Lies and Misdemeanours

Wally nodded. “One day, you can be going about your business, as we were.”

“The next, you can be facing the gallows, like I was,” Simon added darkly.

Hetty wiped the tears from her face, and looked from Wally to Simon, then back to Wally. “Anyone would think you two are fighting his cause.”

“He is a good man, Hetty. A sterling character in my book,” Wally assured her. “You won’t get better than him.”

“I need some fresh air,” she whispered suddenly. She sighed and looked at the rose garden beside them.

“Charlie said that we aren’t to go anywhere,” Wally reminded her.

“I am just going to wander around there for a bit. I need some fresh air,” Hetty snapped and gla

red at her brothers. “You told him that you would clear the room in preparation for Snetterton. I am just going to be here. Look, it’s no more than a few feet away from the door. What harm can it do? I promise that if I see, or hear of anyone then I will come straight back.”

Before either man could say anything else, she hurried toward the rose garden.

Once outside, she immediately drew in a deep lungful of crisp morning air, but it did little to calm her. She had no idea where the sudden need to be alone with her thoughts came from.

Was she shaken by the thought of being in love with Charlie? Or more shaken by the fact that she suspected Charlie didn’t return the affection? Could she risk spending her life with someone who may go to work one day, and not come back?

She frowned and studied the grass beneath her feet. In reality, she saw very little of the myriad roses that lined the walkway. Her thoughts were locked firmly on the man who was now racing toward Hemsley in search of Snetterton. Was this what married life to Charlie would be like? Could she bear it, if it was?

With that thought lurking in her mind, she had to ask herself if she could bear a life without Charlie in it. Just the thought of him leaving left her with a strange ache in the centre of her chest that she knew wouldn’t ease until he returned to her.

It would be a strong woman who would wave him off when he left for one of his investigations, not knowing if he would ever come back. It wasn’t her; she wasn’t that strong. She wanted the man she spent her future with to be beside her so she could share her day with him and raise a family with him. She didn’t want to wave him off, then sit and wait to see if her future was going to be destroyed by some arrogant bully somewhere.

As far as she could see, she would be damned if she settled on a future with Charlie, and damned to a life of misery if she didn’t. It was a helpless situation really because she was already married to him. She could hardly undo the marriage now, not now that it had been consummated. Neither could she demand that he change what he did for work because she knew about it prior to their marriage, and it was such a large part of who he was.

The bang of the kitchen door drew her attention. She looked up at the closed panel and sighed. Whatever the future held in store for her, she knew that it had to remain within Derby, or nearby. With a husband who was apt to disappear at a moment’s notice, she rather suspected she would need her brothers more than ever.

Charlie waited in the shadows of the huge yew tree in the graveyard of the church, and watched Hugo knock on the back door to the rectory. The heavy thumps on the wooden surface sounded loud, even from several feet away. Thankfully, there weren’t many people out and about in the village today, which left everyone able to focus on getting the verger out of the house.

“Snetterton?” Hugo drawled casually when the verger eventually yanked the door open. “For someone of the church, you are not very hospitable, are you?”

Before the stunned verger could respond, Hugo pushed his way into the house. He left the door open behind him, and watched Barnaby stalk in through the front door.

“Lock it,” Hugo ordered.

“Who the hell are you?” Snetterton snarled. “Get out of my house.”

“It’s not your house,” Hugo challenged. “It belongs to the church and, as far as I can see, you shouldn’t be here.”

Snetterton scowled at Hugo. “You don’t know what you are talking about. Look, I don’t know who you are but you are trespassing. Get out of this house now.”

“You, sir, are under arrest for the murder of the Reverend Potts.”

“You have no authority to arrest me,” Snetterton challenged. “Meldrew is the magistrate around here.”

“Meldrew has no authority where I come from,” Hugo snapped. “Now move.”

Amidst Snetterton’s protests, Hugo shoved him roughly out of the door and, together with Barnaby, dragged the recalcitrant man across the churchyard toward the waiting horses.

“You!” Snetterton snarled as soon as he saw Charlie standing beside the waiting horses.

“Yes, me,” Charlie replied with a smirk. “Thought you had seen the back of me, hadn’t you?”

“You should be swinging from the gallows,” Snetterton challenged. “You will be when Meldrew gets his hands on you.”