The Somerton Man

Clara Comes Home

Daniel's puzzling behaviour and his attitude towards his daughter's imminent arrival, had made Eleanor once again revisit the Journal belonging to his dead wife Isabella, to just try and find a clue in the written pages about why Daniel seemed to be in some sort of torment about his wife's death which made him act so bitter within himself and with those around him, so much so that he felt he didn't deserve to be a husband or a father.

Once more she found herself re-examining and reading the last few entries before Isabella's death, noting how Gwen and her husband Lord Hawthorne seem to be a prominent worry on Isabella's mind

Having lived at Somerton manor for a while now, she had become aware of the nearby Hawthorne estate, and there were murmurings from the locals about some scandal that had sent the owners, Lord and lady of the house, fleeing to London, never to return.

She found herself enquiring into it with a casual manner of interest, when she happened to be visited with the local tenants, and she soon came to realise it coincided almost with Isabella's death as well. It started to make her wonder if the two could be connected in some way. From Isabella's writing, she knew that Gwen had been a childhood friend of both Isabella and Daniel, and that something had happened, so that Isabella had wanted to bring some sort of reconciliation between them all.

How that all connected with Isabella falling down the stairs to her death, and Daniel wallowing in his misery over it down to this day, she could not figure out.

She found herself wondering if she was perhaps roaming into the realms of fantasy, suffering from an overactive imagination from the stories and novels she and her cousin Kate had read, when she lived with them, which had been much to her aunt's disapproval, telling them it was filling their heads with silly nonsense, and perhaps it was not connected at all.

Still, it made her curious about this elusive Gwen and her relationship with Daniel and Isabella

She found a chance to test her theory out one evening, on a rare occasion when Daniel joined her for supper at the dining table, as usual he seemed more interested in the wine than the food on his plate, and not saying much so that she felt she might as well not be there. She had tried to make conversation with him, talking about the further changes to the house she was making and getting a room prepared for Clara coming, he replied with a grunt of sorts, as if not wanting to think about that particular subject.

Eleanor now mustered up boldness she was far from feeling, but, desperate to find out what could be going on in her husband's head and try and make some sort of breakthrough with him

So taking a drink of her own wine she swallowed hard before speaking up in the same casual conversational tone she had been using with him all evening "I was talking with Mr Cummings, he was saying the stables are almost finished which will be nice, he mentioned you were looking at buying more horses, apparently it seems that the man in charge of the stables at nearby Hawthorne estate, mentioned to Mr Cummings some of their horses are up for sale, I think he is going to approach you about buying them they excellent horseflesh"

Now she looked up from her plate of food to see her husband's reaction, noticing, Daniel's expression had suddenly become sourer than before. "That won't be happening, I do not want anything from the Hawthorne Estate, and I will tell him so, no matter how good the horses are. It is not an option" he stated with finality

The hostility in his tone at the Hawthorne name, made Eleanor sit up straighter in her seat. She found herself licking her lips, which had suddenly gone dry before continuing, "I see, so have you and Lord Hawthorne not seen eye to eye in the past? I am sorry if mentioning his name has upset you in some way" She found herself hastily apologising, whilst her heart was suddenly beating a loud tattoo in her chest, with the realisation that she was getting closer to the truth that there appeared to be some form of amenity between them in the past after all