Free 01 - Murder at Ashgrove House by Margaret Addison

about gardening, I ask you. You’d better hope that that head
gardener fellow of yours doesn’t catch her chopping bits off his rose bushes,
they can be awfully possessive about their gardens and Constance is bound to
make an awful mess of the pruning.’
     
    The two girls ran into the hall and up the stairs giggling, almost
colliding as they did so, with one of the housemaids, who had emerged from a
bedroom carrying fresh linen. On the first floor, in addition to Lady Withers’
morning room and the linen room, there were six principal bedrooms and dressing rooms and two bathrooms and
lavatories overlooking the hall. Lavinia did not stop on this floor, however,
but continued up to the second floor where there were a further six secondary
bedrooms, one of which had formerly been a nursery and another a schoolroom.
Two rooms, which had also previously had other uses had been made into a small
bathroom and lavatory. 
    ‘This is your room, Rose,’ said Lavinia stopping at the door to one of
the bedrooms, ‘it’s called the Snug, because I’m afraid it’s rather small, but
it does have the advantage of being next to mine. My room’s called the Silk
Room and I always stay in it when I visit, even though normally there’s plenty
of room for me to have one of the bedrooms on the first floor if I wanted, but
I love having a floor to myself and there’s a great view of the gardens.
‘Hopefully we won’t be bothered too much by my mother. She and Daddy are bound
to have been given rooms on the first floor next to Uncle William’s and Aunt
Constance’s. I expect that they’ll put Cedric and Lord Sneddon on that floor
too; the bedrooms are far grander than the ones on this floor and they’ve all
got dressing rooms.’
    Rose was surprised to find that not only had her suitcase been brought up
to her room, but it had also been unpacked and her clothes hung up in the
wardrobe, and her toiletries laid out on the dressing table. Lavinia had
followed her into her bedroom and had opened her wardrobe and was leafing
through her clothes with interest. Lavinia paused when she came to Rose’s
black, silk velvet evening dress and scrutinised it; Rose had wondered at the
time whether her friend considered it too plain, later she thought Lavinia had
just been relieved that it had not outshone her outfit.   
    ‘Of course, it’s an awful bore Mother being here,’ Lavinia said finally,
perching on Rose’s bed. But I’m jolly well going to make Cedric keep her
occupied. I don’t know how he could have been so stupid as to let her know that
we’d be coming to Ashgrove this weekend. He must have known what she’d do.’
    ‘I don’t think she likes me very much,’ Rose sighed and sat down on the
bed beside her friend.
    ‘My mother doesn’t like anyone very much,’ admitted Lavinia with surprising
conviction, ‘not even me, her own daughter. You mustn’t take it personally,
Rose. I would be far more concerned if she liked you. Why on earth my father
ever married her, I can’t imagine, although she was very beautiful when she was
young, and rich, of course, both her and Constance. But Daddy and she have
absolutely nothing in common. They hardly see anything of each other, he’s
always shut up in his library with his books or in his study tied up with
estate affairs and my mother’s busy with her fund-raising efforts and lecturing
our poor vicar on how he should be dealing with the poor, most of whom she
thinks are quite undeserving. If only Daddy had married Aunt Connie instead.
I’m sure she wouldn’t have minded a bit about me working in a shop for a bet,
she would have seen it as a bit of a lark.’
    ‘You’re fond of your father though, aren’t you, Lavinia?’ Rose, who
adored her own mother, could not bear the idea that Lavinia should not be fond
of at least one of her parents.
    ‘Daddy’s an absolute sweetie, what Cedric and I see of him anyway, but
that’s not much as he always shuts himself away. I