Come Sunday, Mary and I had only exchanged a few words whilst working. She had refused to speak to me in the evenings and so I spent my time reading over the journal entries and trying to find clues we have otherwise missed. Other than the tulips and the potential link to Luke, there was nothing new.

Whoever Lady Catherine's secret suitor was, they had an interest in tulips and had delivered them to her on two separate occasions. Of course, Luke wanting to discuss the tulips with Jasper could have been a coincidence since they worked in the garden, but it couldn't hurt to ask some questions about them, I just had to try and be subtle about it. Unfortunately, subtlety had never been my strong suit.

After church, Jasper and Mary set off for the park whilst the rest of us made our way back to the house. No one wanted to be around Jasper and Mary and without a word, we all collectively agreed we'd be better off at the house. I ended up walking beside Luke, the two of us somehow ending up further back.

"Did you manage to talk to Jasper about the tulips?" I asked.

Luke shrugged. "Sort of. I spoke, he pretended to listen. All I wanted to know was whether we need to plant more bulbs or not. Not that I'm all that surprised given the most recent developments."

"It has happened rather quickly."

"Hm. I've spent four years sharing a room with him, and he has never mentioned being interested in Mary until the other day. Maybe he just keeps his feelings close to his chest."

"Maybe." I frowned. "Why would you need to plant more bulbs?"

"Several either haven't grown or have disappeared. I know we had a few go missing last year, but someone put them in Lady Catherine's room."

"You don't know who did it?"

Luke shook his head. "No one would say and Lady Catherine was uncertain of who put them there, too. Mr Langdon was less than impressed that someone had taken the tulips and refused to own up to it."

"Could it have been another member of staff?"

"No. Mr Langdon has the keys to the shed and he locks it whenever someone gets something out of it. The tulips were cut with shears so it had to have been one of us."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek, somewhat annoyed that my questions had left me empty-handed. Although I had eliminated Luke as a likely option, there were still plenty of gardeners it could have been. I was beginning to think that my search for the identity of Lady Catherine's suitor might end up fruitless, especially if she doesn't name him. So far, there had been no hint to his real identity and the information I did have, created a substantial list.

When we returned to the house, I grabbed a sandwich and went upstairs to my room to take another look at the journal. Somehow, I doubted there would be any new information between the lines since I had read them so many times and had yet to find something new. All my hopes were pinned on Lady Catherine revealing more about her secret suitor in the later entries.

With nothing obvious revealing itself in the pages, I grabbed my journal from under the mattress and opened it to a fresh page. Since I knew it had to be one of the gardeners, I started by listing all of them and putting a mark next to Luke and Walter, since I knew it couldn't be them. That left me with a total of twenty-two potential men and no other answers appearing from the journal. Part of me thought it would be easier to just ask them, but I doubted I would get a straight answer out of them if I did.

Mary returned before supper, walking into the bedroom and appearing a tad surprised that I was sitting on my bed. Her cheeks were flushed by the slight cold and she couldn't fight the slight smile on her face as she crossed over to her bed and placed something on her nightstand.

"This is ridiculous," I said, slamming my journal down.

"What is?" Mary turned to look at me.

"This, us not talking to each other. We share a room, we work together, you're as good as family to me and I hate that we're not talking to each other because of some stupid boy."

"He's not-"

"Alright, poor choice of words." I smiled. "The point is, I hate that we've let Jasper come between us like this when we have been friends since I first arrived. The past few days of not talking to you have been really difficult and I don't want it to continue. I want us to go back to the way they used to be."

"Me too. It hasn't been the same not talking to you. In fact, it's been rather dull."

Mary walked around her bed and sat on the edge of it, facing me. She smiled and I could feel the tension surrounding us disappear. We had been friends since I arrived in the Richardson household, it was stupid for us to allow Jasper to come between us. There was no one else I wanted to work with, no one else I wanted to explore the secrets of the journal with. Jasper wasn't going to change that.

"How was your afternoon?"

She blushed. "It was good. Jasper is quite the conversationalist once he gets started. He told me about the different plants in the park and which seasons they flourish in, I had no idea he was so knowledgeable."

"He's a gardener, it's his job."

"I know." Mary laughed. "He was just really sweet and he wants us to step out again next week."

"I'm glad you had a nice time."

"What about you? Did you find anything?"

"I spoke to Luke about the tulips, he said that no one would admit who put them in Lady Catherine's room. Only Mr Langdon has the key to the shed and it's kept locked so it was definitely a gardener. I just don't know who."

I showed her my journal and the list of names written in it. Mary took it from me, her finger running down the list of the names. She pulled faces at some and tugged on her bottom lip with others, but I knew that even she wouldn't have a clue who Lady Catherine was referring to. Still, it was nice to have her back on board with everything and a second pair of eyes certainly helped and it might have made things a little easier.

The two of us spent the rest of the afternoon pouring over the pages of both journals, trying to figure out if there was something we missed in the entries we had already read. We still couldn't find anything that might limit our number of potential suitors and neither of us could get the locket open. It looked like we were going to have to resort to drastic measures to find out what Lady Catherine had been keeping in the locket.

Before supper, I shoved Lady Catherine's journal behind the dresser and went to put my own under the mattress when a knock came from the door and it opened slightly.

"Are you both coming?" Jasper asked, poking his head around the door.

"Yes."

I hastily stuffed the journal under my mattress. "Definitely."

"Come on, then."

~~~

First Published - February 18th, 2022