White Lilac
Page 7
“I do hope that you will find something to your liking. The cook has done her best, but, of course, she is only a countrywoman and not capable of providing the kind of elaborate dishes I am sure, Sir Ervan, you enjoy at home.”
As the Duke had the best French Head Chef in London and his cooks in the country were known as being experts in every type of cuisine, he merely smiled but made no comment.
To follow there was Stilton cheese and a fresh loaf of bread, which must have been baked within the last twenty-four hours.
What was good was the wine and the Duke was aware that Captain Daltry kept filling his glass, clearly determined to soften him up for all that he was to see after luncheon.
He was obviously hoping to make him so muddle-headed that he would agree to any business terms he suggested. He was, however, much too abstemious as a general rule and far too astute not to be aware of what was intended.
He soon realised that, after every sip he took, Captain Daltry immediately refilled his glass. The claret was excellent, but definitely heavy and not an advisable beverage for the middle of the day if one wanted to keep a clear head.
After the claret there was port and brandy at the end of the meal.
Because the Duke thought it was churlish to refuse both he asked for a very little brandy.
But he only sipped it, listening to his host who was going out of his way to be agreeable and amusing.
It was clear to the Duke that Captain Daltry was a past master at being, as he would have described it, the ‘life and soul of the party’.
However, the Duke noticed that his Solicitor and the other large man made little or no contribution to the conversation.
Ilitta made no attempt to join in and Captain Daltry ignored her as being unimportant.
All he wanted to do was to entertain the Duke, in fact the Duke had to admit to himself that Daltry was certainly trying very hard.
It was with a sense of relief that he was able to say,
“As time is getting on and my sister and I do not wish to be late in arriving at the house where we are staying the night, I think now we should go and inspect the mine.”
“Yes, of course,” Captain Daltry agreed. “I think it would be easier, as it is somewhat difficult to find, if we travel in my carriages which are waiting outside and your horses rest here until we return.”
For a moment the Duke hesitated.
Then he thought that perhaps, as the journey this morning had taken longer than he intended, it would be good for his team to rest as much as possible and he would tell Hanson to be ready to leave as soon as they returned.
Accordingly, after Ilitta had run upstairs to fetch her bonnet and cloak, she found waiting outside the front door two closed carriages each drawn by one horse.
They did not look very impressive and she had the same idea as the Duke when he saw them – that they had been hired for the occasion.
The Duke and Captain Daltry were waiting for her by the leading carriage and she stepped in first. The Duke sat down beside her and Captain Daltry on the opposite seat.
As the coachman drove off, she handed the Duke a piece of paper on which she had written three words.
As she did so she said,
“These are the names of the horses we were talking about this morning and you asked me to write them down so that you could mention them to our host this evening.”
“Oh, thank you!” the Duke said carelessly, understanding exactly what she was implying.
He looked down at the piece of paper Ilitta had handed him and saw in very small writing, which could not possibly have been read from any distance, the three words she had written on it,
They were,
“Fox, Ferret, Baboon.”
He read it carefully, then slipped the piece of paper into an inside pocket of his coat.
As they drove on, he knew that Ilitta had already made up her mind about the three men they had met and was telling him to be very much on his guard.
‘Fox!’ the Duke thought to himself. ‘Wily, treacherous, untrustworthy, and might be dangerous!’
So that was how she saw Daltry!
He was not surprised and thought that it was what he might have expected.
‘Ferret’ certainly described Daltry’s Solicitor and he knew from the moment he had seen the man he would not have trusted him an inch.
‘Baboon’ was certainly very apt for the large, clumsy oafish man who had hardly opened his mouth at luncheon, except to put food into it.
It was difficult to imagine why Daltry considered it necessary for him to be there at what was supposed to be a business meeting.
However, the Duke had no time for reflection, because the minute they moved away from the house, Captain Daltry started to talk about the coal mine.
He eulogised over its potentialities and the Duke thought that he exaggerated almost ridiculously the amount of coal it was capable of producing in the immediate future.
“What is important,” he finished by saying, “is that nobody here should have the slightest idea that you are contemplating buying the mine. I have merely told some of the men who work in it that you wish to see how admirably they have managed to extract a very large amount of coal so far from the seam!”
He smiled before he added,
“But, as you will have seen from the papers I sent you, they have only touched the ‘tip of the iceberg’ so to speak and there are thousands and thousands of tons as yet unexcavated.”
“I read your report thoroughly before I left home,” the Duke replied.
“Then there is no point in going over it again,” Captain Daltry said. “At the same time, I do want you to realise that this is the opportunity of a lifetime, something that may never come again.”
He paused before he went on,
“Already the demand for coal has soared dramatically in the last two years and with railways being planned from London to every large town in the country, coal is becoming as valuable as diamonds, although not so pretty!”
He laughed at his own joke.
As he did so, the Duke noticed that his teeth were pointed and thought that Ilitta was right.
He was undoubtedly like a fox and just as untrustworthy.
Chapter Four
The village where the coal mine was situated was picturesque and, Ilitta thought, surprisingly clean.
She had always believed, from what she had read, that coal mining villages were black from the coal dust and that the people themselves gradually developed a dark skin from continually either working in the mine or living on top of it.
As the horses drew to a standstill, Captain Daltry said to the Duke,
“Don’t forget that you are just an ordinary visitor interested in the countryside.”
Ilitta thought that he was rather over-emphasising what he wanted the locals to believe and she was sure the Duke thought so too.
They stepped out and walked some distance past a huge slagheap to where some machinery rose high above ground level, its wheels and iron girders being exactly what Ilitta had expected to see.
There were a number of barrows to be seen with iron trolleys in which coal was brought to the surface and wooden pit props to support the roof of the shafts after the coal had been extracted.
As they drew nearer to the machinery, Ilitta noticed that some of it had been recently oiled, although she had the idea that there was still underlying rust that had not been removed first.
She wanted to point this out to the Duke, but thought that would be a mistake. Instead she followed him and Captain Daltry into the mouth of the large cavern, in the centre of which there was a shaft leading down, they were told, to the galleries from which the miners had already dug out coal.
There was a windlass, which Captain Daltry explained was the normal means of letting the men down into the mine and bringing them up again.
It looked a very primitive piece of apparatus and he said to the Duke in a low voice,
“O
f course there is far more modern machinery in the larger and newer pits.”
Then, as if he was afraid that someone might overhear what he said, he looked over his shoulder before smiling in a knowing manner at the Duke.
They stood looking at the windlass for a moment and then the Duke suggested,
“Perhaps it would be a good idea if I went down to have a look. I suppose there are men working below?”
“Yes, of course,” Captain Daltry said hastily, “and I think it would be a great mistake for them to see you. They would immediately think that something was up.”
This suggestion sounded quite reasonable and the Duke stared down into the pit, hearing nothing and seeing nothing but darkness.
Then he moved away through the outer cavern into the open air.
“What I want to point out to you now,” Captain Daltry said, still in a low voice, “is the village itself. As you can see, the houses are in good repair, although some need a little paint and the people look well and happy. I knew this would appeal to you, Sir Ervan.”
“Of course,” the Duke agreed.
Ilitta was certain that he would want to talk to some of the villagers, who had by this time come to the doors of their cottages and were staring at the party with curiosity.
But Captain Daltry hurried them into the carriage and they drove back the way they had come.
“I’m afraid I did not really see all I wanted to,” the Duke remarked.
“I could not allow you to get your clothes dirty!” Captain Daltry replied with a smile. “And you have seen the reports of the engineers who have inspected the mine professionally.”
He smiled before he added,
“I can assure you that, as they stated very clearly, the seam is a very large one and it will take at least twenty years before it is exhausted even if they do not find further seams branching off it.”
He gave a little laugh, which to Ilitta sounded exactly like a fox’s bark, before he finished,
“In fact, it is a bargain which I cannot believe you would be so foolish as to miss.”
The Duke did not reply and, while Captain Daltry chattered on, he was silent until they were back at the house again.
Then, as he stepped out of the carriage, he said,
“Will you ask your man to order my phaeton to come round immediately? My sister and I must be on our way.”
“Of course,” Captain Daltry replied, seeming surprised, “but if you will come into the drawing room where we were before luncheon, I would like a brief word with you before you leave.”
The Duke could not refuse, but Ilitta sensed that he walked impatiently across the hall and into the drawing room.
She had supposed that Captain Daltry wanted to speak to him alone, but to her surprise she noticed that his Solicitor and the man she thought of as ‘the Baboon’ followed and stood just inside the door.
Captain Daltry crossed the room to a table on which there was an inkpot, pens and a number of papers. He looked down at them and then said,
“I would like your signature on this contract which will allow you to buy the mine, two villages and fifty acres of ground for ten thousand pounds.”
The Duke stiffened.
“You must be aware, Daltry, that I have no intention of immediately signing a contract, nor can I promise to buy the mine until my own people have investigated it fully.”
“I have already told you that is quite unnecessary,” Captain Daltry answered, clearly struggling to keep calm. “The reports I sent you are by men well known in the mining world.”
“I, of course, take your word for that,” the Duke replied, “but at the same time I never buy anything without first taking the advice of my own financial consultants. I am sure that you understand.”
Captain Daltry looked down at the papers on the table.
“There is no time for prevarication,” he said. “The sum which is being asked for the mine is so small that there must be a great number of other purchasers who will jump at the opportunity if you don’t clinch the deal.”
“I don’t want to disappoint you after you have taken so much trouble,” the Duke answered courteously, “but you did not make it clear to me before I came here that I was expected to make what one might call a snap decision.”
“That is what I require and if you don’t agree then the mine may easily go to someone else.”
“Then I must just wish them good luck,” the Duke replied. “Now my sister and I really must be on our way.”
He turned towards the door with his hat in his hand and as he did so, as if recognising a signal from Captain Daltry, the other two men stood immediately in front of it.
As the Duke said nothing but just stood looking at them, from behind him Captain Daltry said,
“Since you are being exceedingly foolish, I must make the position a little clearer.”
As he spoke he drew a pistol from his pocket and Ilitta gave a little cry of horror.
The Duke turned round slowly.
“Are you threatening me, Daltry?”
“What I am saying,” Captain Daltry said in a very different voice from the ingratiating tone he had used since their arrival, “is that either you voluntarily sign this contract of sale or I shall use very much more stringent methods to make sure you do!”
“Let me make myself understood,” the Duke replied loftily. “I have no intention of signing anything! I consider your behaviour disgraceful and I will make quite sure that you are unable to behave like this another time!”
Captain Daltry laughed and it was a very unfriendly sound.
“I know exactly what is in your mind,” he said. “You will see that I am barred from your Club and am no longer acceptable in what you consider Social circles! Very well, I accept that, but my terms have now changed.”
He paused as if he was waiting for the Duke to ask what they were and then as he did not speak he went on,
“I intended to enjoy myself with the ten thousand pounds you were to pay for the mine and it’s not a sum that you will miss with your large income!”
“I think this conversation is quite unnecessary,” the Duke interrupted, “and I intend to leave immediately.”
He would have turned round, but Captain Daltry’s pistol was pointing at him ominously.
“You will find it hard to do so,” he threatened, “with a bullet in your leg and I am sure your sister is too young to be a very adequate nurse!”
Because he almost snarled the words, Ilitta instinctively moved a little nearer to the Duke as if to beg him to be cautious.
The Duke was aware as she did so that her presence considerably lessened his chances of escape.
He thought that he could have managed somehow to disarm Daltry without getting injured, but while he did not think the man Ilitta had described, as a ‘Ferret’ would be much trouble, he was less sure about the ‘Baboon’.
As if he knew what he was thinking, Captain Daltry said,
“I am not speaking idly when I say that I will shoot you to prevent your leaving here. Moreover, I would like you to know that my friend Albert here was the champion wrestler of Lambeth and I think even someone with your athletic record would find him a difficult opponent to overcome.”
He was sneering and Ilitta felt that now he was more like a wolf than a fox and very frightening.
She moved closer still to the Duke as Captain Daltry went on,
“You have threatened to take your revenge on me if I compel you to hand over the ten thousand pounds we first discussed. You will therefore now pay double that figure for your freedom, as it will entail my having to go abroad.”
His lips curled mockingly as he continued,
“I am sure that you would not wish me to be anything but comfortable in France or anywhere else I am obliged to settle, until you have forgotten that you suffered the first failure of your life at my hands!”
Again he was sneering unpleasantly and his pointed teeth seemed even more prominent.
“That I will grant you,” Captain Daltry replied, “and you will not be surprised to know that I had already thought that this might be your attitude!”
He did not lower the pistol as he carried on,
“Had you been alone I intended to put you downstairs in the cellar and keep you there until the damp and the rats spoke more eloquently than I am able to do.”
He looked at Ilitta,
“Of course being a humane man I could not subject anything so young and pretty to such deprivation. You will therefore be imprisoned, and I am sure that is a word you understand, in the attic.”
He paused impressively, before he continued,
“Perhaps a cold night and the fact that even after such an excellent luncheon you will soon be hungry, will help you to realise on consideration, that twenty thousand pounds is quite a small payment to ensure you will not only be free but uninjured. Both of you.”
The way he spoke was so frightening that, hardly realising what she was doing, Ilitta slipped her hand into the Duke’s and felt his fingers close over it.
Then, as he still did not speak, Captain Daltry continued,
“My friends will escort you upstairs, but as you go remember I am behind with this pistol pointed at your back and my finger on the trigger!”
Ilitta knew by the vibrations she felt coming from the Duke that he was furiously angry but at the same time uncertain what he could do.
She realised as he had, that without her he might have pitted his strength against all three of the men and trusted to his expertise in the boxing ring and his exceptional physical fitness to effect an escape.
Yet if they did knock him unconscious or, as Captain Daltry had threatened, shoot him in the leg or in the back, she would be left defenceless and with the weapon in their hands, which they would undoubtedly use.
The Duke drew in his breath and then said calmly,
“I will give you my answer to your proposition when I have had time to consider it.”
He turned as he spoke and walked towards the door still holding Ilitta by the hand.