The Boat House (27 page)

In the study Richard turned towards her, his face etched with bitterness. ‘So it was her! I should have guessed. Neil’s wonderful mother! It’s a good job he died before the truth came out!’

‘I’m so sorry, Richard. I wish things could have turned out differently. I hope we can somehow soften the blow for the children.’

‘I want her punished for what she did to Leonora but she has managed to escape the net.’ He shrugged. ‘Dying peacefully in her sleep. She didn’t deserve it. Leonora didn’t die peacefully, did she? She was murdered.’

‘No! It was an accident, Richard.’

‘So she says. I think otherwise!’

Marianne regarded him sadly. She wanted to offer words of comfort but nothing she could say would lessen the agony of mind that now burdened him. It was easier for him to hate than to grieve, she assumed, at least for the present.

‘We can’t change the past, Richard. Somehow we have to go on. You still have Leonora’s beautiful daughters. In the circumstances Ida may agree to let them go to America. The sooner the better. She might come with them – she no longer has to care for her sister. They could have a month or so and then return to start their new school in the autumn.’

He frowned. ‘I want to be here for Leonora when they . . . when she is brought up from that damned boat house. To think she has been there all this time and I didn’t know!’

‘Is that how you want to remember her, Richard? Being dragged to the surface of the water. Do you think she would want you to watch something like that? Why not take the girls away from it all and show them America where their mother was brought up? Where she was happy. Where she and Neil met and fell in love. Show them all the family photographs and the family pets. I think your sister would want you to put Emmie and Edie before anything else.’

Marianne saw that he was reconsidering – or hoped he was. She stepped nearer and put her arms around him. He was shaking and she held him closer.

Suddenly he stepped back a little and looked at her. ‘You could come with them, Marianne, instead of Ida.’

She shook her head. ‘Ida would be better,’ she explained. ‘It would be a reconciliation for the two families. Ida was in no way to blame for what happened. She’s a good person.’

Downstairs the telephone trilled and Lorna came up to say it was Donald Watson to speak to her. Marianne gave Richard a quick kiss and a smile. She went down to face the start of what she knew would be two weeks or more of hectic activity involving the police, the solicitors and the coroner’s court, not forgetting Georgina Matlowe’s funeral, which, because of the unusual circumstances, would almost certainly be delayed. She quailed at the thought of it but then told herself firmly that it would, it
must,
eventually come to an end. One day the worst would be over and she had a new life to look forward to.

EPILOGUE

Thursday, 13th June 1913

A
lmost a year to the day later Marianne Watson, busy in the office with the three letters Donald had left her, became aware of a familiar clatter of footsteps on the stairs and paused in her work. There was no knock on the door and before she could call ‘Come in!’ Emmie and Edie erupted into the room with squeals of excitement. Now nearly nine, they looked very grown up in their school uniforms, complete with hats and blazers. They wore navy blue drill slips over white blouses and the badge on the blazer pockets read Dewsbury Girls’ Preparatory.

‘How nice to see you both,’ Marianne cried, holding out her arms for a joint hug. ‘I suppose today was your last day at school.’

‘It is,’ Emmie informed her, ‘but we were allowed to leave an hour early – so here we are! Where’s Mr Watson?’

‘He’s with a client but he’ll be back later.’ She smiled. She felt the usual tug at the heart as she looked at them. She had grown fond of them but, with things the way they were, she now spent little time with them – although the previous week they had spent a day together at the Henley Royal Regatta. Cook had prepared a delicious picnic and Ida, Marianne and the girls had settled themselves on deck chairs on the riverbank, below the Chinese lanterns, from where they could watch all the river craft with their eager passengers. It was a magical day that Marianne would cherish in her memory.

None of them had understood the technicalities of the various races or the vagaries of winds and currents but the atmosphere had been exciting and the four of them had returned home pleasantly weary.

Emmie said, ‘We told our teacher about the regatta and all the races . . .’

‘But we couldn’t remember who won them but Miss Riley said it didn’t matter . . .’

‘And we drew some pictures to take to poor Nan, to cheer her up. Aunt Ida says she hasn’t long to go so we must be very kind to her.’ Briefly Emmie looked suitably chastened but quickly brightened.

Edie lowered her voice. ‘We didn’t tell Cook about her aspic jelly melting . . .’

‘And all the tiny vegetables floating about!’ Emmie giggled. ‘I liked the strawberries and cream best.’

‘I liked the fairy lights on the bridge when it started to get dark. It looked like fairyland.’

Marianne said, ‘Your Aunt Ida tells me you are off to America again soon. Won’t that be wonderful?’

Edie nodded, ‘She is really our great-aunt but if we call her that it makes her feel old.’

Emmie said, ‘We shall see our kitten again – the one Grandmother Preston bought for us . . .’

‘. . . but he’ll be a grown-up cat now,’ Edie reminded her, ‘because we can only see him once a year in the summer holiday.’ To Marianne she said, ‘We call him Stripy because he’s tabby with lots of nice stripes . . .’

‘Like a tiger.’

‘And Mr Barnes has given us a photograph of our mother and father in a lovely silver frame and we can keep it!’

Emmie nodded, smiling. ‘Mother was very pretty and she is holding us both and smiling at our father. Aunt Ida says she was very happy. They both were.’

‘How lovely! Mr Barnes is very kind.’

Emmie nodded then sat down on the client’s chair and adopted a serious expression. ‘We’ve come to see you, Marianne, because we want you to investigate something for us.’

‘Really? And what is it – this “something”?’ Marianne kept her face straight with an effort.

‘Something very strange has happened to our roses – the ones that Grandmother bought for us when we were babies. They’ve moved.’

Edie nodded earnestly. ‘We will pay you out of our pocket money if you take on the case.’

Marianne’s heart missed a beat as she was instantly jolted back to a time she would rather forget. For a moment she regretted having explained her new work to the twins in such detail, but they had been intrigued by her move from The Poplars when she ceased to be their governess.

‘Well,’ she said, playing for time. ‘I’ll ask Mr Watson if we have time but we are very busy.’

Emmie said, ‘The roses have changed places! Aunt Ida thinks we’re imagining things but we’re not.’

Edie regarded her earnestly. ‘We didn’t say they could move. They just did. We asked Mr Blunt if he did it but he shook his head and said it was a complete mystery and when he saw what had happened you could have blown him down with a feather!’

Marianne stifled a groan. Some matters were definitely best forgotten, she reflected, but she now had visions of being asked for the result of the ‘investigation’, as soon as the twins returned from America. Better to nip the idea in the bud now, she decided.

‘We’ll do our best,’ she promised, ‘but I have to warn you that some strange things are so very strange that they are never explained. Never. We investigators call those “unsolved cases”. They are very special cases. It’s like a riddle that can never be solved. Your mystery might be like that.’

Edie looked pleased by the prospect and glanced at her sister. ‘A very special case!’ she said.

At that moment there were more footsteps and Ida appeared in the doorway. She smiled at Marianne but shooed the twins out of the office. ‘We’re off tomorrow,’ she said. ‘Lots of packing to do this evening!’

Marianne said, ‘Have a safe journey and give my kind regards to Richard when you see him.’

‘I will, Marianne, and we’ll see you when we get back. You and Donald must come to tea with us before the girls start school again.’

Marianne listened to their cheerful chatter as they went downstairs. Ida’s life had been transformed and Marianne almost envied her – travelling to and fro across the Atlantic – but then she glanced down at her wedding ring. With a contented sigh, she once more applied herself to the typewriter. She told herself that she was very happy to be where she was and nothing and no one could ever tempt her to be anywhere else.