The Ullswater Undertaking by Rebecca Tope (read dune .TXT) 📕

the reason men often seemed to favour marriage was that it gave them a kind of ownership. As Robin’s married father he gained a lot more rights than he might otherwise claim. And the ring on Simmy’s finger would count for something, too.

She finished the tea and rolled out of bed. Robin was in his cot, waving his arms and squeaking. ‘New nappy?’ Christopher asked.

‘Knock yourself out,’ said Simmy cheerfully.

The procedure completed, he picked up the baby and took him to the window. ‘So what’re we doing today?’

‘It looks sunny out there. Maybe we should go to Workington.’

‘Pardon?’

‘To find Richmond. Ben will have to come as well. The police won’t want you again, will they?’

‘I doubt it. But why don’t I just tell Fabian where his uncle is and let him get on with it? Isn’t that what we said last night?’

‘Oh.’ She pulled on her clothes and watched her menfolk thoughtfully. ‘That would be the sensible thing, I suppose.’ She felt a ridiculous stab of disappointment at the idea. ‘Ben won’t like it, though. He wants to be involved, right in the middle of everything.’

‘I don’t think it’s a very good idea. I can’t imagine what we’d say to the man, for a start. And I think I really ought to check in with Oliver and see what we’re going to do from tomorrow. We can’t stay closed after today if we want to hold the sale as usual next week. It doesn’t feel right just to stay at home, or even to go waltzing off to the coast on a wild goose chase. Obviously we’ll all go to Josephine’s funeral, whenever that is, but in the meantime we need to keep functioning. Thursday and Friday are the days for people to deliver stuff for sale. The girls will need supervising, so we should assume I’ll be going in tomorrow.’

‘Poor Josephine,’ Simmy sighed. ‘I feel as if I hardly knew her, which was bad of me. I should have tried harder to be her friend. Did she have any friends? Who’s going to be most shattered at losing her?’

‘Good question. I don’t think any of us knew her really well. She was just one of those people who are always there, keeping everything running smoothly, dedicated to the job, part of the furniture. All those clichés. Oliver was always very fond of her, in a jokey sort of way. He also took her for granted and paid her quite badly. If you feel bad about her, how do you think I feel? I was a pig to her at times.’

‘Even though you knew she adored you?’

‘That was more or less of a joke as well. Embarrassing, to be honest. But she kept it under control pretty well – and it’s really just another cliché anyway. She was very schoolgirlish, in some ways.’ He was speaking jerkily, ideas tumbling over each other. ‘It was Oliver before me, you know. She was a serial adorer. One crush after another. For all I know, Fabian was on the list as well.’

‘How sad. Why couldn’t she just find a suitable man and marry him? She seemed quite motherly to me. Cuddly, with that nice wide bosom.’

‘More like grandmotherly. I can’t imagine what she must have been like as a schoolgirl.’

‘I can,’ said Simmy. ‘Frizzy hair, good at hockey, friendly. Something must have gone wrong somewhere.’

‘Oliver, probably,’ said Christopher carelessly. ‘She must have had designs on him for decades, living in perpetual hope. Then when I showed up, she transferred her affections. We did have some fun at first, chatting about antiques and computers. She taught me an awful lot.’

‘Poor woman,’ Simmy sighed again. ‘You’ve all exploited her, in one way or another.’ She gathered up the bag of dirty nappies and started to leave the bedroom. Then a thought struck her. ‘Maybe she did know something the family wanted to keep secret,’ she said suddenly.

Christopher stood frozen on the spot, staring at his baby son as if it had been he who’d spoken. ‘What? Where did that come from?’

‘I’m not sure. It’s all smoke and whispers, but don’t you get a sense that Aunt Hilda is very much at the heart of it all? Ben always says we should ask “Why now?” and the answer to that is very likely to be Aunt Hilda dying.’ To her own ears she was speaking entirely lucidly, impressively so, in fact.

‘That’s possible – but so are lots of other things.’ He put the baby down on the bed and started to get dressed. ‘And I would very, very much like it if we could talk about something else.’

‘So would I, but I doubt if we’ll get far. This is such a huge thing – and every time we try to escape from it, Fabian pops up and sends us right back again.’

‘We won’t let him do that. I can’t see that he’s got any reason to, either. If we’ve got any sense we’ll just sit back and leave it all to the police.’

Simmy groaned. ‘Do you know something? Every time there’s been a murder, since I’ve been living here, somebody has said exactly that. Usually me. And it never happens. Either Ben or Bonnie or someone keeps it rammed against our faces so we can’t focus on anything else. My face, I should say. I’ve learnt not to fight it. And this one is so close to home, we’ve got no choice. We have to see it through to the end, like it or not. Do you see?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said helplessly. ‘This is all going too fast for my poor brain. I still don’t follow what you said about Hilda.’

She tutted impatiently. ‘It’s not so very complicated. Ben would get it.’

To his great credit, Christopher did not rise to this. ‘I never pretended to be as clever as Ben,’ he said mildly. ‘It just strikes me you’ve made a few too many leaps. Nobody says there’s a deep, dark secret to be found. And