by Carola Dunn
Alec laughed. “Who’s being cryptic now? Hold on a tick.” He examined the iron coils of the banisters a few steps up. “Yes, it looks as if … Hmm.”
Derek, coming back down in his own socks with a pair for Ben, said, “That’s Uncle Edgar’s butterfly net! We didn’t take it, Uncle Alec,” he added defensively. “Even if we had we wouldn’t be so stupid as to leave it on the stairs.”
Ben jerked his head round to see what they were talking about. “Ouch! Is that what I fell over?”
“Must be,” said Derek. “How on earth did it get there?”
Alec caught Daisy’s eye. “Someone must have thought it was yours and put it there for you. Perhaps it was leaning, and fell over across the step.”
Daisy didn’t venture to mention that absolutely no one in the household could possibly have thought the butterfly net belonged to anyone other than his lordship.
Instead, she said, “Do you two want to find somewhere else to spend the rest of the night? Or are you all right with going back to your own beds?”
Ben looked up at Derek, who assured him, “Everything looks fine. No damage.”
“I don’t mind, then.”
“I’d better put a dressing on your head first. Derek, do you know where the first-aid kit is kept?”
“No, Aunt Daisy.”
Daisy sighed. “I’ll fetch it myself. Go on up to bed, but don’t lie down till I’ve bandaged you, Ben.”
She was halfway along the corridor when Belinda and Frank Crowley came round the corner from the landing. Bel ran towards her.
“Mummy, has something happened? I couldn’t go to sleep after that big thunder crash, and I started worrying about the boys, because lightning strikes the highest place, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, darling. The lightning conductor was the highest point. It gave them a shock—a surprise, I mean—and Ben had a bit of a tumble, but no worse than yours this afternoon.”
“He’s all right?” Frank asked.
“Yes,” Daisy said patiently, hoping the rest of the household wasn’t going to appear with the same questions on their lips. Geraldine, her housekeeper, a housemaid, Frank as Ben’s guardian—No one else had any reason to know where the boys slept. No good reason. “I’m just going to get a dressing for Ben’s head. Daddy’s with him and Derek. Go back to bed, darling, and don’t worry.”
Frank grinned. “I’ll take that advice as meant for me, too. Thanks for taking care of him.”
She went down to the second floor with them. They headed for their beds and Daisy continued down to the housekeeper’s room, where the first-aid box had been kept in the same cupboard since time immemorial. Lint, Germolene ointment to keep it from sticking and to kill germs, and a bandage; sticking plaster might come in handy. She had a vague feeling that aspirin was not a good idea after a concussion, however slight. Oh, and the famous bruise ointment, if any was left after the heavy use it had undergone recently. Too many accidents.…
A branch, some kind of reflector, the butterfly net—It was fortunate that Edgar wasn’t the irascible sort. He wasn’t at all likely to blame the boys for breaking his net. He was more likely to blame himself because it was responsible for Ben’s injury.
When she plodded up the circular stairs, she was careful not to brush against the banisters or touch the rail more than was absolutely necessary to keep her balance. For one thing, she didn’t want blood on her dressing gown. For another, she wasn’t sure whether Alec would be interested in looking for the fingerprints of whoever had set the trap, though it was probably too late by now anyway.
It must have been a trap. The odd thing, one of the odd things … But she’d consider that later.
She could hear voices—Alec’s, and Ben’s distinctive lilt—but not what they were saying, the floor effectively blurring their words until her head emerged through the trapdoor.
The boys were both in bed, Ben sitting up, Derek already nearly asleep. Alec sat in a chair where he could watch Ben.
“No signs of trouble so far,” Alec assured her.
“Thank goodness.” Daisy neatly bandaged Ben’s head, about the limit of her nursing ability. He looked as if he were wearing a turban. “Do you feel sleepy?”
“Not very.”
“Hop out of bed and stand up for just a minute, Ben,” said Alec. “Do you feel at all dizzy?”
“No, sir.”
“Roll your head a bit. All right? It looks as if you’ve been lucky. Back into bed and try to sleep. Don’t be alarmed if one of us comes and wakes you up in a couple of hours just to check.”
Daisy tucked him in and dropped a kiss on what was visible of his forehead below the bandage. “Sleep well, Ben.”
“Good night, Aunt Daisy, Uncle Alec. Thank you.”
Despite his words, when Daisy glanced back before turning off the light and following Alec down the stairs, he was fast asleep.
“One of us…?” she said, joining him in the corridor.
“I’ll set the alarm clock and you—”
“Oh no, you’ve much more idea of what symptoms you’re looking for. Alec, the net on the stairs, and everything else that’s happened—I don’t understand it. What on earth do you think is going on?”
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”
Daisy yawned. “You agree that it’s strange.”
“In the morning,” he said firmly. “I need to sleep on it.”
In spite of distant rumblings of thunder, he slept on it so soundly that the alarm clock didn’t rouse him and it was Daisy who went to check on Ben. He was less difficult to wake. He seemed perfectly normal to Daisy, but when she returned to her own bed she reset the alarm for another two hours, just in case.
By then the sun was rising. The sky was as clear as if the storm had been a dream. When Daisy looked out of the window, a faint mist hazed the grass but everything higher was fresh and bright, leaves washed clean by the downpour, and lingering raindrops sparkling.
As Alec again slept through the alarm’s bell, Daisy decided it wouldn’t hurt to put him under an obligation by letting him sleep. If he was reluctant to discuss his theories with her, she’d be able to point out that he owed her.
When she reached the turret, the boys were already getting up, although it was not yet six o’clock.
“It’s such a ripping day,” Derek explained. “We can sleep in some day when it’s raining. We’re going to the river.”
“To, not on,” said Daisy. “It’ll be in full spate after the rain.”
“That’s half the fun,” he protested.
“Not the boat. And not swimming, either.”
“Oh, all right.”
“Did you go out in the boat yesterday?”
“Yes,” Ben chimed in enthusiastically. “They let me have a go at rowing.”
So the boat hadn’t been sabotaged. Or at least not effectively. Daisy would make sure Edgar had it examined thoroughly before it was used again.
“On the backwater?” Derek bargained.
“Also out of bounds. The storm will have swelled the stream, as well.” She interpreted with ease the look Derek and Ben exchanged. “If you must. As long as you stay upstream, in the woods or farther.”
“Thanks, Aunt Daisy!”
“But let me look at Ben’s head first.”
Since she stood on the steps protruding into the room from the waist up, Ben came and knelt in front of her. “I feel fine. It hardly hurts at all, only when I touch it. Can I take the bandage off? It looks silly.”
“Let me have a look.” She undid the safety pin and unwrapped the bandage. The wound had stopped bleeding and was not inflamed, though there was some swelling around it.
“Sorry, Ben, it still needs something to keep it clean and protect against bumps. I could try to make it less obtrusive, but if I use sticking plaster, it’s going to hurt like the dickens when it comes off.”
“And pull out your hair,” Derek added. “I’d keep the bandage if I were you. We can pretend
you’re a wounded soldier or something.”
Daisy had left supplies in the turret, so Ben’s turban was soon restored.
“There. Do try not to bump it!”
“Aunt Daisy, if you’re going back to your room, could you possibly stop at Bel’s and tell her we’ll meet her in the kitchen in five minutes?”
“I’m glad you’re including Belinda in your plans.”
“Oh, she’s not a bad sort, for a girl.”
Daisy couldn’t reach to box his ears for the last part of that remark. She let it pass. “Don’t leave a mess in the kitchen.”
“We won’t,” they promised in chorus.
“And don’t expect Bel to clear it up because she’s a girl.”
She went to give Belinda their message. Bel was already awake. “Five minutes!” She scrambled out of bed. “Is Ben all right, Mummy?”
“I think so, but keep an eye on him for me. And stop the boys from doing anything too harebrained if you can.”
Alec woke up when Daisy slipped back into bed beside him. She interpreted his grunt as an enquiry as to Ben’s well-being.
“He seems to have been lucky. I’ve said they can go out, Bel and the boys.”
“Out?” he mumbled.
“On one of their expeditions. No boating.”
“An expedition?” Alec was now thoroughly awake. “At this time in the morning?”
“They’re young, and the sun is shining.” In spite of which she was quite chilled after her expedition to the turret. She snuggled up to him.
Quite some time later, Alec said, “No boating?”
“Because the river will be dangerous. If it rained heavily here, you can bet it bucketed down in the hills where the Severn rises. But also, I’m awfully afraid the boat may have been sabotaged. I don’t want them going out in it until it’s been thoroughly checked. Tell me that’s nonsense.”
“It’s a reasonable precaution. Even though I can’t work out what’s going on, nor who’s responsible, I’m pretty sure there is something going on.”
“It must be Raymond! Or is it just the thunder that makes me suspect him?”
“The thunder?” Alec asked, astonished.
“I’m not serious. It’s ridiculous. Just because there was thunder when I came to Fairacres to meet him the first time, and then again last night.… It gives me a sort of uneasy feeling. Superstition, I suppose. Nonsense, of course, but when nothing makes sense … Raymond is the most likely. Vincent was attacked.”
“He has a vague impression that he may have been attacked.”
“Ben twice,” Daisy continued.
“I’ve come up with a sort of motive for Frank, though.”
“A motive for wanting his stepson out of the way? It’s not as if Frank can possibly inherit.”
“I said ‘sort of.’ Assuming he hopes to get his hands on some of the loot, a younger child, Ben’s brother, would be more pliable, more easily persuaded, or cheated.”
“Not with Tommy looking out for him. Besides, though it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Frank Crowley is out to feather his nest, I don’t believe for a moment that he’d harm Ben.”
“You’ve probably seen more of the two of them together,” Alec conceded. “It’s worth bearing in mind, though.”
“So after sleeping on it, you believe there’s a plot to do with the inheritance? Although it could well have been Derek who fell? And although the fall was not very likely to be fatal?”
“I don’t know what to believe. What I do know is that I can’t guard all of Edgar’s blasted heirs. If one of them is killed at Fairacres and I’ve done nothing to prevent it, I’m going to be well and truly persona non grata at the Yard, with the county police, and at Fairacres, not to mention your mother.”
“No, please don’t.” Daisy shuddered. “Clearly you need to be seen to be doing something. What?”
“First, I’m going to have a chat with the chief constable.”
“Is it still Sir Nigel?”
“Colonel Sir Nigel Wookleigh himself. Or was, last time I had occasion to lend a hand in Worcestershire.”
“He was very cooperative that time when—”
“Don’t remind me! All the same, that’s why I’m going to tackle him first.”
“You’re going to ask him to send in bobbies to watch everyone? That wouldn’t go down very well.”
“Great Scott, no! The most I can do is advise him that we may have trouble on our hands and ask for prior permission to request aid from the Yard if necessary. What I’d really like is to get Tom and Ernie down here, but the AC would never go for it without far more evidence of wrongdoing than I’ve got. I wouldn’t myself, if I wasn’t in the middle of the situation. All it amounts to as yet is a broken butterfly net. Dammit!” He flung back the covers and swung his feet to the floor. “I should have secured it last night. Was it still there this morning?”
Daisy pulled the covers back up. “Yes. I nearly brought it back with me, but I thought you might want to make a note of the position of the pieces. And splinters on the banisters—that’s what you spotted last night, wasn’t it?”
“Will the housemaids have done that corridor already?” Alec retrieved his notebook from a drawer and shoved it in his dressing-gown pocket.
“Shouldn’t think so. They start on the ground floor and work up, and it’s still quite early.”
“I hope to heaven the boys haven’t mucked about with it,” he flung back at her from the doorway.
“They won’t have dusted the banisters,” she assured the door.
TWENTY
Alec collared his hostess on her way to breakfast. They disappeared into Geraldine’s sitting room. Daisy had just started on her fresh-cooked scrambled eggs when Ernest came in to convey her ladyship’s request that she join them as soon as convenient.
Daisy looked sadly at the steaming, sunshine-yellow eggs.
“I’ll bring you more when you get back,” Ernest promised.
When Daisy entered the sitting room, Geraldine burst into speech. “Daisy, my dear, I want to ask you about this extraordinary story of Alec’s. He’s reminded me more than once that he’s a police officer and therefore inclined to be suspicious of untoward occurrences, so I’d like to hear what your common sense has to say about the subject.”
Daisy was about to point out that she was just as likely to harbour suspicions. Just in time she remembered that Geraldine was unaware of her occasional involvement in criminal matters, other than the goings-on at Fairacres four years ago. “I thought Alec was just going to request the use of the car to go into Worcester,” she temporised.
“I was,” Alec said dryly. “Geraldine decided to make a party of it, to invite all her guests to visit the town and the cathedral. So I explained that I merely hoped to speak to the chief constable.”
“Who is—I think I may claim—a friend of mine.” Geraldine blushed; she actually blushed. Surely she couldn’t be carrying on a flirtation with Sir Nigel? “You’ll be surprised, I don’t doubt, to hear that I’ve applied to become a justice of the peace.”
“Goodness!”
“I have such an excellent staff here at Fairacres that I simply haven’t enough to occupy me. I really don’t care for bridge, I’m afraid. And a number of women have become magistrates in recent years. One doesn’t have to have to be trained in the law, you know. I approached Sir Nigel. I was already acquainted with him socially, of course. He has agreed to support my application.”
“Geraldine, what a wonderful idea!” Daisy went over and kissed the blushing cheek. “I’m sure your years of nailing schoolboy culprits will stand you in good stead.” She sat down. “Naturally you were interested in why Alec wanted to see Sir Nigel.”
“I hope I’m not nosy, but yes, I was curious. Now I’m horrified, to think one of my guests, one of Edgar’s relatives, may be attempting to kill the others!”
“May be,” Daisy stressed. “That’s the trouble. Alec can’t ignore what’s happened,
but nor can he do anything official about it.”
“Yes, I understand the situation. You, too, are convinced there’s something to worry about?”
“I’m convinced Alec ought to report his suspicions to someone. Sir Nigel is the logical person.”
“All right.” Geraldine sighed. “I must tell Edgar. You won’t mind that.”
“All to the good,” said Alec. “He’ll be another pair of eyes on the lookout for trouble.”
“Since his net is involved in the latest incident, he may take an interest in the matter, especially as he’d be very upset if harm came to the boy. He’s taken quite a liking to Benjamin. Very well. If you have no objection, I should like to be present when you speak to Sir Nigel.”
“As you wish.”
“Would you like me to ring him up and make an appointment?”
Alec looked decidedly taken aback. “No, thank you. I’d better do that myself.”
Geraldine inclined her head. “I believe it will be best if I go ahead and invite everyone to come to Worcester. ‘Camouflage’ is the word the forces used in the war, I understand. Many of the boys are—were—very keen on the notion. Especially the Boy Scouts.”
Grinning, Alec said, “Camouflage let it be.”
“I’ll tell them I have business in town and give them a map of historical sites, so that they won’t expect me to dance attendance. No doubt you are an expert, Alec, at simply fading away.”
“By far the most useful weapon in the detective’s arsenal.”
“And I,” Daisy said mournfully, “shall undoubtedly be stuck touring the shops with Laurette.” She would have liked to be present at the interview with the chief constable, but being ninety-nine percent sure Alec would say no, she didn’t bother to ask.
Sure enough, as soon as Raymond, Frank, and the Vincents had agreed that a day in Worcester sounded like a pleasant outing, Laurette said to Daisy, “You and I, we will look at the shops while the men see the sights.”
Daisy politely agreed, though she couldn’t bring herself to enthuse.
Martha was in no shape for sightseeing or window shopping. She asked Geraldine’s permission to invite Violet to spend the morning with her, and permission was gladly given. “If Lady John is busy, I’ll get on with sewing for the baby,” Martha said without regret. She really was a most placid person.
