The Secret of Hollyfield House, Jude Bayton [books for 20 year olds txt] 📗

discover my find in the back of a cluttered shop selling trinkets and odds and ends. When I spied the dusty, fossilized toadstool, I knew my uncle must have it. Fortunately, it was cheap.

He held the piece of limestone and smiled at me. “Well, I’m blowed! What a wonderful gift. I’ve not got one of these in my collection. ’Tis marvellous, Jilly. You are too kind to think of me.” His pale eyes shone. “I shall treasure it always.” He looked at me fondly, and then the moment passed, and he set the gift down upon a side table and drew again on his pipe.

“Though I am not overly fond of shopping, Uncle, it was a pleasant change going somewhere different. Were you able to spend time preparing for the lecture?” The long-awaited meeting at Mountjoy Manor was but three days away, and Uncle was submerged in all things fungal.

“Indeed, I was. Though I am content with my progress, there still remains much to do. There are new notes on my desk, ready to transcribe as soon as you are able. ’Tis the last of it. Once you have finished my report, I have only to organize which samples I need to take along with me and pack them accordingly.” He gave me a sheepish grin. “Mrs Stackpoole has offered to help in that department. She plans to attend the lecture and assist me with my lichens.” Uncle Jasper’s cheeks turned a shade of pink, and he was at once bashful.

“Uncle.” I smiled. “I think it singular you have a special friendship with her. I wish you would not feel uncomfortable speaking of it. I do not judge. I am pleased for you both.”

“We are merely friends, Jilly. Pray do not read more into it than that.” He attempted to sound convincing, but I was not fooled.

Uncle Jasper leaned over and tapped the ash from the bell of his pipe into the fireplace. “I forgot to mention to you about tomorrow.”

“What about tomorrow?”

“We are invited to Hollyfield for dinner. It came this afternoon from Victor LaVelle.”

“Did you reply?” I had mixed feelings about spending even more time at the House, though I could not explain why precisely.

“I accepted, of course. It will still be daylight when we arrive, and I’ve a mind to take a stroll through their gardens and see what I can spy.” As he beamed at the prospect, I could almost envision the child’s face which had been there long before the wrinkles and whiskers.

“I haven’t spoken to Victor in an age. It will be good to see the man and hear his news.”

I nodded in agreement. But then a thought came to me. What did my uncle know of the true relationship between Victor LaVelle and Billy Wolfe?

Chapter Thirteen

IT WAS A DIVERSE GROUP THAT assembled at Hollyfield House for dinner. Marabelle and Evergreen were there, but instead of Perry and Marik, as on the first occasion, it was Victor at the head of the table, with Lord Montague Mountjoy next to him, and across from Uncle Jasper. I sat beside Lord Mountjoy, with his wife directly opposite.

Lady Louisa Mountjoy was several years her husband’s junior, at a guess at least two decades. His lordship was of an age with Uncle Jasper. Though where my uncle was short, stout and bald, ‘Monty’ Mountjoy was tall and regal, with a full head of white hair. He and my uncle were delighted to be in one another’s company, and in the full regales of a discussion on the upcoming lectures which Lord Mountjoy would host.

Consequently, Lady Louisa, was only too happy to chat with me. I was glad of her attention yet felt extremely self-conscious in my dowdy dress.

“Well, Miss Farraday,” she said through rouged lips. “I daresay you have found Ambleside to be rather more entertaining than you might have originally expected?” She smiled, and her dark brown eyes sparkled. She was a striking woman, with the enviable complexion of a Mediterranean or some other exotic nationality in her blood. Her jet-black hair shimmered in the lamplight, her olive skin smooth.

“You could say that, Lady Mountjoy. Though I am saddened by what has transpired since I arrived here. It is a tragic set of circumstances for everyone involved.”

“Do you know the Wolfe boys?” she asked and placed a spoonful of syllabub into her mouth.

“I do, though not well. Billy, I have met once, but Dominic and I are friends.”

One thick black brow arched. “I see. Then I am sure you are relieved by Victor’s involvement assisting the boy and his upcoming trial?”

“I am.” I looked at her without being able to read her expression. Did she pity Billy, or perhaps she believed him guilty? Was Louisa Mountjoy privy to Victor’s genuine relationship to him?

“For someone like Billy, it would prove difficult for him to articulate his innocence when in a strange place, and so terribly frightened.” I added.

“Then you think him innocent?”

“I do.”

“Yet you stated only meeting him one time. How are you convinced when you do not know the boy well?”

Did Louisa Mountjoy intend to bait me? “Well, I am no authority on the matter, Lady Mountjoy, but you asked a question, and I answered honestly. In my short time speaking with Billy Wolfe, I found him to be a kind young man, gentle and unassuming. To view him as a cold-blooded murderer is beyond my capacity.”

“Well said,” Victor spoke loudly from the table’s head and I was shocked to realise the others had been listening. My face warmed.

“I disagree.” Evergreen sat at the foot of the table facing her father. Her face contorted into an unbecoming scowl. “That boy has always been strange. I mean look at him, he’s unnaturally strong for a lad of fifteen. He would be a force to be reckoned with, were someone foolhardy enough to cross him.”

Victor LaVelle glowered at his daughter. “What a spiteful thing to say.” An undertone of anger laced his words. “For a gentle-born woman who has