Free Wheel of Fate by Kate Sedley Page B

could answer, however, the door in the far wall opened to admit a woman also dressed in funereal black, relieved by a white coif and apron, and with a bunch of keys dangling from her belt, which at once proclaimed her status as the housekeeper. She was a tall, handsome woman who carried herself as one with a sense of her own importance, and a pair of widely spaced grey eyes surveyed the world with a certain disdain. I judged her to be somewhere in her early forties or even perhaps a little younger.
    â€˜I thought I heard Oswald’s voice,’ she said, addressing Adela and ignoring my presence.
    Adela nodded. ‘Yes. He came in some minutes ago, but he’s taken Sybilla back to her room. She got out of bed, which was very foolish of her, and almost collapsed. I thought you must know that Oswald is home. Clemency went to find you, presumably to say that dinner could be served and to tell you about the new arrivals.’ My wife indicated Elizabeth and me. ‘Arbella, this is Roger, my husband who has brought his daughter with him. I am trying to persuade him to remain here for a while before taking the boys and me back to Bristol. He is very clever at unravelling mysteries and I’m hoping he may be able to solve this one. Roger, this is Mistress Rokeswood, Clemency’s and Sybilla’s housekeeper. They tell me she has been with them for a few years now and is almost like one of the family.’
    I rose politely to my feet, but apart from a brief inclination of her head, Arbella Rokeswood accorded me no other acknowledgement.
    â€˜Clemency and I must have missed each other,’ she muttered angrily. ‘I was out in the herb garden looking for some coriander, but there doesn’t seem to be any left. As you know, an infusion of the leaves is good for stomach cramp, and one of the maids is complaining of bellyache.’ She shrugged. ‘Oh well! It can’t be helped. But I do so hate not having dinner ready when Oswald comes in.’ Her rather austere features softened. ‘He works so hard and his sisters have never properly appreciated him.’
    â€˜Oh, I’m sure they do,’ Adela remonstrated gently. ‘They’re all – I mean they’re both extremely fond of him.’ Her breath caught on a little sob, but she recovered her composure and went on, ‘They mother him to death.’
    â€˜Smother him more like,’ was the embittered reply as the housekeeper stalked from the room.
    â€˜Oh-ho! Blows the wind from that quarter?’ I said, as Mistress Rokeswood disappeared through the farther door.
    â€˜Shush!’ Adela whispered. ‘She’ll hear you.’ But as the door closed, she nodded agreement. ‘Yes, you’re right. Poor Arbella is very much in love with Oswald, I’m afraid. Not that it will do her any good. Whatever she does for him – and she waits on him hand, foot and finger – as long as even one sister is alive she stands no chance with him whatsoever. I have never known such devoted siblings. At times, it seems positively unnatural. And I understand that when Charity was alive, it was worse. She was more maternal towards him than either Clemency or Sybilla. And that, my love, is saying something, believe me.’
    I sought to put my thoughts in order.
    â€˜This Charity,’ I said, cudgelling my brain to remember what Margaret Walker had told me, ‘was the third daughter of Morgan Godslove’s first marriage. Am I right? But now she’s dead? How did that happen?’
    My wife clasped my arm. ‘That’s what I was trying to tell you when Arbella interrupted us. Charity died last year after eating mushrooms. One of them must have been poisonous. But the point is that she isn’t the only member of the family who has died. The year before that, one of the stepbrothers was killed in a tavern brawl, and in the October after Charity’s death, Martin Godslove – that’s