The Unexpected Return of Josephine Fox (Josephine Fox Mysteries) by Claire Gradidge & Claire Gradidge

Author:Claire Gradidge & Claire Gradidge [Gradidge, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2019-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

19

The same day, Ramillies estate, Romsey

IT’S MANY YEARS SINCE THERE were ladies at Ramillies who might take a fancy to visit the once-elegant summer house in its artful woodland setting. The days of sketchbooks and chatter, of lapdogs and tiny cakes and silver tea services died with the old Queen. After them, only the young men came with their shotguns and hip flasks, stopping by on cold October mornings, taking a break between drives to count their epic bags of game. Then they too were gone, vanishing into the mud of Flanders.

These days, the old summer house is half lost in brambles. The raised dais it rests on, that once concealed the mechanism which let it turn to follow the sun, has collapsed, and the only movement the place sees now is as it crumbles and falls, piece by piece, into the ground. In its heyday it was painted pale green, with fancy white gingerbread mouldings. These days it blends with the woods that surround it, the mouldings grey with mildew, the walls invaded by lichen and fungi. Almost all the windows have lost their glass, replaced by generations of spiders’ webs which veil the openings.

For so many years no one came. A wanderer might pass by now and then: a badger, looking for hedgehogs. A hedgehog, looking for slugs, somewhere safe to hibernate. And there were owls by night, a persistent blackbird by day.

*

Dr Waverley’s come to pay his Sunday morning visit to his uncle. It’s a duty call, though anything that brings him to Ramillies is shot through with pleasure, a feeling of homecoming. He and Edith were brought up here, and one day, not too far distant, he hopes he’ll live here again.

As he gets out of his car, he sees the gamekeeper approaching. Menzies seems uneasy.

‘Good morning, sir. Hope you don’t mind but there’s something I mebbe should report. But I didn’t like to worry the master with it, not when he’s so poorly.’

‘Quite right. My uncle’s not to be troubled. What’s the problem? Poachers?’

‘I don’t think so. Wasn’t the right time of day for that. But there was this young lad in the woods yesterday. No snares or anything of that on him, but he wasn’t just lost like he said. I wouldn’t trouble you with it in the general run of things, but the little devil was up to something.’

‘And you’ve no idea what?’

‘Well, sir, he was near the old summer house. I had a peep inside after he’d run off. By the look of it, someone’s been using it regular like.’

‘Using it? Not bloody gyppos, I hope? We can do without their sort.’

‘It’s not gypsies, sir, I’ll take my oath on that. Looked like it was kids, mebbe just the lad. I gave him a good fright, I don’t think he’ll be coming back.’

‘I should hope not. Perhaps I’d better see for myself.’

‘The quickest way is across the park, but the grass is awful long. Spoil the polish on those shoes, sir.’

‘Never mind about that.

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