02 - Murder at Dareswick Hall Read online

  ‘I know that you said before that you couldn’t, but I really don’t think it a good idea. As it is we’ve had to keep him away from that awful manservant of Lord Sneddon’s, Ricketts would you believe his name is. Mrs Gooden’s banned Robert from her kitchen because she’s afraid he’s half a mind to take a meat cleaver to him. He’s a thoroughly bad ‘un that one, mark my words. Still, it’s hardly surprising if he takes after his master, is it?

  ‘Now, now, Mrs Hodges, don’t let anyone else hear you say that. I’m not saying that I don’t feel the same way about Lord Sneddon as you do, but we’ve got to set an example to the lower servants you and I, otherwise where would we be?’ He took a pocket watch from his waistcoat pocket, which he consulted. ‘Time to serve dinner, I believe. We don’t want Mrs Gooden’s fine dishes to be spoilt, now do we? And I’m afraid, as I’ve said before, if we could manage without Robert having to serve at dinner tonight then we would. But we are already a man down with Sidney in bed with the flu and Mr Tallow would be sure to drop a dish or two if we asked him to stand in. I’d ask that fellow Ricketts to help out, but I doubt whether he knows one end of a serving spoon from the other, even if we could tidy him up a bit and get him to pass a comb through his hair.’ He bent forward to whisper to the housekeeper in a conspiratorial manner, which Mrs Hodges considered rather unnecessary since there were only the two of them there in the room. ‘I’m going to be counting the silver while he’s here, I can tell you, and keeping an eye on the master’s best port.’

  ‘And I’ll be making sure that the attic door leading to the maid servants’ bedrooms is kept securely locked at all times and all,’ Mrs Hodges said firmly.

  ‘A very wise precaution,’ agreed the butler, ‘particularly after what happened before.’

  Rose looked about her, eager to find any distraction which meant that she would not be obliged to continue her tiresome conversation with Lord Sneddon, which she was beginning to find very tedious. It was a welcome relief when she saw the first course being carried in. It appeared to be white soup, a rich soup made of sweet almonds, poultry and cream, spiced with mace. The footman carefully put the steaming hot tureen on the sideboard to enable him to ladle the soup into the individual bowls which would be served to the guests accompanied by sherry.

  Later, Rose was surprised that she had not seen at the time that it was almost inevitable that disaster would strike. For one thing, she noticed that the young footman, whose task it was to serve the soup, appeared nervous and ill at ease. Crabtree himself was looking on with trepidation, watching the footman’s every movement like a hawk. As was the custom of the day, the footman began by serving the first bowl of soup to Rose as she was on the right of the host. She could not help but notice that his hands were shaking and she turned to study his face which she noticed to her alarm was deathly white. It seemed to her that there was a strong possibility that he might be about to collapse, and she wondered whether she should draw this to the attention of the butler.

  Before she could make up her mind what to do, the footman had passed on to attend to the next diner which should have been the lady on the host’s left, but as this position was currently occupied by Hallam, the next to be served was Josephine. Rose watched as the footman continued to serve straight round the table so that Cedric was served next and then Isabella. It seemed to Rose, scrutinising the footman’s behaviour as closely as she was, that he appeared to hesitate for a moment when he came to serve Lord Sneddon. Everything then seemed to unfold in slow motion and she wondered why she had not cried out a warning, for her eyes had locked for a moment with those of the footman. All at once she knew instinctively what he was about to do for she had been shocked by the look of pure hatred lighting up the young man’s face as he focused his attention on Sneddon. She put up her hand in a futile attempt to distract the footman from his chosen course. He appeared oblivious to her action for, in a moment, he had tilted the dish of hot, steaming soup so that its contents poured into Lord Sneddon’s lap, like water tumbling down a waterfall.

  Lord Sneddon shot up out of his seat immediately with a loud cry of pain, his trousers covered in the thick, creamy soup. The footman looked for a moment stunned as if he could not quite believe what he had done. Quickly he became apologetic, although Rose was certain that the spillage had been no accident. The footman tried to wipe off the worst of the soup from Lord Sneddon’s clothes with a napkin, but his attempts were ineffectual and lacked commitment, resulting in Lord Sneddon waving him away angrily. The baron’s face was purple with rage as he admonished the footman for all he was worth, advising him in no uncertain terms that his services were no longer required and that he was to pack his bags and leave on the morrow at first light. He then proceeded to turn his rage on Crabtree, as if the butler was in some way responsible for the incompetence of his staff.

  Cedric, Josephine and Hallam all acted as Rose would have expected. Not having foreseen the mishap with the soup, they, not surprisingly, all looked shocked that such a thing had occurred. Hallam began pleading with his father in vain on behalf of the young footman. But this was to no avail as the baron was adamant that the footman should forfeit his job forthwith. However, it was Isabella’s reaction to the events that interested Rose most, because it was unexpected. While all about her was confusion, raised voices, and gabbled apologies, with the coming and going of servants as they tried to remove the worst of the mess from Lord Sneddon’s clothing and the chair, Isabella alone remained calm and composed. Rose studied her face closely and, although it seemed incredible considering that the injured man was her fiancé, Rose was sure that the look on her face was one of amusement. Indeed, unless she was very much mistaken, she would even have gone so far as to believe that Isabella had smiled, as if she were laughing at some private joke. Certainly she did not trouble herself to go to Sneddon’s aid. Rather she remained seated, her spoon still in her right hand as if she were debating whether or not it would be seemly for her to continue eating her soup.

  ‘Crabtree, get this man away from me,’ said the baron angrily, pointing to Robert, ‘and get Lord Sneddon’s valet here now to see to his master. You’d better telephone Doctor Brown as well.’

  ‘I’ll be alright,’ said Sneddon, ‘no need for a doctor. But I’ll take your valet, mine won’t be any good at dealing with this.’

  ‘You heard his lordship. Get Tallow here, Crabtree’. The baron looked as if he were about to request Hallam’s help, but thought better of it. ‘Cedric, would you mind helping Lord Sneddon to his room and Crabtree you’d better have Mrs Gooden make up one of her treatments for scalds.’

  Within a few minutes Sneddon was escorted from the dining room between Cedric and the baron’s valet. An uncomfortable silence was left in their wake, broken at last by an outburst from Hallam. ‘Well what did you expect, Father? Isabella, what –.’

  ‘Enough,’ thundered the baron. ‘We can talk about this later in private. In the meantime, I suggest that we finish our soup and then adjourn to the drawing room until Lord Sneddon is able to join us to resume our dinner. You hear that, Crabtree?’ The baron turned to address his butler. ‘Have the cook put back dinner.’

  ‘Yes, my lord.’ The butler departed, fearing that the delay in serving the remainder of the meal was likely to result in it being ruined, which would do nothing to improve his master’s temper.

  Following a restless time in the drawing room where no one was quite sure what to do or say, and where Hallam insisted on standing apart from the others angry and sulky, Cedric and Lord Sneddon finally appeared, the latter in a fresh dinner jacket which looked a couple of sizes too big for him and which Rose guessed probably belonged to the baron. Lord Sneddon stared pointedly at Isabella for a moment, who averted her gaze to study a picture on the wall. He gave a shrug and they all traipsed back into the dining room, taking up their seats as if nothing untoward had happened.

  Chapter Five

  To Rose’s relief the meal resumed without further incident and Cr
abtree’s worry that the dinner would be spoilt proved unfounded. It was late when the meal finished and that, coupled with the baron’s determination to ensure that Hallam was given no opportunity to give rant to his feeling towards Sneddon, meant that port was taken hurriedly at the table while the ladies were still present. Everyone then adjourned together as one to the drawing room for coffee and liqueurs.

  ‘This is all very odd,’ whispered Cedric when he was at last able to snatch a few words with Rose. He took her by the elbow and led her to a velvet covered settee that was located a little away from the other occupied chairs and sofas. They sat down, their heads bent towards each other so that they could not be overheard. ‘Sneddon made remarkably little fuss over that soup incident, which is very out of character for him. And I’ve never seen Hallam be so angry. What can Sneddon possibly have done to him to cause such rage?’

  ‘Hallam appeared very concerned about how Josephine would take Lord Sneddon’s sudden appearance,’ said Rose. ‘Do you think it could be something to do with her? Didn’t Sneddon say anything to you while you were helping him upstairs to get changed and have his wound seen to?’

  ‘Not a thing, which again is not like him. I know we did not part on the best of terms, but I would have expected him to say something. But he hardly uttered a sound. He seemed totally engrossed in his own thoughts. I suppose he must have been in shock, not to say some pain.’

  ‘Was he hurt? That soup was jolly hot.’

  ‘No, at least not badly. A scald rather than a burn, I think.’

  ‘And that’s another thing, Cedric, the footman did it deliberately.’

  ‘What!’

  ‘The footman dropped the soup on Sneddon on purpose. I saw him do it. You should have seen the look on his face, it was pure hatred.’ Rose shivered at the recollection. ‘What could Sneddon possibly have done to make the servant hate him so? What’s more, I think the butler half expected something of the sort to happen; he was keeping his eyes trained on the footman throughout dinner.’

  ‘Well I never! And how jolly observant of you. Well, the poor fellow’s lost his job over it now, whatever his reasons for doing what he did. And what’s more, he’ll have difficulty getting another position without a decent reference.’

  ‘Yes, the baron did seem very angry about it. It’s funny, isn’t it, that he appeared to be the only one delighted by the news of his daughter’s engagement. I suppose he’s pleased that his daughter is marrying so well and will become a duchess.’

  ‘Now you come to mention it, Isabella didn’t exactly look that happy herself about it all. I’d have thought she’d have been in her element at the prospect of marrying the heir to a dukedom, even if it meant marrying old Sneddon. But she was quiet as anything at dinner. She hardly exchanged a word with me, although I noticed she and Sneddon were whispering together a lot of the time.’

  ‘She did seem very detached from it all,’ said Rose, looking over to where Isabella sat perched now on the edge of a Queen Anne chair, her hands clasped in her lap with her head bowed. She looked to Rose as if she was trying to shut out the world. Certainly her posture deterred anyone from going over to speak to her. Even Sneddon only glanced at her a couple of times before walking over to engage in conversation with the baron. She looks miserable, Rose thought, miserable and dejected. Clearly something was very wrong. Aloud to Cedric she said:

  ‘I think Isabella was quite pleased when the soup got poured onto Sneddon’s lap. I think she thought it was funny, even though he could have been quite badly hurt.’

  ‘Yes, it’s all quite strange,’ said Cedric, wearily. ‘But let’s not get involved in it at all if we can possibly avoid it. I want us to enjoy ourselves while we’re here and make the most of spending this time together. Goodness knows we deserve it after what we went through at Ashgrove. I only hope that Sneddon’s arrival won’t spoil everything. That man does have a tendency to put a dampener on things. At least Hallam’s stormed off to bed in a mood. I didn’t fancy having to spend the whole evening trying to keep those two apart, particularly if Hallam had decided to drown his sorrows in drink, which would only have worsened his temper.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Crabtree, truly I am,’ said Robert, the young footman. He was sitting at the table in the servants’ hall, his head in his hands, close to tears.

  ‘I don’t believe a word of it, Robert,’ the butler replied harshly. ‘I could see it in your face the moment we walked in the dining room that you had it in mind to do something. I never dreamed though that you’d be so irresponsible as to pour boiling hot soup onto his lordship’s lap. Whatever were you thinking of, man? You could have burned him good and proper. You’re jolly lucky that Lord Sneddon didn’t make more of a fuss about it. Otherwise you might be seeing the inside of a prison cell rather than just losing your position.’

  ‘That’s ‘cos he knew he was in the wrong. It was his guilty conscience see, he knew it was the least he deserved.’

  ‘That’s as may be, Robert, but it seems to me that the only one who has really suffered by this act of stupidity of yours is yourself. How’s your mother going to manage now with no money coming into the house, what with your brothers still at school?’

  ‘I need this job, Mr Crabtree, I can’t afford to lose it,’ the footman cried desperately. ‘Please say you’ll have a word with the master.’

  ‘You should have thought of that before you did what you did,’ replied the butler huffily. ‘His lordship wants you off the premises before first light tomorrow, you heard him.’

  ‘Oh, leave the boy alone, Mr Crabtree,’ pleaded Mrs Gooden, the good-natured, rotund little cook, placing a cup of tea before the footman which he gulped down greedily, almost burning his mouth in the process. ‘We’re lucky Robert didn’t see fit to stick a knife in Lord Sneddon after what he did. The boy’s young and I daresay a bit headstrong, but he only did what we’d all have liked to have the courage to do. Why, I had half a mind to put some poison in Lord Sneddon’s soup myself, if I could have been sure that he’d have drunk it and nobody else and I’d have got away with it.’

  ‘Mrs Gooden!’ Crabtree was clearly appalled.

  ‘All I’m saying, Mr Crabtree, is that we all know why Robert did what he did and that Lord Sneddon deserved a great deal worse. He got off likely if you ask me. It ain’t fair that we’re expected to wait on the man. He’s a murderer, that’s what he is, as good as!’

  ‘That’s as maybe, Mrs Gooden, and I don’t say I disagree with you morally speaking. But while we’re in the employ of the master we must attend to his guests as best we can and that means not trying to maim or kill them!’ He turned to Robert and took in his tearstained face and red, swollen eyes. Despite his fine words, he felt a great deal of sympathy for the young man. ‘I daresay his lordship spoke rather hasty. Who’s to say that, when he’s had a chance to calm down and think it over, he might not be encouraged to change his mind, particularly if we can persuade him that it was a genuine accident? In the meantime, Robert, keep to the kitchen and servants’ quarters. I’m sure that Mrs Gooden and I can find you some jobs to keep you busy and out of mischief. But don’t you go causing Lord Sneddon any more harm, mind, otherwise you’ll be out on your ear.’

  ‘Yes, Mr Crabtree, thank you Mr Crabtree.’

  While the other servants went their various ways to complete chores before they called it a night, the young footman remained seated at the table, looking at the dregs of tea in his teacup. He had given the butler his word but he had no qualms about breaking it. His eyes took on a steely glare and his hands gripped his cup so tightly that he almost broke the china. He wondered whether or not he had the nerve to carry it through; he wondered if he had the nerve to kill Lord Sneddon.

  Chapter Six

  ‘Come in.’

  ‘Oh, Josephine, it’s you,’ said Isabella in a resigned voice, glancing over her shoulder as her sister came into her room. She had been studying her face critically in her dressing table mirror.


  ‘Who were you expecting?’ asked Josephine coldly, hovering by the door for a moment before she closed it quietly behind her. ‘Hugh?’

  ‘Oh, you, I suppose,’ replied her sister in a bored sort of voice. ‘I might have known you’d take the first available opportunity to come and berate me. Well, let’s get it over with then; it’s late, I’m very tired and I want to go to bed.’

  ‘What on earth were you thinking of, Isabella, bringing Hugh here?’ Josephine enquired flopping herself down on the bed and glaring at her sister’s reflection in the mirror.

  Isabella swung around in her seat, angrily. ‘It’s not all about you, you know. This is my home too. I can bring whoever I want here. I don’t have to ask your permission even if you do pretend to be the mistress of the house. Father doesn’t mind I brought Hugh, he’s delighted, you saw him tonight.’

  ‘Yes, I did. That was a clever move on your part. Was it your idea or Hugh’s to send him in to Father’s study to announce your engagement? You knew you’d get short shrift from us all otherwise.’

  ‘Well, I still did, didn’t I? Hallam made a complete fool of himself, and in front of Cedric and his shop girl too.’

  ‘Her name’s Rose, not that you’d bother to find out. Is she beneath you?’ Josephine put a hand to her forehead, as if she had the beginnings of a headache. She suddenly looked very tired. ‘Let’s not argue, Issy. I just want to understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. And anyway, I wasn’t thinking about me, I was thinking about Hallam.’ Not that you’d care about my feelings anyway, she was tempted to add, but didn’t. It would only lead to a row and it just wasn’t worth it. ‘Didn’t you think how he’d feel at you bringing that man down here after everything that’s happened?’