Emma's Secret

  Linnet knew she could easily finish the last of the cataloguing tomorrow. Now she had a specific purpose–finding a missing evening gown which her aunt had told her about last week. Emily had discovered it years ago in Emma’s Belgrave Square flat, and had used it in a display of fashion Paula had once put on in the early 70s, which her mother had called Fashion Fantasia.

  ‘It’s a must, you have to use it,’ Emily had told Linnet. ‘It’s really not lost, just mislaid. I’ll bet you anything it’s in the attics at Pennistone Royal, since it’s not in London. Look for a very large flat box, a dress box, and I think it has a Harte’s label on it, rather faded. I found it in that box and I put it back there, as far as I remember. As you well know, beaded dresses are heavy, the weight of the beads pulls the fabric down and makes a mess of the shape. So I know it’s not hanging in a dress bag.’

  Emily had gone on to describe the dress: ‘A sheath of pale blue chiffon covered all over with thousands of tiny bugle beads of pale blue and emerald green. It’s simply gorgeous. Oh, and there’s a pair of emerald-green silk evening shoes by Pinet of Paris.’

  When Linnet came to the end of the first aisle of racks, she headed for the long work table she used for different jobs, and put her shopping basket of tools down on it. Dragging the stepladder closer to one of the tall, built-in cupboards, she opened its doors and climbed the steps. As she leaned forward and pulled out a large box, a number of others tumbled to the floor. Backing down the ladder, she put the box she was carrying on the table. It was very heavy, and when she lifted the lid she saw it contained lots of shoe boxes neatly lined up next to each other.

  At this moment her mobile began to ring; reaching into her basket, she grabbed it. ‘Hello?’

  ‘It’s me,’ her cousin Gideon announced.

  ‘Hi! Where are you, Gid?’

  ‘At the stables in Middleham. When I phoned the house, Margaret told me to call you on your mobile. Where on earth are you? You sound as if you’re on the moon.’

  She laughed. ‘Not quite. But I am up in the attics of Pennistone Royal.’

  ‘Good Lord, it’s years since we’ve been up there…playing with all those old toys.’

  ‘Not those attics, silly. I’m in the East Wing where all of Grandy’s clothes are stored. I’m actually looking for an evening gown your mother told me about last week.’

  ‘Oh gosh, that’s right. Your big project is in the works. Eighty Years of Elegance and Style,’ he said, laughter in his voice.

  ‘Don’t make fun of me, Gideon. The retrospective is going to generate a lot of traffic in the fashion department, and that means sales.’

  He was suddenly chagrined, knowing how seriously she took her work. He would never tease her about that, and swiftly he exclaimed, ‘Now you’re being silly. You know how much I respect you, and your work, Linny. Would I ever do that to you?’

  ‘I don’t suppose you would, Gid. You are coming to dinner tonight, aren’t you?’

  ‘Course I am. That’s why I’m phoning, actually…Listen, do you think it will be all right for me to bring a guest? Will your mother mind?’

  ‘I’m sure she won’t. You know how she likes to play Mother Earth, invites the whole world to partake of her food. Who do you want to bring?’

  ‘Actually, Linnet, it’s Julian.’

  ‘Kallinski!?’

  ‘Is there another Julian in your life?’

  ‘No, and he’s not either. Mummy won’t mind if you bring him to dinner, but I certainly will.’

  ‘Oh come on, Linnet, you know how you feel about him.’

  ‘And how’s that, Gid?’

  ‘You love him.’

  ‘Yes, that’s true…in the way I love you. Like a cousin, or a big brother.’

  ‘Liar!’

  ‘I’m not a liar, and it’s true. Since we grew up together, as you well know, we have a very fraternal relationship.’

  Gideon did not respond, and she was wondering if she had lost him, if the connection had just gone dead, when he said, ‘It’s not the way Julian portrays your relationship.’

  ‘I think you’re fibbing, Gideon Harte.’

  ‘No. I’m not. I know he loves you, and in the most romantic, man-woman sense.’

  ‘Is that what he said to you?’

  ‘Yes, it is. More or less. Scouts’ honour,’ Gideon answered, sounding suddenly serious.

  ‘I knew men were worse gossips than women,’ Linnet muttered. ‘What else did he say?’

  Ignoring her jibe, he answered, ‘I believe he wants to tell you that himself.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Tonight.’

  ‘He’s not with you now?’ she asked, riddled with curiosity.

  ‘No, he went to see his grandfather. Sir Ronald’s not been feeling well, a bit under the weather. But Julian’s staying with us in Middleham.’

  She was silent, her mind racing.

  ‘Well, can he come to dinner or not? Come on, you know you want to see him.’

  Linnet hesitated then said, ‘I guess it’ll be all right. My mother’s having a bit of a crowd, I think.’

  ‘She is?’ Gideon sounded alarmed. ‘Who’s coming?’

  ‘Well, Gramps is here for the weekend, so that’s another O’Neill, making six of us altogether if Desmond and Emsie join us for sups. And then there’s Emily and Winston—’

  ‘I know my parents are coming,’ he cut in.

  ‘India said she might fly up from London to help me with the last of the cataloguing and the packing of the clothes, but she hasn’t appeared so far. Oh, and Mummy said something about Aunt Amanda coming too.’

  ‘She was supposed to be staying with us, but she’s not arrived either.’

  ‘The blizzard didn’t amount to anything much after all. So Amanda’s probably just late, not lost in a snowdrift somewhere. Oh, and by the way, Gid, I think Mummy invited Anita Shaw, just to even out the numbers.’

  ‘Good God, I hope not!’ Gideon exclaimed. ‘I can’t bear that girl…I do wish your mother would stop trying to fix me up with women. I’m quite happy as I am, the proverbial bachelor.’

  Linnet laughed. ‘Somebody’s going to catch you one day, Gid.’

  ‘You will tell your mother about Julian coming, won’t you?’

  ‘Yes. And listen, I was teasing you about Anita. She’s not invited. I think my mother’s given up on trying to get you married. I suppose we’re going to have to rely on a total stranger to sweep you off your feet.’

  ‘That’ll be the day!’ he shot back, chuckling. ‘I’ll see you later then, and don’t work too hard.’

  ‘’Bye, Gid,’ she answered.

  Linnet stood leaning against the stepladder for a moment, her mind on Julian. She wondered if she had made a mistake, allowing her cousin to bring him to dinner. In the last year she had felt totally mixed up about their relationship, which is why she had pulled away from him six months ago. Julian had agreed they should have some breathing space, and they had stopped seeing each other by mutual consent.

  Despite the closeness of their families, they had only run into each other once since, and that was at Christmas here at Pennistone Royal. But like Tessa, Julian had fled as quickly as he could without appearing rude.

  She closed her eyes, saw him in her mind’s eye. Tall, slender, darkly handsome, with the most penetrating blue eyes she had ever seen. His cold blues, she called them, when he got angry.

  Linnet felt a sudden and terrible longing for him, and she was momentarily startled. He had been part of her life for as long as she could remember, from the time they were toddlers, and an indispensable part of her existence since she was fifteen. She missed him…

  ‘I’m sorry I’m so late.’

  Linnet snapped her eyes open with a start, and straightened against the stepladder. Her cousin, India Standish, was hovering in the doorway, carrying her own shopping basket, her tortoiseshell glasses pushed up on top of her mass of curly, pale blonde hair.

  India was twenty-se
ven but looked much younger, and was pretty in a soft, delicate way. She had large, luminous, silvery-grey eyes and an expressive, sensitive face, reminiscent of the Fairleys. She had their blood running through her veins. Without a doubt, India was the most popular person in the family. She was considerate, gentle in her ways, and had an understanding heart. Everyone loved her.

  Walking into the attic, India asked with a small frown, ‘Is something wrong, Linnet?’

  ‘No, I’m fine. Why?’

  ‘You’re rather pale, and you look…well, slightly troubled.’

  ‘Oh, it’s nothing of any importance, India,’ Linnet answered and, pushing her mobile into the pocket of her loden-green trousers, she continued more briskly, ‘I pulled out that very big box over there on the table, and a lot of others fell down. We’d better pick them up. Maybe the missing dress is in one of them.’

  ‘Don’t worry, darling, we’ll find it,’ India murmured in her soothing voice which held a lovely lilt, a hint of her upbringing on the estate at Clonloughlin, which belonged to her father Anthony, the Earl of Dunvale.

  Placing her shopping basket of tools on the table, India added, ‘I’m quite sure we can finish everything by tomorrow night, so don’t worry.’

  ‘I hope we can. We have to go back to London on Monday morning. Early. We’ve a lot to do at the store, India.’ As she spoke, Linnet carried one of the larger boxes to the table; India did likewise.

  Together, the two great-granddaughters of Emma Harte sorted through the flat boxes which contained so many things that had belonged to their famous forebear. But after an hour’s search the beaded dress had not turned up.

  ‘It can’t have walked away. It must be somewhere,’ Linnet remarked to India, and then hurried off down an aisle between the racks. ‘Let’s look in that big built-in cupboard in the smaller attic next door. Maybe we’ll be lucky,’ she said, disappearing from view.

  India hurried after her. ‘I think that built-in is full of suitcases; old leather suitcases that belonged to Grandy.’

  ‘I don’t remember seeing any there,’ Linnet answered, sounding puzzled. ‘I wonder who could have put them there?’

  ‘Who knows. But certainly Aunt Emily might easily have packed the evening gown in one of them,’ India suggested.

  ‘She was positive she’d put it back in the box she’d found it in, one with a faded Harte’s label on the lid. But she could be mistaken,’ Linnet said over her shoulder. ‘After all, it was years ago.’

  ‘To be sure it was,’ India murmured.

  A moment later the cousins stood in the smaller attic staring at the shelves in the tall cupboard. It was stacked to the hilt with boxes. But just as India had said, there were also a number of leather cases on the lower shelves.

  The young women lost no time in taking out all of the boxes, and as soon as Linnet saw one with an old Harte’s label attached to the lid, she shrieked. ‘Voilà! I bet it’s in here!’ At once she pulled the lid off, and was staring down at a glittering mass of pale blue and emerald-green bugle beads. ‘We’ve found it!’ she exclaimed triumphantly, then lifted the gown out of the box, held it up to the light, gazing at it. ‘Isn’t it beautiful, India?’ She pressed the beaded sheath against her body, stood looking down at the dress.

  ‘Grandy must have been a sensation when she wore it, don’t you think?’ India said. ‘What with her red hair and green eyes. And you don’t look half bad yourself, the way you’re holding it against your body. The colours are wonderful for you. You know, Linnet, it has a sea-like effect, all those blues and greens mingling.’ India gave Linnet a big smile. ‘The gown seems to undulate when you move. Maybe you should keep it for yourself. You love vintage clothes more than anyone I know.’

  ‘It’s too valuable,’ Linnet responded, laughing. ‘And the beading has been very cleverly worked, that’s why it undulates,’ she explained, then carefully laid the dress on top of the long table. She began to examine the embroidery and the overall workmanship, marvelling at both as she scrutinized the gown intently. She was amazed at its condition, realized how well it had been preserved over the years, which was the reason it looked almost new.

  In the meantime, India had made a discovery of her own, and she was excited by her find. She exclaimed, ‘Linnet, come over here and look at this.’

  ‘What is it?’ Linnet asked without turning around, her attention on the lining of the evening gown.

  ‘It’s a suitcase that belonged to Grandy. I just opened it up and there’s a smaller case inside marked Private and Confidential. And her name is on the same luggage label. Oh, and here’s a little key attached with a bit of string to the handle.’

  ‘What’s inside the smaller case?’

  ‘I don’t know, I haven’t looked. After all, it is marked private and confidential…’ India’s sentence trailed off as she untied the small key and opened the case, murmuring, ‘Since our great-grandmother has been dead for many years, I suppose I can lift the lid at least.’

  ‘Of course you can,’ Linnet said confidently.

  ‘Linnet, please do leave that dress and come and look at what I’ve found. Please.’

  Struck by the excitement and urgency in her cousin’s voice, Linnet jumped up and went to join India on the floor in front of the built-in cupboard.

  She crouched down on her haunches next to India and followed her gaze. ‘Oh my God!’ Linnet’s hand flew to her mouth as she stared into the large suitcase. It contained the smaller one, which India had just opened, and Linnet couldn’t believe what she was looking at. Her eyes widened, and she reached out, touched the leather-bound books lying there side by side. What she was seeing made her heart miss a beat. And she was speechless all of a sudden. At last she said in an awed voice, ‘Emma Harte’s wartime diaries. Oh, India, what a find!’ She lifted one out and read the date embossed in gold on the black leather cover. ‘Nineteen thirty-eight. Long before we were born, and even before our parents were born. Gosh…’

  ‘This is a treasure trove, you know,’ India volunteered. ‘They run right through to nineteen forty-seven. Did you notice that?’

  Linnet nodded, then tried the lock on the 1938 diary, which was still in her hands. It opened easily. Linnet was about to look inside the diary, but hesitated, then very resolutely she closed it again.

  India, sounding nervous, said, ‘I’m glad you didn’t read anything. I know Grandy’s been dead longer than we’ve been alive, but I think it is rather an invasion of privacy, reading her diaries, don’t you, Linny?’

  ‘I do, and I think it’s my mother’s decision. After all, she was Emma’s chief heir. My mother should see them first. I’ll take them down to her when we’ve finished up here.’

  ‘Yes, yes, that’s the wisest thing, to be sure,’ India agreed.

  Linnet put the diary back in its given place in the small case, and then slowly smoothed her hand over the ten books, her expression reflective, her eyes suddenly far away, as if she saw something no one else could see. After a moment or two, she focused her attention on the diaries. All of them were bound in black, the year embossed in gold, and she was sure none of them were locked. She could not help being curious about their contents, wondering what secrets they contained, and she longed to read them.

  But her integrity, bred in the bone, would not permit her to violate her mother’s trust in her. The golden rule in the family was that anything pertaining to Emma Harte first passed through Paula, head of the Harte dynasty.

  Linnet was honour-bound to abide by that rule.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Although she was fifty-seven, Paula McGill O’Neill looked younger. Her head of thick, luxuriant dark hair, coming to a widow’s peak above her smooth brow, was still the colour of jet, although she was the first to admit that it got a little help from her hairdresser these days. Her eyes, her most spectacular feature, were still that amazing deep violet, thickly fringed with dark lashes. They had always reflected her intelligence, but wisdom and compassion dwelt ther
e now as well.

  She sat in the upstairs parlour at Pennistone Royal with her cousin Emily Harte, but her thoughts were on her daughter Linnet, and Julian Kallinski, whom at one time she had thought Linnet would marry. She wished her daughter had confided in her more; wished that Linnet had not made such sweeping and drastic moves without at least one discussion. But when she herself had been in her twenties she had been headstrong, too; had believed she knew everything.

  Oh, what it was to be young and impulsive, and so convinced of the rightness of what one did. She had married Jim Fairley when she was very young, and lived to regret it, as she had come to understand that it was Shane O’Neill who held her heart. But at least things had eventually worked out for her and Shane. They had been married now for almost thirty years, their love growing deeper and deeper with the passing of time.

  Eventually, Emily said, as if reading her thoughts, ‘I think Linnet and Julian were made for each other, as you and Shane were—’

  ‘And you and Winston, too,’ Paula interrupted, as she roused herself from her thoughts of her daughter.

  ‘True. Anyway, I was going to say I hope those two begin to realize this, and very soon. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a lovely family wedding in the summer with the three clans present?’

  ‘You see, there you go, Emily!’ Paula exclaimed, shaking her head. ‘Bringing the clans into it. But yes, you’re right, it would be nice. In the meantime, there’s Gideon for us to worry about. He’s still a bachelor.’

  ‘He doesn’t settle down with any of the women he dates. Brief encounters, I call them,’ Emily muttered.

  ‘He just hasn’t met the right woman yet, that’s all,’ Paula asserted. She pushed herself up from the chair, walked across the floor of the upstairs parlour where they were sitting.

  Emily’s eyes followed her. She thought her cousin looked beautiful tonight with her new short hairdo: sleek, stylish and youthful. She was wearing a long, straight, amethyst wool skirt and a matching turtleneck sweater that brought out the colour of her eyes and was a foil for her dark hair. The outfit was simple, even a little severe in a way, but it suited Paula, who was tall and slender.