SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY : THE TWO LADIES OF ROSE COTTAGE

 "The Two Ladies of Rose Cottage" by Peter Robinson (first published in Malice Domestic 6, edited by Anne Perry, 1997; reprinted in Robinson's collections Not Safe After Dark & Other Stories, 1998, and Not Safe After Dark and Other Works, 2004; included in The Best American Mystery Stories 1998, edited by Sue Grafton, 1998, and in A Century of British Mystery and Suspense, edited by Anne Perry, 2000.

"In our village, they were always known as the "Two Ladies of Rose Cottage":  Miss Emily, with the white hair, and Miss Teresa with the gray.  Nobody really knew where they came from, or exactly how old they were, but the consensus held that they met in India, America, or South Africa, and decided to return to the homeland to live out their days together.  And, in 1939, they were generally believed to be in or approaching their nineties.

"Imagine our surprise, then, one fine day in September, when the police car pulled up alongside Rose Cottage, and when, in a matter of hours, rumors began to spread throughout the village:  rumors of human bones dug up in a distant garden; rumors of mutilation and dismemberment; rumors of murder."

There was no action taken by the police so the rumors remained just that:  rumors.  The Two Old Ladies of Rose Cottage remained, living quietly as part of the village but not of the village.  Our narrator, whose last name was Riley, was fifteen in 1939, a bookish child who had recently discovered Thomas Hardy, an author who quickly became his favorite.  Walking across the village green one day wiht his nose stuck in Far from the Madding Crowd, he accidently bumped into Miss Teresa.  The nold woman admnished him to watch where he was going, then, noting the book he held, said that she knew Hardy as a youth, having grown up in Dorset.  The boy could not believe his ears; this woman actually knew his favorite author!  Miss Teresa was amused by his enthusiasm and invited him to tea the following Tuesday.  This was the first of many visits to Rose Cottage and Riley was favored to be just about the only person in the village to get to known the elderly pair.  His mother eventually put a stop to his frequent visits after that September day when the police came to Rose Cottage and the rumors began.  

For Riley, the idyllic village days were soon over.  The war came and he was called to the Army.  Miss Teresa had died  and Miss Emily had retreated even further into the recesses of Rose Cottage.  In the back of Riley's mind, however, remained the mystery of the two women and the strage visit from the police.  The most prevalent rumor was that Miss Teresa had long ago slain her husband, dismembered him and buried him in a garden in the village of Higher Brockhampton.  While serving in Egypt, riley met a fellow soldier who came from Piddlehinton, not far from Higher Brockhampton.  He asked the man aboiuyt the rumors and was told that bones were found while digging for an air raid shelter; some people thought the bones were human but he felt they were most likely animal bones.  Yes, some people thought a young woman had murdered her husband, but nothing had come of it and the woman had moved away many years ago.

By nthe early 1950s, Riley had published his first novel and was hard at work on what he hoped was his second when an old woman tapped on his door.  It was Miss Emily.  She was close to death and wanted to give him something that had belonged to Miss Teresa.  She also told him a story of old secrets.  The gist was the two-volume Smith, Elder & Co. first edition of Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd that had been ninscribed on the fly leaf:  To Tess, With Affection, Tom -- a book that Miss Teresa had shown Riley back in 1939.  Riley remembered that at the time he had realised that Tess was a deminutive of Teresa, saying, "Perhaps he had you in mind when he wrote Tess of the d'Urbervilles?"  Back then, "Miss Tersa's face drained of a color so quickly I feared for her life, and it seemed a palpable chill entered the room.  'Don't be absurd, boy,' she whispered.  'Tess Durbeyfield was hanged for nurder.' "  The memory of this conversation stuck in his mind as Miss Emily told her tale, reevealing secrets he could not have imagined.

Years later, lomg after Miss Emily's death, Riley finally wote the long ago story, a tale of love, betrayal, and death.

Peter Robinson (1950-2022) was a British-bron Canadaian crime writer, best known for his 28 novels about Yorkshire Inspector Alan Banks.  The first, Gallows View, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel.  Robinson went on to win six Ellis Awards for his novels and another four Ellis Awards for short stories; twelve addition novels and three short stories were nominated for the Ellis Award.  He was nominated twice for an Edgar Award, winning once, and won a Macity Award for best Short Story, while being nominated four times for a Macavity Best Novel Award.  Robinson also won a Barry Award, two Martin Beck Awards, the Palle Rozenkrantz Award, Le Grand Prtix de Literature Policiere, a Spoken Word Bronze Award, a Talking Book Award, and the Author's Award from the Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Literature.

"The Two Ladies of Rose Cottage" is a fine example of why Peter Robinson was a giant in the mystery field.