Beatrice (The Tipton Hollow 2)

“It says that orchids are from tropical climates, Brazil, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea.” He stared in dismay at her. “If the one in the study is rare, if its parent plants come from say, Brazil and Papua New Guinea - two random countries - good Lord, it will be one of its kind. It could be the only one in the world.”

Beatrice felt herself start to tremble. “Extremely rare means very valuable,” she whispered. “No wonder that man wants it.”

“Given what was written on the packaging paper, it is rare. It hints that someone would call and try to get it off you,” Ben sighed in disgust. “Beatrice, just what on earth is going on?”

“I don’t know Ben, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is trouble.” The look she gave him silently begged for honesty. “Do you think that the carriage that almost ran me down had intended to hit me?”

“Let’s not get carried away. It could just be one of those things. Right now we cannot jump to conclusions. I think,” he looked at her frankly, “and it is just my opinion you understand, I am not telling you what you should do, but I think that the first thing to do is pay a visit to the people on this list. We need to find out if it is possible to cultivate a plant such as the one we have. Then we need to establish if any of the people on this list knew your uncle. We need to find out if they were involved in cultivating rare plants, especially this one.” He held up the paper with the notes on. “These look like scientific notes of some kind, but Latin is not my strong point. I have no idea what these

names could mean. We need to get them transcribed by someone reliable and see if they are notes about the plant in the study.”

Although Beatrice nodded, she doubted that her uncle had anything to do with the plant in the study. She couldn’t see how Matthew could have cultivated something like that without either Maud or herself seeing it, or becoming aware of the smell. She just knew that this plant; this rare orchid, belonged to someone else. Unfortunately, had no idea who that someone else was; and why they had chosen to leave it with her.

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask Ben if he would help her arrange to meet with the people on the list, but then felt incredibly guilty about everything he had done for her so far. It didn’t seem right to impose on him any further. He had been kind, generous, caring, and had asked for nothing in return. While he seemed happy to do it, she didn’t feel comfortable asking him for more.

“I will wait until I am back on my feet and then arrange to visit them.” Although her words were confident, she frowned at the thought of arranging to meet with strangers.

“Look, I have to confess to you that I am intrigued by the whole mystery and I don’t want to just walk away and leave you to it,” Ben announced flatly. “Especially given that we don’t know if the incident with the carriage was mere circumstance. I would like to continue to help you with this mystery, if I may? Why don’t I come with you to meet with them? You know, for moral support.” He read the indecision on her face and tried a different tack. “I don’t think it is right and proper for you to knock on any of the men’s doors. After all, we don’t know if the man who came to call is one of the people on the list. If he is, I really don’t think it is a good idea for you to knock on his door without a chaperone, and a male one at that.”

He didn’t add that the man looked positively dangerous and was not someone he wanted Beatrice to spend any time with.

“But I have put on you enough already. It doesn’t seem fair to impose on your good nature anymore. You have been so kind and helpful to me that I cannot thank you enough. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Thank me by letting me help you with this, Beatrice. It is really important to me that I am here to help you. You are not putting on me at all. I want to do this. It goes against every masculine instinct I have to just walk away and leave you to face this alone. Just let me help you. Please?”

The soft plea in his voice was more than enough to convince Beatrice that she wanted him by her side throughout all of this. She had no idea if the plant’s arrival was all stuff and nonsense, and really wasn’t anything other than someone returning a beautiful plant without realising that her uncle was now dead. If she was honest, she didn’t want to meet with strange men, whoever they were, and would be immensely reassured to have Ben beside her – again. He clearly didn’t mind being involved, and was more intrigued than annoyed.

What harm could it do? She mused silently. You know you want to spend more time with him. This is a perfect opportunity to do just that.

Decision made, she gave him a grateful smile. “If you are sure that I am not putting you out too much, that would be wonderful. I have to confess that I really would feel considerably better if I had someone with me. Thank you.”

“Excellent. That’s settled then. One point I would like to make though,” he added and gave her a pointed look. “I think that before we go and knock on any doors, we need to get these notes transcribed. Then, once we know whether the notes relate to the plant in the study or not, we will have a better idea of what questions to ask them.”

Beatrice thought about that for a moment and then nodded. “I agree. We cannot really ask anyone anything if we don’t know what we are asking about.” She frowned at that and wondered if it made sense.

Ben seemed to understand though because he nodded. “Let’s go to the university tomorrow morning. I am sure there will be a Latin scholar there who will be able to oblige.”

Beatrice realised then just how little she knew about him and stared at the floor for several minutes while she contemplated how to ask him what he did for a living. She opened her mouth to speak only for him to interrupt her.

“How are your drawing skills?”

“Pardon?”

Ben smiled at her and nodded in the direction of the study. “I think that we need to draw a picture of the plant. We can hardly take it with us to meet anyone. If we take a sketch with us, at least we will have something to show the men on the list when we go to see them.”

She studied him and wondered why she hadn’t thought of it herself. “That sounds like a good idea, but I cannot draw.”

“I will do it,” he assured her secretively. “Look, I know that your ankle hurts but, if you are able to hobble around tomorrow, why don’t we go to see the first person on the list once we have been to the university? The sooner we can find out who owns the plant, the sooner we can move it on to its rightful owner. If the plant does turn out to belong to the stranger, and he can prove who he is, then we can hand it over and call this mystery solved.”

“I think you are right,” she agreed, pleased to be able to have some idea of how to handle the situation.

“Tomorrow morning then?”

“That would be wonderful,” Beatrice beamed.

“Dinner’s ready,” Maud called from the doorway only to lift her brows in surprised wonder at the winning smile Ben gave her.

CHAPTER SIX