Page 27

Chapter 27

July 1911

‘Please sit down,’ said John.

‘I would prefer to stand, sir.’ Isobel could not imagine what was happening.

John cleared his throat.

‘I understand that you have been examining the contents of Ann’s jewellery box.’

Ann wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.

Anything to not be in the room.

To everyone’s astonishment, Isobel looked each of them in the face, one after another.

‘That’s true.’

‘This is a very serious matter. Would you care to provide an explanation?’

‘I was looking for my property.’

John’s eyebrows couldn’t have risen any higher if he had forced them to.

‘ Your property?’

Isobel reached into the neck of her dress and pulled out a length of black cotton cord.

A coin was attached to it with a knot.

‘This is mine. It’s an 1889 penny from the year I was born.

My late father drilled a hole in it and put it on a string for me.

It’s worthless, or at least it’s only worth a penny to anyone but me.

My father died when I was five and it’s the only thing from him that I own.’

No one spoke.

‘When I took up my position here, I kept it in my room. I didn’t want to wear it in case the string broke and it got lost, so I kept it on a little earthenware dish on my shelf.

And then one day, the dish and the coin were gone.

The string was left behind and I could see it had been snipped with scissors.

It wasn’t an accident.

And a few days later I found some pieces of broken pottery in the garden, up near the plum tree, where Miss Ann used to play at tea parties with her friends.’

She looked at Ann.

‘You were younger then. We hadn’t been here long.’

‘You thought Ann had taken it?’ Ursula took over.

‘I am sorry, but yes, I did.’

‘Why didn’t you say anything?’

Isobel looked straight back at Ursula.

‘Because the late Mrs Black was not very kind towards her and I didn’t want her to get into trouble.’

‘Not very kind? I don’t believe what I am hearing.’

John turned furiously to Ann.

‘Why did you take it?’

‘I didn’t!’

Ann protested. ‘I’ve never even been up the stairs to Isobel’s room.

I wouldn’t dare.’

‘Well, this is a full-scale mystery and no mistake,’ said Finlay, stating the obvious.

Isobel sighed. ‘It was the late Mrs Black.’

‘I beg your pardon!’ John was on his feet now.

‘You are accusing my wife, my late wife, of theft?’

‘I saw the coin in her jewellery box one day when she was getting ready to go out. It had the same hole, just above the Queen’s head.

She knew that I had seen it and she just closed the box.

And you may as well know, she used to come into my room when I was out.’

‘You must surely be mistaken.’

‘No, sir, I am not.’ Isobel looked back at him steadily.

‘I would find things had been moved.’

John shook his head.

‘I do not believe it.’

‘What was moved?’ Finlay’s voice cut through his father’s anger.

‘All sorts of things. My pillows were turned over. My sheets untucked. My shoes pulled away from the wall and put the wrong way around. One time a clean apron was taken from my drawer and then it reappeared a few weeks later beside the wash stand, all crumpled. It wasn’t anything I could complain about.

But I knew she had been there.’

‘Why would she do this?’ said John.

‘Power,’ said Finlay.

His father looked at him in astonishment.

‘Explain yourself!’

‘It was to show she was in charge. No one could complain because there would be a huge fuss and we would be the ones in the wrong. She did it with my books.’ He demonstrated with his hands.

‘I would find my encyclopaedias with one book in the wrong place, so they were out of alphabetical order, or sometimes one volume would be replaced upside down. The pencils I had just sharpened would all be just a little bit blunt the next day. Once, she read my letters; I could tell because the paper was folded back in the opposite direction. The creases were in new places. She did it like that on purpose so it would be obvious to me but not to anyone else. It was her way of showing us that she could do what she wanted and go through our private things and we couldn’t stop her.

With everything else going on, especially when she was unwell, I didn’t want to make a fuss.

I tried to forget.’ He looked at his father.

‘She never did this to you?’

John shook his head.

‘I don’t think so. But I am not the most observant of people, and we shared a room, of course, so she had the right to be there.’

His voice lost its edge.

‘You should have told me.’

‘Should is a terrible word,’ said Ursula.

‘Should is all about blame. Blaming oneself, blaming others.’

John turned back to Isobel.

‘You found your necklace in Ann’s box?’

‘Yes, sir. Or at least, I found the coin. It was hidden under the tray at the bottom. I had to remove everything before I discovered it.’

‘What I don’t understand is how she managed to get into your room, Isobel.’

‘It’s very simple, sir; the door doesn’t have a lock.’

‘No lock?’ It was John’s turn to be surprised.

‘But I remember buying locks and keys for every room in the house when it was built. It was one of the last things I paid for.’

‘Oh, there was a lock at the beginning. But I came home from my afternoon off one week, and I found the keyhole jammed up with paper. The key was useless. And after that Mrs Black used to walk in whenever she felt like it. It wasn’t until she was really quite ill and she couldn’t manage to get up the stairs from the kitchen that the room was my own again.’

‘Why have you never mentioned the lock not working?’ John knew the answer to this question already.

Isobel wouldn’t have dreamed of complaining about anything like this.

He made an effort anyway.

‘I could have had it repaired for you.’

‘It doesn’t matter now.

None of you would dream of coming in uninvited.’

Isobel stood up straight, as though she had made a decision.

‘But I understand if you would like me to leave. I was wrong to go through the jewellery box. I have broken the trust you had in me.’ She turned around and left the room without waiting for permission.

‘I am a charitable man,’ said John, ‘and I like to think the best of people, but this takes the biscuit. And for it to be happening under my own roof and me to be ignorant of it is shocking.’

Ursula pointed at Ann and Finlay.

‘I hope that you two have learned not to be so quick with your assumptions.’ She looked across the room at her husband.

‘And you and I are going to speak with Isobel and see if we can persuade her to stay. I think that is the very least we can offer.’