Murder at the Book Festival by Jane Bettany

Author:Jane Bettany [Bettany, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-25T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

‘It was a secret that my parents took to their graves,’ Leonie continued. ‘But before I tell you about it, I need to backtrack a little, to my last years at school. Like I said, I had a lot of friends, and a few boyfriends too. I was young, carefree, learning about life. It was an exhilarating time, especially when Rupert Dalloway came onto the scene.’

‘He was the guy at the festival?’ Violet said, pleased that Leonie was finally opening up properly. ‘The one who asked about your one true love?’

‘That’s him.’ Leonie smiled inscrutably. ‘You know … I didn’t recognise him at first, even when he put his hand up to ask a question. But when I heard him speak … that’s when I knew. His voice transported me straight back to 1988 … to a time of love and excitement and heartbreak. Rupert was my first love … my only love.’

‘It sounds as if you’re still smitten,’ Violet said. ‘Tell me about him.’

Laughing, Leonie bowed her head for a moment. ‘He was very good-looking when he was young,’ she said. ‘But other than that, he wasn’t exactly love’s young dream. In fact, he was only at my school because he’d been expelled from an expensive private college. He joined the upper sixth a few weeks into the first term – and he arrived with a reputation. He was a rebel and a prankster who utterly refused to take life or his studies seriously. I suspect his parents had reached the end of their tether with him. They were furious that he’d got himself expelled – apparently it wasn’t the first time he’d been chucked out of a fancy school – and they were mortified he was finishing his education at the local comp.

‘At first, I kept out of his way. I was in the lower sixth and I suppose I was wary of him. I’d acted up myself plenty of times during my teens, but unlike Rupert, I always knew when to rein it in. My studies mattered to me, and I wasn’t going to do anything that would jeopardise my exam results. I was desperate to leave home and get out of Merrywell, and going to university was my only viable escape plan.

‘Life with my parents was mind-numbingly boring. They provided for me, and loved me in their own way, but they were staid and unadventurous. I was “climbing the walls”, biding my time, waiting to get out of there. I’d mapped out my whole future: I was going to become a hotshot lawyer and leave Merrywell forever.’

‘So, what happened?’ Violet said.

Leonie gripped her scarf and pressed it against her neck.

‘Rupert and I began seeing each other, in secret,’ she said.

‘Why did it have to be a secret?’

‘Because his parents had read him the riot act. They didn’t like him being at the local school, but they knew it was his last chance. They spelled everything out … warned him about getting distracted … told him he had to focus on his studies and only his studies.

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