Whispers (4 page)

‘Oh hello, I’m Laura your neighbour,’ she introduced herself. At that moment Jo and Bethany rounded the corner and as Bethany went to join her mother, Laura told Simon, ‘This is Bethany. She’s been keeping your daughter company but I’ve just come to fetch her home.’

Jess stepped out of the kitchen just in time to see Simon shaking their neighbour’s hand, and her heart sank as she saw him smile charmingly at Laura and hang onto her hand for a fraction longer than was necessary. He never could resist a pretty face.

‘Ah, so you’ve met then,’ she said, forcing a smile as she hurried across to them.

‘Yes, we have, and I’ve come to take Bethany out of your way,’ Laura told her with an apologetic grin. ‘I was just saying to your husband that you must be tired of her by now.’

‘Not at all,’ Jess said truthfully. ‘In actual fact, she’s been a really good help, keeping Jo entertained. You are welcome to come any time you like, Bethany.’

The young woman smiled shyly as she sidled up to her mother and Simon frowned. Jess shot him a warning look, and when Laura and Bethany were safely out of earshot she explained, ‘Bethany suffered brain damage at birth and she’s a little slow.’

‘How sad, and such a lovely young girl as well.’ Simon shook his head. ‘It makes you realise how lucky we are to have our two healthy girls, doesn’t it? Even if Mel
is
going through the terrible teens moods.’

Jess nodded in agreement before returning to the kitchen where she was tackling the unenviable job of scrubbing the Aga, which was literally caked with grease. This was another job that the cleaners hadn’t touched. Jess knew that she could have afforded a new one, but Agas should last for ever, and the older models were lovely to look at.

Later that evening, she and Simon manhandled the old stained mattress from the late owner’s room down the stairs and onto the back of his lorry.

‘That’s the best place for it,’ Simon muttered.

‘I absolutely agree,’ Jess replied. ‘But some of the bedframes, wardrobes and chests of drawers are solid mahogany; all they need is a bit of TLC.’

Simon nodded. His wife had always preferred modern furniture but it looked as if all that was about to change. As she had already
explained
to him, she intended to restore Stonebridge House to the way it had once been.

‘Once I’ve got us basically straight I shall start having a look around the antique shops and auctions for suitable pieces,’ she told him.

As far as Simon was aware, Jess had never so much as set foot in an antique shop or an auction room in her whole life, but then whilst she was so busy with the house, it would give him a little more freedom – so it wasn’t all bad. Already it was more than clear that their whole way of life was in the process of dramatic change.

‘It’s really beginning to take shape now, isn’t it?’ As Jess stood back to admire their newly decorated bedroom, Simon nodded. The decorators had finished the girls’ rooms and theirs too, and to Jess the place was beginning to feel like home. It was now mid-July and the family had been living at Stonebridge House for over three months. During that time the whole place had been rewired and a new central heating system had been installed. Downstairs, the kitchen fitters were sawing and hammering away as they put up the new units, and outside a team of gardeners were tackling the overgrown jungle. She herself had had to slow down a little as the girls were now on their summer holidays from school and she was having to entertain them, but Jess was quietly pleased with the progress so far.

‘I daren’t even begin to think what all this must be costing,’ Simon said ruefully, as he examined the new dado rails. The original ones had been ripped off at some point in time, but Jess had insisted that new ones should be fitted. The decorators had also repaired the elaborate plasterwork on the ceilings and the original cornices, and now they were all freshly painted. A huge crystal chandelier dangled from an ornate rose in the centre of the room giving it an air of grandeur, and the walls were covered in a flock paper in soft shades of gold and cream.

‘Well, none of it has come cheap,’ Jess replied, ‘but I have managed to save some money by making the curtains myself. I got the material for a snip in the Bull Ring when I went to Birmingham last week and I’ve only got the swags and tails to finish and then they’re ready to go up. All we need now is the new carpet to go down and the carpet fitters are coming in to do that tomorrow.’

‘And what do we do for furniture in here?’ Simon asked.

‘Oh, I’ve saved money there as well,’ she hastened to assure him. ‘I’ve cleaned up a whole suite for in here. It’s solid mahogany and it’s going to look beautiful.’

‘Then I suppose I should be grateful for small blessings,’ he quipped.

She punched him playfully on the arm.

‘Oh, stop moaning, will you? It will all be worth it when it’s done, you’ll see. I’m going to have a good root around in the other bedrooms later this afternoon when the girls have gone swimming. You’d be surprised what little gems I’m finding.’

‘Rather you than me.’ Simon strode towards the door, saying, ‘I’d better get off back to work, else Bill and the lads will think I’ve got lost. See you later.’

Once he was gone and Jess had heard the Land Rover roar off down the drive she fancied a cuppa, but there were kitchen fitters everywhere, and when she entered, one of them winked at her cheekily. Deciding that it was time for a bit of fresh air she beat a hasty retreat through the back door, with Alfie close on her heels.

She welcomed the feel of the sun on her face and meandered on, avoiding the gardeners who were mowing the extensive lawn to the left of the property. Eventually she came to the lake, where she sank down onto the grass. From here she had a wonderful view of the front of the house. She wondered when it had been renamed Stonebridge House, seeing as Laura had told her it had once been a farm. It must have been a very impressive farmhouse, she decided, and supposed that one of the Fentons must have renamed it to make it sound a little grander. By modern-day standards it was huge, and as she sat gazing at it, she fell in love with it all over again. It was built from local stone, which had mellowed to a warm golden colour over the years. Its tall chimneys loomed above the slate roof; and the high windows stood in regimental rows on either side of the front door. The latter was reached through a magnificent porch held up on two sides by marble pillars, and a profusion of ivy and wisteria grew in wild abundance all over it. Simon had said they ought to have it removed, but Jess had flatly refused to allow it, saying that it lent an air of olde-world charm to the property. Windows were also set into the roof of the attic. Laura had told her that this was where the servants used to live, but as yet she had still had no time to go up there and explore, although she had every intention of doing so, as soon as the opportunity arose.

A rabbit suddenly appeared from a burrow not far away from where Jess was sitting and, barking wildly, Alfie went in hot pursuit of it, his tail wagging as if it had developed a life of its own. There’s one who is happy about the move, at least, she thought to herself with amusement. In their old house they had taken it in turns each day to take him for a walk to the local park, but here she could just open
the
door and let him run where he wished on their three acres of ground. Jo seemed quite happy with the move too and had settled remarkably well into her new school in Weddington before breaking up for the summer holidays. Already she and Bethany, their neighbour’s daughter, had become good friends and Beth was now a regular visitor to the house. Sadly, Mel was missing her friends and her old school dreadfully. Even so, Jess was confident that she would eventually adapt, and in the meantime she was spending as much time as she could with her.

It was funny, when Jess came to think of it. Their new home was situated between Caldecote and Weddington along an unadopted road which the local people had named ‘The Four Shillings’. It was just a few miles away from their old home in Hinckley and yet it felt like a world away. Staring into the lake, she suddenly thought of the request that Jo had made the night before. She had asked her dad if she could have a rowing boat, and as she was a good swimmer, he had agreed to get one for her. Jo was a real tomboy, always into some sort of mischief, and Jess had no doubt that once she had her boat there would be a few mishaps. Not that she minded. As long as her children were happy, she was happy.

Now she gazed contentedly back at the house, remembering how, from the second she had seen it advertised in the local paper, she had hounded Simon to go with her to view it – and once she had set foot through the door she had known that she had come home. Now, if only she and Simon could return to being as happy as they had once been, and Mel could settle, everything would be just perfect.

A movement in one of the attic windows caught her eye: someone was standing there staring out across the lawns, although from here she couldn’t distinguish whether it was a man or a woman. Simon was at work and both the girls were out, so who could it be? Perhaps one of the workmen had wandered up there to have a nosy? Deciding there was only one way to find out, Jess rose and brushed the grass from her jeans before setting off back to the house.

When she entered the kitchen she had to stand for a second to allow her eyes to adjust to the light, but she soon saw that all four of the kitchen fitters were present and correct, busily at work. The key to the attic was still on the board in the hall, and that in itself Jess found strange. If the key was still there, how had anyone managed to get up there?

The door leading up to the attics was situated at the end of a long
landing
and she inched it open cautiously. The new light illuminated a plain wooden staircase. There was no wallpaper on the walls here, just bare plaster, which looked as if it hadn’t been white-washed for years. The stairs were very steep, and at the top of them she inserted the key into the door there. It grated noisily as she struggled to turn it, then she pushed hard against the solid door and it slowly creaked open. Within seconds she had located another light switch and found herself confronting a long passage from which a number of rooms led off. The floorboards were thick with dust, apart from several sets of footprints that had no doubt been made by the surveyor when he’d come to check the property, and the electricians.

She stood for a while trying to get her bearings. The person she had glimpsed from the lawn had been standing in the first window at the back of the house, so she reasoned it must have been in one of the rooms to her right. She headed towards the first one and threw open the door. Instantly she was met by an overpowering scent of roses. It was a welcome change from the smell of damp and mildew that she had become accustomed to, although she had no idea where the scent could be coming from. This must once have been one of the original servants’ rooms, and Jess blinked with amazement to find that it was still furnished exactly as it must have been, back nearly 200 years ago when it was occupied. A small window was set into a sloping roof, and against one wall was a wooden bed. An old-fashioned marble washstand with a plain china jug and bowl stood next to the bed, and against the other wall was a dark wooden wardrobe with no adornments of any kind, and a stout chest of drawers. Jess tentatively opened the wardrobe door and was shocked to find a number of clothes still inside it. Sadly, the moths had done their worst on most of them but she could still distinguish two long brown skirts of a thick calico-like material, and two plain white blouses with long sleeves and high necks. Excitedly, Jess next crossed to the chest of drawers and in the top drawer she found a number of enormous aprons made of starched white linen, yellowed with age. The second drawer held an assortment of plain underwear, but in the bottom one she found a straw bonnet and as she drew it out she smiled. This had obviously been someone’s Sunday best hat long ago, and she tried to imagine the person who might have worn it. It was made of straw with a wide brim and had been trimmed with faded ribbons. Two longer ribbons that had obviously tied beneath the chin dangled down and she fingered them gently. Whoever these things had once belonged to must have
been
dead for a very long time now, and it struck her how strange life was. People died, but life went on as before. It was a sobering thought.

Something in the very bottom of the drawer then caught her eye, and laying the bonnet on the hard wooden bed, she drew out a small sampler that someone had clearly been working on, still stretched on a round wooden frame. The needle that was inserted into it contained scarlet thread. There were a number of flowers embroidered around the edges, and in the middle someone had neatly sewn a name.
MARTHA
. Jess sighed. If the size of the waistbands on the skirts she had discovered were anything to go by, the person who had slept in this room had only been a young girl, and she wondered why she would have left all her possessions behind. What was more puzzling still was the identity of the person she could swear she had seen standing at the window. It was obvious that no one apart from the electricians and surveyor had set foot in this room for many years, so it must have been just a trick of the light.

After placing everything back exactly as she had found it, she turned to leave the room and it was then that she spotted the charcoal sketch hanging on the wall. It was of a young girl picking wild flowers in a field, and in the background was a stone bridge spanning a river. It was a very simple sketch but Jess loved it and decided that it should be reframed to hang with the others she had found in the late owner’s bedroom. Right now she was keen to explore what lay behind the other doors, so she left the sketch where it was for the time being.

The next room she entered was almost exactly the same as the first, but the wardrobe and chest of drawers were empty. The third room had obviously been used as some sort of schoolroom at one time and was much bigger than the servants’ rooms, with a larger window set into the sloping roof. Three small wooden desks were placed in front of a large blackboard, which was now white with dust, but again, other than that the room was empty. It was quite cold up here despite the heat of the sun outside, and Jess rubbed her bare arms, wishing that she had put a sweatshirt on.