Page 4 of The Secrets of Ashmore Castle

‘Dead?’ The rector was startled.

‘That’s what Josh heard, sir.’

‘Good God!’ the rector said blankly. Just as it had in Lady Stainton’s mind, a flood of consequences and ramifications cascaded through his thoughts. The earl, dead? He pulled himself together. ‘I had better go straight there.’ He craned out of the window to address his coachman. ‘Deering, drive to the Castle.’

Deering, who had heard everything, of course, was ready. He winked at Axe – an inappropriate gesture, the smith thought – and touched the bay with the whip. As it sprang forward, Axe heard the rector mutter, ‘What a terrible thing,’ as he wrestled the window up.

Terrible, Axe thought, as he turned back to the forge and the waiting carthorse. And surprising.

Rachel finally got up the nerve to ring, and they waited in trepidation for it to be answered. No-one had come near them and, going frequently to the door to listen, they had found the house remained ominously quiet. They were sure now something was wrong.

‘We should go down and find out,’ said Alice, always the bolder of the two.

But Rachel was the obedient one, too sensitive, hating to be in the wrong, hating to be told off. ‘Better not. They’d send for us if we were wanted,’ she said.

And at last someone came – not Daisy, who had been their nursemaid and was now the housemaid who generally saw to their needs. It was the head housemaid, Rose, tall, thin, hawk-nosed and always rather daunting, who came in bearing the tea-tray. She regarded them with an unsmiling face – that was nothing new – but with a hint of sympathy in her eyes that was unsettling.

‘Your tea, young ladies,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid you got forgotten in all the fuss.’

‘Where’s Daisy?’ Rachel asked.

‘Couldn’t say, my lady, but she’ll be in trouble when she turns up.’

‘What fuss?’ Alice picked up the word. ‘What’s happened?’

‘I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for you,’ Rose said. ‘His lordship’s had an accident, out hunting.’

‘Father?’ Rachel said. She reached blindly for Alice’s hand.

‘He had a fall,’ Rose went on. ‘I’m afraid he’s dead.’

She turned her back on them while she set out the tea on the low table by the fire, giving them time to absorb it. Neither of them made a sound. ‘Everything’s at sixes and sevens downstairs,’ Rose said, taking a normal tone, which she thought would help brace them. ‘I had to make your tea myself. Mrs Webster’ll have something to say about it when things settle down. There’s no excuse for not following routine. I did you boiled eggs. There’s no muffins – Cook didn’t make any – but there’s extra toast, and I brought the good strawberry jam. You must be starving.’ She turned at last and saw them still stiff and staring, not knowing – she suspected – how they were supposed to react. ‘Eat your tea. Going hungry won’t help,’ she said. ‘That’s a poor-looking fire. I’ll make it up for you.’

‘There’s no coal,’ Alice said, her voice sticking in her dry mouth.

Rose tutted. ‘That Daisy! I don’t know! Well, come and have your eggs, anyway, before they go cold.’

It was good to have someone tell them what to do. They came and sat, watching blankly as Rose poured the tea.

Alice found her voice, afraid Rose would leave before she had had time to ask anything. ‘How did it happen?’

‘The horse came down, jumping over a big hedge, was what I heard. Jupiter, is that its name? His lordship took a bad fall and broke his neck.’

Rachel made a little sound, an indrawn gasp. Rose’s words seemed to run round the room in a soundless whisper, a little rustling ghost phrase, like mouse feet or dried leaves: broke his neck … broke his neck.

Rose gave a little shiver. Goose walked over my grave, she thought automatically.

At last Alice asked, in a small voice, ‘Do you think … Did it hurt?’ She looked at Rose, her eyes wide and appealing. ‘Does it hurt, dying?’

To anyone else, Rose would have answered, ‘How should I know?’ But she felt unaccountably sorry for the young ladies – daughters of a great house, yes, but the least considered of anyone in it. Shut away up here and kept quiet until they were old enough to be married off – like goods for the market that had to be kept unmarked so’s they’d fetch the best price. So she said, ‘I don’t suppose he’d have known anything about it, my lady. It’s quick, is a broken neck. One second you’re alive, the next you’re dead. No pain at all.’

Rachel reached the end of a train of thought. ‘Mama,’ she said. ‘Shouldn’t we go to Mama? She must be …’ The word upset was the only one she could think of, and it didn’t seem appropriate. Not nearly dramatic enough. How did you feel if your husband was killed suddenly?

‘She’ll be far too busy for you,’ Rose told her firmly. ‘You’d only be in the way. Much better stay here until sent for.’ She saw it was an answer that comforted them, and headed for the door, shrugging them off with relief.

But Alice stopped her as she opened it with another question. ‘Where is he?’

‘In the small dining-room,’ she answered reluctantly. She did not want to get involved with the details. Folsham the undertaker had brought a temporary coffin with him, not having anything grand enough for the earl until it was made specially, and it was positioned on the dining-table, a purple cloth under it and another over. Folsham had brought those, too. There it stood while decisions were made.