Capable of Murder by Brian Kavanagh

Author:Brian Kavanagh
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2018-04-06T16:00:00+00:00

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Nine

The name ran around and around Belinda’s brain the next morning as she washed her few breakfast dishes and made desultory attempts at sorting the contents of the kitchen cupboards.

Lancelot Brown.

The puzzling name teased her until it brought on the beginnings of a headache.

The squeal of the garden gate claimed her attention and she saw Jacob stepping onto the terrace. He waved a sheaf of papers in Belinda’s face as she opened the door to his knock.

‘What’s this?’ she asked as she grasped the pages. She was still cross with Jacob after their last meeting and his irritating manner.

‘The quote,’ he retorted, surprised that she appeared to have forgotten.

‘What quote?’ She glanced at the figures and the detailed writing.

Jacob grunted and slapped his thigh irritably. ‘You have forgotten!’

Their agreement came flooding back to Belinda. She flushed and attempted to hide her embarrassment. ‘Of course I hadn’t forgotten,’ she snapped defensively. ‘We agreed that you would do my garden for me.’ She looked again at the total of the figures in the hand-written quote.

‘You’ll pardon me, Belinda. We agreed that I would quote on clearing the garden. Then a decision would be reached as to the next stage of development.’

Belinda recollected their conversation. He was right, as usual. She gave him a sour look and walked to the balustrade overlooking the rambling garden.

Jacob stepped up beside her and Belinda edged away uncomfortably. She glanced at him and saw that he was looking down at her with the self-assured smirk that had exasperated her in the past.

‘Lancelot Brown.’

The name burst from Belinda’s lips involuntarily.

The change of expression that swept over Jacob’s face startled her. His smirk vanished suddenly. He was instantly alert, his blue eyes darkening while searching Belinda’s features as though seeking a hidden explanation. The intensity of his look chilled Belinda. It was the same expression she had seen in Mark’s eyes when she mentioned the landscape plan. She looked away to hide her bewilderment.

‘You must think me mad,’ she said through a forced laugh. She glanced back at Jacob. His expression had softened to an imperceptible smile, yet his eyes held her in the way a cat watches its prey just before the attack. ‘It’s only that I’ve read his name recently and I can’t place where I’ve heard it before.’

She busied herself with the quote, feeling his eyes burning into her, then sensed him relax as he cleared his throat.

‘I imagine you mean Capability Brown?’ Jacob said softly.

The name suddenly illuminated Belinda’s mind.

‘Of course. He was a famous landscape gardener. No wonder I couldn’t identify the name. I only knew him as “Capability”.’ She turned to face Jacob. ‘We learnt about him in English History at school. He was active early last century, wasn’t he?’

Jacob dragged himself up onto the balustrade and sat with one leg drawn up, the other dangling against the moss covered stone.

‘You obviously didn’t pay attention in class. He was working in the eighteenth century. From about 1735 or thereabouts.’

Belinda snorted mockingly. ‘I might have known you’d be a fountain of knowledge about him.

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