Read Online 02 - Murder at Dareswick Hall by Margaret Addison - Free Book Online

she
was quiet as anything at dinner. She hardly exchanged a word with me, although
I noticed she and Sneddon were whispering together a lot of the time.’
    ‘She
did seem very detached from it all,’ said Rose, looking over to where Isabella
sat perched now on the edge of a Queen Anne chair, her hands clasped in her lap
with her head bowed. She looked to Rose as if she was trying to shut out the
world. Certainly her posture deterred anyone from going over to speak to her.
Even Sneddon only glanced at her a couple of times before walking over to
engage in conversation with the baron. She looks miserable, Rose thought,
miserable and dejected. Clearly something was very wrong. Aloud to Cedric she
said:
    ‘I think
Isabella was quite pleased when the soup got poured onto Sneddon’s lap. I think
she thought it was funny, even though he could have been quite badly hurt.’
    ‘Yes, it’s
all quite strange,’ said Cedric, wearily. ‘But let’s not get involved in it at all
if we can possibly avoid it. I want us to enjoy ourselves while we’re here and make
the most of spending this time together. Goodness knows we deserve it after
what we went through at Ashgrove. I only hope that Sneddon’s arrival won’t
spoil everything. That man does have a tendency to put a dampener on things. At
least Hallam’s stormed off to bed in a mood. I didn’t fancy having to spend the
whole evening trying to keep those two apart, particularly if Hallam had decided
to drown his sorrows in drink, which would only have worsened his temper.’
     
    ‘I’m
sorry, Mr Crabtree, truly I am,’ said Robert, the young footman. He was sitting
at the table in the servants’ hall, his head in his hands, close to tears.
    ‘I don’t
believe a word of it, Robert,’ the butler replied harshly. ‘I could see it in
your face the moment we walked in the dining room that you had it in mind to do
something. I never dreamed though that you’d be so irresponsible as to pour
boiling hot soup onto his lordship’s lap. Whatever were you thinking of, man?
You could have burned him good and proper. You’re jolly lucky that Lord Sneddon
didn’t make more of a fuss about it. Otherwise you might be seeing the inside
of a prison cell rather than just losing your position.’
    ‘That’s
‘cos he knew he was in the wrong. It was his guilty conscience see, he knew it
was the least he deserved.’
    ‘That’s
as may be, Robert, but it seems to me that the only one who has really suffered
by this act of stupidity of yours is yourself. How’s your mother going to
manage now with no money coming into the house, what with your brothers still
at school?’
    ‘I need
this job, Mr Crabtree, I can’t afford to lose it,’ the footman cried
desperately. ‘Please say you’ll have a word with the master.’
    ‘You
should have thought of that before you did what you did,’ replied the butler
huffily. ‘His lordship wants you off the premises before first light tomorrow,
you heard him.’
    ‘Oh,
leave the boy alone, Mr Crabtree,’ pleaded Mrs Gooden, the good-natured, rotund
little cook, placing a cup of tea before the footman which he gulped down
greedily, almost burning his mouth in the process. ‘We’re lucky Robert didn’t
see fit to stick a knife in Lord Sneddon after what he did. The boy’s young and
I daresay a bit headstrong, but he only did what we’d all have liked to have
the courage to do. Why, I had half a mind to put some poison in Lord Sneddon’s
soup myself, if I could have been sure that he’d have drunk it and nobody else
and I’d have got away with it.’
    ‘Mrs Gooden!’
Crabtree was clearly appalled.
    ‘All I’m
saying, Mr Crabtree, is that we all know why Robert did what he did and that
Lord Sneddon deserved a great deal worse. He got off likely if you ask me. It
ain’t fair that we’re expected to wait on the man. He’s a murderer, that’s what
he is, as good as!’
    ‘That’s
as maybe, Mrs Gooden, and I don’t say I