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‘Are you the new accountant who works up at Somerville Hall?’
Abigail turned around and looked at Mabel, who was still seated behind the counter.How can she possibly know that?she wondered. ‘How do you know?’
‘Well, you’re doing Lili’s accounts, and one of our regular customers popped in and told us all about the pretty young woman from London who is working for the Somervilles.’
‘What do you mean – all about me?’
‘Oh, just that you’ve become quite friendly with …’ there was a pause, during which the sisters exchanged knowing glances, ‘the Somervilles.’
Abigail frowned. So, it was true – people up at the Hallweregossiping behind her back.
‘I just work there – that’s all.’
Marjorie raised her eyebrows. ‘If you say so.’
‘I do,’ Abigail replied defensively, deciding she was wasting her time in the shop. Although she had found a rather lovely linen scarf. She took it off the hanger and held it up.
‘Oliver still single?’
There was a long pause until Abigail realised that question was directed at her. She looked up to find them both staring at her, the question heavy with a suggestion.
Abigail lowered the scarf. ‘I guess so, from what I’ve been told.’ She was just replacing the scarf, deciding to leave before they started asking her any searching questions, perhaps looking for their next juicy morsel of gossip, when Mabel said, ‘Perhaps he’ll marry in his thirties like his aunt.’
Abigail swung around and blurted, ‘Are you talking about Daphne?’
The sisters exchanged glances. Marjorie asked, ‘How do you know about Daphne?’
Abigail shrugged, trying to appear friendly and chatty. ‘I went on a tour of the house, and there were photos of Oliver’s … I mean Lord Somerville’s sister, Daphne, with an older man.’
‘Oh, yes, Harold. There were rumours her father made the match because his daughter was in love with someone else that her father disapproved of. He wouldn’t give his blessing for her to marry him, so rumour has it she met him in secret.’
Abigail thought of the young man she’d only seen on one occasion on the movie reels. He had been the one taking the home movies of a very young, but very happy, Daphne in the cottage by the sea. Had he been her secret lover? ‘When did it stop between Daphne and …?’
The sisters exchanged a glance. ‘Who said it did?’
Abigail frowned. ‘But surely when she married …’
They exchanged another glance, looked about them, and lowered their voices. ‘We think there was a reason she moved out of the married quarters when her husband was posted overseas – he was in the army, you know.’
‘She moved out of the married quarters?’
‘Even in the early days of her marriage, she didn’t like going abroad with him.’
‘How do you know?’
They both raised their eyebrows as if to say,now, that is a daft question. ‘Haven’t you heard about our reputation yet?’
‘If she moved out of the married quarters, where did she live?’ Abigail held her breath, hoping they said …
‘Why, the cottage by the sea, of course. She called it The Hideaway. We heard that she inherited some money from an aunt on her father’s side and used it to buy the cottage.’
Abigail stared at the sisters as they said the words,The Hideawayagain,in unison, as if to say,and we know what she got up to there.
‘So, you’re saying she still met up with … this man, even after she married?’
‘Oh, yes.’ There was a pause. ‘We reckon.’
‘But you don’t know for sure?’
