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that he was burying her with her mother but he never returned. I thought it terrible at the time that there would be no funeral for her at Ormond. I thought she would go to hell.”
    Alexander drew a breath. He hadn’t known what happened to Lily at the time. He hadn’t woken until later in the week and by then all the arrangements had been made.
    Geoffrey took a quick sip of his brandy and carried on.
    “The farm was let again when your father realized that Smith wasn’t coming back. I think he had enquiries made but there was no sign of Smith and the land needed tending. You probably won’t remember many of the subsequent farmers as you were at school most of the time by then too. Several other tenants moved in over the years but none of them stuck it. One wife left after saying that there was a ghost in the farm house. Apparently she could hear someone singing out of tune at night.”
    Alexander swallowed audibly as he remembered Lily’s awful, out of tune ditties but he waited for Geoffrey to continue his tale before he made any comment. Geoffrey swirled his brandy and stared into the fire before speaking again.
    “By the time Phillip returned from school the whole farm was abandoned. He tried to get it going again but you know what your brother was like. Farming really wasn’t his thing and he spent a long time going to visit friends he had made at school. After you left for France things really began to fall apart. We had a frightful spring of wild storms. Ruined what few crops we had for that season. We had nothing spare for the horses or cattle. Feeding them from the land was a nightmare. The fields were bare earth. Those people lucky enough to have decent crops needed all of it for their own livestock and those that had more than enough could charge what they liked. Prices of feed rose quickly. It was that winter that I first noticed a real difference at Ormond. The Duke sold two of his finest breeding mares and then the prize cattle. I know that my father advised him otherwise. Those animals brought in an excellent income and should have been the last to go but the Duke was apparently loath to sell the family silver. Several of the staff either married or moved on and were not replaced and then Phillip announced that he was about to wed Lady Anne. They met in London only two months before the wedding and were engaged for only the necessary four weeks. Phillip didn’t appear very happy at the prospect but he went through with it of course. Rumours abounded about Lady Anne’s reputation but they were soon proven wrong only months later when there was obviously no pregnancy.” He took a long sip of the brandy and swirled it around his mouth before swallowing. “My father took ill that winter. He came down with pneumonia and only survived the cold months due to the Duke’s insistence on sending for his own doctor, but it weakened father so much. He was delirious at times and he said things that I’m sure he would never have revealed if he were lucid.”
    Giles poured more brandy and Geoffrey gulped it down before continuing.
    “Father insisted that there was a plot to ruin Ormond and all its descendants. It sounded so far-fetched that I didn’t believe him at first but then the Duke began to sell some of his precious furnishings. Of course he made excuses about redecorating and getting rid of the rugs and all the old armour but I never believed him. You could see the pain etched in his face every time something was removed. After the sale of those pieces, he began on the paintings, but he purchased nothing new. My father died that spring. The last thing he told me was to help you discover who was determined to ruin Ormond when you returned. Your father told me immediately that he would be letting our own cottage for the income, but he offered for me to share the rooms above the stables with Jennings. I couldn’t refuse. I had nowhere else to go but I’ve done everything I can to retain my position here,