‘Coffee?’ she said. She needed a break, food, some serious fresh air and a cold shower. Not necessarily in that order.
They had lunch at the table: Herv made a mountain of cheese and onion toasties and they must have been great brain food, because Marnie started making major headway on the deciphering of the accounts. But she half wished she hadn’t because the news wasn’t good. She found that the estate owned a farm between Wychwell and Mintbottom, leased to a Josiah Helliwell and no rents had been collected on it for over thirty years. Not only that but she discovered that an estate loyalty bonus of two thousand pounds had been paid annually to Mr Helliwell. Marnie couldn’t remember reading anything about a farm in the book of Wychwell that Lionel and Lilian had co-written. She wondered, in that case, if they’d even known about it.
‘It looks as if the estate has been paying this farm and the pub and the post office an annual amount to compensate them for having such little business. Who in their right mind does that?’ said Marnie, scratching her head. ‘Well that’s going to stop right now and I’m going to instruct Mr Wemyss to collect all that back rent.’
It was bad enough that the most anyone paid to lease a house in Wychwell was twenty pounds a month, and that was the Wych Arms, but for the estate to be paying businesses for merely existing was ridiculous. And it got worse: Titus Sutton, she found, was given a ‘family stipend’ of ten thousand pounds a year and he paid absolutely no rent at all. And, if that wasn’t enough fiddling, he was also paid handsomely for doing the accounts. It didn’t need a financial expert to see that the Suttons had been ripping the Dearmans off for at least two generations. The estate had paid for all Titus’s house furniture too – top-notch stuff – and the E-Type Jag he drove. Herv also found records of loyalty bonuses being given to two businesses that didn’t even exist. No wonder Wychwell was on its knees. Marnie was furious.
She caught accidental sight of her watch and saw it was after seven o’clock. Herv had been hard at work recording the floor areas of the cottages so she could work out fair rents. His dark blond brows were lowered in concentration and Marnie had to call his name twice before he heard her.
‘I didn’t realise it was so late,’ she said. ‘We should stop before we go blind.’
‘I was really into it. I can’t believe what I’m reading,’ said Herv, a yawn claiming his voice. He stretched and Marnie tried not to look at the chest muscles pushing against his moss-green T-shirt.
‘Thank you for your help, Herv.’ She could have carried on for much longer, but she needed an early night because she had a cheesecake order to make first thing in the morning. And she needed to call on Derek Price and get that job out of the way – although, on second thoughts, maybe she would leave that until she felt braver.
‘Same time tomorrow?’ Herv asked.
‘I have something to do in the morning. What about after lunch? One-ish?’
‘Aw, you don’t like my toasted sandwiches,’ Herv said, feigning upset, curling his bottom lip into a little-boy-hurt shape.
‘They were wonderful, but I can’t be here first thing.’
‘Okay,’ said Herv. ‘I’ll meet you at one.’
Herv lived in The Bilberries, a cottage just around the corner from Emelie Tibbs. She was looking out of the window when they passed and waved at them to stop. Seconds later she appeared at the door with a brown paper bag.
‘Marnie, I went into the woods today and there are lots of wild strawberries. I thought you might like these for your cheesecakes. They are ripe and ready to be picked.’
The strawberries were tiny but very sweet. Marnie thought immediately of suggesting a new flavour to Mrs Abercrombie. The word ‘wild’ instantly made it something more desirable than bog-standard strawberry.
‘Thank you, Emelie,’ said Marnie. ‘I might go and harvest a few myself at the weekend.’
It might have been the fading light of the day, but Emelie looked frail.
‘Emelie, if you ever want to come up to the manor and walk around the gardens like you used to do with Lilian, please do,’ Marnie invited.
Emelie clapped her hands together and beamed. ‘I would like that so very much. And if you want me to show you where I found the strawberries, I’d be happy to.’
‘That would be brilliant, thank you.’
Emelie went back inside then and Herv and Marnie reached the bottom of the hill where Herv would go left and Marnie would cross the green to Little Raspberries.
‘Well, cheers, Herv,’ said Marnie. ‘I don’t think I could have made half the headway if you hadn’t been there today.’
‘Well, I can think of a way you can thank me,’ said Herv, his eyes twinkling. ‘I’m very partial to cheesecake.’
‘Okay, I’ll make you one.’ She was surprised to find that she’d hoped he would have asked for more. ‘Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight, Marnie. See you tomorrow.’
It was only when she was halfway across the green that she began to wonder how Emelie knew about the cheesecakes.
Chapter 29
The next morning, Marnie made an extra cheesecake to the ones on her order – a wild strawberry one – to share with Herv that afternoon. When the van arrived to take them away, Marnie noticed Kay Sweetman hovering at the end of the lane. No doubt the regular van trips three times every week were tickling local curiosity. If asked, she’d say that she made pies, just like Jessie did, for a bakery. If asked by someone like Kay, she’d tell her to mind her own sodding business.
Marnie slept for three solid hours, then, showered and with cheesecake in her bag and a note to push through Derek Price’s letterbox, she set off up to the manor. By a stroke of luck, before she could post it, she saw the man himself walking towards the church and she called to him.
He loped towards her, big friendly smile wide in greeting.
‘Good morning, Marnie. And how are you today?’
‘I’m good, Derek, but I wondered if I could have a word with you at some point in private. Up at the manor.’
‘Well I’m a bit busy until this afternoon, but I should be free by four if that’s any good. I’m not sure about Una though. She’s—’
‘No,’ Marnie interrupted him. ‘Just you. It won’t take long but best done formally I think.’
‘Sounds ominous,’ said Derek, raising his brace of woolly eyebrows.
‘Not at all, please don’t worry,’ said Marnie, quick to reassure him. At least, it wasn’t ominous for him.
Cilla was dusting the staircase when Marnie walked into the manor. She said hello but her usually smiley face had an anxious cast. Marnie remembered then what Herv had told her.
‘Look, Cilla, can I put you at your ease about something. Your job is totally secure, Zoe and Johnny’s jobs are totally secure, and your home is totally secure. The manor is always going to need good staff.’
Marnie hadn’t anticipated that Cilla would burst into tears. She had, it seems, been out of her head with worry. Marnie led her into the kitchen and made her sit down whilst she put on the kettle.
‘Griff was worried that the new owner would slap a great big rent on us or turf us out. He feels so guilty that he can’t work any more,’ Cilla half-hiccupped, half-sobbed.