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“That has arrived for you,” Delilah snapped as soon as Sophia appeared downstairs.
She quickly scanned the note and smiled with delight as she joyously clutched the parchment to her chest. While she stared blankly into the fire, she ran through the contents of her meagre wardrobe and selected a rather sunny outfit of a pale green walking dress liberally adorned with tiny rosebuds. It was the prettiest dress she had brought with her, and would be perfect for another picnic by the river with Jeb.
She glanced at the clock and gasped when she realised she didn’t have long before she was due to meet him beside the stream. Hurrying to her room, she quickly changed, collected her shawl and rushed through the house.
“Where are you going?” Delilah demanded when Sophia made her way to the kitchen door.
“Out,” Sophia replied. “Back soon.”
Sophia let herself out and hurried across the lawn without a backward look.
Once at the riverbank where they had picnicked before, she stopped and studied the empty space thoughtfully. She thought about his work investigating the deaths and wondered if he was delayed by one of his colleagues, or had found something out he wanted to talk to her about, so decided to wait.
Thankfully, the sun was out and rather warm. It was wonderful to be out in the crisp summer air, and so with a sigh, she sat beside the stream to wait for him.
Marcus watched the beautiful young woman leave the house and hurry across the garden. This was the first time he had seen the woman who had captivated Jeb. She was utterly stunning. Tall and slender, with a thick mop of dark curly hair and an oval, porcelain face that was nothing short of perfection.
“No wonder Jeb fell for you,” he murmured, following at a distance so she wouldn’t know he was there.
He knew Jeb had told her to stay close to the house but hadn’t actually banned her from leaving it. As far as Marcus was concerned, now that he had seen her he knew his colleague should have made her stay inside, wrapped her up in swaddling, and protected her with every weapon he possessed while not leaving her side morning, noon, or night. He shook his head in disbelief that his colleague had allowed her out of his sight, even for an afternoon, and watched her take a seat beside the river. She looked like a nymph as she sat watching the water trickle by but there was nobody else about, and she wasn’t doing anything to put herself in any danger.
Pleased that she had common sense, Marcus kept an eye on their surroundings and settled back against a tree to wait.
Sophia waited. She waited and waited. One hour passed. Then another.
Then she had to concede that Jeb wasn’t going to turn up. She took the parchment out of her pocket and read it again with a heart heavy with disappointment, however tried to reassure herself that his failure to appear must have something to do with his work. She knew that finding the person responsible for the deaths of Mrs Banks and Tabitha was more important than sitting with her beside the river.
However, if he doubted he could get to meet with her, why had he sent the note?
The words blurred on the page as she blinked back the salty sting of tears. She didn’t know why she was so upset but she was. The sensible part of her knew he was busy investigating serious crime within the village. Unfortunately, her heart bled at the thought that she wasn’t as important in his life as he was in hers. It seemed cruel to invite her and then simply not turn up. Having thought that, to her consternation she found that she still couldn’t be angry with him. Upset – yes. Angry – no.
Dejectedly, she scrunched up the parchment and shoved it into her pocket. She didn’t give it a second thought as she left the sheltered area and made her way back to the house.
Marcus followed her with a frown of concern on his face. He wondered if he should go and fetch Jeb. While she had been sitting beside the stream something had upset her because she now looked like she was on the verge of tears. What had changed though because she hadn’t met with anyone?
At the moment he knew Jeb was busy planning what should happen at the Squire’s forthcoming ball when the jewels were to be stolen. He was tucked up in the study in Briggleberry with Barnaby and a very deep inkpot. Should he bother disturbing them? What if she was just upset but there was nothing fundamentally wrong?
Marcus was so busy contemplating what to do as he followed her toward the house that at first he didn’t notice the rather odious smell, until it became so noxious he could barely breathe.
“Jesus, not another none,” he murmured in disgust.
He glanced around the area but couldn’t see anything. Thankfully, the house had just become visible through the trees and was only a few hundred yards away. Sophia was only a moment away from the back door so was fine.
Having done his duty to keep her safe, Marcus set to work trying to find the source of the smell. It didn’t take long.
When he saw the corpse he realised it had been there for at least a couple of days. Although he searched the forest floor, there were no clues to tell him whether the man had been killed where he lay or placed there randomly. The location was certainly far enough away from the road that nobody was likely to stumble upon it anytime soon. As it had just done with Marcus, the odious smell had been what had warned him something was wrong, and it had lured him to investigate.
However, it wasn’t the smell that raised the small hairs on the back of Marcus’s neck. It was the fact that the location of the body, and the way he had been murdered, was strikingly similar to the deaths of Samson and Balgravia in London.
Assured that Sophia must be back at the house already, and that Joseph was due to take over from him in the next few minutes anyway, Marcus went to fetch Barnaby and Jeb.
Sophia sniffed
and wiped moisture from her eyes. The last few weeks at Framley Meadow had been so fraught with tension and worry that she felt beleaguered by it all. That worry wasn’t helped by her fears and uncertainty over her relationship with Jeb. Although she had never felt this way about any man before, she was sure she loved him. Whenever she saw him, however long they were together, it was never enough, and time always passed interminably slowly until she saw him again.
While it had been wonderful to hear him confirm that he wanted a future with her, it opened up an entirely new set of problems. Could she contemplate a future in Framley Meadow, where she would see Delilah on a more permanent basis? The thought filled her with quiet horror if she was honest, mostly because she knew there wasn’t any viable alternative.
Still within the shelter of the trees, Sophia dabbed at her eyes and willed herself to calm down. She took a deep breath and promised herself she could shed her tears in private later, once Delilah was tucked up in bed and wasn’t around to notice her red and swollen eyes. With this in mind, she took a step forward and was about to enter the garden when she was suddenly grabbed from behind.
