Beatrice (The Tipton Hollow 2)

When boredom began to bite, Beatrice made her way into the sitting room and began to leaf through the books at her feet. However, now that they knew what type of plant was in Ben’s house there didn’t seem to be any point poring through them for information they already had. She quickly gathered the books into one neat pile and returned them into the study.

Even though the plant was no longer there, its pungent aroma still hung in the air and she contemplated whether she should open the window a little to let some fresh air in. Before she could decide what to do, a knock on the door broke into her thoughts and she hurried to the door as Maud hurried by to see who it was.

“It’s only Ben,” Maud called seconds later.

Beatrice slumped with relief and hurried into the hallway. At any other time she would have been a little disconcerted by the force of the overwhelming emotion that had swept through her but, right now, she was just overjoyed that he was there.

“Only me?” Ben drawled teasingly as he stepped inside. His eyes met Beatrice’s, and she sighed in delight at the happiness evident on his face. “I am glad that I am such an important visitor here,” he added without rancour.

“Phah!” Maud scolded and gave him a teasing look before she turned away. “You are practically one of the family, and you know it.” She didn’t wait for him to respond and hurried into the kitchen. “I’ll put the kettle on,” she said to Beatrice only for Ben to stop her.

“Not for me, thank you Maud,” Ben replied, loud enough for Maud to hear. “Beatrice, I thought that we might go to Richard Browning’s house today. He may not be in, but that doesn’t matter really. I thought it would be nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine for a while. We can probably stop off somewhere along the way for a bite to eat, if you like?”

“That would be lovely,” she replied with a delighted smile. Although he smiled back, Beatrice sensed that there was more he wanted to say, and wondered if he really wanted a quiet word alone with her. Her smile dimmed and her stomach flipped with nerves as she remembered his somewhat distant behaviour yesterday. She couldn’t help but wonder if he had second thoughts about a relationship with her, and almost dreaded hearing what he had to say.

“Oh, alright,” Maud sighed, completely oblivious to the undercurrent of tension that hovered between the couple. “Beatrice, I was going to ask if you would mind if I went over to Esther’s, to help sort out the things for the rummage sale today. If you are out for lunch, I don’t have to hurry back.”

“Don’t hurry back just for me. I can manage,” Beatrice assured her.

“The Circle is due tonight, so I will be back in time to make sure there is enough to eat. Is there anything you want me to pick up while I am in the village?” Maud asked, but included Ben in her look of enquiry.

“I am alright, I don’t need anything,” Beatrice assured her.

“Me either, but thank you anyway,” Ben added, delighted that Maud had indeed started to treat him like one of the family. “We will drop you off at Esther’s house now, if you are ready?” He lifted a brow to Maud, who nodded and hurried off.

Within minutes they were heading toward Tipton Hollow.

“Marchwell Bishop should take about an hour to get to,” Ben reported once the door to Esther’s house had closed behind Maud. He gave Beatrice a somewhat secretive smile. “I have a little surprise for you.”

“Do I get any hints?”

In spite of the sunny day, Beatrice firmly pushed her worries to one side and snuggled contentedly into her shawl as she sat back to enjoy the day. Although it was a little cooler than usual, the sun was out and, luckily, there was no sign of any thunderclouds in the beautiful blue sky. It was going to be a very fine day indeed.

“Not yet,” he grinned as they left Tipton Hollow. “Just sit back and enjoy our day out.”

He didn’t tell her that when he had gotten out of bed earlier, he had intended to spend the day catching up on the huge mound of paperwork on his desk. However, as soon as he had taken a seat, he had realised that he would prefer to be outside with Beatrice instead. He had tried to ignore the urge to go to her, but had been unable to think about anything other than where she was, and what she was doing. Eventually he had given up, put his pencil down and hurried over to Brantley Manor.

“What had you intended to do today?” He asked as they left the worst of the village traffic behind them.

She smiled at him. “I was contemplating whether to offer Uncle Matthew’s old books to the university. Luckily, you saved me from having to pack everything up.”

He grinned at her. “Have you thought about asking Mr Harrington if he would like them?”

She nodded. “I cannot really see many people in Tipton Hollow having the need for a lot of botany books,” she replied ruefully.

“Now that you have made contact with Archie, I am sure he wouldn’t mind if you asked him,” Ben replied thoughtfully. “I will come with you, if you want me to?”

If he was honest, he wanted to meet the old man again. Now that he had had a chance to think over the meeting a bit more carefully, there were several things about the old man’s behaviour that was a bit odd. He could just about overlook the mistake over the handwriting; but there was something about the man’s fluid movement that bespoke of someone who was considerably younger than their purported age that warned him something was seriously amiss.

He quickly shoved his thoughts aside as he read the signpost up ahead. “Right, Marchwell Bishop it is.”

“We are going to get in awful trouble with the police for doing this, you know,” Beatrice murmured ruefully when Ben had taken the turn into the road that led to Richard Browning’s house.

“We are not getting ourselves involved in the murder investigation, Beatrice,” Ben reasoned. “We are just trying to establish who owns the plant so we can either move it on to its rightful owner, or you can prove it is yours and get rid of Sigmund Hargraves once and for all.”

“I know, but I can’t help but feel that Mark is going to be cross,” Beatrice argued weakly.

“Yes, but he also said that he would get the cultivation notes translated and sent over to us, but we haven’t seen anything of the detective who is supposed to be dealing with the case while Mark is away. Look how quickly we got the notes translated ourselves. We now know that the cultivation notes go with the plant that was delivered, and the four people on the list were involved in the cultivation. By visiting Richard Browning, we can hopefully find out who owns the plant, and get it out of the house before Mark comes back from London.”