Lavender Lane (Larch Tree Lane #4)

Chapter Four

Nina frowned at the image on the screen as his words sank in. ‘Why do you say partly? What else are you expected to do besides help me with the inheritance?’

‘Act as bodyguard and guide, and represent the government’s interests in the charity.’

That puzzled her and she must have shown it. ‘Bodyguard. But – why ever would I need one?’

Sean was looking at her as if wondering whether to answer that question, so she repeated it. ‘Why would I need a bodyguard?’

‘I’ll explain in a minute. Just to give you the background to my taking over the driving, since I’ve visited that area before I’m happy to do that and let you get to know the surrounding countryside. I’ve been staying temporarily in Reading to the east of Swindon with an old acquaintance, so the most direct route to your property will take me near Swindon, which is why I suggested meeting your train there then travelling on to your property together.’

She held up her hands in a surrender gesture. ‘Very well. You’ve convinced me. The train to Swindon it is.’

‘It’ll be a lot safer for you to do it that way, too. Could be cheaper too. Never say I don’t care about being careful with money.’

‘Very well. Whatever. Though I can’t understand why you’re so concerned about safety.’

He was starting at her solemnly again, as if working out how much to tell her, so she couldn’t resist saying, ‘Now explain about the bodyguard part of it. All of the details, since it clearly concerns me. Don’t you feel you’re being a little over-careful about this?’

‘No. I’m definitely not.’ He gave her a very serious look. ‘I’m being extra-careful because we know the situation could be dangerous and because the legal firm has already had an imposter turn up at their rooms in Reading. She even produced ID with your name on it but it had her photo, not yours. It’d have looked legit if we hadn’t already known what you looked like. She wanted to be given the details of the property, which she claimed to have been told she’d inherited from her aunt Laura. But unlike you, she insisted she would prefer to go and see it on her own.’

‘ What? ’ Nina was shocked and couldn’t speak for a moment, this was so unexpected.

‘It surprised everyone. Of course the lawyers contacted the police immediately, but she had disappeared by the time they arrived. The details they were able to give the police were yours, not hers. So not much use. However, they have handed over their CCTV footage, so at least the police should have a picture of her to work with.’

‘Wow. I hope they catch her quickly – she sounds like a very unpleasant and determined woman. I’ll take greater care to check the IDs of everyone I have to deal with from now on.’

‘We both will.’

She shook her head in bafflement. ‘I’m surprised by that, I must admit. How could anyone have found out about the inheritance and why would they think they could get away with breaking into it?’

He didn’t say anything, just frowned, so she persisted. ‘Who could it be? Susan Jones, the woman who tried to poison Laura? No, she is still in prison, isn’t she? Perhaps she wasn’t convicted, or escaped? Anyway, even if she is free, surely she didn’t expect to get away with that pretence of being the heir? What did she expect to steal? You can’t pick up a piece of land and carry it away, can you?’

‘Definitely not. I doubt there’s anything valuable at the property, except for the land it stands on. No, what she was after must have been to look at the place. Could be a property developer trying to suss things out before attempting to push you into a sale. Or . . . something else.’

‘How were they so sure she was an imposter?’

‘John Baldock had already sent the lawyers a photo of you so they were aware from the start that they were dealing with an imposter when she turned up and they kept her talking while they called in the police. But she sneaked out before they arrived, after having said she had to go to the toilet urgently. She didn’t return.’

‘Good heavens!’

‘The police are searching for her but are leaving it to me to protect you from now on. And, just to be honest with you about where we stand, I’ve also double checked you as well to make quite sure that you are indeed the legitimate heir. So, considering everything, that incident is another reason for us to travel together in order for me to keep watch on your safety.’

This seemed to be her time for encountering criminals, she thought, first that horrible weirdo woman trying to kill Laura and now this stranger trying to get hold of the inheritance her friend had left her.

She told him about that. ‘Laura seems to be the link between both these incidents.’

He nodded thoughtfully. ‘Yes, indeed. We’ll both bear that in mind and be ultra-careful what we do and especially share all our information. All right?’

‘I’ll definitely be careful, Sean, but I must admit I’ve had no experience of this sort of thing before so if I forget to share something you’ll have to forgive me.’

‘Well, ask me if you’re puzzled about anything. Now, let’s get back to our plans for tomorrow. If you catch a reasonably early train from London, that’ll give us most of the day to check out your inheritance.’ He frowned for a moment then added, ‘And it might be a good idea to bring a change of clothing with you in case we need to stay for more than one day.’

‘All right. I’ll do that. I’m surprised at how little is known about this Lavender Lane, even by those who’re handling it. That does seem – well, rather strange, Sean.’

She watched him nod in agreement then she realised that she still didn’t know the exact address of her inheritance and asked him.

‘It wouldn’t mean anything to you because Lavender Lane doesn’t give much information about itself on the internet and there are no details about it provided in Ms Chadwick’s will, either, except the information that your legacy consists of all the buildings on the property at Lavender Lane.’

‘That’s a strange way to put it, don’t you think?’

He pulled a wry face. ‘Yes. That could mean three or thirty-three cottages for all we know. I gather Laura was quite ill by the time she inherited so unfortunately, she was never able to go and see the place for herself and that may be why she was so vague.’

‘She was rather frail when I had the pleasure of spending time with her and getting to know her. Sadly, it was only for a few weeks towards the very end of her life, and she was fading visibly, I could tell. But I truly enjoyed her company.’

‘Your friendship must have meant a lot to her and perhaps that was why she left everything to you. Old people can get desperately lonely, you know.’

‘Yes. People say that, but no one does much about it, do they, except for putting on amateur concerts or providing morning teas for groups of oldies? You can imagine how that chimes with extremely intelligent older people like Laura.’ She chuckled. ‘She was particularly scathing about a couple of extremely amateur concerts she’d been dragooned into attending.’

‘I don’t blame her.’

‘But I wasn’t aiming for her to leave me anything, believe me. In fact, I hadn’t the slightest idea she owned more than the house she was living in, which she said had been her family home.’

‘Stop worrying. I believed you the first time when you said you didn’t set out to con her out of a legacy. Has anyone ever told you that you have a very honest face?’

Nina was about to say yes, because she knew how easily she betrayed her real feelings when dealing with people, but he was speaking again.

‘I never met her but I gather that she was charming.’

‘She was, yes. Very. And her conversation was very wide ranging. I truly enjoyed her company. Believe me, our friendship wasn’t based on pity.’

He seemed to understand her need for a few moments of silence after speaking about her friend, so waited a few moments to speak again.

‘Well, if there’s nothing else I’ll let you get on with booking your place on a train tomorrow morning. If you let me know which one, I’ll pick you up at the station entrance.’

‘I’ll catch the first one I can. I’m an early riser anyway.’

‘Me too.’

Only after they ended the call did she realise that he still hadn’t given her the actual address of her inheritance. Had he been deliberately avoiding doing that? For some reason, she’d bet he had. How annoying.

She looked up train times and chose a fast train leaving Paddington station at six in the morning, which would get her to Swindon, its first stop, by about seven. She booked a seat on it then sent Sean a text, to which he replied immediately and very briefly.

I’ll be there to meet you.

She’d definitely pack an overnight bag. She wanted to give herself as long as she could to look round her inheritance and take photos in case the houses were indeed interesting historically.

And she was also hoping she’d find one that she liked among those she’d inherited, so that she could make a proper home for herself again. Even if the larger house, whose plans she had seen among the old documents, was still habitable, it’d probably be too big for one person, but perhaps one of the other homes might be just right.

She was a settling-down sort of person, she knew. Not purely a homebody but getting on that way, needing a real home as a basis for her life, even without a partner, if she were to be genuinely happy.

Perhaps, if the cottages were tiny, she might put two of them together to make a home of the right size. Fancy having the choice! She’d never expected to be in that fortunate position.

The future looked wonderfully promising, but there were bound to be problems. Life rarely gave you the moon on a silver platter without also asking you to pay a price for it. That was one of her mother’s old sayings when things seemed too good to be true.

Her mother had not been an optimist about life.

Nina didn’t mind getting up while it was still dark the next morning. She took a taxi to Paddington, and then enjoyed the short train journey to Swindon. It was a journey through a world where most people still seemed to be in bed, judging by the drawn curtains at upper windows, easy to see in the chill dawn light as they rattled steadily past row upon row of small terraced houses set neatly along the sides of the railway. She’d not like to live in one of those, she thought.

When the train arrived in Swindon she followed the other passengers to the station entrance where she immediately recognised the face of the tall guy waiting to one side. He smiled at the sight of her and raised one hand in greeting.

He’d taken the suitcase she’d been carrying out of her hand before she realised it, leaving her with the small backpack she preferred to a handbag.

Instinctively she tried to grab the suitcase back. ‘Thanks but I can manage.’

He chuckled. ‘Aw, allow me to make a good first impression by playing the gentleman.’

She smiled back, relaxing and liking him even more than she’d expected to now that she’d met him in the flesh. It was that smile again. It seemed utterly genuine and she could usually tell. But did she dare believe that? After all, she’d only just met him in person. ‘Very well, Sean. Just this once. But make the most of it. I’m usually fiercely independent.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’ He tugged an imaginary forelock. ‘I fell lucky for once and got a parking spot just round the corner. This way.’

When they had driven out of Swindon and left behind the worst of the main roads crowded with early morning traffic, most of it going in the other direction, he asked, ‘Would you like to stop for a coffee and what an American friend calls a “comfort break”?’

‘Not at the moment, thanks. I grabbed a quick breakfast before I left home and it was a corridor train. But if you want to stop to eat?’

‘No, I’m fine. Like you, I fuelled my body before I left home. But we’ll have an early lunch if we can, eh?’

‘Yes, that’d be good.’

They’d left the built-up areas completely now and she concentrated on the scenery. To her relief, he let her study the countryside in peace. That was another point in his favour: he didn’t try to fill every minute with trivial chit-chat. It could be hard to keep the talk going with someone you’d only just met.

‘Wiltshire is as lovely as it looked online!’ she said after a while.

‘Let’s hope your inheritance is in a pretty village. I don’t know this part of the county as well as some others, except for driving round parts quite near to your property once or twice, and that wasn’t recently. I’ve just come back to the UK after working overseas for several years, you see.’

‘In interesting places?’

His smiled faded instantly. ‘No, not really.’

She could see that some memory upset him, so didn’t pursue that as a topic.

It took them over an hour to get to Essington St Mary, even though the roads were far less crowded for this part of the journey. After they’d turned off the main highway onto a narrow country road, they saw hardly any other cars or heavy goods vehicles.

‘I’d better start using the satnav from now on,’ Sean said. ‘I was told that this valley is a small place with its only major internal road running up from the town centre to a private estate at the top end. Its lower entrance is apparently framed by larch trees, which is how the road got its name.’

‘Where does the road lead after that? Is there another village nearby?’

‘It apparently comes to a dead end at the top, so there’s no through traffic at all, just a hikers’ track through the woods. I think the town or somewhere nearby sounds to be a nice, peaceful place to live.’

‘Tell me about it!’ She rolled her eyes. ‘I like it already and I haven’t even seen it. I’ve been staying in my son’s flat in London since I moved to England from Australia, but the crowds and general busyness of life round there don’t appeal to me at all. Where exactly is this Lavender Lane with regard to the town, though?’

‘On the outskirts somewhere. We’ll have to let the satnav lead us there because I’ve never been to Essington St Mary before, remember.’

‘Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.’

‘No wonder. You must be feeling very excited about seeing your inheritance.’

She nodded, beaming at him and liking the kind understanding of her feelings that shone in his face – well, she thought it did. If it wasn’t genuine, he was one of the best actors she’d ever met – far better than her ex-partner had been for the brief time they’d been together.

‘I am rather excited,’ she admitted.

‘Who wouldn’t be in your position? I felt excited when they offered me the job of liaising with you and helping sort out the charitable work they’re doing there.’

He slowed right down as they passed through the town centre, not just for traffic safety but so that they could study it.

‘Pretty little place, isn’t it?’ she said.

‘Very.’

After that they followed instructions issued by the elegant, cultured voice of the satnav. Nina had made him laugh by immediately christening it ‘Felicity’ the first time he’d used it and the name had stuck.

There was something about shared laughter that could draw strangers closer very quickly, she thought, still smiling.

Following Felicity’s crisply delivered instructions, they turned right off the main road a few hundred yards up the gentle slope, then wound their way through a twisting series of residential streets containing houses from different eras in a variety of architectural styles, none of them large or imposing.

‘Today’s town planners would hate this, wouldn’t they?’ he said.

‘Yes, but I love it. And I like the houses too. This mixture of styles looks so much nicer than a soulless modern estate with only two or three house designs, don’t you think? Planners seem as if they’re trying to regiment people even when they’re asleep.’

‘Good way to describe it. They do indeed.’

They passed an ornate sign at one turnoff on the left indicating the entrance to a local park called Magnolia Gardens.

‘What a lovely name for a park!’ he said as he drove on.

‘Isn’t it? I wonder if there really are magnolia trees in it. I love to see them in bloom.’

‘We’ll take a look when we have a few spare moments and feel like a stroll. They’re beautiful trees even when they’re not in bloom.’

A few minutes later he slowed right down as the satnav told them they were approaching Lavender Lane. He slowed to a halt to look at a sturdy house on the left, which must have been having some repair work done, because in front of it there were bits and pieces of the sort of small debris builders leave behind even when they clear up the big stuff.

The house looked old and neat, about the size of a four-bedroom modern house, but much prettier, with ornate window frames and trims.

He started moving again but only slowly, letting the car roll past the house and when the satnav announced almost immediately that they had arrived, he come to a halt only a few yards further on. They were now in front of a pair of high wooden gates set back from the road.

‘Aha!’ He pointed. One of the gates bore a sign saying Lavender Lane in faded dark grey letters. It certainly wasn’t there to attract attention. The gates were shabby and the ground in front of them wasn’t paved but looked compressed as if it had been used for many years of parking and that had discouraged grass from growing on it.

The gates were fastened together half-heartedly by a large, rusty padlock. Where they were attached to the gateposts they were overhung by untidy shrubs and they didn’t look as if they had been opened for years. However, there was a small gate to the right of the big one, which didn’t appear to have a lock on it. Presumably that was to let in people on foot.

He turned the car into the rather unwelcoming space and switched off the engine. ‘Nice to have a break from the noise. However quiet an engine is, it’s still there. Let’s get out and try to have a better look at the place.’

They had to stand on tiptoe to look over the main gates. A short, single-width driveway led up a gentle slope, stopping in front of some smallish buildings set back among overgrown bushes. Here and there were drooping trees of the sort that never grow really tall and often bear beautiful blossoms in spring, and there was a whole line of untidy shrubs.

‘Correct me if I’m wrong,’ he said, ‘but aren’t those lavender bushes?’

‘Yes. I think they are.’

The drive came to a dead end at the top of the slope just below a much larger house, which stood looking downhill at the smaller buildings. It was fronted by a small garden containing an elegant collection of tall weeds.

‘We’ll have to get the car into that place first. Let’s go back to it and see whether we can find the right keys to open the gates in that huge bunch I was given.’

But before they could do that, a woman came out of the house they’d passed next door and yelled, ‘Hoy!’ then strode along the edge of the road towards them, not looking at all friendly.