Page 42 of A Curious Ending

‘Do you keep it somewhere safe, Mrs M?’

‘Oh, I will now, my dear, don’t you worry,’ Mrs M said, regarding her with a beady intelligent eye. ‘Now, Lara, tell me what her Ladyship left you.’

Lara explained and Mrs M was outraged at the prospect of Lara being cheated out of what was rightfully hers by the avarice of Richard and Penny. ‘You take whatever you want. Lady Porter would have wanted you to have the vases you liked. China or glass.’

‘It’s okay, Mrs M. I would just like a couple that we used to use for her roses when we did them together.’ Lara suddenly recalled something else she wanted to ask this woman who had known Lady Porter for thirty years. In the light of her conversation with Joe, now seemed as good a time as any. ‘Mrs M, do you think that Lady Porter could ever have had any other children? You know, apart from Richard.’

‘I don’t know what’s put that into your head.’ Mrs M was scandalised by the suggestion. ‘There was never any suggestion of that sort of thing.’

‘No, I didn’t mean like that,’ Lara hastened to say, but she realised she was going to get nothing more out of Mrs M who was now sitting with her lips primly pressed together. Lara finished her coffee and made her way to the door leading to the flower room. ‘I’ll have a look at the vases under the sink and then would you mind if I had a quick look around in case Lady Porter put some elsewhere?’

For once Lara and Abby were in luck.

‘Well, dear, it would be very helpful if you wouldn’t mind staying here for a bit. Not long, twenty minutes at the most. Mr Richard has got it into his head that I shouldn’t leave the house unattended and it would be a blessing if you’d stay until I got back from the shops.’

‘No problem,’ Lara said.

‘Don’t you worry for a moment, Mrs M, you take as long as you like,’ Abby added, meaning every word of it.

Chapter 21

Abby and Lara decided to start at the top of the house and work their way back to the flower room. The bedrooms had a cold unlived in feel to them and there were covers over most of the furniture. The décor of each room was always attractive, but each quite different. But however beautiful the surroundings nothing detracted from the sense of emptiness. Lara put aside her distaste and checked all the bathrooms. There were two small finds, an empty packet of Valium and a bottle of out-of-date sleeping pills – some four years old. There were three pills left inside and the bottle was made out to Lady Porter.

They were about to go downstairs when Abby suggested exploring the attic.

‘Do you really think we need to?’ Lara was uneasy.

‘I believe it would be good to check in case we did discover any more of the Meissen set. This might be the only opportunity we have to do so,’ Abby advised.

Lara reluctantly headed back to the small flight of stairs she had seen off one of the bedroom corridors. At the top of the stairs was an arched door. Lara tried the handle but it was locked. ‘Well, that’s that,’ she said, with a sense of relief.

‘You really do give up far too easily,’ Abby remarked with the air of one who has been helping to break into other people’s houses for over 190 years. She stood for a moment, her head slightly on one side. Eventually she said, ‘I believe you will find the key in the second drawer of Lady Porter’s dressing table.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Lara muttered before Abby could speak, ‘it’s a knack.’

The key was exactly where Abby had said it would be, wrapped in a linen and lace handkerchief. Soon Lara was back fitting it into the lock. She turned the key and pushed open the door. Inside was a small room with a vaulted ceiling. It was immediately obvious that this was very far from being a room for storing old junk. Lara gazed around her in wonder. All the walls were decorated in jewelled colours overlaid with intricate gold filigree patterns. From the central apex of the roof fine silk hangings were suspended. These fell in great swooping swathes of purple, gold, cerise and red – cascading from above to form a canopy over a beautiful bed that took up the main part of the room. Rich tapestry cushions with images of tigers, elephants, lilies and lotus flowers lay in sumptuous piles on the cream and gold bed covers. At the foot of the bed were two chairs and in front of these a small table was crowded with mosaic and glass lanterns. ‘Oh, Abby,’ was all Lara could say. Then she repeated, ‘Oh, Abby, we shouldn’t be here.’

Abby understood just how Lara was feeling and tried to reassure her. ‘This room was clearly cherished by Lady Porter and it still holds within the fabric of it a strong sense of her. I know you are disturbed by invading Lady Porter’s privacy, but I believe that this forms part of the secret that surrounds her death and I think it is important that we have witnessed it.’

Lara looked at Abby sadly. There was something indescribably poignant about the room. As she pulled the door to and relocked it she thought of them going downstairs and returning to the heart of the house, but then Lara realised that the very heart of the house lay above them in that small secret chamber.

‘I wonder if Mrs M knows about that room?’ Lara said, thinking about the housekeeper’s obvious reluctance to invade her employer’s privacy. Surely she must have opened it since her employer’s death? If not before?

‘Hmmm,’ was all Abby said thoughtfully, as they descended the stairs.

Reaching the ground floor, Lara and Abby continued their methodical search in silence. They found the tea set as Mrs M had described it in a sideboard in the dining room. It was almost a full set – only missing, Lara judged, the pieces in Jason’s shop. Lara turned one of the teacups around slowly in her hand and thought it would not be long before Mrs M placed it away somewhere more secure.

Abby echoed what Lara had been thinking, ‘With the china pieces that I observed in Honeybourne Antiques, that makes a full set I believe.’

‘Apart from the tea caddy,’ Lara reminded her.

‘Ah, yes, Mrs M said that piece was broken. Nevertheless, the combined set would be of considerable worth, I feel,’ Abby surmised.

They continued their search. At the back of the sideboard they found an old photo album that Lara drew out for them to get a better look at. On inspection it appeared to be more of a scrapbook than an album, charting the rise of Reggie Porter. There were photos of him as a young man standing beside printing machines and motor bikes; a swarthy looking man with a big smile. Lara thought she could see a slight resemblance to Joe, but nothing more. Then she wondered if she was imagining it. There were numerous press cuttings and also some photographs detailing the visit of a minor Royal to his printworks in 1979. In these Lara discovered several of Lady Porter. Her hair was much darker than Lara had ever known it and it was flicked back around a short bob. She wore a broad-shouldered suit in navy blue and a pair of enormous gold earrings. Lara found it hard to equate the woman she saw in the photos with the room she and Abby had just discovered. There were also group shots of a celebration where Reggie was being toasted. It was Abby who spotted a younger, plumper Dr Patil in the crowd applauding Lord Porter.

‘Do you think…’ Lara left the question unasked.

‘That the room upstairs has anything to do with the good doctor?’ Abby finished for her.