Millie's Game Plan by Rosie Dean Page B

smoke and filled her lungs. A cloud of smoke accompanied her words. ‘Now, bring your drink and I’ll show you the locations I had in mind.’

Chapter 10
    She led me along the dark panelled hallway to a broad staircase. Halfway up, where the stairs split, was a large stained glass window with a window-seat in dark green, brocade.
    ‘I thought, perhaps here?’ she suggested. ‘Or there’s rather a nice room up in the tower.’
    We carried on upstairs, where the deep landing divided like a large T-junction. Vonnie turned left and led me down to the end of the passageway and up a narrow spiral staircase into a square tower, with windows on all sides. The evening sun poured in, illuminating dust particles as they drifted across the light beams.
    ‘What a fabulous room.’ I moved over to one of the windows which looked across the lawn and beyond to the village. Further to the right, another tower was visible – the church. I turned my back on it to check out the room. There were two chaises-longues, a coffee table and a small bookcase – all of them on casters. ‘I like the mobile furniture,’ I said.
    ‘Oh, so do I. That was my idea. It means you can enjoy any view and move in or out of the sun as you wish. Piers – God rest his soul – was livid when he saw what I’d done, moaning on about these being antique French…what the hell? We’re not selling them, so why worry about the value?’ She leaned over and tapped some ash from her cigarette into an ashtray. ‘So, do you think this would work?’
    ‘We can try.’
    ‘Lovely. I’ll pop down and smarten up. Why don’t you get your camera and try a few angles?’ She squinted against the smoke as she took another drag. ‘Is that the right term?’
    ‘Absolutely.’ I began circling the room, trying to establish the best view. In half an hour, the sun’s position would change and very quickly, the light would fail. I put my drink next to the ashtray and moved a chaise-longue towards a window, stepping back to gauge the effect.
    ‘I’ll leave you to it, back in a mo,’ she said, before disappearing out of the room.
    Downstairs, I could hear a dog yapping, followed by her yelling, ‘Do shut up, Sausage!’
    If I was going to make a good job of this, I needed to take a few practice shots before Vonnie returned, or I’d end up wasting time and light.
    I belted down both flights of stairs and back to the kitchen…well, I thought it was the kitchen but the first door I opened led into the dining room. The table was draped with a blood red cloth, two empty candelabra were in the centre and along the heavy, mahogany sideboard on the far wall, stood a group of framed photographs. I don’t like to think I’m a nosy person, but since I could see from where I was standing that some of the pictures were of Arabella, it seemed reasonable that the others might be of her brother, so I walked round to get a better look. In the centre of the group was a pair of identical frames, each with a portrait in: Arabella in one and a man in the other. If Arabella had been carved from alabaster, he had been hewn from granite. He had dark hair and slightly wicked eyes. I picked him up to take a better look. Yes, you could tell he was Arabella’s brother but I didn’t imagine he’d have the same gentle nature; there was a reckless, roguish look to him, quite sexy, actually.
    A floorboard creaked and I swung round to see one of the labs padding in. It was the one that had goosed me earlier, and he was no less enthusiastic now. Unfortunately, he wasn’t wearing a collar so fending him off was a challenge. ‘Leave!’ I tried to emulate Arabella’s earlier command, but he was having none of it. ‘Get off me you randy old dog.’ I bonked him gently on the top of the head with the photo frame, which promptly fell apart.
    ‘Oh shit!’ Two sides of the frame had parted company with the other two, so picture and glass were heading for the floor. I grabbed at the falling