He walked on, but Penrith didn't move. "No, you brought this matter up, Evering. I demand that you tell me what it is you're hinting at."
Evering took a deep breath. "It was at the Middleton house party. I wasn't there, of course. But someone—I shan't say whom—saw Quarles coming out of your wife's bedroom at some ungodly hour of the morning. Shoes in hand. There was a little talk among the guests, when that got about. But for your sake, nothing was said. Then, two weeks later at the Garrisons' house—"
"Damn you, you're a liar!" Penrith's face was flushed with anger, his fists clinched at his side. "Take it back, Evering! Now, on this spot! Or we shall do no business together."
"All right. I apologize. I'm sorry. I thought—I don't know what I thought. I was wrong to bring it up at all—"
"You're paying me back for Cumberline by telling me this, aren't you?"
Evering said, "No, Penrith, on my honor. I—it's the gossip, man, I didn't make it up. And I thought you should know, if you didn't already. It's vicious and meant to hurt, I'm sure. I was wrong to tell you. I'm sorry."
Penrith turned to walk on and then stopped. "I shan't need your company the rest of the way, Evering. I'm rather disgusted, if you want the truth."
"I understand. I'm sorry."
Penrith stalked off, shoulders tightly squared.
Evering watched him go, an angry man with time on his hands to dwell on his anger. And the wife he doted on was in Scotland, visiting her sister, where Penrith couldn't question her easily. Yes, that journey had been a stroke of unexpected luck, worth the effort he'd expended on perfecting the details of his plan.
When Penrith reached the mail boat and stepped in without looking back, Evering returned to his house, shut the door against the incoming fog, and in the parlor poured himself a large whiskey. Too early in the morning for it, he scolded himself, but it was what he needed.
His hands were shaking. What would come of this day's work?
Then he went up to his room and was sick in the basin on the table by the window.
5
Elise came back for drinks in the afternoon, bringing with her the rest of her wedding party. Rutledge had gone up to change after walking down to the water's edge, and the laughter announcing their arrival drifted up the stairs to him.
On his way down to join them, he heard Hamish's voice in his ear. " 'Ware!"
A young woman with dark red hair and freckles was standing in the doorway at the foot of the stairs, listening to the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance. She turned and said, "Hallo, I'm Mary," as she offered her hand.
Assuming she was the newly arrived matron of honor, Rutledge introduced himself and added that he'd been looking forward to meeting her.
She gestured toward the clouds. "I don't relish the drive back to Dunster if it storms. Edgar may have to put us up. I've never cared for lightning."
The unmade road from Dunster to Maitland's house ended in a pair of nasty turns, and driving them in the dark and heavy rain would be tempting fate.
Rutledge said, "I'm sure there's more than enough room here." Mary resolutely turned her back to the storm, and Rutledge kept her busy with questions about her journey until a little of her anxiety had faded. Then they joined the rest of the guests in the dining room, where the wedding party had gathered.
Watching them, Rutledge thought that Edgar and Elise made a striking pair. And she was carrying out her duties as hostess with smiling grace. Edgar's eyes followed her, and his happiness was reflected in his own smile.
Rutledge had already met Elise's parents, and he was standing with them at the edge of the crush of people when someone, he thought it was Mary, said, "And Ian, I believe you know Mrs. Channing?"
He spun on his heel, trying to keep the shock out of his face. Meredith Channing smiled up at him and gave him her hand. "Yes, we've met before. Hallo, Ian, how are you?"
She was giving him time to recover.
Managing it somehow, he said, "I'm well. And you?"
"I'm well, thank you. It appears we've just made it before the storm."
"Yes—you were fortunate."
And then Elise's cousin was greeting him, and Meredith Channing moved on, her voice drifting back to him as she said something to Edgar about the setting of his house.
When he had a moment to himself, Rutledge turned to watch her crossing the room and helping herself to the refreshments on the drinks table.
He had met her first on New Year's Eve, at Maryanne Browning's house, where Meredith had come to conduct a séance for the amusement of Maryanne's guests. Something about her had struck him then, a certainty that she knew more about his war years than he was willing to tell anyone—he'd even been absurdly afraid that she would find Hamish in his mind. A fear that had been reinforced when he learned that she'd served as a nurse at a forward aid station and remembered seeing him there.
They had been thrown together a number of times since that night, and he'd come to an uneasy truce with her. Meredith Channing had never spoken of his past or her own, keeping their friendship, such as it was, firmly anchored in the present. And yet, an undercurrent was always there, her warm charm and that quiet poise so unusual in a woman only a few years his junior, a snare that drew him and repelled him at the same time.
She came across the room later and stood before him, looking out the windows as the rain pelted down and the thunder echoed wildly across the moor.
Before she could say anything, Mary, the red-haired bridesmaid he'd met earlier, came up to claim his attention. He'd been standing a little apart from the others in the room, his claustrophobia getting the better of him. His back was to the windows that looked out on the terrace, and he suddenly felt cornered.
Glancing uneasily at the swirling rain as a sheet of lightning lit up the sky, Mary said, "Doesn't it bother you?" She shivered, her hands cupping her elbows, as if to hold warmth in.
"Shall I find a wrap for you?" he asked, dodging the question.
Mary shook her head. "It's the thunder. It reminds me of the guns in France. We could hear them in Kent, where I lived then. And sometimes even see the flashes."
Her words were suddenly loud in a brief lull in the conversation, and people stood still, as if not knowing how to break the spell they cast. Then Elise's father said, "Thank God that's behind us," and changed the subject.
Mary turned away from the dark glass. "I think I'll make some tea, if Elise hasn't. Sorry."
"Don't apologize. I understand."
She gave him a grateful smile and left him there.
Meredith Channing said, for Rutledge's ears alone, "You needn't worry. The storm will pass soon, and then we'll be gone."
He said, "I'm not sure it will be safe, even then. The road is tricky."
"There's a moon. When it breaks through the clouds, there will be enough light to see our way." Against his will, her calm assurance enveloped him.
He said, "Everyone seems quite content to stay until then."
"Most of us have known one another for some time. It's like a family gathering, everyone catching up on news. The war years were hard, and we've all paid a high price for this peace."
He wanted to ask her what her price had been but couldn't bring himself to introduce such a personal note.
Yet he found himself comparing Meredith Channing to Elise. They were only a few years apart in age, but Elise had been sent to live in the comparative comfort and isolation of Dunster, with no troop trains arriving in the night with the wounded, no outbound trains filled with cheering soldiers marching away to war, shielding her from the cauldron of anguish and suffering Mrs. Channing had seen at the Front. And so age was not a measure of the differences between them. Only experience could be.
That thought reminded him of an earlier one, that perhaps Edgar had deliberately chosen someone like Elise. As perhaps he himself had held to the memory of his former fiancée, Jean, long after any hope of reconciliation. Were they both so desperate to wipe away the bitt
erness and fear and nightmares they'd brought home with them?
Mrs. Channing smiled, as if she'd read his mind, and he swore to himself as she said, "I believe they'll be happy, those two. Elise is steadier than she appears. Right now, she's giddy with happiness, and has a right to be. Edgar wouldn't propose until he was sure he was well enough. He didn't want to be a burden, I imagine, but Elise was afraid he'd never work up the courage. He needs her brightness. In a few months he'll forget he's lost a limb and agree to one of those artificial ones that are available now."
Edgar had said nothing to him about replacing his leg with an artificial one.
And again, Meredith said, apropos of that, "He was afraid he'd make a fool of himself tomorrow, falling. He feels safer just now with his crutches."
"Did Elise tell you that?" he said. Or had you read it in Edgar's tea leaves?
A twinkle appeared in Meredith's dark eyes. "Ian. I've seen Edgar any number of times when he has come up to London. If he brings Elise, she stays with me. For propriety's sake. And we've talked a time or two."
He felt himself flush with embarrassment. Managing a laugh, he said, "Sorry. I met you first as a necromancer, remember."
"Yes. I remember. It was not the best of footings for friendship, was it? I can sometimes guess what someone is thinking—anyone can, if he knows human nature. A policeman employs the same skills, surely. It isn't so strange a gift."
"A policeman," he responded dryly, "doesn't care to have those skills used against him."
She laughed. It was low and husky and somehow intimate. "Touché."
As the storm descended on them in earnest, the party moved down to the kitchen and made a spur-of-the-moment tea out of what they found there, carrying it triumphantly to the room overlooking the terrace and sitting on the rugs or in the chairs, conversation flowing smoothly. Rutledge found he was enjoying himself.
Meredith Channing was talking with Neal Hammond, and Rutledge could hear her voice but not what she was saying, though it was clear from the expression on Hammond's face that he found her attractive. From the way he touched her arm at one point, it was also clear that they had known each other for some time.
Hamish spoke, startling Rutledge. He had been silent since that first sharp " 'Ware!" as Rutledge had come down the stairs earlier in the evening to join the gathering. "Ye canna' let your guard down. It would be foolish."
But the evening had unexpectedly turned into a very pleasant few hours, and when the storm had passed and it was too late to adjourn to The Luttrell Arms for dinner, no one made a move to leave.
Edgar, coming to sit beside Rutledge, was in the best of spirits, all qualms apparently quashed for now, and he smiled at his friend with wry warmth.
"Thank you for coming, Ian. I thought I needed support through this. Now I'm glad I have a friend beside me."
"A thunderstorm can work wonders," Rutledge said, grinning at Edgar. "Did you order it up yourself?"
"If I'd thought about it, I'd have tried. I think Elise's parents are satisfied now that she's not marrying a cripple with no prospects. They knew my grandfather, and I've heard they told their daughter in the beginning that I wasn't half the man he was. That, thank God, was on my last leave, before I'd lost my leg. I was greener then. They seem to be enjoying themselves tonight." He stretched out his leg and said, "I hadn't realized that you knew Meredith."
It was a fishing expedition, transparently so.
"I met her at Maryanne Browning's," Rutledge replied.
"She's been a widow for several years now. I'm glad to see her out and about again." Edgar Maitland was matchmaking.
Rutledge smothered a smile. "I'll keep that in mind," he said dryly. "You could do worse. I'm not one to speak ill of the dead, but Jean wasn't right for you. I could have told you that in 1914, but you wouldn't have listened."
"Probably not."
Edgar laughed. "You have no idea what happiness is until you've found someone to love. Just look at me!"
Elise came over to join them, saving Rutledge from finding an answer to that. He stood up to offer her his chair, but she said, "It's near the witching hour. And the storm seems to have dwindled to broken clouds. We must leave. I have it on good authority—my mother—that it's bad luck to see one's bride on the day of the wedding, until she walks down the aisle."
"We don't want to risk that." Edgar got to his feet with some difficulty, then shoved his crutches under his arms with the ease of habit. "Let's start rounding up the guests."
In a flurry of farewells, Elise collected her family and friends and set out for Dunster. Edgar watched them go, the headlamps of the convoy of cars twisting and turning down the road.
"You didn't wish Mrs. Channing a good night. Not that I saw."
"I'll see her tomorrow and apologize profusely."
"You're incorrigible, my friend. Hammond will snap her up if you don't."
Laughing, they went up to bed.
The wedding was held in St. George's, a small gem that had once been part of a long-vanished priory before becoming a parish church. It boasted a magnificent wagon roof and what was said to be the longest rood screen in England, but all eyes were on the bride as she walked down the aisle. Photographs of the wedding party were taken in what had once been the Prior's Garden, and there was a breakfast, and music, but not for dancing, in The Luttrell Arms, across from the Yarn Market. A quartet played softly in the background, and the cake was a masterpiece of culinary art. On the top sat an elegant sugar swan, wings spread wide and a ribbon in its beak bearing the names of the bride and groom in gold lettering. Rutledge, seated next to Edgar, led the toasts, and then as the conversation grew more general, discovered that Elise's father was a longtime friend of his godfather, David Trevor, who lived now in Scotland.
"Wonderful architect," Caldwell said. "It's a pity that he retired so early. But then I understand—I also lost a son in the war. Elise's middle brother. Not something you get over, is it?"
"No, sir, it isn't. Have you also retired?"
"To my sorrow, no. I advise people on how to invest their money. And they won't hear of my giving it up." Caldwell smiled. "The day will come, inevitably. I expect I shall have to ease them into accepting it. My wife is eager for me to grow roses and spend more time with her." He made a face. "I'd much rather fish, you know. I'm an angler by nature, not a gardener."
In the early afternoon, the bridal pair set off on their wedding trip. Edgar drove, waving gaily to guests as he and Elise bounced over the cobbles and turned beyond the castle. The motorcar had been modified so that he could manage. It was, he'd told Rutledge, a matter of pride. Once out of sight, Elise would take the wheel for the rest of their journey.
The remaining guests left the inn in the next hour, many of them on their way back to London, and Rutledge found himself face-to-face with Meredith Channing as she came to say good-bye. They had been thrown together often during the morning, and Rutledge had to admit that he'd enjoyed her company.
"Safe journey," he said, and she nodded.
"Same to you. I'm driving with friends. We ought to make good time. That was a lovely toast you proposed to the bride and groom. You have a way with words."
"Thank you. It was heartfelt."
"Yes, Edgar was touched. It was good to see you again, Ian." She offered her hand, and he took it. They shook briefly, and then she was gone, leaving an unexpected emptiness behind her.
Rutledge told himself it was because everyone else had left, and the day that had begun with such glorious sunshine for the wedding was now changing.
He turned to say good-bye to Elise's parents as they followed the last of the guests out the door. Caldwell clapped him on the shoulder and said, "If you're in the City, stop in."
"I will, sir. Thank you."
And then he was back at the house on the hill, where the view was magnificent and his footsteps echoed through the rooms. The ghosts of laughter and excitement and happy voices made the silence seem almost ominous, an
d he shrugged off the sudden upsweep of melancholy.
He spent the next hour clearing away, as Edgar had asked him to do, preparing to close up the house before he left in the morning. And then he sat on the terrace to watch the sun set behind a bank of clouds. Restless, he was in no mood to sleep, but finally he took himself off to bed, with a small whiskey and the voice of Hamish MacLeod for company.
When someone knocked at Maitland's door shortly after midnight, Rutledge came awake with a start. He fumbled for his dressing gown and slippers, then went to answer the summons.
At first sight of the grim-faced uniformed constable standing on the doorstep, he thought, Oh, dear God, Edgar insisted on driving all the way—and there's been a crash. And then the next thought, Pray God they aren't hurt badly!
He could feel the presence of Hamish, stark and loud in his ears as he said, "Good evening, Constable. Not bad news, I hope!"
And waited to hear the worst.
But the middle-aged man standing there in the quiet night air asked, "Mr. Rutledge, sir?"
"Yes, I'm Rutledge. What is it, man?"
"There's been a telephone call from London. Chief Superintendent Bowles, sir. He says you're the nearest man to the scene and would you return his call at the Yard straightaway."
Relief washed over him.
"Let me find my shoes and a coat."
He went back up the stairs to the guest room, leaving the constable standing in the hall, waiting for him.
When Chief Superintendent Bowles wanted a man, it paid to be prompt. Throwing his coat on over his pajamas and thrusting his bare feet into the shoes he'd worn for the wedding, he wasted no time wondering about the summons. Closest to the scene generally meant that Bowles had little choice in the matter of which man to send and was putting speed before preference.
He helped the constable lash his bicycle to the boot of the motorcar rather than the rear seat, unwilling in the dark to risk finding Hamish in what always seemed to be his accustomed place, just behind Rutledge's shoulder. It was a silent drive down to Dunster; the air was warm and heavy, the stars vanished. The only sign of life they saw was a hare bounding off into the high grass by the road.
Todd, Charles Page 4
