Village Secrets (8 page)

‘Peter, you are an angel! Of course, what a good idea.’ She placed her hand on his cheek and bent to kiss him. His understanding of her and his willingness not to blame her for Beth’s problem brought to the fore all her passionate love for him. Caroline knelt down in front of him between his knees. Peter put down his book and gathered her to him. He hugged her close, enjoying the scent of her, the lovely familiar feel of her warmth against his. He began moving his hands over her body, appreciating the slimness of her, the roundness of her hips, and then he took her head in his hands and kissed her lips. With his fingers he began smoothing her hair, tracing the curve of her ears, his eyes feasting on the shape of her face, her jaw, her eyebrows. Then taking her head between his hands again, he looked into her eyes. ‘When shall I ever stop finding you so inviting?’

‘Never, I hope, because I find
you
overwhelmingly exciting. We shall probably be still at it in our nineties!’

‘Darling! You’ll be such a gracious old lady.’

‘Thanks very much! I don’t feel like an old lady at the moment, but I am getting cramp in my foot. Ouch!’ She slipped from his grasp and sat down to rub her foot. Peter pulled off her shoe and massaged her foot.

‘Oh, that’s better. Thanks.’

‘Let’s go to bed.’

‘Let’s. It’s only half-past nine, but let’s. I was going to do some jobs ready for tomorrow.’

‘Let tomorrow take care of itself. Come on.’ Peter pulled her to her feet and with his arm round her waist set off towards the stairs.

‘We haven’t locked up! I’ll check the back door and the cat flap. You do the front bolts.’

Chang and Tonga were already in bed. ‘Peter! Mimi’s not in yet.’

‘Never mind, she’s always the last in, and it is early.’

‘I shall worry.’

‘Don’t, she’ll be all right. Hurry up!’

Before he pinned it up, Jimbo read the postcard Sylvia had brought for his Village Voice noticeboard.

‘Mimi gone missing? Caroline will be upset.’

‘She is. We waited all day yesterday for her to come home but she hasn’t, and Dr Harris is very upset. Mimi was the first cat she had, you see, and she’s quite old now – for a cat, that is.’

‘Poor old thing.’

‘I think she’ll be back. She’s the one who brings all the mice home and one day a young rat, heaven help us!’

‘Oh God! Where did she put it?’

‘Well, we caught her trying to struggle through the cat flap with it in her mouth, but she couldn’t quite make it through and had to leave it outside.’

‘Thank God for that!’

‘Exactly.’

‘I assume it was dead?’

‘Oh no, she brings them home alive and gives them to Dr Harris.’

‘What a delightful habit.’

‘As you can imagine I’m not best friends with Mimi but I don’t like to think of her as being missing. We’re conducting a hunt in Rector’s Meadow this afternoon – that’s her favourite hunting ground, you see.’

‘I’ll put the card up right now. I’ll mention it around, see if anyone’s spotted her.’

‘Thank you.’

‘How’s Beth this morning?’

‘Well, she’s gone to playgroup with one of Dr Harris’ scarves tied round her neck and an old handbag of hers with some treasures in it, and Dr Harris has taken BooBoo, an old toy rabbit of Beth’s, with her. Fingers crossed, it seems to have worked. I’ve been playing with her for nearly an hour and suddenly she said I could go. So I went. But I’m going back to sneak a look in school before I go home. Dr Harris took them both to see the surgery yesterday and Beth seems more resigned now. If you find her on your chair again, please ring me, won’t you?’

‘Of course I shall. Straight away. Damned worrying, her floating about the village like that. Damned worrying.’

‘I’ll get my shopping done then. Thank you, Mr Charter-Plackett.’

‘Hope the dreaded Mimi turns up.’

When Sylvia went back to the school at a quarter to twelve to collect the children she walked into a full-scale row.

Pat Duckett was standing in the hall, floormop in one hand, mop bucket by her side indignantly protesting to Kate Pascoe that the floor was clean by anyone’s standards and she—

‘I’m sorry Pat, but it isn’t. The children laid down to do their floor exercises and every one of them was dusty and grimy when they stood up.’

‘They’ll ’ave to dust themselves off then, won’t they? Stands to reason when the floor’s been walked on all morning and it raining too! Every time someone steps outside a classroom they ’as to walk on the hall floor. Small wonder the floor gets dusty, at the very least, by the end of the morning.’

‘It simply won’t do – and then to eat their food in here with all that dust.’

‘Well, I’m sorry
Ms
Pascoe but it isn’t on my list of things to do, mopping the floor before I gets the tables out. There isn’t time.’

‘Time there will have to be. I can’t think what the office would say if they came and saw the floor in this state.’

‘And while we’re putting our cards on the table, what about that cat?’

‘What about it?’

‘I don’t never remember anyone bringing a cat to school, ’cept those days when Mr Palmer had an animal day and everybody brought something. A cat reg’lar isn’t the thing in a school. Heaven knows what germs it might be bringing. Oh hello, Sylvia. What do
you
think about a cat in school?’

‘To be honest, I don’t know. Is there something in the regulations or anywhere?’

Kate Pascoe pointed to the floor. ‘I’ve my class to get back to. Please see that this floor is clean before the tables are put out.’ She turned on her heel and went back to her class.

Pat screwed the mop dry and began mopping. Then she leant on the mop handle and said, ‘You don’t want a job as school-caretaker, do yer, Sylvia?’

‘No, thanks.’

‘I thought not. I’m about at the end of my tether with her. And that cat. It spits if yer get too close. It ’as claws like a tiger’s. I reckon it’s related to a panther. Black as night, evil it is. It’s got all-seeing eyes. Does my nerves no good at all.’

‘You’d better leave.’

‘I’ve half a mind to. I reckon it can put the evil eye on yer – yer know, like yer read in books. If cats start disappearing it’ll be ’er that’s spiriting ’em away.’

Mindful of Mimi, Sylvia went off to collect Alex and Beth, thinking over what Pat had said. It was all ridiculous of course but … ‘There you are, come along then, you two. Had a nice morning?’ Beth held up a picture for her to see.

‘Oh Beth, that
is
lovely, Mummy will be pleased. What have you made, Alex? A car. That’s splendid. Let’s get home. We’ve got everything, I think. Come along then. Bye bye, Mrs Neal.’ Beth’s thumb was in her mouth, her lover tickling her nose, the scarf still round her neck, her handbag hanging from her arm. Alex skipped blithely along, his sister walked quietly, as though weighed down by care. Sylvia glanced down at her; at least she hadn’t run off. Thank goodness.

Caroline put the children’s boots on and then her own. ‘Come along, children. Ready, Sylvia?’

‘I am. Have you seen my gloves?’

‘Here they are on the table.’

‘Oh, right, so they are.’

They crossed Pipe and Nook Lane and climbed over the wall into Rector’s Meadow. The children ran along in front kicking a ball while Caroline and Sylvia walked behind looking in the grass as they went and calling. The wind was keen and Caroline pulled her scarf more closely round her neck.

‘Mimi! Mimi! Really, I suppose it’s pointless calling. If she sees us she’ll come, won’t she?’

‘Yes. Have you seen Kate Pascoe’s cat?’

‘No, but we shall tonight. That’s where we’re going when you sit in.’

‘Oh, I hadn’t realised. Pat says it’s related to a panther. She doesn’t like its eyes.’

‘Oh, honestly!’

‘That’s what I thought.’

‘We could try the old barn, couldn’t we?’ Caroline pointed to the stone barn alongside the wall adjoining the Big House estate. ‘She might have got in there and can’t find her way out.’

‘That’s an idea. Yes, we’ll do that.’

They wandered all the way round the edge of the field calling for Mimi and looking in the long grass, but there was no sign of her. When they reached the barn Sylvia said, ‘The door isn’t locked. Never is. And look – there are places at the bottom of the door where she could have got in. It’s rotting away.’ She took hold of the bracket where the padlock once was and pulled the door open. It opened about a foot and then jammed and they all squeezed in.

Once a barn for holding winter-feedstuff for cattle, it still had bale upon bale of hay stacked against the walls. The thick stone walls had withstood a couple of centuries of weather and were still as strong as the day it was built. The roof, a sturdy construction of timber and tiles, was intact; the only light came from two square openings high up at the apex of the opposite shorter walls. The hay was dry and old and long past its usefulness.

Caroline called, ‘Mimi! Mimi!’ but there was no answering mew, only a scuffling amongst the bales. ‘This place is huge. It would make a fantastic house, wouldn’t it?’

Sylvia said, ‘I heard something then.’

‘Did you? I didn’t. Do you think it’s Mimi?’ Alex and Beth were climbing onto a bale and jumping off with great shrieks of delight. ‘Mind! Careful, you two.’

Sylvia’s eyes widened when she heard the rustling noises again. She mouthed rather than said, ‘Rats?’ Caroline looked at her in silent horror.

‘I’ve always had a dread of …’

‘So have I.’

‘Come along, children, Mimi’s not here. Let’s go home. Mummy’s feeling cold. A hot drink, I think, when we get back. Time to go, darlings, come along. We’re wasting our time. I’d rather find her dead than not
know
. That’s the hardest part, not knowing.’ Despairingly she called again: ‘Mimi! Mimi! No, it’s no good. Let’s go. Don’t forget your ball, Alex. I wonder if she’s gone into Sykes Wood? I’ll try there tomorrow perhaps, as a last resort.’

‘Peter, I’ve just had a thought. If Kate is a vegan, what on earth shall we have to eat?’

‘I’d forgotten that. I can see I shall be having a bacon sandwich when I get home to fill me up.’

‘I can’t think what vegans make for a dinner, can you?’

‘You’ll soon find out.’

‘Ready?’

The lights were on at every window in the school-house when they got there. Caroline was full of anticipation. She loved seeing other people’s houses; it gave one such a brilliant clue as to what made them tick.

Peter rang the bell and they heard footsteps approaching the door. ‘Do come in. Isn’t it cold tonight?’ Kate was in black, a kind of evening dress with long sleeves and bugle bead decoration on the bodice. Caroline had come in a smart winter dress and felt she’d made an error of judgement, but it was too late now. Kate’s long black hair was plaited and the end of the plait fastened up on top of her head with a wide velvet ribbon. It left her long thin neck quite bare; around her throat was a selection of thin silver necklaces with pendants of one kind or another hanging from each one.

Tonight she wore make-up – a magenta lipstick with magenta eyeshadow between her eyebrow and eyelashes and a black line all around her eye. Peter found her rather alarming; Caroline was amused. What kind of statement was she making here? She was like something out of a nightmare. Her long pointed nails – the kind which made Caroline wonder however the owner managed to achieve even the simplest task without the nails getting in the way, were painted to match her lipstick. Somehow Caroline didn’t fancy food prepared by hands which looked like that. But then she shrugged her shoulders; she was being quite ridiculous. What on earth had long nails to do with the food she ate?

What really took her breath away was the decoration of the narrow entrance hall. Where she, Caroline, would have used light colours to give the passage width, Kate had used dark navy. The ceiling was light blue with silver stars of different sizes stuck to the ceiling. The same treatment had been given to the tiny sitting room – dark walls and a light blue ceiling, but this time golden suns with rays coming from them were stuck all over the ceiling. God! If Michael Palmer could see this!

Peter said, ‘I love your decorations – they are so unusual. You must have worked awfully hard to get all this done in such a short time.’

‘I have. At the weekend I stayed up all night to get finished. I’m glad you like it. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste, but I’ve tired of magnolia and all that dratted stippling effect and stencilling everyone’s been doing for years. Thought I’d have a change.’

Caroline seated herself on a sofa draped with Indian throw-overs. She sank almost to the floor, the sofa was so soft. Peter sat in a chair more suited to a tiny elderly aunt than a man of six feet five. He dwarfed it and it looked in serious danger of collapsing under his weight.

‘A drink?’ Kate suggested. ‘The meal’s almost ready.’ They both nodded. ‘I have orange juice or elderflower wine. Or dandelion if you prefer.’

‘Well, I’ve never tried either so I’ll plump for the elderflower, thanks.’