Kate Sedley - Wheel of Fate

I made my bow, but not a very deep one. There was something about the lawyer to which I took an instant dislike. Something precise and old-womanish in his manner that irritated me and I felt no surprise that he was unmarried and still, in middle-age, living at home with his sisters, who no doubt petted and spoiled him. Indeed, Clemency was clucking with alarm that his homecoming had been disturbed by my noisy daughter and worrying that dinner had been delayed and was not already on the table. But her brother had finally noticed Sybilla and hastened forward to support her in his arms.

‘What is she doing out of bed?’ he asked angrily. ‘Someone should have been sent to watch her. She is not yet fit to be up, Adela!’

His tone was sharp and he looked over his shoulder evidently to admonish my wife, but fortunately she had gone to bring in the children from the garden. This was just as well, because if these cousins of hers were treating her as an unpaid servant they would soon get the rough side of my tongue. I was in any case beginning to feel uncomfortable and had decided that no reason Adela could adduce would persuade me to remain in this house. We would go this very afternoon to find Jack at the Boar’s Head in East Cheap and be back in Bristol within the week.

I said as much to Adela when she reappeared with a much chastened Nicholas and Elizabeth, who had obviously been severely taken to task for their unruly behaviour. We had the hall to ourselves, Oswald having supported Sybilla upstairs to bed and Clemency having vanished through one of the side doors, presumably to hurry along the arrival of dinner.

‘No, no, Roger!’ my wife exclaimed, clutching my arm. ‘We can’t do that. They are in such trouble and you are the very person to sort it out, to discover what is going on. I can’t desert them. They have been so good to me, allowing the boys and me to stay here. As for Oswald, his bark is worse than his bite, and so long as Bess and Nick restrain their natural exuberance now that they’re together again, we shall do very well. Adam has grown to be so good these last weeks, you’d hardly know him.’ Here, I exchanged glances with my younger child, who smirked at me and cast down his eyes, the picture of sainthood. I wasn’t fooled for a single instant. Adela went on, ‘It’s a pity you had to bring Hercules, though. None of them except Celia really cares for animals, so we must just try to keep him out of their way. I suppose Margaret wasn’t too happy about looking after him?’

‘I didn’t ask her,’ I said austerely. ‘He’s my dog and I enjoy his company.’ Hercules, who was stretched out in front of the fire, opened one eye in acknowledgement of these sentiments, then closed it again. ‘Besides, she’d been left with Elizabeth to care for since your precipitate flight to London. And why you felt that to be necessary,’ I continued, working myself up into a pitch of righteous indignation, ‘I simply can’t imagine. Could you not have trusted me long enough to wait until you heard my side of the story? Yes, I was acquainted with Mistress Gerrish, but that was two years ago, so I could not possibly be the father of her child.’ Adela started to speak, but I held up my hand, the patriarch, a man in command of his household. ‘I know what you thought. Margaret told me. But I am now at liberty to reveal that my delay in coming home after returning from Scotland was because I was asked to undertake a special mission to Paris on behalf of Prince Richard. I was not in Gloucester, renewing my acquaintanceship with Juliette Gerrish.’

‘Paris!’ Adela echoed, astonished. ‘You were in Paris?’

I nodded. ‘I was. But mind, it’s not something to be discussed with other people. I can’t tell you what I was doing there, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that I was there. Now-’

‘Oh Roger, I’m so sorry for not trusting you,’ my wife said, putting her arms around my neck and kissing me. ‘I’ve no excuse except that you were away for so many months. And once the news reached us that the war in Scotland was over and Berwick retaken, I thought you’d be home much sooner than you were. And when you finally did turn up, you were so guarded about where you’d been and what you’d been doing. I was already feeling suspicious long before that woman arrived on the doorstep last month with her evil story. Whatever made her do it? When you knew her, did you anger or harm her in some way?’

‘I barely knew her,’ I lied, but was able to add truthfully, ‘Why she did what she did, I’ve no idea. And had I been at home, I should have been able to refute her claim straight away. But knowing my calling, she may have gambled on my absence.’ I returned Adela’s embrace. ‘Perhaps we shall never discover her motive. In any case, it’s in the past now. Let’s forget about it. We’re together again and all’s well. The only thing I want to do now is to take you and the children home. So let me have no more of this nonsense about staying here. I don’t see why you think their problem is anything I can solve. I don’t know these people. I’ve only just learned of their existence. We’ll leave this afternoon.’

Adela immediately became agitated, pulling herself out of my arms and saying, ‘No, Roger, we can’t. Two members of the family have already been killed and an attempt has been made on Sybilla’s life. We can’t just abandon them to their fate.’

I stared at her for a moment, uncomprehending, before the sense of her words sank in.

‘Two of them have been killed?’ I repeated stupidly. ‘And an attempt on Sybilla’s life, as well?’

My wife nodded. ‘And now they are inclined to think that Clemency’s illness was more sinister than they all thought it at the time. You see-’

‘Wait!’ I said. ‘We’d better sit down while you explain this to me.’ And I drew her towards one of the settles beside the hearth. The three children had retired to sit around the table, Elizabeth and Nicholas catching up on one another’s news, Adam sucking his thumb, staring into space and contemplating heaven alone knew what mischief. Hercules was still stretched out in front of the meagre fire, asleep and snoring.

‘Now,’ I asked, ‘what is all this about?’

Before Adela could answer, however, the door in the far wall opened to admit a woman also dressed in funereal black, relieved by a white coif and apron, and with a bunch of keys dangling from her belt, which at once proclaimed her status as the housekeeper. She was a tall, handsome woman who carried herself as one with a sense of her own importance, and a pair of widely spaced grey eyes surveyed the world with a certain disdain. I judged her to be somewhere in her early forties or even perhaps a little younger.

‘I thought I heard Oswald’s voice,’ she said, addressing Adela and ignoring my presence.

Adela nodded. ‘Yes. He came in some minutes ago, but he’s taken Sybilla back to her room. She got out of bed, which was very foolish of her, and almost collapsed. I thought you must know that Oswald is home. Clemency went to find you, presumably to say that dinner could be served and to tell you about the new arrivals.’ My wife indicated Elizabeth and me. ‘Arbella, this is Roger, my husband who has brought his daughter with him. I am trying to persuade him to remain here for a while before taking the boys and me back to Bristol. He is very clever at unravelling mysteries and I’m hoping he may be able to solve this one. Roger, this is Mistress Rokeswood, Clemency’s and Sybilla’s housekeeper. They tell me she has been with them for a few years now and is almost like one of the family.’

I rose politely to my feet, but apart from a brief inclination of her head, Arbella Rokeswood accorded me no other acknowledgement.