13 - The Midsummer Rose Read Online Free PDF Page A

told you what happened! You just won’t believe me!’
    ‘Hush!’ Adela laid a warning fingertip on my lips. ‘Let the others sleep for a while. Margaret is sharing Elizabeth’s room, and that child is a very light sleeper.’
    ‘So what else did Richard discover?’ I demanded angrily. But I lowered my voice.
    ‘Someone told him that the owner of the ‘murder’ house could be a James Witherspoon, nephew of the murdered man. When the two women were executed, the house passed to him.’
    ‘And what did he have to say?’ My heart was slamming against my ribs as my excitement mounted.
    ‘Nothing. No one of that name lives in Rownham Passage any more. It appears the house has stood empty ever since the murder. As far as anyone knows, it hasn’t been occupied for fifty years.’
    ‘It’s a lie!’ I exclaimed furiously. ‘There were two women and a man stopping in that house only last week. And there were a couple of horses in the hovel near the track! Why won’t anyone take me seriously?’
    ‘Sweetheart, we would,’ my wife assured me soothingly, ‘if there were any evidence to back up your story.’
    ‘Then what really happened? Tell me that!’ There was a pregnant silence. I waited grimly as realization dawned that my womenfolk had already concocted their own version of events. ‘Well?’
    ‘Richard …’ My wife produced the name tentatively, rather like someone proffering a handful of truffles to a wild boar. She cleared her throat. ‘Richard says that the ferryman told him you were talking somewhat wildly on the journey across from Ashton-Leigh. Something about building a bridge between the summit of Ghyston Cliff and the opposite heights. He thought maybe you’d got a touch of the sun. It was extremely hot the Wednesday morning of last week. He – we thought that perhaps you’d grown confused in your mind and wandered off the track down to the water’s edge, where … where you became faint or dizzy – or both – and fell in.’
    I was so taken aback that I was rendered speechless for at least half a minute. Finally, I forced out, ‘It was raining! The heavens had opened! There was a violent summer squall! The weather conditions alone would have revived me if I’d been feeling faint.’ I drew a deep breath, trying to contain my frustration. ‘Adela … My love … I know what I saw and what happened to me. There were two horses, three people. They weren’t figments of my imagination.’
    ‘So what did these people look like?’ she asked.
    This was better. Here, I was on surer ground. I plunged confidently into a description of the woman in brown sarcenet.
    ‘Tall, with a fine, big-breasted figure—’
    ‘Trust you to notice that,’ Adela grumbled, ‘even in a dream.’
    ‘About our age, maybe a little older, but not by much. Handsome face. I think her eyebrows were reddish in colour, which probably means she also has red hair. I didn’t have time to notice her eyes. Spoke and moved like someone used to command. A mistress, not a servant. Her gown was made of silk. Oh, and she had a black leather girdle, tipped with silver tags studded with turquoises. Good, brown leather shoes.’
    I could see that this detailed picture had impressed Adela more than she would admit. She was looking thoughtful. ‘So, what about the other two?’ she pressed.
    There was silence for a moment, during which I realized that what I had been thinking was solid ground was really a quagmire.
    ‘I … er … I didn’t see the man who was with them at all,’ I confessed reluctantly. ‘Just heard his voice. But I can tell you that he spoke with a peculiar accent. Not one I know. I couldn’t recognize it, if I’m honest.’
    ‘And the other woman?’
    ‘She …’ I tried to sound confident. ‘She had on a blue brocade gown – or skirt – and red leather shoes.’
    ‘And that’s all you can say about her?’
    ‘That’s all I saw.’ The admission sounded damning, even to my ears. ‘I was just