Murder Most Royal

She knew what would happen next, and let them ask her the inevitable questions about what the Queen was up to at Sandringham, and whether she’d recovered from her cold, and what it was like to work for her.

‘An honour,’ Rozie said.

‘I keep thinking about what you told me,’ she said to Mary, ‘about Mr Wallace worrying about losing all those memories of his wife when he lost the house. It sounds heartbreaking.’

‘It was,’ Mary said grimly. ‘Those St Cyrs are total, stuck-up bastards, whatever anyone says. They’ve got the reputation for being generous and caring, with the lamb boxes at Easter and Flora going round like Lady Muck if anyone’s off sick, but we know the truth now.

’

‘And you said the Wallaces were friends of theirs?’

‘Well, Laura thought she was Lee’s friend,’ Mary said. ‘Clearly not. But the aristocracy are another country, aren’t they? They do things differently there. Without Laura, they wouldn’t have kept their flock of Norfolk Horns going, and that’s one of the things that makes Ladybridge special.

When Lee had her breakdown, it was Laura who picked up the pieces and put her back together. Not the baron – he was useless.’

‘The baroness had a breakdown?’ Renée leaned forward, fascinated, and saved Rozie asking the question. ‘When was that? I didn’t know.’

‘Mmm,’ Mary said. ‘It was a long time ago, when Valentine and his sister were kids. Laura lived next to the school and she had a boy the same age as Valentine, so it was easy. I always had the impression Valentine had done something.

’

‘Oh? How?’ Rozie asked.

‘Dunno,’ Mary said, frowning. ‘No, wait. I remember, we were outside church and I was asking Laura how Lee was – this was in the middle of the crisis – and she said nothing much, she was very discreet, but Valentine was standing about ten feet from us, just an ordinary boy about eleven or twelve, and the look Laura gave him! Of course, after that we didn’t see him much. He went off to boarding school and I’ll tell you one thing, before that, Lee had vowed her kids wouldn’t go away.

She’d always said there was a perfectly good secondary school at Swaffham they could go to. I admired her for that. But then suddenly Valentine was gone and I did ask why, but Laura simply wouldn’t talk about it. She stuck by Lee to the bitter end, and look what they did to her. Turned her beloved Chris out of his house for no good reason. Rumour is, Flora wants it for her London guests, because it’s warmer than the hall. I wouldn’t put it past them.