CHAPTER FIVE

Kathryn leapt towards the limp figure of Sir Edwin but before she could reach him someone gave a shout and came running. Sir Edwin was beginning to stir as Michael Carey reached his side. The coach driver was there, too, but Andrew seemed to have melted away.

Michael slid his arm round his employer for support. To Kathryn’s relief Sir Edwin insisted on struggling to his feet.

‘A chair,’ said Michael.

There was one inside the front door. Kathryn fetched it quickly and then went back into the house. Lady Hewson looked up from her embroidery with a smile as Kathryn opened the door of the den. ‘Our visitors have arrived?’

‘Sir Edwin was there to meet them,’ Kathryn said, forcing herself to speak calmly. ‘He’s sitting out there now. He’s going to be all right, Lady Hewson, but he had a little fall.’

‘Oh dear.’ Lady Hewson stood up shakily. ‘Then I must go to him. Don’t look so woebegone, dear. He trips sometimes. He’s getting older you know.’

‘It’s happened before?’

‘Not for a little while but we’ve grown quite used to it.’

Surprised at Lady Hewson’s calm reaction Kathryn accompanied her outside. Sir Edwin smiled as he saw them. Kathryn still felt shaky but, ashamed of her weakness, looked round for Michael.

Michael joined her. ‘We can carry this off, the two of us, don’t you agree?’ he asked quietly. ‘Can you cope with coffee now?’

The confident smile he gave her was the incentive she needed. ‘Yes, of course.’ With a glance at Sir Edwin’s retreating back as he and Lady Hewson made their way indoors, Kathryn turned to the group. ‘If you like to follow me,’ she said, smiling. ‘Coffee will be served immediately.’

Later, in the large kitchen, Kathryn had time to think of Andrew Hewson’s angry rejection of her idea about the renovating of the cottages. True, she had mentioned it just as the coach was arriving but Andrew had dismissed it at once with angry words. Maybe he was the kind of person who didn’t like interference in his or his relations’ affairs and considered it no business of hers.

Deep in thought, she drummed her fingers on the edge of the table. She looked up, startled, as Michael approached. He shrugged himself out of his jacket and placed it on the back of a chair. ‘How goes it?’ he asked.

‘Fine. I think everyone’s finished coffee now,’ she said. It felt good to have him here, part of the team the two of them made to keep things normal.

‘No hurry,’ said Michael, eyeing the plate of biscuits.

‘Help yourself,’ she said. ‘Coffee?’

He picked up a cup and held it towards her to be filled from the large pot. As he took a sip he glanced, frowning, at the window. ‘I hope the rain’s going to hold off,’ he said. ‘I understand everyone’s brought picnic lunches to eat at the tables in the grounds.’

‘What shall we do if it doesn’t?’

He glanced round the crowded kitchen. ‘There’s not much room in here.’

‘The conservatory?’ she said. ‘I know it’s a mess but I can work on it while you’re on your tour of the gardens.’

She was rewarded with a grateful smile. ‘If you’re sure.’

‘No problem,’ she said easily. ‘I’ve prepared a tray for the Hewsons. I’ll take it along now.’

‘You’ll need an extra cup,’ he said.

‘Andrew?’

‘Dr Duncan.’

She looked surprised.

‘Just called in as he was passing,’ Michael said. ‘Or so they believe. Andrew got on to him straight away, as he always does when something like this happens.’

‘Andrew did?’

Michael nodded. ‘Dr Duncan’s a family friend of long standing and he likes to check up on things at Bulbury Knap. He’ll arrange for any tests he thinks necessary, you can be sure of that. One day he’s going to suggest stopping these coach parties as being too much for Sir Edwin.’

Kathryn paused as she picked up the tray. ‘Andrew was shouting at me as the coach arrived,’ she said. ‘It might have been the shock of that.’

‘Andrew was shouting at you?’ Michael sounded so stern that one or two people glanced their way. ‘So how could that have been your fault?’

‘I’ll tell you later,’ Kathryn said hurriedly, escaping with the tray.

Dr Duncan was in the den with her employers just as Michael had said. He was standing up and preparing to go when she went in. Seeing the tray he sat down again.

‘Thank you, dear,’ said Lady Hewson. ‘So kind. Richard, you’ll have coffee with us? This is Kathryn who is looking after us at the moment.’

Dr Duncan smiled warmly at her. ‘Hello there, Kathryn,’ he said.

Clearing the conservatory took longer than Kathryn anticipated. The rain was beating down on the glass roof by the time she had finished and puddles were beginning to form on the crazy paving slabs outside.

There were pegs in the passage that would be useful now and the drips from the jackets wouldn’t hurt the stone floor. She had the kettle on for more hot drinks by the time Michael came in with the first group.

‘The others won’t be long,’ he told her, pulling off his wet jacket. Rivulets of water streamed down his face and he pulled out a handkerchief and mopped it.

Kathryn took the jacket from him, glad that the first arrivals looked content in spite of the weather. But perhaps true gardeners took no heed of the rain, she thought, marvelling at their stoicism.

Once everyone had finished eating and had drunk the tea and coffee Kathryn provided there was a move on. Most of them hadn’t completed the tour of the grounds and decided to ignore the weather and do so while they had the chance.

At last Michael came back from making sure everyone was aboard the coach when it was time for it to depart.

She washed the last of the coffee mugs and dried her hands on the towel. ‘No sign of Andrew?’ she asked.

Michael shook his head as he glanced at his watch. ‘I have to be back home in twenty minutes for school coming out. Mrs Pearce, our child minder, is having the day off. The rain’s stopped. Fancy a walk across to my place while you tell me why Andrew instigated a bit of a scene you told me about? I can offer you tea and biscuits with Tom and Neville.’

Kathryn hesitated.

‘You deserve a rest,’ he said, at once understanding her reaction. ‘I happen to know Sir Edwin’s resting at the moment. They’d hate to be thought slave drivers, you know.’

Michael’s cottage was less than five minutes walk away and during that time Kathryn filled him in on what had caused Andrew’s outburst when the coach arrived. Michael’s brooding silence disturbed her.

She could see Michael’s cottage now in its small front garden bright with tulips. The paved path to the low front door looked freshly swept. The door stood open.

‘Ah, my boys are here already,’ he said.

They came running to meet their father and he scooped them up in a tight hug. As he released them the elder one looked at Kathryn, his blue eyes so like his father’s.

‘This is Tom,’ Michael said, ruffling his son’s fair hair.

‘Hello, Tom,’ Kathryn said.

‘And I’m Neville,’ said his brother. ‘I’m nearly as big as him but I’m only six.’

‘I very nearly thought you were twins,’ Kathryn said, smiling at them both.

Tom gave a snort of laughter. ‘No way. We’re nowhere near alike. Our hair’s different. Neville’s is nearly black.’

‘Let’s get inside,’ said Michael. ‘Drinks and biscuits all round and then Kathryn and I have some talking to do.’

‘So,’ he said as soon as the boys had escaped to the other small front room to watch television. He walked ahead of her carrying the tea tray and with his elbow flicked on the light switch. The room, illuminated, looked cosy. Outside a small branch tapped against the windowpane. ‘I can’t see anything wrong with that idea of yours. It makes perfect sense to me now you’ve raised the subject.’ He placed the tray on a small table he hooked into position with his foot.

‘Andrew is dead against it,’ Kathryn reminded him as she accepted a cup of tea.

Pouring his own, Michael looked as if he was giving the matter serious thought. ‘I’ll take a look for myself tomorrow,’ he said.

‘Do you think that the garden clubs are too much for Sir Edwin?’ she asked.

‘Not if he’s sensible and allows me to take some of the strain. But Sir Edwin and Lady Hewson are so interested in people who come, so keen to see their appreciation. They enjoy it all so much.’

‘I can see that,’ Kathryn said.

‘Andrew is always pushing for Sir Edwin and Lady Hewson to give the place up.’

‘And move away from Bulbury Knap?’ said Kathryn with feeling. ‘They’d hate that.’

‘They would indeed,’ said Michael. ‘Andrew feels responsible for them, of course. Where is he now, by the way?’

‘He’ll have gone by now, I expect,’ said Kathryn, hoping it was true. So much had happened already today she couldn’t face more recriminations. ‘He only came for the day and didn’t want an evening meal.’

An outburst of shouting came from the other room. Michael got up to investigate and Kathryn glanced about her. The big round table pushed to the wall to give room for the three easy chairs was so highly polished it gleamed. Between two shining copper pots on the mantelpiece were several photographs of the boys at various stages in their young lives. Kathryn got up to take a closer look and saw that another photograph, slightly behind the others, was of a younger Michael with a young girl whose lively expression was so like Neville’s mischievous one that she smiled to see it.

‘The boys’ mother,’ Michael said, returning.

Kathryn jumped, feeling awkward as she sat down again.

Michael cleared his throat as he seated himself too. ‘She died giving birth to Neville.’

His tone was so final that she could only murmur something inadequate half beneath her breath. She knew instinctively that it would be an intrusion to offer sympathy and he wouldn’t welcome it. She wondered if he had been living here at the time in this lonely cottage when he was left with two small sons.

Michael seemed to shrug off any sad feelings. His smile was warm as he talked some more of the empty cottages that used to house employees in the old days and had long been empty and disused. ‘There’s no reason that they couldn’t be used again,’ he said. ‘It wouldn’t take a big outlay to fit them up into holiday accommodation. It would be change of use, of course, but I can’t see the planners objecting.’

‘There’s so much to do, so much to think about,’ Kathryn said. Then, in case he thought she was complaining she added, ‘I love the quietness and the beauty of it all here at Bulbury Knap.’

He looked very quietly pleased. ‘You do?’

‘My mother will love it too, when she comes.’

‘How is she?’

‘Enjoying being with Helen, my sister, down in Cornwall. She’s glad to be able to keep an eye on things and not let Helen do too much now she’s expecting another baby.’

‘So it’s working out well all round?’ he said with satisfaction.

‘Perfectly,’ said Kathryn, feeling her eyes cloud at the sudden thought of Nick and the reason it was so convenient for her to be here. She hadn’t thought of Nick all morning, not until now in fact and it was the middle of the afternoon. ‘I’d better get back,’ she added, standing up.

Michael stood up too. ‘I’ll walk you back. The boys will be all right for a little while.’

The distance seemed shorter to her now the route was familiar. In no time they had reached the gate to the pathway through the trees and were walking across the grass to the drive at the front of the house.

Someone, in jeans and a green sweatshirt with a rucksack on his back, was standing looking up at the front of the building.

Michael stopped abruptly. ‘A visitor,’ he said. ‘Or has someone lost his way?’

Iain, of course! Helen had warned her that he might show up at Bulbury Knap in due course and now he was here. Kathryn rushed forward to greet him, delighted he had taken the trouble to seek her out.

‘Iain!’ she cried.

He caught her to him in a warm hug and then let her go again. She looked round for Michael but he had gone. ‘Thanks for moving out to allow room for Mum,’ she said.

The smile Iain gave her made him look years younger than his thirty years. ‘It gave me the incentive I needed to take to the open road with an objective in mind,’ he said cheerfully.

Even though he had often changed direction in his life and seemed content at the nomadic life he’d willingly embraced for her mother’s sake Kathryn was grateful to him for making it sound so easy and uncomplicated. This project of Iain’s was only last in a succession of job choices and sounded the best yet. She wondered if he’d started writing his book.

‘And now I’ll be able to report that all is well here,’ Iain said. ‘I take it that’s so?’

Kathryn hesitated. He looked at her keenly. ‘Uncle Iain’s a dab hand at solving problems.’

‘I don’t think you’ll be able to crack this one.’

‘Just try me.’

They went through the arch and into the yard.

‘Mmm,’ said Iain, looking at Andrew’s low-slung sports car with appreciation. ‘A friend of yours?’

Kathryn shuddered. ‘Not after the scene he created this morning.’

‘Want to tell me about it?’

‘Come inside, Iain, and bring that great rucksack with you.’

Iain was a good listener. As they drank their coffee at the kitchen table, Kathryn confided everything and found a great feeling of release in doing so to someone so closely connected to her family. Unlike Michael, who was an employee at Bulbury Knap, Iain could be truly objective.

‘I don’t understand it,’ Iain said pensively when she had finished. ‘It’s as if the chap’s deliberately blocking everything.’

‘Michael has already suggested to him that he could organise a plant stall for the visitors,’ she said. ‘He thought it would be a good money spinner.

Iain raised an eyebrow. ‘And?’

‘Andrew wouldn’t hear of it. Squashed the idea at once.’

‘Doesn’t anything occur to you in all this?’ Iain asked. He sounded really serious.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Has Andrew Hewson done anything about the break-in?’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Been on to the police again? Got someone in to check the existing burglar alarm? Discovered how they immobilised it?’

Kathryn hesitated. ‘He knows it’s inadequate and that the Hewsons can’t afford a better one.’

‘So why not look into ways of raising the money then? You’d think it the obvious thing to do in the circumstances.’

She was silent. When she’d been busy clearing out the conservatory earlier she had even considered raising the matter with Sir Edwin, but not wanting to jeopardise Mum’s position, felt he might consider what she had to say completely out of order.

‘We mustn’t forget that Andrew was on to the doctor at once when Sir Edwin collapsed,’ she said. ‘And he comes so often to see them.’ She glanced surreptitiously at her watch.

Iain drained the last dregs of coffee from his mug. ‘I must be off.’ He got to his feet and hauled up his rucksack.

She heard Andrew’s car start up and the roar as he set off through the archway far faster than was safe. ‘You’re not going already?’ She tried to keep the relief from her voice that the two men hadn’t met. Not this time, anyway.

As he reached the outside door Iain paused to fish in the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a card. ‘This is my mobile number. Give me a buzz when you get some time off.’

He shot her an unfathomable look. ‘I’ll go now and leave you time to think about it. Have a word with your employers about your idea, why don’t you? Talk it through. Sounds as if the chap, Michael, will back you up. I don’t suppose for one moment that Andrew discussed it with anyone. He sounds a mite high-handed to me.’

Kathryn smiled wryly. ‘There’s no way I can take anything upon myself without falling foul of Andrew.’

‘Coward!’