Page 37 of Old Girls Behaving Badly

‘What happened?’ Dorothy asked me.

‘I don’t know, but he was having trouble with the quad bike. I don’t think he meant to drive off the edge. Did you get radio working?’

‘No.’

‘Did you try?’

Dorothy didn’t answer that and then the others appeared behind us, everyone leaping from their vehicles to see what was happening. I walked to the edge and looked over, terrified of what I might see. Leonard’s bike was upside down further down the hillside, but Leonard himself was lying in a heap a few feet away from me. The slope wasn’t too steep and he either fell or threw himself from the bike as it went over.

Rufus and Paul were quicker than me and were already scrambling down the grass to get to him.

‘Is he dead?’ Juliet called out.

‘No, I’m not bloody dead,’ was Leonard’s muffled response. I could see that Rufus and Paul were checking him over but hadn’t taken his helmet off yet.

‘He must have landed in the soft grass,’ Lavinia said as she came to stand next to me and I hoped I was the only one who heard Dorothy say, ‘Pity.’

‘This is becoming a bit of a habit, old chap,’ Paul said to his brother as he helped him to stand and Leonard pulled his helmet off.

‘I’m not imagining it, am I? After the saddle incident too, I’m sure someone has it in for me!’ He looked pointedly at Paul and then turned his attention to Rufus, who shrugged.

I watched Rufus for a second longer and thought there was the merest hint of a smirk on his face.

‘I think you’re probably just accident-prone, that’s all,’ Paul said.

Leonard narrowed his eyes and then looked up to the rest of the group standing at the top of the incline.

‘My brakes didn’t work. That does not make me accident-prone,’ Leonard said.

‘Why on earth would anyone have it in for you, Leonard?’ Dorothy asked. ‘You’ve been a perfect host and gentleman this week and we’re all having a wonderful time.’

I wanted to reach out my hand to stop the older woman talking, but she was too far away and it would have looked odd. I gave her a pointed look, but Dorothy’s eyes were fixed the other way.

‘Hear, hear,’ said Lavinia. ‘I think you’ve been incredibly unlucky, but you’re not badly hurt, are you?’

‘My head’s been rattled around in my helmet, my arm feels sore and I doubt it’s done much to improve my knee, but I’m not dead, no.’

‘Let me have a look,’ Caroline said, cautiously making her way down the grassy slope.

I watched as Caroline gave him a fair assessment and, deciding that he was no more than a bit bruised and shaken, she helped him to his feet. Rufus and Luke were righting the quad bike with some help from Toby, and Juliet wandered down to get in the way.

‘I think we’re going to have to get the bike company to come and retrieve this,’ Toby said. ‘It looks like there’s some damage to it. You can jump on the back of mine, Leonard.’

Luke got the number from Leonard and phoned the company, explained the situation, and they said they’d come with the van and trailer to fetch it. Then the men helped Leonard up the hill and onto the back of Toby’s quad. I helped Lavinia get Dorothy back on and we set off at a sedate pace. We took a more direct route back and missed seeing more of Leonard’s land. He didn’t bother with further commentary and we were a sombre party arriving back at the farm to drop off the remaining quad bikes an hour later.

We all filed into the house under a bit of a cloud after the turn in events of the afternoon. Leonard was still complaining about his head and how something untoward was definitely going on.

Harry appeared again, offering tablets and comfort to Leonard, seemingly always around when he was needed. It was Harry who helped Leonard upstairs to his bedroom so he could have a rest. I wondered what Leonard paid him to be at his beck and call.

‘Do you think there could be some truth in what Leonard said about sabotage?’ I said to Dorothy as we took ourselves off to the library and found a corner to tuck ourselves into.

‘I doubt it. I can’t imagine anyone here wants him dead more than I do,’ Dorothy said. ‘I can tell you I certainly didn’t sabotage his horse or his quad bike. Then again, with the ever-watchful Harry, I doubt anyone would be successful.’

An image of Harry watching me as I went to bed last night appeared in my head again, but just as I tried to concentrate on his expression, the image disappeared and I couldn’t quite grasp his intentions. I had a horrible feeling that Leonard had told him to keep an eye on me and that we should be watching his movements as much as Leonard’s while we searched.

I pushed myself up and out of the chair I’d only briefly sat in and stretched my arms. They felt stiff after an afternoon of clutching the handlebars of the quad bike. I walked over to the window and looked out. The peacock was strutting again around the lawn, his tail following him like the train on a wedding dress and the heron was back in the lake standing like a statue in the grasses that grew at the edge of the water. The surface shimmered in a white-gold glow from the sunlight and I could just make out the figures of Sandra and Rufus walking in the shadows under the trees. They seemed to be having a heated conversation, judging by Sandra’s gesticulating arms and Rufus’s grim expression. And then I wondered if I could really make that observation from such a distance. Being in this house with these people was beginning to make me feel suspicious of everyone and everything around me.

‘Who, though? Who do you think would want harm to come to him?’ I asked, not sure I truly believed that he was the target of someone’s hate, well, someone other than Dorothy Reed.