The Alington Inheritance (The Miss Silver Mysteries Book 31)

by Patricia Wentworth

  ‘You must think about the children, Jenny.’

  And with that Meg and Joyce came to her mind. And of course they were alive and they would need comforting. She said quite steadily,

  ‘Thank you. I’m all right now.’

  And then Richard was opening the door and they got out and rang the bell. Jenny thought, ‘That’s curious, to be ringing the bell,’ because it was such a long time since she had rung it. She couldn’t really remember when she had rung it last. When Colonel Forbes was alive she had always gone round to the side door and in that way. She had been so fond of him. For the first time she was glad that he was dead. She hoped that he didn’t know about his wife and about Mac. He had always been so kind to her—

  As Jenny pulled the bell she thought of all the times that she had gone in and out by this door and by the little side door, and had never rung a bell at all. It seemed strange to be ringing it now when it all belonged to her. She couldn’t realise that. She didn’t realise it at all.

  And then the door opened, and there was Carter, her eyes red and both hands out to her.

  ‘Oh, Miss Jenny my dear! Oh, my dear – I’m so glad to see you!’

  Jenny kissed her.

  ‘And this is Miss Danesworth,’ she said. ‘And Richard. He is Richard Alington Forbes like my father was. And we’re going to be married. Miss Danesworth is his aunt.’

  And with that there was a scurry of feet on the stairs and Meg was in Jenny’s arms.

  ‘She told us to stay upstairs! As if we could! Oh, Jenny, you won’t ever go away again, will you? All the dreadful things have happened since you went away! And we don’t know where Alan is, or anything!’

  Step by step down the stairs Joyce came. She dragged her feet, and she looked so scared and miserable that Jenny ran to meet her.

  ‘Poor child!’ said Carter. ‘It comes very hard on the children, Miss Danesworth.’

  FORTY-THREE

  JENNY FOUND PLENTY to do. The little girls clung to her, and it was difficult to get away from them. Sometimes it seemed as if she had never been away, and sometimes her short absence seemed to have lasted for years and years and years.

  She went down into the kitchen and saw Mrs Bolton, who began by being a total stranger receiving her new mistress, which was dreadful, and then suddenly burst into tears and addressed her as ‘Miss Jenny my dear,’ which was a great deal more comfortable.

  ‘And they do say that everything belongs to you now, my dear,’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Bolton, it does.’

  Jenny didn’t cry, though she felt it was expected of her. She thought that if she could have cried she would have felt better. Tears would have been soft and comforting, but you can’t make yourself cry. One thing was spared her. She did not have to see Mrs Forbes, for only half an hour before they had arrived her body had been removed to the mortuary. It was wrong to feel that this was a relief, but she did feel that it was.

  Early in the afternoon Miss Crampton arrived, dressed in the funereal old black which was her habitual garb at funerals and visits of condolence. Mary opened the door to her, and was promptly buttonholed.

  ‘This is dreadful news, Mary.’

  ‘Oh, yes, ma’am.’

  ‘These poor children – I’ve come to see them. And Miss Jenny – she’s come, I hear.’

  ‘Oh, yes. Carter rang her up at once.’

  ‘It is most improper that she should be here by herself! I cannot think how Miss Danesworth can have allowed it!’

  Mary was beginning to enjoy herself.

  ‘Oh, but she isn’t alone,’ she said. ‘There’s Mr Richard—’

  Miss Crampton interrupted her.

  ‘Do you mean to tell me that she is here alone with that young man? How exceedingly improper!’

  ‘No, miss, I never said so. Mr Richard drove Miss Jenny here, and he drove his aunt too, Miss Danesworth. They are both here.’

  ‘Oh—’ Miss Crampton stepped across the threshold. ‘Well, I’ll come in. And I’ll see Miss Jenny.’

  Mary lacked the assurance to stand up to her. She had attended Sunday School under Miss Crampton. The habit of obedience persisted. She showed her into the drawing-room, where the flowers which Mrs Forbes had picked yesterday were still fresh, and went running upstairs, where she met Carter and burst out,

  ‘Oh, Carter, there’s Miss Crampton in the drawing-room! She walked straight past me, and I couldn’t stop her!’

  Carter gave her a dark look.

  ‘You could have said Miss Jenny was lying down.’

  Mary shook her head.

  ‘Not to Miss Crampton, I couldn’t.’

  Carter went along to the schoolroom, where the little girls sat painting superintended by Jenny, and Miss Danesworth was reading. Richard had gone out for a walk. Meg was engaged on a grand picture of the house. She had just discovered that she had got one window too few in the front, and was debating what she should do about it. Joyce, who was copying a Christmas card with a picture of a highly decorated tree on it, was most unsympathetic.

  ‘I don’t see that it matters,’ she said.

  ‘Of course it matters,’ said Meg. ‘It’s one of the windows of Alan’s room. I can’t leave him with one window.’

  ‘Lots of people have only one window,’ said Joyce.

  ‘I shall tear it up and start all over again.’

  ‘Well, I think you’re silly,’ said Joyce. Her voice was obstinate.

  And then Carter came in.

  ‘If you please, Miss Jenny, there’s Miss Crampton downstairs.’

  ‘Horrid old thing!’ said Joyce in a fretful tone.

  Meg tipped her chair up.

  ‘Miss Crampton’s a horrid old thing,’ she chanted. ‘And how did she know you were here, Jenny?’

  ‘Will you see her, Miss Jenny?’ said Carter.

  ‘I suppose I’d better,’ said Jenny, rising reluctantly.

  Miss Danesworth laid down her book.

  ‘Shall I come too?’ she said.

  ‘Oh, if you would,’ said Jenny. ‘She’s Mrs Merridew’s cousin, you know, and she’ll ask a lot of questions.’

  They went down together. Just outside the drawing-room door Jenny stopped, and Miss Danesworth turned to smile at her. It was such a loving smile that the tears rushed into Jenny’s eyes and she had to wipe them away before she could go in. Her mind went to the change in her circumstances. Not that she was Miss Forbes of Alington House – that didn’t matter. It was because she had Richard and Miss Danesworth that she wasn’t alone and unprotected any longer. She squeezed the hand that was put out to her, and then she went into the drawing-room.

  Miss Crampton sat facing the door in her mourning clothes. When she saw Jenny and Miss Danesworth she got up. She was disappointed, very much disappointed, but she couldn’t say so. She had felt so deeply the impropriety of Jenny, a girl of seventeen, being there alone that she had come prepared to offer her own sustaining influence. And now, there was Miss Danesworth.

  ‘You must not think,’ she said, ‘that Jenny would be alone here – oh dear me, no! We should have seen to that, I can assure you. I am quite prepared to come myself. Jenny knows that she can rely upon her old friends.’

  ‘I am sure she can. But it won’t be necessary for you to put yourself out. I can stay as long as she needs me.’

  Miss Crampton plunged into a series of questions. Where was Alan? Had they heard from him? Did they know where to send a wire? Did they know why Mac had shot himself?

  ‘I never was more shocked in my life. I was in the post office, and Mrs Boddle gave me the dreadful news. I could really hardly believe it. Such a fine young man. Ah well, it just shows that you can’t ever tell, doesn’t it? You must have come away in a great hurry, Jenny.’

  ‘We came as soon as we heard,’ said Jenny.

  ‘Oh, yes, yes – of course.’

  ‘It was the little girls,’ said Jenny. ‘I had to come to them. And Miss Danesworth and Richard wouldn’t let me come alon
e.’

  ‘Richard Forbes?’ said Miss Crampton. ‘Ah yes – he would be the son of those people who were killed in an air raid – oh, a long time ago. They were cousins or something.’

  ‘Mrs Forbes was my sister,’ said Miss Danesworth.

  ‘Oh, yes, I believe she was. He’s your nephew then. He would have been very much shocked by Miriam’s death, no doubt. I do not remember if I ever saw her, though of course I remember her mother. She was a sort of third cousin – you know how it was when families were so big. I wrote to her, but I have not had a reply. People are very careless about those sort of things nowadays. My dear father was most severe about it. “It is the very least you can do to answer all letters of condolence promptly,” he used to say, and I have always done so. But Grace Richardson, I remember, was inclined to give way. It comes out at times like this.’

  At this point Richard opened the door and looked in. At the sight of Miss Crampton, very stiff and upright in her black clothes, he was visibly shaken, but seeing that there was no help for it, he advanced, was introduced, and shook hands. Miss Crampton looked him over, and exclaimed,

  ‘What an extraordinary likeness!’

  Miss Danesworth smiled.

  ‘To the portrait in the hall?’ she said. ‘Yes, he is like it. He has the same name too – Richard Alington Forbes. Likenesses are strange things, are they not?’

  ‘They are indeed,’ said Miss Crampton.

  She seemed a little shaken by the likeness and kept on looking at Richard. When she got up to go she held his hand a little longer than was usual.

  ‘I can’t get over it,’ she said. ‘You’re so like – so very like. I don’t mean just the portrait in the hall, though you are like that too. But it is Jenny’s father to whom the likeness is stronger. It is really very strong indeed – quite upsetting. Well, I must be going. You will let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.’

  She went out by the front door, and they saw her go. She walked with a lagging step and with less than her usual briskness.

  ‘What did she mean?’ said Jenny, looking after her with troubled eyes.

  ‘I think perhaps she was fond of your father,’ said Miss Danesworth.

  FORTY-FOUR

  MISS SILVER SAT in the train. She was on her way to Colborough. By her side sat Mrs Pratt, a wan and tearful figure, and opposite them Dicky in a high state of excitement and good spirits.

  ‘You be careful, Dicky – you be very careful,’ said Mrs Pratt. She pressed a damp screwed-up handkerchief first into her right eye and then her left.

  Miss Silver intervened.

  ‘Now, Mrs Pratt, there is no occasion for you to distress yourself.’

  ‘I’m so afraid,’ said Mrs Pratt. ‘Suppose they was to say that my Dicky was in need of care and attention and they sent him to one of them schools that are more like prisons than anything else—’

  ‘I do not think that you need be under any apprehension, Mrs Pratt,’ said Miss Silver. ‘Dicky is going to give evidence about the note which he forgot and which remained in his pocket. No one would dream of blaming you for that, and no one would dream of taking Dicky away from you.’

  ‘I’m so afraid,’ sobbed Mrs Pratt.

  Dicky had been whistling. The heart had gone out of it. Suppose his mother was right and the horrible danger of an approved school hung over his head— He cast an uneasy glance at Miss Silver, stopped whistling, and said,

  ‘That’s all nonsense, isn’t it, miss? They won’t do nothing to me. I just got to give my evidence clear and truthful like you said – that’s all, isn’t it? Nobody’s got any call to go sending me off to a home. Beastly old places homes. I knowed a boy as went to one, and he wasn’t ever the same again, not by half he wasn’t.’

  Miss Silver smiled at him.

  ‘No one wants to put you into a home, Dicky,’ she said. ‘You will tell the truth, and that will set poor Mr Mottingley free. No one will blame you for forgetting the note, I can assure you of that.’

  When they reached Colborough they took their way to the police court, which was quite near at hand. Frank Abbott was looking out for them. He smiled at Dicky, who wriggled rather uneasily under his eyes, spoke to Mrs Pratt, and smiled at Miss Silver.

  ‘Punctual to the moment,’ he said. ‘And all complete. Now this young man will come in here’ – he led the way to the waiting-room – ‘and Mrs Pratt can either wait with him, or she can come into the court.’

  Dicky looked so dashed that Miss Silver hastened to say, ‘I think that Mrs Pratt had better come in with me. There might not be room later on, and she would like to hear Dicky giving his evidence. Would you not, Mrs Pratt?’

  Mrs Pratt was understood to say something, but in so low and weepy a tone that no sense could be made of it.

  Dicky was shut into the room with other witnesses, where he made himself quite at home, and Miss Silver and Mrs Pratt followed Frank into the court room. He showed them to their places, and they settled down to waiting.

  Mrs Pratt was awed into silence for the first few minutes. Then she began in an awful whisper to detail all the troubles that had come upon her from the time of her marriage. At the most poignant part her voice sank into complete inaudibility.

  ‘All in a moment he was dead. And we’d been so happy, and Dicky was only a baby. It’s hard, it’s very hard to know why such things are sent.’ There was a long inaudible piece here, and when next her voice reached Miss Silver she was saying, ‘Dicky’s not a bad boy – reelly he isn’t. Oh, do you think if I was to tell the magistrate that he was a good boy they’d not be too hard on him?’

  Miss Silver said firmly, ‘Mrs Pratt, there is no question of the magistrate being hard on Dicky. He is only giving evidence. He is not being tried – you know that.’

  ‘And I’ve always tried to keep him respectable,’ sobbed Mrs Pratt. ‘And I never thought it would come to this.’

  ‘Mrs Pratt, if you cannot control yourself you will have to leave the court. Nothing is going to happen to Dicky, I can assure you of that. If you do not sit quietly here you will be ordered from the court. Now pray control yourself.’

  Mrs Pratt sat and wept silently. Whilst the court filled up, whilst Jimmy Mottingley appeared in the dock, and whilst the magistrates came in, two men and a woman. At this point she raised her head a little and appeared to be taking some slight interest in the proceedings.

  Miss Silver looked across at Jimmy and smiled. He was bearing himself well, and she was pleased to see it. His father and mother were both there. She had not seen Mrs Mottingley before – a big fair woman with a controlled expression and hands that were twisted in her lap.

  Jimmy’s ‘Not guilty’ rang out clearly. He looked down the court, and he saw Kathy Lingbourne. Her look encouraged him. It was full of faith and trust. Her brother Len was with her. After his time in prison it was good to see people who were free. He had undervalued freedom in the past. He thought that he would never undervalue it again.

  Sir James Coghill, on the bench, was speaking.

  ‘There has been a development in this case which will have the effect of changing the usual procedure. A witness will be called for the defence. Call Richard Pratt!’

  There was a pause, and then Dicky Pratt appeared under the superintendence of an enormous policeman. He was quite composed. He wore his best suit, his golden hair shone, his blue eyes gazed trustfully at the court, and he took the oath with great decorum. Mrs Pratt roused from her melancholy state to feel proud of him. He gave what may be called a perfect performance.

  Mr Carisbrooke rose from the table in the middle of the hall.

  ‘Your name is Richard Pratt?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘You are – how old?’

  ‘Eleven and a half, sir.’

  ‘You remember Saturday the thirtieth of September?’

  ‘Oh, yes, sir.’

  ‘Will you describe what happened to you when it was getting dark.’

  ‘I was
going along the road past Miss Danesworth’s house, and when I’d got a little way past a gentleman stopped me.’

  ‘Was he on foot, or was he in a car?’

  ‘He was on foot, but there was a car up the road. He came out of it. And he said to me, “Hi, you boy – like to earn half-a-crown?” And I said, yes I would. So then he said as he’d a note he wanted taken to Miss Danesworth’s house, and he arst me did I know it, and I said yes I did, so he said the note was for the young lady that lived there with Miss Danesworth, and he went away up the road towards the common where his car was.’

  ‘And what did you do?’

  Dicky hesitated. Then he said,

  ‘I thought as I’d find out what he was up to. It was dark, and I went after him.’

  ‘Did you catch him?’

  Dicky shook his head.

  ‘I didn’t try to. I wanted to see where he went to. I hadn’t ever seen him before, and it crossed my mind that he mightn’t be up to any good, so I kept behind him.’

  ‘And what happened?’

  ‘He went on up the road, and he come to where his car was standing—’

  Sir James Coghill leaned forward and asked, ‘Whereabouts was this car? Was it beyond the place where the body was found?’

  Dicky nodded.

  ‘That’s right. It was fifty yards beyond it.’

  ‘And how do you know that?’

  ‘Because I paced it – see?’

  ‘You paced it. Why?’

  ‘Oh, not then, I didn’t. I come back in the morning and did it. The murder was out by then.’

  ‘And how do you know that you’d got the right place to measure to?’

  ‘There was oil on the road – that’s why, sir.’

  Sir James leaned back again, and the questioning went on.

  ‘Well, Richard, you came up the road and saw the gentleman get into the car. Is that right?’

  ‘Yes, sir. And I went round without his seeing me to the back of his car.’