Reflections

By Irene Holmes

There are many types and sources of reflections. We have windowpanes, glass panels, any highly polished surface, mirrors, the smooth surface of water and of course the most powerful of all, our reflective thoughts.
In the spring of 1926,on a large and profitable estate, called Tumby Hall in the English West Mid-lands, Lady Matilda Gregson has died from a lingering illness at the age of 71. At the same time a murder is witnessed and over the ensuing weeks the killer is pushed and dragged to a resolution.
Several people who are touched by this death, employ different forms of reflections to help them make sense of their situation and perhaps to help them find justice.
Characters travel through the story with their daily lives, but unavoidable points of contact with others affected by this death lead to paranoia, deceit, threats being made and eventually to another death … or murder.
Will justice be done?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Oct 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798369493458

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Copyright © 2023 by Irene Holmes.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 04/26/2024

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CONTENTS

THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Once again I would like to acknowledge the help and encouragement given to me by the following friends and family at various stages of creating this book.

Thanks heaps Crystal Meikle, Morag Wall, Denise and Geoffery, my super niece SJ and my great nephew Josh, Noelene Wigmore along with my good friend Terri Maggs and of course my friend Gerard Gooden.

And of course, how could I have possibly survived this writing journey without the copious quantities if tea and wine constantly being delivered to my desk by my fabulous and supportive husband Tim.

Thank you everyone.

By the way, any mistakes within these pages are totally down to me. I am, after all, only human.

1

Monday the 4th of May 1926 was a momentous day at Tumby Hall in Essex, UK.

At just after 5PM, her Ladyship, Lady Matilda Gregson was found dead in her bed by her young cousin and heir, Mr. James Howard. The death was recorded as natural causes because she died after a long struggle with bronchial pneumonia with other complications and then was exposed to Spanish Flu. However, there are two people in the household who know the truth about the death. The killer and the unseen witness.

2

Earlier that morning around 9:45, in the gentle morning sunlight, with the fragrances of rose and lavender wafting through the open french doors, young Mr. James Howard was sitting with his ancient cousin, his mother’s cousin really, Lady Matilda Gregson. She was extremely ill and fading fast, so he had come to live at Tumby Hall recently to learn the workings of the estate and properties because, as her only living male relative, she had named him as her heir. It seemed that he would come into his inheritance very soon as she was becoming weaker by the day.

James had had a very limited knowledge and experience with old folks, apart from the Great Uncles of his friend Douglas, with whom he had spent almost every school holiday during his time at boarding school.

These two old gentlemen had lived together all their lives and neither had every felt the need to marry or socialise much. They almost resented the family need to ‘polish them up and dust them off then trot them out’ each festival and family gathering. Uncle Sebastian was grumpy and withdrawn and seemed to delight in whacking anyone within reach of his walking cane whilst seated in HIS armchair. If he was able to trip up unsuspecting guests and cause uproar and perhaps even tears, then he would be well pleased and deem the entertainment, indeed the entire day, an enormous success. James could tell this by the dry and nasty chuckle coming from the old man with the cold, flinty eyes. Uncle Simon, on the other hand was more sociable, even though he would latch onto anyone kind enough to say hello and then proceed to repeat the same stories, a great many stories, he had been telling for the last 30 or more years (according to Douglas).Everyone in the family explained the eccentricities of these two gentlemen as being a result of their frightening experiences in the Boar War. Douglas advised James to just smile and nod at Uncle Simon and give Uncle Sebastian a wide berth! Therefore, the prospect of going to spend some time with an old, unknown relative, did not thrill him.

3

Matilda’s family had owned the land and the estate for many generations and one of her ancestors had begun to rent the land for businesses to build a village and to serve the farmers and workers of the area. The village was still thriving. Her parents built the small village school, mostly for Matilda to have a reasonable education instead of just usual governess instruction in isolation at home. Her parents felt this would not necessarily prepare her for the world she was going to be a part of as an adult. At the same time, they were not going to send their only surviving child away to boarding school until it was absolutely necessary. Her brother Wilfred had been sent to boarding school at the age of seven. But it was different for boys. He was later killed, in the Boer War, unmarried and with no heir.

James, however, only met his mother’s cousin about three months ago and he had grown to like her. She was old, but witty and companionable and had shown that she also had a particularly good head for business. When her husband, George, died ten years ago (heart attack) the estate had been struggling to survive, but Lady Matilda put in the extremely hard and dedicated work required to turn the family fortunes around. This was something James respected very much.

Being Lady Matilda Gregson’s heir brought all the land and wealth but not the title. George’s family had the title but no money anymore, due to historical gambling debts and unbelievably bad business investments, so the marriage between George and Matilda had worked well for both families. Their marriage had produced a son, but he had died before he reached his second year, of scarlet fever and there were several other pregnancies, but no more children.

Matilda and George had shared a joyous ‘adventure’ in the early days of their marriage as she took him around the estate to meet the tenant farmers and their families, whom Matilda had known for all her life. They had become very absorbed in their work together gathering information and learning about crops, livestock and new methods and machinery. She helped George to make friends and to gain the respect of their workers. Of course, Olive and Albert were always on hand for advice and support too.

Matilda felt there was nothing so enjoyable and satisfying as standing on the hill behind the big house in the morning sunshine and surveying the new garden plantings she had designed to replace the rather old-fashioned landscapes of her parents’ generation. She and George had spent many happy hours together discussing and designing and planning how they would create something special and interesting to share with friends, visitors and business associates for weekend house parties and events in their gracious home.

Today, however, these warm and wonderful memories were all that Matilda had left to enjoy of her life with George.

Matilda met Olive, her friend of more than sixty years, as they both attended the school. Olive’s family had a well to do business and investments and had bought one of the smaller estates close by.

4

About six weeks ago, when the local doctor, Doctor Bolton after one of his regular visits to Tumby Hall, realised that Lady Matilda’s illness was not going to improve and that very soon she would require full time care, he suggested that they consider either admitting her to hospital or perhaps hiring a contract nurse to provide the necessary level of medical attention, until the end.

Neither Lady Matilda nor Mr. James wanted to consider THE END, but they both knew that at her age and in this condition, it would have to be addressed. Matilda was adamant that she did not want to go to any hospital among strangers for who knows how long and that the home nurse seemed the best option.

‘I think that is the best solution too, Your Ladyship and if you will agree I shall find a suitable nurse with excellent references etc. and perhaps you would like to meet with her before any decision is made. These things can be very straightforward mostly, but I think that, considering the daily contact and the intimate nature of the duties she will be required to perform, it might be best for you to be sure that you can get along with her and are comfortable in her company,’ suggested Doctor Bolton.

‘Yes. I think that would be best Doctor and thank you for organising this for us. What do you think Matilda?’ asked James.

‘Yes. I agree. Do you think it will take long to finalise the choice of nurse?’ inquired Matilda.

‘Well actually, I have recently had an application from an ex-military nurse who had been contracted in several other situations like this since the war and she was asking if any vacancies were available at our hospital. Looking at her paperwork and references I think she could be very suitable, if she will consider another contract and then perhaps later look at joining our staff. I shall arrange an interview to see how suitable she might be and whether or not this would be of interest to her. I shall try to have an answer for you before the end of the week, if that’s all right?’ explained Doctor Bolton.

‘Thank you Doctor, that would be most kind of you,’ replied Matilda.

Within a week, Nurse Kelly had agreed to Doctor Bolton’s suggestion of another contract position because the salary was better than the previous job and it came with a possible new posting and promotion in the local hospital, at the end of the contract. Dr. Bolton would present her application, along with his recommendation and her references, to the Hospital Board for the position of Matron at the end of this contract.

She was very keen in fact. Upon hearing the news from the doctor, Matilda made arrangements to meet the new nurse on Thursday, in the library, for an informal chat to see how they might get along. Doctor Bolton had already done the professional assessment in the procedure so now it just remained to see how the two ladies could work together.

At the appointed time nurse Kelly was shown into the library where her Ladyship was propped up on several cushions on a couch facing the garden. She was somewhat surprised to see that the nurse was a little older than she had expected. But then as Matilda reflected to herself, This woman was a fully trained and experienced nurse before the war started 12 years ago and in the 8 years since the end, she has done several contracts of different lengths. I don’t know why I was expecting a bright, bubbly, young thing to come today. In fact, I feel more comfortable with a mature, grounded type of person. So, in fact I think this could work well.’

Nurse Kelly was probably in her mid-40’s to early 50’s and on first impressions she could likely be described as ‘efficient’ rather than attractive. She was a little on the tall side, around 5 foot 10 inches and of ‘stocky build’. Probably an advantage in her profession. She was well dressed, if somewhat conservatively and came across as very professional and no nonsense.

The scheduled fifteen-minute interview stretched into an hour as the ladies chatted and learned something of each other, not like friends as such, but more like the beginning of a friendly professional arrangement. The nurse seemed to be a caring and empathetic person with an insight about the needs of a terminally ill patient. Matilda saw no need to meet any other candidates the doctor might find and so Nurse Kelly was asked to move her things into the allocated room and begin her contract within the next two days. She made Matilda feel relaxed and confident in coming weeks together. That was six weeks ago when her Ladyship was still able to chat with a measure of comfort and at least tried to be as independent as she could. Now her condition had declined to the extent that she could hardly hold a conversation and was entirely dependent upon Nurse Kelly.

Within the first few days Nurse Kelly had established an efficient and comfortable schedule and regime for her new patient and she worked well with the other household staff in regard to the meals for her Ladyship, the cleaning of the room, the number of visitors, so as not to tire the patient and other small details which had not actually occurred to Matilda or to Mr. James. In the first few weeks or so it was possible for Nurse Kelly to leave her Ladyship unattended for short times as she rested and this enabled the nurse to spend some time with the other staff in the servant’s hall and even offer some help when she could manage it. She was well liked and respected by the household in general. As the weeks passed this changed as the medical demands from the declining patient meant that any free time for the nurse was severely restricted now and the patient could not be left unattended for any time at all. This meant that now the other staff were often called upon to sit with her Ladyship while Nurse Kelly dealt with medical supplies and equipment etc. in another room. No one really minded but because it was not appropriate for male staff to sit in her Ladyship’s room, the female staff were having their time eroded to some extent. Struthers, Lady Matilda’s Lady’s maid took a lot of the supervision duties from the nurse, but her responsibilities also needed her attention.

Some frictions, imagined or otherwise, began to bubble up. The nurse of course was tired and stressed and this did not help the general situation. In fact, late one afternoon, when the last visitor had left and Mr. James had finished going through some paperwork with her Ladyship, the nurse needed to bathe and redress her patient before she could even begin her records and own preparations for tomorrow, then attend to her own laundry matters, Nurse Kelly found herself thinking, A normal job in the routine of a hospital will be welcome change. Can’t come soon enough for me.! She felt quite ashamed when she thought of what she had said and its implications, but she didn’t care quite as much as perhaps she should have. But then she had missed her lunch and afternoon tea was not going to happen either.

5

But this morning Mr. James had come to see her Ladyship as he did every day at that time if she was well enough. He had helped Nurse Kelly to move her and settle her onto the couch/sofa in front of the french windows opening onto the beautiful rose garden so that Matilda was able to enjoy her much loved vista as she sat comfortably with her feet on a