‘Well, I had an idea. Listen.’
I explained. At first they looked doubtful, but by the time I was finished Patsy was nodding thoughtfully.
‘It’s not a bad idea. A fellow like Wilkins has got to have something about him that would make him an undesirable son-in-law. And your aunt is the biggest snob in the world.’
‘Thank you very much.’
‘You’re welcome. So, where do we start?’
I gestured beyond the bushes.
‘I thought we could start by talking to the people in the park. People here do nothing but talk all day. That’s why they come out here: to hear the latest gossip and make up some more.’
‘Some of them come here to walk and feed the cute little ducks in the pond,’ Flora pointed out shyly.
‘Those are the worst,’ was Patsy’s reply. ‘Have you ever listened to those old ladies who stand around feeding ducks? They chatter worse than the ducks do.’
I smiled. They were on the wagon. ‘Which will suit our purpose excellently, my dear friend.’
‘Quite right, Lilly. So, let’s go!’
They were already standing from the bench and about to embark on their secret spying mission when I waved them back.
‘Wait! There’s something else I’ve got to tell you.’
‘What?’ Patsy raised an eyebrow. ‘Does Ella have another suitor? Dear me, that girl is busy these days.’
‘No, no! It hasn't got anything to do with Ella.’
In concise words, I explained to them about the anti-suffragist meeting. By the time I was finished they were all smiling. Patsy might even have had a demonic glint in her eyes.
‘So they don't want anybody to show up, do they?’ she asked. ‘Afraid of opposition, are they?’
‘So it seems,’ I confirmed, smirking.
‘I wonder…’ Eve said. ‘Maybe we should do something about that. What do you think?’
We looked at each other - and smiled again.
‘This is getting better and better,’ Patsy grinned. ‘Looks like we’re going to have a busy morning.’
~~*~~*
My spies on their secret mission were less successful than I had hoped.
‘Nothing!’ Frustrated, Patsy stamped towards me, one hand on her hip, one stabbing her parasol into the air as if she could stab the unobliging passers-by who hadn’t been able to offer any useful gossip about Sir Philip. ‘They told me nothing! And I bet they knew at least something about him worth knowing, something really bad. They looked frightened when I brought the subject up and kept looking from left to right in a very shifty way.’
‘That might have been because you stared at them like an inquisitor in a hoop skirt,’ Eve pointed out. ‘You should have been more relaxed and easy-going, and everything would have been worked wonderfully! I met some people who were quite eager to talk, actually, and we conversed about him for a long time.’
‘Really? And what did you learn?’ I asked eagerly.
‘That… he is rich, has a long nose and is fond of flowers.’
‘What blasted good will that do? We already knew that!’
‘Yes, well… I suppose we did.’
‘Let’s face it, girls,’ Patsy said gloomily, slumping down on the bench again. ‘The chap has a clean slate. An abnormally long nose and a flower fixation are hardly grounds on which one can convince an aunt to reject an affluent nephew-in-law.’
‘So what does that mean, Patsy?’ Eve wanted to know.
Patsy shrugged miserably. ‘It means that Ella is doomed to a life of matrimonial misery, doesn't it, Lilly?’
When I didn’t answer, all of them looked up at me. They had all settled on the bench again by now. Only I was still standing, looking down at their inquiring faces.
‘Doesn’t it?’ Patsy repeated.
I thought of Ella on her knees in the garden, weeping, accepting Edmund’s proposition to run away.
‘Actually, it means something much worse,’ I said, darkly.
‘Oh my God!’ Eve clapped a hand over her mouth and stared at me wide-eyed. ‘She’s not going to poison him, is she? Arsenic in his bacon and eggs, right after the marriage?’
‘Eve!’
‘Sorry! Sorry, I forgot. Ella would never do such a thing.’ She looked down, and for a moment I thought she was actually ashamed of her outburst. Then she looked up again. ‘So you are going to poison him, then?’
‘You read a great deal too much Edgar Allan Poe, Eve,’ I said, pulling a face. ‘Nobody is going to poison anybody.’
‘But then what did you mean?’
For a moment I hesitated. Should I? They looked so eager, so helpful. But I couldn’t. Deep inside I knew Ella would have died rather than have this particular secret revealed to anybody. I myself could listen in - that was all right, after all, I was her big sister and had absolutely altruistic motives. But I couldn’t tell a soul.
‘Sorry.’ I shook my head. ‘I can’t tell you.’
I saw the hurt on their faces even before all the words were out of my mouth. ‘It’s not because I don't trust you,’ I assured them. ‘I would trust you with my life! It’s just… well, this is not my secret to share.’
They exchanged looks with another. Finally, Patsy nodded. ‘All right… Let’s file that under “very mysterious”.’
I jumped. The word 'file' made me edgy these days, evoking the urge to jump up and run for the nearest shelf full of boxes. Fortunately, none of them noticed.
‘The question isn’t really why Ella needs to get out of this so desperately,’ I reminded them. ‘You know she does. We have to figure out how to do it.’
‘So what’s our next step?’ Eve asked. ‘If poisoning is out of the question, which I still think is not…’
‘Think,’ Patsy said firmly. ‘We go home and think. We’re exhausted from running around all morning. We need a good meal and rest. After all, this Sir Philip hasn't proposed to her yet, and even if he did, there’s still the time of the engagement before things become final. We have time to figure out a plan, and now we have four brains to do it instead of one.’
‘I could ask around in the neighbourhood if people know anything,’ Eve suggested. The rest of us exchanged a look. Eve lived in a rich neighbourhood and had a virtual army of acquaintances among her neighbours' daughters. If gossip was to be found anywhere, it was there.
‘I could re-read a few of my romantic novels,’ Flora offered timidly. ‘Maybe there is something in there not only about how people get engaged and married, but also about how they could avoid it.’
‘Great idea.’ Patsy nodded. ‘And just in case that doesn't work, I’ll go and buy an especially hard and spiky parasol.’
~~*~~*
We discussed our plans for the anti-suffragist meeting and then disbanded not long after. I arrived home late for dinner, but so many flowers from Sir Philip had arrived in my absence that my aunt didn’t even make a sharp comment. She was in heaven. When Ella sprang up after dinner, I was ready and followed like the watchdog I was.
Our Romeo on duty was waiting just beyond the fence, an incandescent smile on his face, his arms held out at his sides as if to catch Ella when she would come rushing towards him. Only when she had crossed about half the distance did he seem to realize that because of the metal barrier in the way, that wouldn’t be quite possible, and he lowered his arms.
His smile didn’t become any less incandescent, though.
‘Ella, my love!’ He breathed, gripping the poles of the fence with both hands.
‘Edmund, my love,’ she breathed back. ‘Finally! I’ve nearly been driven to distraction, waiting all day! Not knowing what will happen and when is pure torture! When will we leave?’
I leant forward as far as I could. This was the question I had come to hear the answer to, the question the answer to which would determine whether I could work on a plan to get rid of Wilkins or whether I would have to take Patsy up on her offer of parasolical violence. My heart started to pound faster in my chest as I stared at Edmund, the man who held my sister’s fate in his hands.
Why wasn’t he saying anything?
Why was he just standing there?