A Forgotten Murder (Medlar Mystery 3)

“Put you in the closet under the stairs, did they?”

He laughed at her reference to Harry Potter. “It was about that bad.”

“Then came Oxley Manor.”

“Yes. Then came this.” He s

wept his arm out. They were by a pond that had tall cattails and ducks floating on the blue water.

“But I don’t think you were welcomed,” Kate said.

“Actually, I was. Nicky and I were the same age and he’d lived such a sheltered life that I was a novelty. I knew how to ride busses and how we could hide from his father. I knew—” He waved his hand. “Anyway, it was good for us both.”

“What about you and Bertram?”

“Ever hear the saying that lazy people are brilliant at finding people to do their work for them?”

“No.”

“Then I probably made it up. I worked hard to make myself useful so I wouldn’t be sent away.”

“Been there, done that,” Kate said. He looked at her in interest. “Nope. This is your story. What changed?”

Clive lost his smile. “It was all wonderful—until Bertram pulled me out of uni after two years. He said Oxley was falling apart and I was needed here.”

“Selfish in the extreme,” Kate said. “I assume you were part of the group, but then...” She looked at him.

“In a single day, I went from being their friend to being their servant. And they bloody well let me know of my fallen status.”

“No wonder you were angry. Why didn’t you leave?”

They had reached an area with a long vista and there was a bench nearby. Clive motioned for her to sit and he took a place beside her.

“I was too afraid to leave. Oxley Manor was the only place I’d ever known any happiness. The world I’d seen outside was full of misery.”

“And there was Willa.”

Clive shook his head. “That poor woman. I was a beast to her. But then, they all were.”

“I thought they liked her.”

“Hell no! They put up with her because she paid for everything. And she applauded Byon’s hateful little plays. All Nicky had to do was smile at her and she’d get out her checkbook.”

“That is cold.”

“Her family was worse!” Clive said. “She and I were alike in that we were terrified that it would all be taken away from us. I was scared that Bertram would run the place into bankruptcy, and she was afraid Nicky and Byon would do to her what they’d done to me. One day they’d decide she was out and she’d be told to leave.”

“But if you and Willa married...”

“Yes, if she and I were together they might keep us both.”

“You to run Oxley Manor and Willa to pay for it.”

“You are exactly right.”

She took a breath. “But it all ended on one night.”

Clive took his time before speaking. “They didn’t even notice,” he said softly. “Nicky was engaged to Diana but she was gone for twenty-some hours before they realized it.”