‘I’ve locked her in her room.’
Julia stared at himopen-mouthed. ‘You’ve done what?’
‘That’s what took me so long, I had to wait for her to stop trying to calm my father down and go up to her room. Now come on, let’s get out of here.’
ChapterEighty-Four
Melstead St Mary
December 1962
Romily
At Edmund’s insistence, nobody else was allowed to see Hope. She needed to rest, he had explained. He and Annelise were going to stay the night with her, even if it meant sleeping in chairs either side of the bed.
After clearing the snow from the windscreen of the Land Rover, and sharing round the food and drink they had brought with them, Romily embarked on the slow drive home. Kit and Evelyn had volunteered to go in the back again, leaving Red to have the more comfortable seat next to Romily. She was glad of his company. ‘I doubt you anticipated spending Christmas Day quite like this,’ she said to him.
‘No, but then as I’m fast discovering, life with you is never boring, it’s one surprise after another.’
‘That’s not a bad summation. Although I have to say, you’re the biggest surprise to come my way in a long while.’
‘A good one?’
‘You’re fishing again, Mr St Clair.’
‘God loves a trier, MrsDevereux-Temple. And so do you, if I’m not mistaken.’
She smiled, but kept her gaze straight ahead on the road, which was hardly visible beneath drifting banks of snow whipped up by the wind. Thehalf-light of the afternoon was fast seeping from the leaden sky, and they were now reliant on the Land Rover’s headlamps to guide them.
‘What was that I heard you and Edmund talking about before we left the hospital? It sounded like something to do with Hope’s brother being responsible for running her over.’
She told him in more detail what Edmund had shared with her. ‘To anybody who doesn’t know Arthur,’ she said, ‘it doesn’t seem possible, but Kit and Hope could tell you many a tale of his sadistic and bullying nature when they were growing up.’
‘Nice guy. I look forward to meeting him.’
‘Careful what you wish for. I suspect he treats his poor wife, Julia, abominably.’
‘Physically?’
‘I sincerely hope not. I think he prefers mental cruelty as a means to control her. He makes all the decisions for her, such as what she should wear and with whom she can socialise. She effectively lives in a gilded cage at Melstead Hall.’
‘It might sound like a crazy question, but does she love him?’
‘Perhaps. She comes from a very different background, so I would imagine it’s the type of love that’s based on gratitude.’
‘You mean she’s from what you Brits consider an inferior class, so that gives him carte blanche to treat her like a dog, and she should be thankful?’
‘I for one have never considered Julia my social inferior.’
‘Have you never tried to intervene?’
‘I’ve tried numerous times to talk to her, but she’s so firmly under Arthur’s thumb, she wouldn’t ever be disloyal to him. Which is why it makes no sense that she would visit Hope and tell her that Arthur had run her over.’
‘Unless the worm has turned, and she’s had enough?’
‘There is that,’ said Romily thoughtfully.
She drove on in silence, and then when a strong gust of wind buffeted the Land Rover, she saw something moving in the falling snow ahead of them. At first she couldn’t make out what it was, then as she slowed her speed to a crawling pace, Red, said, ‘Hey, is that somebody in the road?’
