Dear Diary

I didn't trust Mrs Bolkonsky from the start and couldn't understand Aunt P being taken in by a spiritualist of all things she's not usually quite that gullible. I thought it might be an idea to host the séance at my house, keep an eye of things and see Aunt P didn't get taken for all she has.

Mrs Bolkonsky was supposed to contact Aunt P's godson – 'Roaring' Roly Claremont – 'roaring' because he was always yelling at someone – I'm not surprised, he was an arrogant bully when I knew him as a child – he sent his men over the top to their deaths the day he died, Freddie, his friend and husband of Roly's widow, carried him from the battlefield but he has little to no recollection of that act, and needs to know the truth before he accepts his award for bravery. Poor lamb, the mustard gas was playing havoc with his breathing, Maude, his wife, and his valet Larry, were constantly at his side smothering him – and even though he was dreadfully infirm I think it irked him somewhat, their fussing.

Mrs B's manager, Warwick Hamilton, lost his brother in the same battle, she wanted the truth because Freddie could have saved Basil but instead went to bring Roly off the battlefield. Hamilton didn't blame Freddie, but Mrs B said she killed Freddie, poison in the Virgin's Tears, to make things right for Basil but if she really could contact the dead would Basil have wanted that – another pointless death?

She may have been able to contact the dead, or seemed to have done, but what she did was murder, and with the death of the cemetery worker (Maude, but an accident she just hit him and he fell onto the railing point) and Roly's tomb being broken into it was a sad time.

We had to hold a second séance, Jack had to come to this one and he held my hand – alright it was round the table, but all the same –

I hate cases like this, the ones that link back to the war, even though I understand it can't be forgotten – hell, I was there, I remember, I have the nightmares, the flashbacks, but why did it have to be brought front and centre like this? Roly was horrible, he got what he deserved, from his batman, Larry, who knows if the wound to his leg might have proved fatal in the end, and Larry didn't want him to go back to his wife because he was foul to her as well; Larry practically brought Maude up after her parents died; Freddie was badly damaged by everything and I don't know how we could have got passed that, how we could have helped him to find some kind of peace but with his memory, or lack of, the day Roly died, nothing was ever going to be easy, in many ways it would have been better if he was not written up for the award, all his doubts would have stayed where they were, under the surface but not breaking it. That was what brought it all out – the award for bravery that he didn't think he had earned – being there earned him the award, just being there, like so many others, Bert and Cec, Jack ...

So, Mrs B was arrested for murder, I don't know what will happen to her, she does have a weak heart and Larry ... he did kill Roly ...

Jack came by for cocktails afterwards, we teased about palm readings, I told him I was once told I would marry well, have 4 children, 4! And play croquet ... I read his palm and told him I saw a man whose heart ran as deep as the Pacific Ocean ...

I foresee many more evenings with cocktails ...