What is Hy Trying to Hide?

Virginia, Eva, Hedy, and Olivia were all standing by watching the men play a friendly game of croquet. They clapped and cheered as the match progressed. Beau stopped in the middle of the game. He stared off in to the distance. He watched as Iris' horse galloped along on the fenced-in side of the yard. Beau rubbed the sweat from his brow. A sly smile suddenly crossed his lips as he watched her hair bounce in the breeze.

"I think I have found my way to James Knight's heart." He laughed wickedly to himself. Beau tore himself away from her. When he turned around a croquet mallet was raised in the air over his head. Before he could let out a cry for help they lowered their mallet to the ground. "Ethan, would you please not do that! You scared me half to death."

"I am sorry. I was just trying to get your attention. The game is over. We won."

"That is a relief. I thought you were going to bash my skull in for a moment there." Beau smiled. "Come now. I would never assault you with a croquet mallet." Ethan grinned slyly. "Well then we should hurry along. We do not want the losers to get away without the proper heckling." Ethan added as he was about to head toward the manor. "You go ahead without me. There is some other business I must attend to. Business of the hunting kind of course." Beau said slyly as he watched Iris off in the distance.

Hyacinth decided to finish out James' tour with one of the more special rooms. She figured he had seen enough of Beau's trophies for the afternoon. Now it was time to show him some of her prized possessions. "Here we are, James. This is my prize flower garden!" Hyacinth announced proudly. "It is beautiful. My mother had a flower garden too. Accept hers was not inside her house." James replied. "Well, I wanted a garden outside, but Beau refused. He said that a flower garden would interfere with his croquet matches. We had to move all of the plants from the old greenhouse. There are still some plants and flowers that we have not even taken out yet."

"I could never get rid of my mother's. I did not know her well, but she seemed to love flowers a great deal."

"You never really know someone do you?" Hy remarked under her breath. "Pardon me?" James asked. Hyacinth suddenly became silent. Her eyes were filled with sadness. "I said, you never really know someone. Whether you live with them all of your life or you have never met them at all, it really does not matter. You can never really say that you know someone by heart." Hyacinth slowly walked over to a bench by the window. "I do not know about that. I should like to think that I know people, especially my wife." James replied as he came over and sat down next to her on the stone bench. "You are a detective. You have a sixth sense when you meet certain people. I am sure you picked up on a lot of things when you arrived here."

"I am not sure what you mean by that?" He asked bewildered. "What I am saying is that you probably had us all figured out when you walked through the front door." Suddenly Hy rose from the bench and walked over to the window. She gazed out in to the countryside. "You see, James, things aren't always as they seem when everyone around you is pretending to be someone they aren't." She added as she turned around to face him.

"Who is it that you are referring to?" He asked. "Everyone. You are the first person I have ever met who has not fooled me in to thinking that you are anything less than you claim to be, and that is why I am confiding in you."

"I do not think I am the right person for this. I mean. . .I am not very good at handing out advice." James stammered. "James, I know you are the right one to tell because I trust you more than I do my own husband. I am well aware that you heard some impudent gossip from Nigel about my sister Virginia. He is always claiming that she was promiscuous while married to her husband Colin."

"Is it true?" He inquired sullenly. "I am afraid so. She did have relations with other men and Colin did find out about it. . ."

"And that is why he is not here. He isn't on a business trip is he?"

"No, he deserted Virginia about four or five days ago. That is why she is not sleeping in her own bedroom. She has not been the same since Colin left. I can not blame him though. If I knew that Beau was. . ." Hyacinth stopped and stared down at the ground silently.