwork. She came back on time, in a bad mood as usual from trudging round the market and not getting the bargains she expected. Usual questions about phone calls and visitors. I dealt with that! I reckon I should’ve been an actress. Theo was brilliant, too. I could see he’d had a marvellous afternoon, but he pretended it had been boring, playing the same old Scrabble and snakes and ladders. He even said he was glad to see her home again!”
“Blimey!” said David. “Who’d’ve thought it? Good old Theo. I might even get a raise if he’s feeling so happy.”
“No chance,” said Rose. “Not while Beattie holds the purse strings. Still,” she added, “if we play our cards right, we might be able to do something about that. Us and Deirdre Bloxham…”
DEIRDRE HAD LEFT the Hall with plenty of time before Beattie returned, and waved a prearranged signal to Ivy as she passed the shop. In due course, Ivy returned to Springfields and found Deirdre waiting for her.
“Ah, there you are,” she said, opening the door of her room. “I’ll order tea. Sit down, girl, you look all of a do-dah.” She walked to the door and peered along the corridor. “Katya!” she called. “We need tea here, and some of your biscuits. Quick as you can, dear,” she added, looking at Deirdre’s expression.
“Was it as bad as that?” Ivy said.
Deirdre frowned. “What do you mean, Ivy?” she said. “It wasn’t bad at all. Everything went without a hitch. It was just such an extraordinary meeting after all these years. I knew he lived at the Hall, of course, and often wondered why I didn’t bump into him round the village. Now I know. That dreadful Beatty woman has forced him into being a recluse, more or less. If he wants to go anywhere, she takes him in the car and sticks to him like glue. Treats him like an invalid, though when I asked him outright what was wrong with him, he said nothing at all. He seemed quite surprised himself when he said he was hundred percent fit, as if it had not really occurred to him.”
“Probably happened gradually. I wouldn’t put anything past that Beatty woman. She’s after his money, I reckon, though quite how she plans to get it, I’m not sure.”
“Not just his money,” Deirdre said, leaning forward confidingly. “He’s sure she’s after him, and I believe him. She never gives up, he says, trying to get more familiar with him. That’s part of the reason he stays in his room out of her way as much as possible. He says it’s easiest to agree to anything she says, so long as it’s not an engagement ring! Do you know, Ivy,” she continued, “I’d forgotten what a really nice man he is, and he has a really good sense of humour.”
Ivy scowled. “GSOH,” she said mysteriously.
“What?”
“You’re not there to be keeping a date from the lonely hearts column,” Ivy said sharply. “You know, GSOH, Good Sense Of Humour. Let’s get on to the Blakes. What did you discover about his affair with our Miriam? And did you talk about the old woman’s murder?”
Deirdre bridled. “Well, Ivy,” she said, “I didn’t actually walk into the room, shake his hand and ask him to tell me about his sexual relations with Miriam Blake. It needed a bit more subtlety than that!”
“You were there two hours,” answered Ivy. “So stop messing about and tell me what you learned.”
“It’s true,” Deirdre said baldly. “Just like today, when Beattie was at market, Theo used to nip down to Blakes’ cottage, and with the old lady’s connivance, would go upstairs hand in hand with Miriam for a spot of rumpypumpy. Do you know what he said, Ivy?”
Ivy shook her head.
“You won’t believe it,” Deirdre began.
“Try me,” said Ivy.
“He said Miriam was good at it. Experienced, he said. Just what a virtual prisoner needed on a Saturday afternoon. He was quite honest about it, Ivy. We had a good laugh, I can tell you!”
“And why did it stop? Did Beattie find out?”
“No, it was the old woman. She blackmailed him. Said she’d tell Miss Beatty what was going on, unless he promised to marry Miriam. He said he seriously thought of topping himself. There seemed no way out. Disaster, whatever he did.”
“So what did he do?”
“It was a brilliant piece of luck,” Deirdre said, helping herself to another of Katya’s biscuits. “He had an anonymous letter, delivered by hand on a Saturday afternoon, and he happened to see it on the mat. When he opened it, it had a message in it that saved his life.”
“Oh, don’t spin it out, girl!” Ivy said.
“It said that the writer had absolute proof that Miriam Blake was Theo’s half sister.”
Nineteen
THERE WAS SOMETHING different about Theo. Beattie had noticed it straightaway, and made a mental note to find out what had happened while she was at market. Outwardly, he was just the same, if a little more pleasant than usual. He’d been lavish in his praise of the strawberry and peach meringue pudding she made for him. “So good of you to remember,” he had said.
But when she thought she might try a small advance and suggest they watched the Antiques Roadshow on television together, he retreated fast, saying he had some important reading to catch up on. “You watch it, Beattie,” he had said with a quick smile. “Let me know if I’ve got anything worth millions!” He had almost run upstairs to his study. She had not seen him so quick on his feet for years.
Now he sat in his comfortable leather armchair, a small lamp illuminating a book which he had no intention of reading. He was daydreaming, remembering Deirdre’s flowery perfume, fancying he could smell it on his cheek where she had kissed him good-bye. He replayed their reminiscences realising that he found her just as attractive as when they first met. What had she thought of him? The signs were good, he decided. She had been firm about her intention of seeing him again. Next Saturday, she said, and he knew then that Rosebud was in on the scheme to deceive Beattie. Hooray! At last, maybe the end was in sight!
He had put the ring in his jacket pocket, ready to replace in the safe. He wouldn’t give it to Rosebud for her birthday after all. A happy grin spread across his face. He might have another use for it.
He began to doze, but was awakened by a sudden thought. He had told Deirdre about his affair with Miriam Blake and the old woman blackmailing him, and his final lucky escape. Had that been wise? It had sounded sordid as he described the episode, and he remembered vividly his own feelings of disgust.
But Deirdre had laughed, hadn’t she? No doubt in her marriage to that garage mechanic she had seen all sides of life. And when he’d told her about the anonymous letter and Miriam being his half sister, she had looked really excited, and wanted to know all the details. All he knew from the anonymous letter, he had said, was that his father, the Hon. John, had employed Miriam’s mother as a cleaner, and required a few extras on the side. Miriam had been the result, and a husband-poor old John, employed on the estate-had been found for her mother in time for the birth certificate, and although he was lazy and a bad influence on the other workers, his job was safe so long as he kept his mouth shut.
With this ammunition, Theo had been able to counter-threaten both Miriam and her mother. He would ruin their reputations with spreading the story of illegitimacy far and wide. As for his own reputation, he knew from experience that the entire village probably already knew about his visits to Miriam. Squire’s privilege, the old blokes in the pub would say with a nudge and a wink. But the letter implied that the secret of Miriam’s biological father had been successfully kept. The old woman had seen at once that they had more to lose than he had, and a truce had been reached. He had, of course, not visited Miriam since.