A Cotswold Christmas Mystery

‘As good as we deserve, anyway. Tinkers like everybody thinks of us – nobody’s going to stick up for our rights, are they?’ He sighed bitterly. Even Stephanie had no answer to that. The three females all turned to go. The spaniel got up from the hairy blanket she’d been sharing with Percy, and trotted after them.
Unlike the earlier walk, the return home was entirely occupied with talk about the Frowses and the Blackwoods. Stephanie understood that the others were trying to avoid saying anything too grim about the likely outcome, but she had no illusions as to their real opinions. ‘You think Mrs Frowse must have murdered him, don’t you?’ she accused.
‘I don’t think that at all,’ Thea disagreed. ‘But I can see that’s what the police are going to think.’
‘What’s she actually like?’ Jessica asked. ‘Give me an objective picture of her.’
‘Gosh! There’s a question. Let’s see. She’s very independent, and doesn’t talk very much. I think she had some sort of job when her kids were at school, and probably after that as well. I haven’t known them very long, remember. I get the impression they didn’t used to be so messy. Things have been going downhill since their daughter was killed. It’s a kind of depression, I suppose.’
Jessica waited for more background. When it didn’t come, she prompted, ‘This business with the landlord. It must be a worry. What’s going to happen ten years from now?’
‘You mean when they’re in their dotage and can’t keep up the fight any longer?’
‘Something like that,’ said Jessica. ‘It doesn’t look as if it could have carried on like this indefinitely. So now the landlord’s dead, what’s going to happen?’
‘Who knows? Carla might carry on in much the same way. She’ll inherit the whole estate and be able to do as she likes. Not that Rufus stopped her doing anything, anyway.’
‘So she’s not likely to have killed him?’ Jessica spoke lightly, as if making a mild joke. But Thea took it seriously.
‘We still don’t know for sure that anybody killed him,’ she said. ‘And we won’t know that till next week.’
Jessica turned to Stephanie and grinned. ‘Looks as if your Christmas is safe, kid. Let’s forget about dead people and think about all that lovely turkey.’
‘And the presents. And the games – and everything.’ For a moment, Stephanie faltered. What was so great about Christmas anyway, when it came down to the details? Was it just a lot of effort for the adults, with all the cooking and buying things and being nice to everybody? Was it just a way of making the darkest days of winter go by more quickly?
‘Gosh, don’t you love it!’ Jessica cried, throwing her arms wide. ‘I might be all grown up, but it still seems like magic to me – and look at this view! What a place to live!’
‘Honestly,’ tutted Thea, pretending to be annoyed. ‘What’s come over you, all of a sudden?’
‘Just glad to be alive, I guess. Come on Steph, let’s run!’
The girls and the spaniel hared along the track, and down the final slope to the road through Broad Campden. The Bakers Arms pub was almost opposite them, festooned with Christmas lights.
‘Now listen,’ said Thea, as they walked past the church and down to the house. ‘Best not say anything about this Blackwood business to Drew. Not yet, anyway.’
‘I wasn’t going to. He’ll have more than enough to deal with without that.’
‘Is that okay with you, Steph?’ Thea asked. ‘I’m not asking you to keep secrets. If he wants to know what we’ve been doing all day, you can say we went to the Frowses’.’
‘It’s okay,’ said Stephanie. ‘I don’t suppose we’ll be doing the funeral, either.’
Jessica gave a yell of laughter. ‘You really are your father’s daughter, aren’t you? Business first and all that.’
Stephanie didn’t know whether to be offended or pleased. ‘Well, he is an undertaker, after all,’ she said meekly. ‘And our field is a lovely place to be buried. Digby says he wants to have a grave there when his time comes.’
‘When did he say that?’ Thea asked.
‘Ages ago,’ shrugged Stephanie. ‘But he did say as well that he’d have to check with his wife first.’
‘No more talk about the Frowse family,’ Jessica ordered. ‘Let’s just be Christmassy for a bit.’
It was nearly four o’clock. Hepzie flopped down in a dramatic display of exhaustion, and Thea glanced at the mobile phone she had left on the kitchen worktop. She found another text from Drew sent shortly before three. All gone well. Should be leaving soon. Have the mulled wine ready.
‘I hope the car doesn’t conk out,’ said Thea. ‘It’s not used to long journeys. All it has to do now is get them back in good time this evening.’
‘All that way for a few hours. It seems pretty daft to me,’ said Jessica.
‘And me. But it’ll be interesting to hear how it went, all the same. I’m still trying to get used to the idea of having a mother-in-law who might actually want to meet me one day.’
‘What do you mean – one day? You’ll have to go to his father’s funeral, won’t you? It’ll be early in the New Year, presumably.’
Thea took a deep breath. ‘That never occurred to me. What about the kids? And the dog? I don’t see how I can possibly go all up there, in the depths of winter.’
‘What you mean is, you’re sure you’ll be able to find a cast-iron excuse not to.’
‘That’s just your nasty, suspicious mind.’
Stephanie found herself recoiling from the laughter that seemed unpleasantly heartless to her. These were her grandparents they were making fun of. Her actual blood relatives. ‘I might like her,’ she said mildly.
‘And she’ll adore you,’ said Jessica, with a quick hug. ‘There’s nothing so wonderful as a granddaughter. She’s been an idiot to ignore you for so long.’
‘Well, we can make it a New Year Resolution to be nicer to family,’ said Thea. ‘Starting with Damien, heaven help us.’
‘If you can cope