Foxden Hotel (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 5) by Madalyn Morgan (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

Bess laughed. ‘I’d be careful if I was you while I’m drinking hot tea. I’d hate to spill it on you.’

Ena brought Bess up to date with what Henry was doing. ‘The main reason he’s here is to find out as much as he can about Sir Gerald Hawksley.’

‘That reminds me. I ran into Katherine Hawksley at the bus stop in Lowarth earlier,’ Bess cut in. ‘She looked ill. She was thin, her face was as white as a sheet and she was a bag of nerves. She was twitching like a frightened animal and wringing her hands. And she kept saying she was sorry.’

‘About what?’ Ena asked.

‘No idea. I asked her if she meant she was sorry about what happened on New Year’s Eve, but she just said again that she was sorry. Thinking about it,’ Bess said, ‘it felt as if she was saying sorry to me personally.’

‘She didn’t cause the trouble at New Year, so why would she apologise for it? It doesn’t make sense,’ Ena said.

‘No, it doesn’t, but I’m sure it was personal. She might have meant she was sorry about the things Sutherland said to me on New Year’s Eve.’ Bess lifted her shoulders. ‘Who knows? Oh, and she said, “If it hadn’t been for me, Daddy--” Then she said she had to go. She said Sergeant McGann had warned her about me, told her not to speak to me.’

‘I don’t think you should speak to her either,’ Ena said, ‘not with Gerald Hawksley being a big shot in the British Patriots.’

‘If the poor girl’s been exposed to fascists and the like, it’s no wonder she was nervous. And there’s something else. Katherine started to look up and down the road. I didn’t think anything of it at first; she’d been jittery and on edge since we first spoke, but when the road was at its busiest she ran into the traffic. It was as if she did it on purpose. Thank the Lord the driver of the first car slammed on his breaks. He swerved one way and the car behind him swerved the other. I don’t know how they did it, but they both managed to miss her.’

‘Good Lord!’ Ena exclaimed. ‘The silly girl could have been killed.’

‘So could I. To miss Katherine Hawksley the driver of the first car had to turn the wheel sharply. If the kerb in front of the bus stop hadn’t been so high, the car would have mounted the pavement and mowed me down.’

‘What? Are you all right?’

‘I’m fine. I was shaken up at the time, I don’t mind telling you, but I’m all right now.’

‘What happened to Katherine? Where did she go?’

‘No idea. She must have weaved her way through the traffic to the other side of High Street. I couldn’t follow her at the time and there was no point me going after her later. By the time the road was safe to cross she could have been anywhere.’

As arranged, the sisters and their mother met in the foyer after breakfast on Easter Sunday morning. The plan was to walk to church together, as they always did whenever they were all at Foxden.

‘Right. Are we ready?’

‘No, Margot isn’t here. She’ll be titivating her hair I expect,’ Claire said.

Lily Dudley looked worried. ‘She might be feeling poorly.’

Bess knew her mother was right. Margot was more than likely being sick, not fussing with her hair, but she didn’t want her mother to give the game away and spoil the surprise Margot had planned for her sisters. ‘She’s fine, Mam,’ Bess said pointedly, nudging her mother as she passed. ‘Go and round up the men, Ena. I need a hankie. I’ll knock on Margot’s door on the way to my room and chivvy her along.’

‘Are you nearly ready, Margot? Bess asked, tapping the door. ‘It’s time we left for church if we don’t want to be late.’

Margot opened the door and heaved in Bess’s direction. Bess jumped back and Margot burst into laughter.

‘That wasn’t funny,’ Bess said.

‘Sorry, but that’s what I feel like all the time. Morning sickness is supposed to get better as the time goes on. Most people don’t have it after three months. Talk about pregnant women blooming? I feel bloomin’ worse every day.’

‘You’d have to be different, Margot.’ Bess looked closely at her sister’s face. ‘You do look peaky. Put some rouge on, or rub a bit of lipstick into your cheeks.’ Margot sauntered back to the dressing table and peered into the mirror. ‘But be quick, or we’ll miss the beginning of the service.’ Margot dabbed at her face with the rouge pad and stood back to admire herself. ‘There’s no time for preening, lady, come on.’ Bess led her sister out of the room.

Claire and Ena were waiting at the foot of the stairs, already in their Sunday hats and spring coats. Claire, always the sharpest, spotted Margot’s high colour. ‘You look flushed, Margot, you’re not coming down with something, are you?’

Bess pressed her lips together to stop herself from laughing. ‘She’s fine, aren’t you? She’s just overdone the rouge. It’s the light in that room. I’ll get Frank to put a higher watt bulb in it,’ she said, rubbing Margot’s cheeks with her handkerchief. ‘There, perfect!’

‘Well, what are you waiting for, Claire? Ena?’ Bess said, winking at Margot.

‘Cheek!’ Claire cried, and grabbing Bess’s hand pretended to drag her out of the hotel. Margot and Bill, and Ena and Henry, followed with Frank and Mitch on either side of their mother-in-law.

The sisters and their husbands walked into the ancient Cotswold stone Church of St. Leonard, Mysterton, and down the aisle behind the matriarch of the family, Lily Dudley. Rays of dappled sunshine radiated through the stained glass windows, bathing the congregation in pale pink and soft golden