Free Jenny Telfer Chaplin by Hopes, Sorrow Page B

as long as possible her return to the drawing room.
    While she was still dawdling over setting the tea tray, Granny said: “Mary! It’ll be next week before ye take that tray in. The tea will be stone cold and ma scones will be like rock cakes. Be off with ye.”
     
    Archie Cooper was on this second cup of tea and third scone. Mary had barely touched her tea and had eaten and said nothing. When Archie looked pointedly at the mantelshelf clock, Elenora placed her cup on the saucer.
    “Now, to business. Before I detail my plan, which if it is to succeed and be of any benefit to all of us, must depend on complete harmony and trust.”
    Archie and Mary glanced at each other, and Elenora nodded.
    “So, if there is any bad feeling or any unfinished business between any of us it must be resolved amicably before we go any further.”
    Remembering her conversation with Elenora, Mary took her cue and said: “Archie, Ah apologise wholeheartedly for the inappropriate remarks Ah made the day ye met us off the boat. Ah had no way of knowing ...”
    Archie picked up on her sentence. “Ah understand, so not another word. By the same token how was Ah to know then that ye also had been widowed. Ah waded in with both feet with cutting remarks of my own. Can we now let bygones be bygones?”
    Mary nodded her agreement.
    Elenora smiled. “Excellent. After all, we all of us say and do things we later regret – so in this case no harm done”
    As if she had been summoned After a discreet knock on the door Granny entered bearing another tea-tray.
    “Ah just thought, Miss Patten, that maybe a fresh pot of tea and some more dainties might be welcome at this point.”
    “Granny, for somebody who professes not to believe in what you call, ‘all this supernatural mumbo-jumbo’ you seem pretty well tuned in to the thoughts of others. Thank you for the tea. Now, since I have a business matter to discuss with Archie and Mary will you please see to it that we are not disturbed until I ring. Thank you.”
    Turning to Mary and Archie, Elenora continued: “I have decided to move from evening and afternoon sittings to perhaps having weekend sessions. This will obviously mean extra work for you, Mary, and I will arrange for additional help in the house – perhaps your sister-in-law may be prepared to come for the weekends, Archie? Now, this is where you come in, Archie, I would want to hire your services for the entire weekend to be free to transport my guests to and from the pier on arrival and departure but also to and from the town when they are at leisure over the weekend. If you would also be prepared to function as a temporary butler on those occasions that would be excellent. Also, I hear you are something of a handyman? There is some work needing to be done in the upstairs bedrooms before we have guests, and if you could find some men to work on the grounds to tidy everything up that would be very helpful.”
     

 
     
    Chapter Eighteen
     
    Approaching Halloween, Miss Patten decided it would be as good a time as any to inaugurate the Ivylea supernatural weekends.
    As she and Mary sat discussing arrangements, Elenora said: “You know, the idea of having these weekends, as opposed to the evening parties you suggested, originated in a remark made by Granny. One day after she’d finished cleaning one of the upstairs rooms she remarked: ‘It’s a right shame there’s these beautiful rooms with great views across the water and not a living soul to enjoy them.’”
    “Aye, that sounds exactly like Granny,” Mary said. “She’s got a real bee in her bonnet about the unused rooms upstairs. Mind ye, and Ah hope Ah’m not being impertinent, Ah’ve often wondered why ye always use the downstairs bedroom. For that matter ye hardly ever even go to the upstairs part of the house.”
    Elenora looked decidedly discomfited, as if for once she had been caught unawares.
    There was a long silence before she finally said: “Fair question, Mary.