Shall we get to work?”
“I don’t see the point of consulting the indexes if they’re incomplete,” said Kit. “The computer files won’t help us either. I don’t think much news about Rendor has come out of Aldercot Hall in the past ten years.”
“Charlotte looks as though she’s in her late fifties or early sixties,” I said. “Let’s go back seventy years and work our way forward.”
We turned to face the heavily laden shelves.
“I’m glad we got here early,” Kit murmured.
Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter
183
An hour passed, then two, the silence broken only by the ruffl e of turning pages and the shuffle of our shoes as we retrieved fresh volumes from the shelves. Although I resisted the temptation to read every single article that caught my eye, I couldn’t help noticing that the function of a small-town newspaper hadn’t changed much over the years. For more than a century, the Upper Deeping Despatch had faithfully kept its readers abreast of local births, deaths, marriages, accidents, inquests, court cases, fashions, competitions, and celebrations.
“Gymkhanas and church fetes,” I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.
“Sorry?” said Kit, peering blearily at me across the metal table.
“Time for lunch,” I said, more loudly. “We need a break.”
We rang Desmond, and he came down to lock the cellar door after us. He recommended his favorite café to us as well, but we bought sandwiches at a nearby bakery and ate them on a bench in the town square, surrounded by sun-starved townspeople who’d also decided to take advantage of the fine weather. Then we plunged back into the dusty fray.
We took another break at two o’clock. When Kit suggested that we walk over to Morningside, to look in on Will and Rob, I steeled myself and suggested that we walk to the park instead.
“I’m sure the boys are just fine,” I said, with only a slight tremor in my voice.
Kit put his arm around my shoulders and gave me a sideways hug. “Well done, Lori. Let’s go and feed the ducks.”
We buckled down to our task after the ducks, flipping through volume after volume without discovering one word about the DuCarals. It didn’t dawn on me until nearly four o’clock that the Upper Deeping Despatch was exactly the wrong place to look for news about them. At which point I closed the volume I’d been scanning, leaned my weary head in my hands, and groaned.
“We’re not going to find anything about Rendor here,” I said dejectedly. “Maurice and Madeline were too arrogant to announce
184 Nancy Atherton
their children’s births in a local rag. They’d place an ad in the Times.
The same goes for anything the kids might have done in school, and I’ll bet they didn’t go to local schools, because local schools wouldn’t have been good enough for them. And after Rendor went bonkers, they shut up shop completely. They wouldn’t let the milkman near the house, so I doubt that they put out a welcome mat for reporters and photographers. We’ve spent a whole day barking up the wrong tree.”
I released another groan, expecting to hear an echoing groan from Kit, or at least a disappointed sigh. When I heard nothing, I lifted my head from my hands and looked at him.
He wasn’t scanning the page before him. He was staring at it, with an arrested expression on his face.
“Kit?” I said, suddenly alert. “Have you found something?”
“Yes,” he said, still staring down at the page. “It’s a police report about a nineteen-year-old young man who was brought up on charges for being drunk and disorderly. It happened thirty-eight years ago.”
“Some things never change,” I said, shaking my head.
“The young man’s name was Leo Sutherland,” said Kit.
“Leo?” I leaned forward. “Do you think he might be our Leo?”
Kit lifted his gaze from the page and said wonderingly, “Sutherland was my mother’s maiden name. Before she married my father—thirty-eight years ago—my mother was known as Amy Sutherland.”
“Whoa,” I said, falling back in my chair. “Now, there’s a coincidence.”
“Is it a coincidence?” A slight frown creased Kit’s forehead.
“Our Leo told us that he spent a lot of time near Anscombe Manor when he was young, and we know from the Pym sisters that he was going to elope with my mother’s closest friend.” He rapped the page once with his knuckles. “Now I find a Leo with my mother’s maiden name, written up in the local newspaper around the time Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter
185
my mother came to live at Anscombe Manor. It’s entirely possible that our Leo is . . . was . . . related to my mother.”
“And to you,” I said. “How much do you know about your mother’s family?”