“Yes, I am,” Giles said.
This took the wind quite out of Sir Arthur’s sails and would have sufficed, had not Carswell then joined them.
He looked as if he had put his head under a pump to cool his temper – he was wet-haired and scarlet-faced. He had at least put his crumpled linen coat back on, but it did little to help his dishevelled appearance.
“And what is he doing here?” Sir Arthur said to Lord Rothborough.
“Mr Carswell came over from Ardenthwaite,” said Lord Rothborough. “I thought it best, the moment the body was found, to get the nearest medical man in the neighbourhood to look at it.”
“The nearest medical man!” said Sir Arthur. “Your own man, you mean, sir, your b...b...”
“It was simply a matter of convenience,” Lord Rothborough went on. “I do not mean to belittle Dr Conway’s expertise, of course not.”
Sir Arthur did not look very convinced.
“The body will go to Dr Conway’s house at Dallingham,” said Sir Arthur. “He has agreed to undertake a full post-mortem.”
“It will do no good for your men to haul it off in this heat,” Carswell said. “Given the extreme weather, you ought bring a medical examiner to the body, rather than take it elsewhere – and as soon as is practical, before any more useful evidence is lost.”
“I do not care for your tone,” said Sir Arthur.
“As the only qualified man within ten miles of the cadaver, I think you should take note of my suggestion. This one can’t be written off as a suicide!” he added.
“You are offensive, sir.”
“Whether you are offended or not scarcely matters,” Carswell went on. “I am only trying to help you, sir, in a matter of justice, which rather takes precedence over petty matters of local politics. Surely?”
“Mr Carswell, please!” said Lord Rothborough. “It is all settled. Dr Conway is to be instructed. It is quite out of your hands, though I dare say, Dr Conway would be extremely grateful to have your preliminary notes. Two heads are always better than one, after all. Yes, Major Vernon?”
“Yes, certainly.”
“And I believe Major Vernon has some other work for you that will take you away from here this very day,” Lord Rothborough went on breezily. “Now, Sir Arthur let me see you to your carriage?”
When they were alone, Carswell asked, “What business is that?”
“We are going to Swalecliffe to talk to Edgar’s widow,” Giles said. “How did you get on with Walter?”
“He had certainly been in an altercation. He had some bruising and an impressive amount of scratching to his face, as if someone went for him with their nails. And I didn’t get a chance to check Edgar’s nails. Those dolts wouldn’t let me in!”
“Men don’t usually scratch in a fight,” said Giles. “I wonder if his sweetheart was the one who spoiled his face for gambling away their savings. He told me he came from her bed to meet with Edgar. Perhaps he went back and confessed?”
“And she let him have it?” Carswell said.
“A visit to the laundry next, I think,” said Giles. “And at the same time we can see if they have been given any suspicious shirts to launder.”
-0-
The visit to the laundry confirmed Giles’ suspicions and revealed soon enough the cause of Walter’s battered face. His sweetheart, a strapping young woman called Janet, was happy to confirm she had given him a battering for his recklessness. The wedding, she declared, was now off if he was going to be such a fool with money. Further enquiries revealed no blood-stained garments had been tossed into the great baskets of soiled linen that arrived each morning from the house.
“It’s a pity we cannot direct a search of the house,” Giles said to Carswell as they walked back together. “But our hands are tied. We shall go to Swalecliffe and see what we can discover there.”
“Must we go today?” Carswell asked. “I have this devilish business with my parents – I have let Lord Rothborough take them to Ardenthwaite but I feel I should see them in person.”
“We shall make a slight detour to Ardenthwaite, then,” Giles said, as they went inside. “But the important thing is that we leave here as soon as possible. It is all rather irritating, but needs must. I shall have to explain to Mrs Vernon, but I think she will understand. Coming here, for all this perturbation, seems to have done her good. Lady Maria has been so kind to her, and Lady Rothborough.”
They came up the stairs to the sound of some energetic piano music – Scottish airs, arranged in a modern style that sounded complex but not unpleasant. A half-opened door revealed Laura and Lady Maria seated together at the piano.
“Listen to that!” he murmured to Carswell.
He could not resist the opportunity to take some rest and savour the sight of Laura in her blue and white striped muslin, absorbed in her music, playing the lower part with enormous competence. If Lady Maria had the showy upper portions, Laura was the steadying hand in terms of rhythm and harmony. She played better, he thought, than she had ever done before. It had been Carswell’s idea that she take up her music again – he had made it a priority that regular practice be part of her daily regime. It had certainly paid off; it had given her a place to channel her passions.
They reached a grand climax of the piece and finished with a tremendous flourish.
“None of us could manage the bottom part until you came,” Lady Maria said. “Too many octave spreads.”
“I suppose I just have large hands,” Laura said quietly, looking down at her spread fingers.
“You have beautiful hands, Mrs Vernon,” Lady Maria said, taking her hand. “I wish I had your hands.”
Laura flushed becomingly and smiled. Giles wanted to dash in and snatch her hand back from Maria. He wanted to steal her away for a quiet, inconsequential talk in one of the cool corners of the great house. He longed for a slow, idle, intimate conversation that might lead again to the pleasures they had rediscovered last night. He had no wish to get on with business at all. In that moment, he could have tossed the whole case into Sir Arthur’s ample lap and not cared any more about it.
Lady Maria caught sight of him in the doorway.
“Oh, and Major Vernon heard it all!” she exclaimed, jumping up from the piano and flinging open the door. As she did so, she revealed Mr Carswell, who had been at his heels. He stepped back at once, as if searching for a shadow in which to hide himself.
Lady Maria was having none of this. One glance was enough to make the situation clear to her and she advanced towards him, a look of wonder on her face.
“Oh is this... my goodness, sir?” She looked to Giles for affirmation of her instincts. “Is this Mr Carswell?”
“Yes, I am afraid so,” Carswell said. “I should not be here. I will be gone in a –”
“No, no, do not go! And do not apologise,” Lady Maria said, and with great aplomb, grabbed his hand in both hers and stood gazing at him, with utter delight. “This is too marvellous! I have wondered all my life about meeting you, you have no idea, and now here you are! Oh goodness!”
Then, unable to restrain herself, she kissed him on the cheek and threw her arms about him. Carswell resisted but only for a moment. He bowed his head and allowed the embrace, and returned it.
Feeling a little like an intruder, Giles went into the room where Laura sat still at the piano. He sat down beside her and kissed her hands.
“I am sorry, I have to go away tonight – but only for a day or two. Will you be able to manage without me?”
Laura looked a little grave for a while and then managed a smile.
“I think so,” she said. “I have Sukey and Lady Maria to look after me.”
“You have a made a good friend there,” said Giles.
“I never really had a friend before,” she said. “I do like it. And we have all this music to work through! If it is not wrong to play when that poor man died so horribly? Lady Maria was worried that Lady Rothborough might think so.”
“He would have liked such music in life, from what I saw of him,” said Giles. “And I should not want the world to fall silent if I died. I would be happier to think of it carrying on, even if I did not.”
Laura nodded.
“Did I hear Mr Carswell out there?” she said.
“Yes.”
“I thought he could not come here,” she said, puzzled.
“Circumstances demanded it. But we will be gone soon enough.”
“Oh.”
“Would you like to see him? I shall fetch him in.”
“He will not want to see me,” she said.
“What makes you think that?”
“He will be angry with me again.”
“No, he will be delighted with you. You have done so well – I have been telling him how well you have done! Let me go and fetch him for you, yes?”
He did not allow her to demur but let go of her hands and went to the door, expecting to find Carswell and Lady Maria still in the great passageway. But they were no longer there.
“You see,” Laura said, coming to his side, “he has run away from me. And now you are going –”
“Yes, I know, I know,” he said, turning to take her in his arms, “but it cannot be prevented. But you have Lady Maria and Sukey. They will take care of you, I know it. Think of that pile of music, yes?”
She leant against him, clinging to him, her cheek pressed against his shirt front. He sensed her struggling to steady herself, not to give way to her demons and felt in awe of her courage. He dropped a kiss onto her head and wondered if it were possible to take her him with him. He was planning that they should go on horseback across the moors. In such fine weather, she might ride too, and benefit from that. But that would have its risks and difficulties, as much as leaving her behind at Holbroke. So he kissed her again and hoped that all would be well.
In the reflection of one of the pier glasses he saw Lady Warde enter the room by the door in the far corner, dressed as usual in her dismal black.
“Oh, forgive me,” she said, and left again. Giles could not help but turn and look at her as she departed. She appeared to be in darker, fresher mourning than previously, her crepe renewed, as if she had put it on to honour her dead maid.
Laura detached herself from him and went to the glass, and adjusted her ringlets, which he had disarranged in embracing her.
“I will manage. I will show you I can,” she said.
-0-
Felix had followed Holt up to Major Vernon’s dressing room, wanting to wash his face and steady his nerves. Lady Maria’s effusive outpouring had left him shaking. Her warmth, her hands on his cheeks, her tear-filled eyes had been at once too much for him, and at the same time joyously right. She had an ardent frankness about her that impressed him profoundly. If Lady Charlotte had met his gaze and then sent him back to his work, clearly struggling with these strange emotions as he had, Lady Maria had embraced them, and by that, had made him face them too. It had been impossible not let some tears leak from his own eyes and feel something of the same giddy happiness she professed. It was so strange – she had kept saying that – and he had nodded, and taken her hands and squeezed them, and sat there by her side, feeling as if the air had gone from the room. At the same time he remembered that strange moment with Dona Blanca, when the scent of her perfume had taken his heart to a place that his mind had struggled to believe in.
Upstairs he found Sukey sitting at the window, doing some sewing. Holt at once busied himself packing the Major’s things. Felix excused himself and went out to the passageway. He wanted to speak to her but he could not in front of Holt.
As if reading his mind, she followed him out of the room.
“I was wondering, do you have any orders for me about Mrs Vernon?” she said, with quiet formality.
“No, I leave it all quite in your hands. You are well able to deal with anything that may come up. And Lady Maria will –” He broke off. “I have just met her.” He could not keep his voice from breaking.
Sukey reached out, touched his shoulder briefly and nodded.
“It was strange,” he burst out. “She was crying and –”
“Of course it was,” she said. “Of course. Your own sister.”
Her hand was on his shoulder again, and he grabbed it, and held it in both his and bent and kissed it. She did not flinch or withdraw, and he raised his eyes to meet hers.
“One day,” he managed to say. “One day, you and I will sit and talk and we will have time, and it will be –”
“Maybe,” she said, touching his cheek. “Maybe not.”
“It will be,” he said. “I promise. One day.” But then she shook her head and pulled her hand away. “Believe me, please Sukey, I am not going to trifle with you. I could never. This is too –”
“That’s not what I am afraid of,” she said, walking away a little, turning from him. “You don’t know me, that is the trouble, you don’t really know what I am at all. There are things that –” She broke off.
Felix laughed nervously.
“Your past sins must be trivial compared to mine!” he managed to say. “Believe me!” And he went to her and folded his arms about her. “I don’t care.”
She permitted the embrace. Indeed, he understood that she wanted it. She yielded against him, and her lips met his with a rough eagerness that left him startled and hungry. She was, like him, fiery with desire. Then she broke away, remembering herself. He saw her brush her lips with her fingertips, as if his kisses had left visible marks that need to be removed.
“Just don’t build any castles in Spain,” she said, and reached to straighten his cravat. “Now, you have to be on your way.”
Then, like a cat, she slipped away and back into the dressing room, leaving him standing there in a state of astonishment.
He walked down the long passageway, unable to comprehend the meaning of this encounter, except that he was left aching for more. He turned into the great staircase hall and saw Major and Mrs Vernon coming upstairs.
The Major turned to his wife and said quietly, “I think, perhaps, you and Mr Carswell should talk a little? Yes?”
Mrs Vernon was as reluctant as Felix felt, but the Major insisted. He was correct to do so. She was still his patient and he had to remember his duty towards her. So they were left together in the dazzling light of the great sculpture gallery that spanned the first floor of the house.
A consultation in such a place was hardly ideal. At the centre was the prize of Lord Rothborough’s collection: a Canova of two luscious white marble nymphs, dancing barefoot on a plinth of red polished granite, their voluptuous figures wrapped in the slightest, most clinging draperies.
“Perhaps we should sit down?” he suggested, indicating the padded bench which had been placed under the great window at the far end.
She nodded meekly and he sat down with her. He reached for her hand and took her pulse, which was steady and strong.
“Have you been troubled any more by those headaches?”
She shook her head. Her complexion certainly looked improved. There was a becoming flush to her cheeks which had been for a long time grey and sallow, like those of a prisoner.
“And what have you eaten today?”
“I have been very good,” she said.
“Tell me exactly.”
“I had chocolate and toast for breakfast – two pieces – the toast is nice here. And just now I had a little cake and half a glass of wine. Lady Rothborough made me have those.”
“That’s very good. Bravo Lady Rothborough! And bravo Mrs Vernon.”
“So you are not angry with me?” she said.
“I was not angry with you.”
“You were. At Stanegate, you were.”
“I am sorry, I did not mean that. But I was not angry with you, Mrs Vernon. I am sorry if it seemed so. Will you forgive me?”
“You said I was wrong to pick those flowers.”
“Forgive me?” he said again.
; She did not answer. Instead she glanced around her, at the stupefying grandeur of the room, and said, “I don’t know why you are here. I thought you could never be here. I upset Lady Augusta by talking about you. But Lady Charlotte and Lady Maria were not upset.”
“No. They have been very kind – to all of us. And they will take good care of you while Major Vernon and I are away. And if you feel afraid or anxious – if those disturbing thoughts return – remember how we spoke of this before?”
“Yes.”
“So, what is it you must do?”
“To take up some work – or play the piano.”
“And speak to Sukey as soon as you can,” he said. “She will keep you straight.”
“Yes,” she nodded.
“And I am forgiven?” he said.
She pursed her lips for a moment and nodded. Then she burst out, “But I wish you didn’t have to go! I wish it could be how we were before we went to Stanegate, when you came in every day to see me and talk to me. I wish, oh I wish that –”
“But you do not need me so much, now,” he said. “You do not need me everyday. That is because you are so much improved – it is the best outcome.”
“I know, I know,” she said. “But, but – sometimes I feel that I will crumble again. You have been so kind to me, so patient and you have understood everything, in a way that no-one has ever understood. How can I do without you? How can I bear it? I need you still,” she said, grasping his sleeve with her arm. “I know you don’t think so, and I’m sure you’re right. But it hurts me to think that I’ll never, ever see you like I used to. I know I must get on with this new life, and be brave and strong, and you have told me all that so often, but sometimes, I don’t think I can do it. And now you are sitting here, like this –” She clutched at his arm even more strongly now. “I wish you did not have to go.”
“But I must,” he said, gently detaching her hand. But she caught his hand and knotted her fingers about his, locking them fast. He tried to pull them away but with little success.
“I love you so very much,” she said in a whisper. “I want you to know that. I love you. Sometimes, in my dreams, I find I am your wife. I dream that... that –”
The Shadowcutter Page 19
