My Lies, Your Lies - Susan Lewis Page 0,22

phone. I expect you were crossing the moor where there’s little if any mobile reception.

Don’t worry, I shall be back tomorrow –

Tomorrow!

– and I’ve left a key under the pot to your right so you can let yourself in. Please make yourself at home. You’ll find more helpful instructions in the kitchen, which is at the far end of the house on the ground floor of the tower. You simply follow the corridor from the entrance hall all the way through to the last door which is facing you. There is plenty to eat courtesy of my housekeeper Brenda Bambridge, who you’ll meet in due course.

I am very much looking forward to working with you.

Freda M. Donahoe

Not at all sure how she felt about this, apart from distinctly weird, Joely glanced at her mobile, saw no service in the top corner, and having to fight down a surge of annoyance at being cut off in a strange place she accepted there was little else she could do right now but retrieve the key.

It was the smell of the place that greeted her first, kind of musty with drifts of wax and wood smoke and something sweet and flowery. She looked around the spacious entry hall with its wide ornate wooden staircase rising from the centre up to a half-landing where it divided and disappeared from view. The floor was laid with an intricate mosaic of earth-coloured tiles, and the cream-coloured paint on the walls was flaking in places and darker in others where smaller paintings had taken the place of larger ones. The magnificent windows that occupied the front wall were like masterpieces in their own right with such stunning views in their frames.

She glanced at the double doors in front of her, wondering what might be on the other side, but felt uncomfortable about snooping (in case she ran into someone or was even being watched). So she followed instructions and walked the long corridor at the back of the house through to the kitchen. It was high-ceilinged and bright thanks to a set of large French doors that led out to the vine-covered patio. The floor was laid with pale flagstones, the many cupboards and units were in honey-coloured oak, there was a long refectory table at the centre of the room, and an enormous Inglenook fireplace built into the far wall with an armchair either side of it. There were other doors, presumably leading into a pantry, a utility room and maybe one of them led to the base of the tor outside. Above the one she’d entered through was a quaint row of four brass servants’ bells and since they were labelled den, front door, music room, library and bed, she suspected they might work, and was already praying hard that none of them rang while she was here alone.

Maybe she’d go to a hotel and come back in the morning?

Easier said than done with no reception on her phone.

It’s not that the place is spooky, she told her mother in her head, because it isn’t, but like any empty house it has the potential to be and given how remote it is I’d really rather not be here alone.

Silencing her misgivings – or at least storing them until she got to speak to her mother – she picked up a neatly written page from the table containing further instructions.

Dear Joely,

If you’re reading this then you’re in, so please let me welcome you to Dimmett House and I apologize again for not being here to greet you in person. Brenda has prepared the blue bedroom for you, which you’ll find at the top of the main staircase, first door you come to. There is a bathroom en suite and the French windows open onto a balcony that’s over the front porch (probably for warmer days).

The library and my writing room are in the tower, I will introduce you to them on my return.

For many years I have been vegetarian so Brenda has prepared a jackfruit, mushroom and cheese bake which we hope you will enjoy. There is enough for six, so we’ll probably be eating it until Friday. Ha ha! You will find plenty of fresh veg to accompany it and Brenda has whisked up a delicious tiramisu for dessert, one of her specialities.

I hope you’ll be warm enough, but do light the fire if you’d like to. You’ll see a generous supply of logs beside the hearth, with lots of kindling and old newspapers in