“Still have the ring?” Sara asked.
“I do. I wear it often.”
For a few moments, they sat in silence.
“What now?” Sara asked. “Will you go back to Oxley Manor with us? This time you can arrive in a limo.”
Meena leaned back. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about those days when I practically lived with those people. I was so young and naive, so lonely, that I looked at them in awe. But the truth is that we were all misfits.”
“We’ve seen that,” Sara said. “Nadine...”
“Lower-class origins, upper-class education. Her accent was like the Queen’s while her father’s was barely intelligible. Nadine didn’t fit in anywhere.”
“And Byon,” Kate said.
“Talented, probably from a poor background—we never knew for sure. We have no idea how he afforded school. Nicky was the saddest of us all. Disliked by his father, burdened with a rotting house that he’d been told he had to hold on to no matter what.”
“Do you think he loved Diana?” Kate asked.
“Lord, no! They weren’t even friends. But they both wanted Oxley Manor and were willing to do whatever was needed to obtain it. And Nicky would have done anything to get his father’s approval.”
“Murder?” Sara asked.
“Oh yes,” Meena said. “But not Diana. He needed her.”
“What about Sean?” Jack asked.
“He hated us all. I can’t imagine why he stayed there. Even I knew he had job offers. Byon used to joke and say, ‘He actually loves us.’ But of course we knew he didn’t.”
“What do you think actually happened to them?” Sara asked.
“I have no idea,” Meena said, “but I don’t think Sean and Diana left together, not as a couple. They didn’t match. Sean liked women who did their hair and makeup. Put together. Diana was pretty but in a natural way. Sean always treated her like she was his younger brother. We laughed about it.”
“Did he—?” Sara began, but a knock on the door stopped her.
A young woman came in carrying half a dozen heavily loaded shopping bags. She looked only at Meena. “I hate these things! I had to go to Oxfam for half of this. The shoes need to be disinfected. You’re going to swelter with this padding on, and—”
“This is my stylist, Felicity,” Meena said loudly.
“Sorry, I didn’t see anyone else here. Can you talk her out of this?”
Sara was smiling. “If it’s what I think it’s for, I encourage her.”
“I’m going back to being the Willa they remember.”
It was time to leave. The three stood up and went to the door. Sara turned back. “So how do we treat you? Have we met you or not?”
“Not,” Meena said firmly. “That way I can tell you my new story.”
“The one they expect of you?” Kate asked.
“Cheated out of your inheritance by your family, now living in a third floor walk-up, working at Sainsbury’s, no friends.” Sara was smiling.
“You should have written it for me,” Meena said.
“Send me your text number and I will,” Sara said.
Jack said, “You’re assuming someone will ask. No one’s asked me what I do for a living.”
“Good point,” Meena said. “I’ll just be Poorwilla and that will be enough.”
Jack opened the door.
“What about Clive?” Kate asked. “Puck said that at that time, you were quite, uh, taken with him. I know from experience that the past can sometimes swallow a person.”
Meena pulled a huge ugly dress from a bag. “Along with Nicky’s last words to me, I remember Clive’s. ‘Of all the things I want in life, you are at the bottom.’” When she looked at them, her eyes were scary with anger and hatred.
Kate and Sara swallowed. They nodded goodbyes, left the room and started down the hall.
Jack spoke first. “I’m surprised he isn’t dead.”
“Think she’s capable of murder?” Sara asked.
“Oh yes,” Kate said.
“Hundred percent,” Jack said. “In fact, I’m going to lock my bedroom door.” He looked at Kate. “You better stay with me tonight.”
“Hold your breath if you think—”
“What about me?” Sara said. “I’m all alone on a floor below. I need protection.”
“I pity anyone who tries to tangle with you,” Jack said. “Last week your right cross nearly tore my shoulder out of its socket.” As he held the front door open for her, he looked at Kate over Sara’s head. He didn’t have to say anything. Protect Sara was between them.
Thirteen
Jack was driving them back from the inn.
“Wow,” Kate said. “Just plain wow. I am very glad I never joined a club when I was in school. They seem to eat you alive.”
From the back, Sara said, “You didn’t join anything because your mother made you go home every weekend.” Sara and Kate’s mother were not friends. “There wasn’t time for anything else.”
“Then I guess she saved me,” Kate said.
Jack looked at Sara in the rearview mirror. “Round One to young Medlar.”
“But—” Sara began.
Jack raised his voice. “If a ladder falls in a stable and no one hears it, does it make a sound?”
“Explain,” Sara said.
“I climbed up the ladder to the loft, but when I went to go down, the ladder was on the floor. I didn’t hear it fall.”
“So who did it?” Sara asked.
“Wasn’t this when you met Nadine?” Kate asked. “Maybe she moved it.”
“I can’t see an elegant lady like her lifting a ladder. You need to balance it. Doubt if she has the experience.”
“Ladies can do lots of things,” Kate said. “She could have—”
“Who left the gate open?” Sara cut them off. “Kate, you said the gate was open.”
She turned in the seat. “I didn’t tell you.”
“I did,” Jack said cheerfully. “Had lots of time while you were chasing after the banker.”