Nancy Atherton - Aunt Dimity and the Duke

So I tried to make it look like an accident. You can probably guess how. I broke one of Ashers’s high-heeled shoes, and took off the flats she was wearing. I put the high heels on Ashers and hid her flats in my bag. I put the flats back in her room the next day. Mattie put down her pen, and reread what she’d written, then turned to stare at her reflection in the window. It had begun to rain.

“All the time Suzie was in Plymouth, it was grindin’ away at Mattie,” Syd said. “And when they brought Suzie back to the hall, she kinda cracked. Said it’d all come out once Suzie got her memory back, so she might as well save everyone the trouble of a trial. And she hadda tell her grandpa the truth, so he could tell the police so nobody else would get blamed for it. Also so he’d know how sorry she was for what she done and not be too mad at her for ... for not sayin’ goodbye.” Syd sighed again and shook his head, adding softly, “Kids.”

That one word summed up Emma’s complex feelings. She should have known something was bothering Mattie the moment the poor child fainted in the entrance hall. “Do you think they’d let me see her?” Emma asked.

“Nah,” said Syd. “She’s out cold, and so’s Crowley. Nurse Tharby thought he was havin’ a cardiac when he came staggering into Suzie’s room with all them scribbly pages. Poor guy.” Syd leaned over and punched Emma in the shoulder. “But I’m tellin’ you. what I told him. You got nothin’ to blame yourself for. Mattie put on a helluva good act and it ain’t your fault you couldn’t see through it.”

“Thanks, Syd, but ...” Emma set her coffee cup on the tray and turned to face Syd. “I should have paid attention, at least. I treated Mattie as though she were invisible.”

“That’s ’cause she was makin’ herself invisible. You gotta believe that, Emma. Hey, look, things worked out okay, didn’t they? Thanks to you and Derek and Petey-boy, Mattie’s got a long life ahead of her, plenty of time to get over all of this garbage. Things could be worse, am I right?”

Emma smiled wanly. “When you’re right, you’re right, Syd.” She leaned toward him. “Do you know the rest of it? How Peter ended up saving her?”

“Not for sure, but I can make a good guess. Let’s see, now.” Syd squinted into the middle distance. “Mattie’s gonna toss herself off the cliffs, right? But maybe she changes her mind at the last minute. And then she slips —you know better ’n me how slick it is out there—and she goes over accidental-like. And she ends up on one of them little ledges, holdin’ on to one of them tough old bushes.”

Emma nodded. “Then Peter goes out to the chapel to check on the window....”

“And he hears somethin’ funny out back,” Syd went on. “And when he figgers out what’s wrong, he goes and grabs some rope from Bantry’s shed—”

Emma interrupted. “Why didn’t he come back to the hall for help?”

Syd shrugged. “Hey, Mattie’s out there hangin’ in the breeze. Maybe he figgered he didn’t have time to spare. So Petey drops the rope to Mattie, but she can’t use it on account of her busted flipper. So he goes down to help her—”

“And then he can’t get back up,” Emma broke in. “So he ties himself to Mattie, and stays to ride out the storm with her.” She slumped back in her chair, one hand on her heart. “My God ...”

“Yeah.” Syd’s voice was filled with satisfaction. “You ask me, Petey-boy deserves a medal.” He let the silence linger for a moment, then gave Emma a sly, sidelong look. “You didn’t do so bad yourself. You and Derek, you made a pretty good team, huh?”

Emma looked at the fire, embarrassed. “Yes, well, that was ... automatic. The only thing I could think about was that, if anything happened to Peter, I’d ... I’d ...” Emma shook her head and looked at her hands. “He’s such a good kid.”

“Nell ain’t so bad, neither, once you get used to her.”

“Afterward,” Emma went on, slowly raising her gaze to the fire again, “when I had Peter safe with me in the chapel, just for a split second, I thought I saw ...” Emma held back. She could tell the truth to Syd without mentioning the window. It might be better to say nothing of that until she’d seen it in the clear light of day.

“I saw something that made me realize how unfair I’ve been to Derek,” she continued. “I can’t begin to understand what he went through after his wife died. I’m sure he’s done his best to look after Peter and Nell since then, and I know that, once I’ve told him about the problem with Mrs. Higgins, he’ll straighten it out right away.”

“That’s real big of you, Emma,” Syd commented dryly.

Emma glanced at Syd’s impassive face, then looked quickly back to the fire. “I realized something else, too,” she said, in a voice so low that Syd had to lean forward to hear it. “Derek’s already lost his wife, and tonight he nearly lost his son. I ... I don’t want him to lose anyone else.”

“Interesting,” Syd murmured, nodding judiciously. “Excuse me, but is it old-fashioned of me to want to hear a little mention of love in there somewhere?”

“Well, of course I love him, Syd.” Emma toyed with the belt on her robe. “I fell in love with him the minute I laid eyes on him. Isn’t it ridiculous? And I just know he’s going to ask me to marry him,” she added worriedly. “That’s the kind of man he is.”

“I should hope so,” Syd stated firmly. He wrinkled his nose suddenly. “Is that the problem? What’ve you got against marriage?”

“I’m not sure anymore,” Emma said, with a helpless shrug. “I mean, it’s not as though I’ve tried it. Maybe it just frightens me because everyone says it’s so unhappy.”

“Of course it’s unhappy!” Syd shouted. Lunging to the edge of his chair, he turned to Emma, exasperated. “And it’s boring and crazy and funny and sad and everything else you can think of, and then some. ’Cause that’s what marriage is. It’s life times two, the most complicated equation there is. You can spend a whole lifetime workin’ on that one, Emma.” Syd eased himself back into his chair and refolded his hands across his stomach. He stared silently at the fire for a moment, then leaned toward Emma and said quietly, still looking at the fire, “You know, Emma, those people who think you gotta be happy all the time”—he dismissed them with a wave of his hand—“they’re kids. They shouldn’t be messin’ with marriage, which is for grown-ups. But you, Emma. You ain’t no kid.”

A slow smile returned to Emma’s lips. “No, Syd, I’m not.” She ducked her head sheepishly. “But what if he doesn’t ask me?”

“Oh, I got a feeling he’ll be reminded.”

Emma turned to Syd, alarmed. “Syd, you wouldn’t—”

“Not me,” said Syd. “I won’t say a word.” He reached over to fill his coffee cup again. “Y’know, Emma, honey, when I left the library, Derek and Grayson were having a little drink. They didn’t look like they was goin’ anywhere.”

“Really?” Emma pulled the towel from her head and ran her fingers through her damp hair. “After everything he’s been through tonight, he should be in bed.” She stood up. “I think I’ll go downstairs and ... and make sure Grayson doesn’t keep him up too late.”

“Yeah, that duke, he’s a real chatterbox,” said Syd, putting the pot down. “You sure you ain’t too tired?”

“Isn’t it amazing? I thought I’d be exhausted, but I feel wide awake. It must be the coffee.”

“Must be.” Syd sipped from his cup, but refrained from further comment.

Emma left the room without a candle, but again she found her way easily in the dark. She had no idea what time it was, but she suspected that most of the hall’s inhabitants were in bed and asleep. She met no one on her way down the stairs and saw no lights until she opened the library door.