The library is glorious, with books dating back centuries, and while they are rather dusty, they’re fascinating, and I wish I could forget about the wedding and Archie and spend the next few days curled up in here. In fact, I’d quite like to move into Durban Castle’s library and devour its rich history. I wonder if I could somehow arrange a class trip here next term…
I’m in danger of salivating over the ancient tomes as I run my fingers over their cracked spines, selecting a few to pore over before carrying them with the care I’d afford a newborn baby over to the large, arched window overlooking the tennis courts to the side of the property. There’s a doubles match taking place down there, but I pay no attention as I lose myself in the texts. Before I know it, a couple of hours have passed and my neck and spine are stiff from hunching over the books for so long. I notice the tennis court is now empty as I stand to stretch. I have no idea who won the match.
After returning the books to their shelves, I slip out of the library and head out of the front entrance, giving Old Rusty a farewell pat on the shoulder on the way. The day is glorious, the sky a clear blue with only the wispiest of clouds breaking it up, but there’s a cooling breeze taking away the stickiness of the heat. I make my way around the castle’s perimeter, ending up at the chapel. There’s another rose garden here, much larger than the one at the front of the castle, and the scent is divine; sweet but not cloying, potent without overpowering the senses. I’m dipping my nose towards a golden yellow rose when I hear a familiar voice.
‘Hopefully, the weather will be just as magnificent on Saturday. But we’ll have a fantastic day, rain or shine.’
Fudge. It’s Archie, who I assume has been showing Piers’ parents where their son will be getting married in a few days. He doesn’t sound very far away. Any moment now, he’s going to appear and I’ll end up roped into a dreamy tea break in the meadow. Or worse; I’ll end up playing Mrs Tour Guide alongside Archie.
Without pausing to think about it, I hit the deck, scuttling across the grass on my hands and knees so I can hide behind the rosebushes. My heart is beating so loudly, I’m sure they’ll detect my presence immediately.
‘What are you doing?’ I hadn’t realised, but in the midst of the blooms is Tom, the short sleeves of his T-shirt showing off his tanned, toned arms. I recall the ease with which he’d scooped Carolyn up into those arms last night, but I shove the thought away.
‘Ssh!’ I place a finger up to my lips and indicate that Tom should get down on his hands and knees too. He looks at me as though I’m mad. And quite rightly so.
‘Are you having a funny turn? Should I go and find Alice?’
‘No!’ I hiss, my eyes darting to the tops of the rosebushes. I can’t hear Archie any more, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t out there, hovering, waiting to catch me out. I need to stay here, calmly and quietly, until the coast is clear. Which would have worked out perfectly if I hadn’t been set upon by a fat-arsed bee. I make such a fuss as I jump up onto my feet that the villagers down in Little Heaton must hear me yelping and squealing like a wuss.
‘Just stay still,’ Tom calls, and I’m too petrified to cringe at my wimpy reaction. ‘It won’t bother you if you stop flapping.’
I freeze in the most awkward position, one arm reaching for the sky, the other tucked into my body while one leg juts out in front of me.
‘It’s okay.’ Tom is inching towards me, as though I’ll attack him if he makes any sudden movements. ‘He’s just going about his business. Keep calm.’
Keep. Calm? That’s easy for him to say – he wasn’t just ambushed by the stripy little bastard! Although, thinking about it, the bee didn’t actually ambush me, unless flying past my face counts? No, probably not.
‘Relax. He’s forgotten all about you now.’
I look around and spot my attacker innocently hovering above one of the roses. My limbs soften and return to their natural positions.
‘He, um, took me by surprise.’ My whole body is tingling, either from the fright or the shame that is now flooding my system. What an idiot!
‘You sort of get used to them doing this job.’ Tom smiles kindly at me. ‘How about a cup of sweet tea? For the shock?’ He nods at a black rucksack sitting on the ground. ‘I’ve got a flask. I was just about to have a break anyway.’
I’m about to shake my head and make my excuses and leave, but a cup of tea does sound lovely, actually. Plus, I seem to be safe here. Archie hasn’t passed, and if he was nearby he’d have been alerted to my whereabouts by my yelps.
‘I’d love a cup of tea,’ I say, pushing down the embarrassment that is encouraging me to flee.
‘How about we head over to the chapel?’ He picks up the bag and starts to wander out of the rose garden. ‘There’s a bench outside and not so many killer bees.’
‘Are they really killer bees?’ I ask, approximately two milliseconds before I realise he’s teasing me. ‘Oh, ha ha. Very funny. You’re wasted as a gardener. You should be a stand-up comedian.’
‘Nah. I tried it once at an open mic night at the Royal Oak. Apparently, I’m “as funny as a bout of bad diarrhoea”. I wasn’t aware you could get a bout of good diarrhoea, to be honest.’
‘Sounds like there were some harsh critics in the audience.’
‘Critics?’ Tom plonks his bag down in the middle of the bench. ‘That was my dad.’
‘Oh.’ I try to mask my giggle and fail miserably, but Tom is smiling too.
‘He’s a character, my dad. I miss him being around the place.’ Tom looks around the grounds for a moment before turning back to me with a wry smile. ‘I mean, he’d have told me the lawns weren’t perfect enough, or I was using the wrong method to deadhead the roses.’ Tom waggles his finger and adopts a mock-stern tone. ‘I’ve been deadheading my roses using the twist and snap method since I was a nipper. My grandmother taught me everything I know, and she had the most beautiful blooms you can imagine.’ Tom reaches into his bag and pulls out the flask. When he speaks again, his normal tone is back. ‘It could be a nightmare working for my dad at times – he was a real perfectionist – but he certainly made it interesting. And his roses were far superior to mine.’
‘Really?’ I look behind us, towards the rose garden. ‘They look pretty spectacular to me. I can’t even keep a spider plant alive. My Aunt Dorothy said they were impossible to kill.’ I place a hand on my chest. ‘I managed to assassinate it within two weeks.’
Tom laughs as he twists the cup off the top of the flask. ‘Not everybody is green-fingered, but it helped that Dad was so passionate about his gardening. It was an art form to him.’ He holds up the little plastic cup. ‘I only have one, I’m afraid. Is sharing okay? I promise I’m in good health.’
Is it me, or is sharing a cup quite intimate? I think it’s the fact that lip is practically touching lip, only a moment or two apart. It’s almost kissing, if you think about it. But I am quite keen on that cup of tea now the offer has been made, and we are a few minutes’ walk away from the castle. Plus, I run the risk of running into Archie if I head back.
‘Sharing is fine.’ Under the circumstances.
‘It has milk and sugar.’ Tom has begun to pour the hot tea into the cup. ‘I hope that’s okay?’
‘Perfect. Thank you.’ I take the proffered cup and take a small sip before handing it back. ‘So, this rounders match this afternoon. You are going to take part, aren’t you?’
Tom takes a sip of the tea. I notice his lips are touching the opposite side of the cup to mine, so it isn’t like kissing at all. He places the cup down on the bench between us and starts to rummage in his bag. ‘I really don’t think I’ll have the time. There’s so much to do here, and one of the guys has phoned in sick this morning, so I have to cover his duties too.’
‘Carolyn will be disappointed if you don’t turn up.’ I can’t help thinking about those photos again. How can a group of friends be so close one minute and practically strangers the next?
‘She’ll barely even notice.’ Tom produces a foil package from his bag and starts to unwrap it.
‘She totally will. Didn’t you notice how excited she was to see you the other day?’
Tom holds out a triangle of sandwich. ‘Ham and cheese?’
I take the sandwich (I didn’t head down to the dining room for lunch, for fear of running into Archie) and thank Tom, but I won’t let him off the hook that easily.
‘Alice and Carolyn really want you to be part of their lives. I know they’re gutted how everything turned out.’
Tom takes a huge bite out of the corner of his sandwich, taking an age to chew it before finally speaking. ‘It’s just a bit awkward, I guess.’
‘Awkward how?’
Tom brings his sandwich towards his mouth, but I put a hand on his arm to stop it reaching its destination.
‘What happened here that last summer? Everybody is being really vague and it’s driving me nuts. I know Francelia’s necklace went missing and somehow found its way into Alice’s drawer, but I don’t understand how that affected your friendship with the others.’ My hand flies to my mouth and my eyes widen. ‘They didn’t think you’d put it there, did they?’
‘God, no.’ Tom looks horrified at the very thought.
‘Then what happened?’
Tom pauses for a moment before placing his sandwich down on the foil on his lap. ‘Fine. I’ll tell you, but I don’t think you’ll like it.’ I inch towards him slightly, mindful of the cup of tea still between us. ‘I sort of accused Archie of stealing the necklace and planting it in Alice’s drawer.’ Tom scratches the back of his neck. ‘Actually, no. There’s no sort of about it. I accused him of taking it and blaming it on Alice.’
I frown. ‘But why would I give a toss about you accusing Archie?’
Tom narrows his eyes slightly as he looks at me, and when he speaks, his words are slow and measured. ‘Because you and Archie are…’ He shrugs. ‘I’m not sure what you are. Dating? Seeing each other? Boyfriend and girlfriend?’
‘Oh!’ Of course. How could I forget that we’re supposed to be involved? ‘Dating, I suppose, though we haven’t had an actual date, unless you count eating breakfast together. It isn’t serious or anything. We’ve only just met. We haven’t even kissed.’ I’m aware I’m babbling, so I take a deep breath to calm myself. ‘Anyway, why would Archie frame Alice?’
Tom shrugs and shakes his head. ‘I have absolutely no idea. We always assumed Archie had a thing for Alice.’
‘He fancied her?’
Tom laughs. ‘He had the hugest crush on her. The three of us – Alice, Carolyn and I – used to laugh about it all the time. It was so obvious. That’s why I don’t get why he’d do it.’
I pull a chunk off my sandwich, but I don’t put it in my mouth. ‘What makes you so sure it was Archie?’
‘I saw him, coming out of Alice’s bedroom while we were all running around the castle looking for it. The next thing we know, Francelia has summoned us into the room and is pulling the necklace from Alice’s drawer. She apparently received a tip-off, but would never say who from. I can only assume it was Archie.’
‘But maybe he found the necklace there, while you were all looking.’ As much as I want to avoid Archie like a massive dose of Ebola, I can’t imagine him being so vindictive. Especially if what Tom is saying is true and he had a crush on Alice.
‘But wouldn’t that mean Alice took the necklace herself and put it there? I don’t believe that for a second.’
I shake my head. ‘No, me neither. But it could have been someone else who put it there.’
‘But who? The only other people at the castle during that time were Roderick – and I doubt he’d frame his own daughter – Alice’s grandparents and Carolyn. There’s no way Carolyn would do that to Alice.’
I pop the chunk of sandwich into my mouth and chew slowly. ‘What happened when you accused Archie?’
Tom wraps his own sandwich in the foil and tosses it into his bag. ‘He denied it, obviously, nobody else believed me, and Francelia went bat-shit crazy. My dad nearly lost his job and everything. Luckily, he managed to keep it, but it was a long time before he let me anywhere near the castle again. By the time I started working for Dad, Carolyn and Alice were long gone.’ He runs a hand through his dark hair, leaving it sticking up in little tufts. I fight the urge to smooth them down again. ‘The thing that gets me the most is how they just dismissed me. They weren’t interested in what I had to say – Archie said he hadn’t been anywhere near Alice’s room and they believed him. But I know he was there. I saw him.’
I place a hand on Tom’s, and for a moment I think he’s going to flinch away, but he simply looks down at my pale hand against his tanned one. ‘Maybe it isn’t that they didn’t believe you, that they thought you were making it up. Maybe they thought you were mistaken? Because it’s so hard to believe Archie would do that. Even you don’t understand it.’
Tom sighs. ‘I guess.’
‘Won’t you give them another chance? You were so close. You can’t throw that away because of a misunderstanding.’
Tom picks up the cup of tea and takes a sip. ‘I don’t know…’
‘Just give it a try. You may as well while they’re here. Come and play rounders with us this afternoon, see how it goes. You never know.’ I nudge Tom playfully. ‘You might even have fun.’
‘Maybe.’ He takes another sip of the tea before handing the cup to me with a sigh. ‘Fine. I’ll play rounders. But I’m not promising anything after that. Deal?’
I hold out my hand for him to shake. ‘Deal.’