Page 139 of The Christmas Invitation
‘I have told them, yes. It seemed the best thing to do. Come on.’
36
Tryst Issues
‘There you are, darlings,’ said Clara, when we went into the drawing room. ‘Sybil hadn’t stirred when I looked in on her, and Tottie and River are in the morning room with Teddy, watching an old film, so with luck we won’t be disturbed for a little while.’
I must have looked worried because Henry smiled at me encouragingly. ‘Lex told us after the Solstice that you’d thought at first you’d been pushed off the ledge, then decided you’d imagined it.’
‘Yes, because who would do that? It just seemed so improbable.’
‘But I shouldn’t think you could really mistake the feeling of being pushed for even the strongest gust of wind,’ Clara said. ‘So Henry and I are inclined to believe you.’
‘Ithought she’d imagined it, but when she said about Sybil’s perfume earlier, I started to wonder,’ Lex said.
‘You explained everything very clearly, darling,’ Clara told him. ‘And I’m afraid Meg might be right. Sybil’s horrified reaction when we told her who Meg was quite took us by surprise. It had never crossed our minds till that moment that sheand Mark would be worried Meg and her mother would make a claim on the estate!’
‘At the Gathering, Mark certainly made me thinkhewasn’t worried about it any more –orabout Meg being his first cousin,’ Lex said drily.
‘Hewasrather smitten with her at the time, wasn’t he?’ Henry agreed.
‘The trouble is, Sybil noticed it and suddenly got it into her head that Mark and I were serious about each other and that our marriage would make everything right,’ I said.
‘Her assumptions seem to have been a little premature, to say the least,’ Clara said. ‘It certainly isn’t you he’s got his eye on now, is it?’
‘Most definitely not, and Sybil’s noticed, too.’
‘You’d have to be blind to miss it,’ Lex pointed out. ‘He and Zelda have hardly taken their eyes off each other since she got here.’
‘It still seems very bizarre that Sybil should attempt to get rid of Meg in such a dramatic fashion,’ Henry said.
I thought that that was the understatement of the year.
‘Only to realize shortly afterwards – though mistakenly, as it turned out – that there was a better way to neutralize her,’ he continued.
‘Nicely put, Henry,’ applauded Clara. ‘I believe Meg’s story and I think we must accept that Sybil was the culprit, however unlikely it seems.’
‘Though we have noticed that she’s looked very stressed, lately,’ said Henry.
‘Yes, so perhaps that night the darkness and the strange rites might have combined with her fears into some kind of nightmare scenario, and when the opportunity presented itself to get rid of Meg, she acted,’ suggested Clara.
‘A moment of temporary insanity, which she probably instantly regretted,’ Henry finished.
‘Meg would have regretted it even more, had she fallen right over,’ Lex said drily.
I shivered. ‘It was a horrible experience. Thank goodness you spotted me, Lex.’
‘But what are we going to do? That’s the question,’ said Henry.
‘Oh, nothing!’ I said. ‘I mean, there’s no actualproof, is there? She could just deny it and then everything would be very uncomfortable.’
‘Hmm …’ said Clara. ‘I’m a great believer in having things out in the open, as you know, so that goes against the grain. Though I do think something’s been going on with Sybil for a while.’
‘A kind of midlife crisis, perhaps?’ suggested Henry. ‘Piers seems to exert quite a hold over her, too, though he’s no Svengali.’
‘Yes, that’s very odd,’ agreed Clara. ‘Tottie’s her best friend, but even she doesn’t know what’s worrying Sybil.’
‘Couldthey be having some kind of autumn/winter romance?’ asked Henry.
