Murder in Abbot's Folly by Amy Myers Page A

stairs, and at its foot a door led back into the entrance hall of the house. To its left, however, was a room looking on to the street, which was the Clackingtons’ dining room.
    â€˜A private room in Austen’s time,’ Dora explained while they waited for Gerald and Peter to arrive. ‘We believe this is where lady passengers waited for their carriage or post-chaise so that they didn’t have to mix with the hoi polloi.
    â€˜And where,’ she added grandly as Gerald arrived with Peter, ‘Jane and Cassandra were waiting for the Godmersham carriage when Captain William Harker walked into their lives.’
    â€˜Dora!’ Gerald said warningly.
    She hesitated. ‘We should really leave it to dear Jennifer to tell you the full story, but I can’t resist—’
    â€˜ Dora !’
    â€˜Oh, listen,’ Dora said hurriedly. ‘I think Elena’s ready for us.’
    Georgia was both annoyed and irked. She wasn’t deeply into Jane Austen, but if it was going to be relevant to Bob Luckhurst’s death then the sooner she and Peter heard the story the better. Peter was already signalling that he couldn’t see any future in pursuing the subject, and so she followed meekly when Gerald firmly led the way back to the living room.
    Wasn’t it suspicious, Georgia thought, that this great love affair had only just come to light? It was true that such treasure troves were still found nowadays, leading to new interpretations. Lost poems, music and plays were found, and unknown paintings by the masters discovered. Meanwhile she realized there was Elena to face. She was waiting for them in the living room and jumped up eagerly when she saw them, coming over to kiss them both.
    â€˜Are you feeling better now?’ Georgia asked, tongue-tied over what to call her. Elena no longer seemed right, and yet any form of Mother wasn’t right either. She’d stick with Elena, she decided.
    â€˜Darling, thank you. A little. And isn’t it impressive?’ she asked. ‘Here I am serving coffee in a room where Jane Austen might have taken tea.’
    She and Dora fussed with cups and plates of biscuits while keeping up a determined conversation about the rival merits of Persuasion and Pride and Prejudice . To Georgia’s relief, it was clear that no personal topics need be broached. When she and Peter left, however, Elena followed them out to the car, Georgia presumed to talk about her future life in Kent. Once again she was wrong.
    â€˜I’ve been plucking up the courage to talk to you both,’ Elena began hesitantly, ‘but I can’t wait any longer. I just can’t .’
    â€˜About your moving back to Kent?’ Georgia asked.
    â€˜No, about Rick.’
    Georgia felt as if she’d been punched in the face. She could have stood Canterbury coming up for discussion, but this had come out of the blue. So this was what had really been worrying Elena. Of all things to happen, just as she and Peter had come to terms with the fact that there would never be any more information about Rick’s death than they had already unearthed.
    â€˜What about him, Elena?’ Peter asked.
    His voice sounded quite normal, although he must have been as jolted by this as Georgia had been.
    â€˜I went to Austria,’ Elena started nervously.
    â€˜As I did. So we both know,’ Peter said, ‘all that’s ever going to be known about his death.’
    â€˜But I heard about one of the survivors from the boat.’
    A terrible silence as old wounds began to seep their own kind of poison again. Rick’s story had been finished, laid gently to rest, and now Elena threw this bombshell in their midst, which would stir up once more that insidious feeling that there might be more to know.
    â€˜Is this survivor alive?’ Peter asked evenly.
    â€˜I think so.’
    â€˜Where does he or she live?’
    â€˜He, but I don’t know,’