A Lochgorm Lament by Lexie Conyngham

Author:Lexie Conyngham [Conyngham, Lexie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910926567
Publisher: The Kellas Cat Press
Published: 2020-01-08T22:00:00+00:00

Saturday felt wasted. Hippolyta tried to concentrate for a couple of hours on arranging her painting for the bazaar, but nothing felt quite right. Patrick sat with her in the parlour for some of the time, playing random tunes on the piano, but their conversation was just an extension of all they had said in the trap on the way home on Friday: who could have killed both Anthony Osgood and old Mr. Middleton, and why, and was it Osgood or Middleton who was the main victim, or had they killed each other? And occasionally, when guilt surfaced, Hippolyta added the question of the whereabouts of Mrs. Riach. At last, impatient with the paintings and at the point of deciding that no one would care to buy any of them anyway, she plucked Mungo from his play on the kitchen floor and decided to do her duty and visit poor Julia Osgood.

Not surprisingly, Julia had the look of someone trapped under a glass dome, wide-eyed, dazed, and desperate for conversation. It was bad enough, Hippolyta realised, that one was expected to stay at home with the body between death and funeral, but when one had no idea when that funeral might be allowed to happen it must make the whole situation so much worse. The cottage was so small that to have the parlour unheated, the fire unlit and the shutters closed, would make the whole house cold and stuffy. In fact, when she called she found that the maid led her to the cramped kitchen at the back, where Julia was sitting by the little stove. Hippolyta at once felt she was taking up too much space, but Julia seemed uncharacteristically pleased to see her. Desperate for conversation, as Hippolyta had thought.

‘Mrs. Napier! Tea, please, Bella.’

‘I’ll need to get up to Strachan’s warehouse and buy more tea, miss,’ said Bella, and Hippolyta thought her eyes brightened at the hope of a brief escape. ‘We’ve had that many callers.’

‘Oh. Oh, go, then, but be quick.’

Bella wrapped a long shawl about her head against the misty rain, and sauntered out without the least intention of being quick.

‘You’ve had plenty of people to keep you company, then?’ Hippolyta asked. Perhaps her visit had not been necessary, and she could keep it short. She set Mungo down on the floor, but kept a careful eye on him in the confined space.

‘They come in, but they don’t stay long,’ Julia said with a hint of bitterness. ‘Mrs. Douglas sat there for an hour, but she barely said a word so it was of no more consequence than if she had stayed five minutes. And some of the women from the congregation have been in and out. Martha Considine is in the parlour now, though heaven only knows what she does with herself all day.’ Her tone was hard, ungrateful. Hippolyta liked her less and less, and had to remind herself sternly that Miss Osgood was grieving. And of course, her complaint that her visitors did not stay for long made it harder for Hippolyta herself to slip away quickly.

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