What he saw reassured him. Her own eyes were lively, as if she had enjoyed his complete surrender to laughter. He could tease her or tell her. Because he was a smart man, he chose the latter.
“I knew her years ago in Walton, Norfolk, as Elsie Glump,” he said, when he could speak. “I know she recognized me.”
“If ever a pair of eyes threw daggers, it was hers,” Olive said, then started to laugh. “At least she did not sic Xerxes on you!”
“You are never going to let me forget that I was afraid of a fat dog, are you?”
“Probably not. Life is far too serious a matter in Edgar to squander one moment of hilarity. I do promise to keep this our secret, however,” she assured him, completely unrepentant. “Glump? Dear me.”
He had her measure. He would have to think of a way to get her back someday, that is, if he planned to spend much time in Edgar beyond the two months he had just committed himself to. “Imagine her in a dirty dress covered by a dirtier apron, if you can. Picture globs of fat and gristle in her hair.”
“I’d rather not, Douglas.”
“Coward! Elsie Glump cheated her customers regularly. Her husband Dudley was a butcher. Olive, Lady Telford is as common as kelp.”
If he thought to startle her, he was mistaken. It was his turn to look puzzled at someone’s reaction. Now her eyes registered something close kin to triumph.
She touched his arm. “Douglas Bowden, you have added the missing link to our chain,” she said. “Shall I fill you in?”
“Please do,” he said, mystified. “Apparently she labors under the misapprehension that everyone in Edgar thinks her to be Lady Telford.”
“Which she is. We suspected Sir Dudley Telford of all manner of misdemeanor, but not a butcher,” Olive said. “We had heard that he owned a valuable piece of property somewhere …”
“… more than likely Norfolk …”
“… which he sold to a consortium buying up land for a canal. It made him amazingly rich. He invested in some fly-by-night scheme that made him even more wealthy.” She waggled her finger at him. “This meant that he came to the attention of the Prince Regent.”
“Prinny himself,” Douglas interjected. “I shudder. Would this have been around the turn of the century? It was common wardroom knowledge in the fleet that our Prinny was constantly in debt.”
“Sir Dudley loaned him quite a sum of money, which Prinny repaid by giving him a knighthood. Though why Telford instead of Glump, I do not know.”
“Let me inform you,” Douglas said. “If I recall correctly, that butcher shop was on Telford Lane, just off the High Street in Walton. You will concede that Telford sounds more dignified than Glump.”
“Decidedly.”
Douglas considered the matter and arrived quickly enough at the logical conclusion. “From the look she gave me, Elsie Glump thinks no one knows. How then …”
“… do we know?” Olive asked. “Someone heard it from someone else. So many people have had a hand in the telling, that I wasn’t certain it was true.”
Something else struck him, and it touched his heart. “You all know?”
“Certainly.”
“And everyone in Edgar continues Elsie Glump’s little charade?”
“Aye, Douglas,” Olive said. “You may not know this about us yet, but on the whole, Edgar is a kind village.” She sighed. “With the exception of what to do for the Highlanders dumped here. We’re a poor village, made poorer by the war, and yet poorest still by the clearing out of northern clan holdings, which really should not have affected us at all.”
“Being kind to Lady Telford is an easy matter, compared to your greater issue,” Douglas said.
Olive nodded.
They sat together in silence, and then he had to ask: “Slightly haunted?”
He wasn’t certain which eye he preferred better and decided on the brown one, simply because his own were brown. Both eyes shone with good humor now, even though he suspected that Edgar’s worries were never far away from Olive Grant.
“I may have exaggerated,” Olive admitted. “Mrs. Campbell claims she sees lights in the upper rooms now and then.”
“Hardly surprising, since the key under the flower pot is likely common knowledge,” Douglas said. He slapped his knees and stood, giving her a hand up too. “I can temporarily solve some of Edgar’s problems right now. Miss Grant, would you organize a working party to clean out that house? I pay very well.”
