Home is Where the Heart Is (19 page)

“They’re
all Soames – Elizabeth, Derek and their daughter Anna!” she mused. “So who were they?”

“Elizabeth
Soames, or Betty as everyone called her, was a great friend of Letitia’s. Anna was her daughter. As you can see, Betty outlived both her husband and her daughter.

“Now,
I have to say that I only know what I’ve gleaned from those who knew Anna, but I gather she was a bewitching young woman who was rather free with her favours. She fell pregnant and sadly died in childbirth. Betty and her husband brought up the child, Christina.

“After
her husband died Betty struggled on alone, but it wasn’t easy. Tina was a difficult girl.”

“What
about the father,” Rhianna asked intrigued.

Tim hesitated and then cleared his throat. “There’s always been speculation but, to this day, no-one really seems to know who the father was. Betty did her best for the child, but her health wasn’t good and when Tina was in her teens, Betty had a stroke and died too.

“From
then on Letitia acted as a guardian to Christina, treated her as a member of her own family. It seems it was something Betty had asked her to do.”

“So that’s why you asked if I knew Christina. Where is she now?”

Tim
sighed. “Letitia financed her through university, but she got in with a wild crowd and, the moment she’d finished, went off abroad. After a while, she came back here and seemed to settle down - found herself a job and a decent boyfriend, got engaged and we all thought things were looking up.”

He
paused and then continued. “Unfortunately, she met up again with some of her former friends. They were a bad influence on her. This time, Letitia refused to bale her out. Tina, as everyone calls her, said she was going to France
to
find
herself
, as she put it, whatever that meant. But then a few months ago she came back again and told Letitia she needed to go to Australia but she hadn’t any money, as usual.”

“So
I suppose Mrs Delroy gave it to her?”

Tim
sighed. “You suppose right. Letitia very foolishly put her hand in her pocket again and Tina took off. We haven’t heard a word from her since.”

Rhianna
tried to get her head round all this. “I still don’t understand why Letitia asked me to call myself Rhianna
Soames
.”

“I
would think it’s just so she could identify you - like a password - if you see what I mean. Perhaps she wasn’t thinking straight…Now, I’ve arranged to pick up my wife from
Wisteria
Lodge
, so how about leaving the car here and coming with me? I can collect you later. It might make the situation easier for the pair of you.”

Rhianna
felt increasingly nervous as she approached
Wisteria
Lodge
. Supposing it had all been an elaborate hoax – part of the post office raid and, somehow, she’d been implicated? She moistened her lips. What if Mrs Delroy didn’t back up her story? She had used a false name. Perhaps she could end up in a police cell.

But
Rhianna need not have worried. The door was flung open by a still attractive woman in her sixties.

“Myra, this is Rhianna. She’s come to see Letitia.”

Myra
Holt’s face creased into a smile. “Come along in, my dear, she’s expecting you.”

The
moment Rhianna walked into the sitting-room she knew, without a shadow of doubt, that the elderly, frail little woman in the armchair by the fire was her grandmother. She was the spitting image of her father.

A surge of emotions hit Rhianna so that, for a moment, she was frozen to the spot. Myra gave her a gentle push.

“
Rhianna oh Rhianna you came!”

“I’ll
make some coffee,” Myra said tactfully. “Come along Tim, you can help me.”

And
they were left alone.

There
was a long pause and then Letitia asked softly. “Did you bring the things I asked about?”

For an answer, Rhianna delved into her handbag and produced her birth certificate. “And here is a photograph of my parents and one of the painting you were asking about.”

She passed them across to Letitia who studied them in silence for what seemed like eternity. Eventually, she looked up and nodded.

“If I had any doubts left in my mind they would be dispelled by now. That is definitely my son, Joseph Delroy, and you, my dear; you take after your father. You’ve got his eyes.”

Letitia
looked long and hard at the photograph of the painting of
The
Woman
in
Blue
. “So your father didn’t get rid of it,” she murmured.

“What
is it with that painting?” Rhianna asked. “Have you any idea who it is?” Letitia nodded. “It’s Anna Soames, of course.”

Rhianna
stared at her. “But until I came here, I’d never even heard of Anna Soames. What is the connection…?” she began mystified.

“Didn’t
your father ever mention her to you?”

Rhianna
shook her head. “No, but this morning, before I came up here, Tim Holt told me a little and he showed me the graves. He also mentioned Christina.”

“Ah,
yes, Christina.” Letitia suddenly looked upset. “Christina was Anna’s daughter. She’s gone to Australia.”

“I
see. Mrs Delroy, I need to ask you, why have you chosen to get in touch now? After all this time?”

Letitia
looked at her sadly. “Couldn’t you bring yourself to call me,
Grandmother
?”

Rhianna
swallowed. “It’s all so strange. It’s going to take time. Until a short time ago, I thought I was the end of the Delroy line.”

Letitia
reached out and patted her arm. “I understand, dear. Then couldn’t you call me, Letitia, for the time being?

Rhianna
nodded. It was a compromise. She was beginning to warm to this elderly lady.

Myra
came back just then with a tray of coffee and biscuits and a promise to return for Rhianna in an hour or so.

After
they’d gone, Rhianna said tentatively, “Yesterday someone said there’d been an incident here.”

Letitia
Delroy nodded. “There was a prowler – lights in the grounds, things moved about in the summer house and worse than that.”

The
elderly lady looked distressed.

Rhianna
moved closer to her. “What happened?” she prompted gently.

“Someone let off fireworks. It frightened poor Tansy.”

“Tansy?”
Rhianna asked, mystified.

“My
little West-Highland terrier.”

As
if on cue, Tansy, who’d apparently been asleep behind the sofa all this time, suddenly put in an appearance wagging her tail.

“Probably
just some youths being silly,” Rhianna told her, patting the little dog. It certainly wasn’t much to go on.

Letitia
nodded. “That’s what the police said, but I can’t help thinking there’s more to it than that. You see the other day; there was a dead crow in the porch.”

Rhianna
looked blank. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure I see the significance.”

“Tim
would be annoyed with me for saying this but, in these parts, a crow can be a portent of misfortune.”

Rhianna
was trying to make some sense of this, but was finding it difficult.

“Oh,
dear, you’re going to think I’m just a foolish old woman, but since Tina left, I’m afraid I’ve become quite jittery.”

“
Have you heard from Tina since she went to Australia?”

Letitia
shook her head. “No, just a very quick phone call to say she’d arrived.”

There
was a sudden loud rap on the door. Rhianna answered it to find two policemen standing on the step. One was the officer who had interviewed her the previous day.

“
Rhianna Soames. I need to ask you a few questions.”

Rhianna
smiled at him. “Fire away but I should tell you I’m not Rhianna Soames. I’m Rhianna
Delroy
.”

He
stared at her frowningly. “But yesterday you said – you definitely told me you were Rhianna
Soames
.”

“Yes,
I know and I’m sorry.”

She led the way into the sitting- room and produced her birth-certificate again.

“So,
why on earth did you give me the name
Soames
?”

Letitia
came to her rescue. “Oh, it was just a name I asked Rhianna to use. I needed to be sure, you see, that she really was my grand-daughter. It was like a password.”

The policeman looked unconvinced and Rhianna whipped a business card out of her bag.

“You
can look me up on the website if you like or ring the gallery. My friend, Fiona Field, will vouch for me.”

“You’re
an artist?”

She
nodded, relieved that she seemed to be getting through to him at last. “Yes, our gallery’s at this address in Hertfordshire. That’s how Mrs Delroy tracked me down.”

He scratched his chin and said. “I don’t know what to make of all this. If you’re not Rhianna Soames then why did Mrs Blackett say you were?”

Letitia
smiled. “That’s easy, I booked her in in that name – saved speculation and it seemed best until we got to know each other, but now, after what’s happened…I’m not so sure.”

“I’ve
been told those men were asking for me by name at the post office,” Rhianna said worriedly, and shuddered.

The
policeman rubbed his ear. “Yes, well, giving yourself a false name probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do in the circumstances. It seems those criminals might have thought you were someone else… Now, are you going to be around for the next few days, Miss - er - Delroy? We may need to question you again.”

Rhianna
nodded. “Yes, I can be contacted at the
White
Unicorn
if you need me.”

“Or
here. You’ll be spending some time with me, won’t you, dear?” Letitia said quietly.

Rhianna
nodded. Suddenly everything seemed surreal. How had she come to be in this situation with an elderly woman who claimed to be her grandmother? Had she made a dreadful mistake in coming here? But, she was sure there was a distinct family resemblance and, suddenly, she really wanted to believe that Letitia Delroy was her grandmother.