Free Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder by Catriona McPherson Page B

my carefully chosen words.
    ‘I’ll start at the beginning,’ she said. ‘Mirren and Googie had many friends in common as you can imagine – Dunfermline is a small town – but they were never particular friends of one another. So it was a surprise to us all when Googie told us he was engaged. Just after St Valentine’s Day. He must have proposed then – such a sweet boy. Twenty years old and he informed his father and mother about it as though he were the headmaster giving out extra prep.’
    ‘Mirren wasn’t quite so forceful with her parents,’ I said.
    ‘And the Aitkens were adamant in their refusal. Beyond adamant.’
    ‘Not all of the Aitkens, surely. I can’t imagine Abigail . . .’
    She grinned at me. ‘No, not all. Perhaps just one. But that one is very forceful indeed. You know, of course, that she was a shopgirl when Ninian married her?’ I nodded. ‘And of course, Aitkens’ is the older of the two firms and they view the Hepburns as fearful usurpers. But it was her mother and father that Mirren spoke of when she came to me. Abigail and Jack had forbidden it too. Well, who can guess at that – they’re an odd pair from all I hear. But what did seem odd was that Googie’s parents thought the same. And actually, I suppose if one’s being fair they were pretty adamant too. Especially Robin. “No son of mine” and all that.’
    ‘Did he say why?’
    ‘He talked about “poor stock” and “weak blood” which was ridiculous.’
    ‘Well, Mirren’s mother and father are cousins,’ I said. Fiona Haddo shuddered.
    ‘I know,’ she said. ‘Isn’t it ghastly? When I think of my boy cousins, I could almost retch! But people in glass houses . . .’
    I looked inquiringly at her.
    ‘The Hepburns themselves are not exactly sturdy stock,’ she said. ‘Thank God Hilda seems to have brought a bit of vigour back to the line.’ Then she moved on very crisply and in a manner which prevented any wheeling back again. ‘So. Robin put his foot down about the marriage. Hilda put hers down like Rumpelstiltskin, which isn’t like her. Robert Senior – he who established House of Hepburn – was no keener and he’s a shrewd businessman that I’d have expected to be all for a merger. Dulcie, Robin’s mother, was vehemently against the thing too. Most odd, because Dulcie – perfectly pleasant little woman as I’m always the first to say –’ poor Dulcie, I thought – ‘is very . . . Home Chat , don’t you know. Knitting and recipes and what have you, and one would have thought that Mirren Aitken would be her dream of a daughter-in-law. Only I was in favour. And on the other side, as I say, Jack and Abby said no, ghastly Mary did the same and only good old Bella couldn’t see the difficulty. We talked about it on the telephone, she and I. You’ve met Bella, of course?’ I acknowledged that I had. ‘She’s splendid. Another old trout and one of the highest order. We’re a force to be reckoned with, you know.’ I smiled and waited.
    ‘Anyway,’ she said, resuming after stopping to give me a cigarette and light one for herself. I noticed that her hand shook slightly as she held it to her lips and I surmised that we were coming to the crux of the matter. ‘The thing is, I wasn’t prepared to sit idly by and let young love be snuffed out for no reason. I live here – have done for years – but I still have a dower house of my own. My husband left it to me and I kept it to annoy my daughter-in-law. I also kept a tiara and a couple more pieces I should really have sold if I wasn’t going to pass them on. But it’s always irked me the way that we old girls are expected to relinquish our jewels – we need them more than pretty young faces, don’t we? Also – here’s the nub of it – I have shares in House Of. Robin gave them to me in a fit of . . . something or other, when he and Hilda were married. Sort of welcoming me to the clan kind of thing, I suppose. So all in all, I