Miss Seeton Flies High (A Miss Seeton Mystery Book 23)
Page 24
Delphick and Smith were quick to follow; Sancho was quicker still. PC Markham, as the action began, had let his dog off the leash and Sancho, the abandoned stick in his jaws, now leaped between the two policemen straight into the room and landed, tail wagging, on all four paws. He raised his head, sniffed, and charged, nails clattering on bare boards, out of the room, into the hall, and up the stairs.
There came further cries, angry shouts, screams for help and shrieks as the confusion spread. Fergus Markham forgot rank and pushed aside his superiors to follow his dog, who was bouncing up and down uttering muffled barks outside a bedroom door that otherwise looked identical to the other half-dozen on the landing.
“Police!” cried Fergus, as Sancho bounced faster. “Open up!”
Other doors opened, figures emerged, fists flew—not armed, thank heaven thought Delphick—and a general commotion ended with Bob Ranger banging heads together as the three uniformed men scooped up the fallen and made sure they fell again, to be set in an untidy row along the wall while Delphick (who had stuck out a helpfully tripping foot as required) and Smith (who swung a powerful and efficient fist) joined PC Markham in breaking down Sancho’s door.
Inside they found a figure handcuffed to the bed. Sancho, bursting with pride, jumped on the bed, landed on the figure’s stomach, and dropped the stick on his chest.
For what he later told the authorities was the first time in days, Christy Garth smiled.
“Miss Seeton?” The telephone was apologetic, and embarrassed. “Martin Jessyp here.” The schoolmaster coughed. “You’ve heard nothing from Lady Colveden? Or from anyone else on the Padders committee?”
Miss Seeton was likewise embarrassed. She had heard from nobody; she was sorry she had been unable to deliver the scenery sketches, but she had been rather delayed by her sketches for the police, which, as she believed Mr. Jessyp knew, she was duty bound to make her priority. “But I heard from Chief Superintendent Delphick today, and he tells me everything is happily resolved, so it will not be long now,” she promised.
A gentlewoman does not discuss matters involving money. There was no need to tell Mr. Jessyp that Mr. Delphick had assured her there would soon be a fresh cheque from the Scotland Yard computer; of how the chief superintendent had teased her by saying that perhaps she might also have another win on her Premium Bonds, and take yet another holiday somewhere else, with a flight in another hot air balloon, in search of other invisible landscape figures ...
“I’m pleased to hear that,” said Mr. Jessyp, “and I regret having to dampen the mood, but I, ah, bring bad news, Miss Seeton. It’s Daniel Eggleden’s head.”
“Has the poor man met with an accident?” Miss Seeton well remembered the time an alcohol-fuelled carthorse had kicked the blacksmith and injured his bowling arm, just before Plummergen’s needle match against Murreystone’s cricket team.
“No, no.” Mr. Jessyp was flustered. “I should have said, the Green Knight’s head. Try as we might, we cannot make the illusion work as intended. The difference, I fear, between theory and practice. But as the whole point is for Sir Gawain to cut off the knight’s head with one blow, and to receive a blow in return ...” He took a deep breath. “The Padders have reconsidered the Christmas play,” he confessed. “With a large green man and his castle already arranged—the costume, the scenery, the axe—they have decided to unearth an old production of Jack and the Beanstalk instead.”
“Oh,” said Miss Seeton. No wonder Mr. Jessyp was upset: so much of his hard work gone to waste. And yet one should always try to make the best of things ...
“Jack and the Beanstalk will be far more in the pantomime spirit than King Arthur,” she said. “I feel sure Jack Crabbe, so very clever, will add most suitable jokes and riddles to your script.”
“He’s already hard at work,” said Martin Jessyp, much relieved at the way she was taking it. So much of her own hard work gone to waste ... “As we know that you yourself have been, Miss Seeton, on behalf of the Green Knight and King Arthur’s court. We don’t really like asking you to put yourself out again, but ...”
“Anything I can do to help, Mr. Jessyp, I assure you I will happily do.”
“Miss Armitage and her team have repaired the costume as well as they can, but Nigel Colveden and Len Hosigg are to play the front and back legs of Daisy the Cow. They are both young men of great energy and enthusiasm—and after last night’s scratch rehearsal, Nigel needs a new head. The children will of course build it in Miss Maynard’s handicraft class, but would you be able—willing—to design it for us?”
Miss Seeton’s first drawing showed a wide-horned Highland cow bearing a sword in its mighty mouth, supervised by a large tabby cat in a mask. She attributed her confusion to memories of Glastonbury prompted by Mr. Delphick’s talk of a second balloon flight.
Her Friesian cow, however, was perfect.
Note from the Publisher
While he was alive, series creator Heron Carvic had tremendous fun imagining Emily Seeton and the supporting cast of characters.
In an enjoyable 1977 essay Carvic recalled how, after having first used her in a short story, “Miss Seeton upped and demanded a book”—and that if “she wanted to satirize detective novels in general and elderly lady detectives in particular, he would let her have her head . . .”
You can now read Heron Carvic’s essay about the genesis of Miss Seeton, in full, as well as receive updates on further releases in the series, by signing up at http://eepurl.com/b2GCqr
Preview
COMING SOON
Watch the Wall, Miss Seeton
Lucky Miss Seeton! A modest Premium Bond win means a whole week in legendary Glastonbury. She can draw and drink in the surroundings, just what she needs for her scene-painting role in the village production of ‘Camelot’.
By coincidence, the kidnapped Heir to an industrial family may be hidden around there and Chief Superintendent Delphick has asked the ex-art teacher to create some of her famous, insightful sketches. Even he is nonplussed by the resulting images of capering sheep in straitjackets, flashing false teeth!
But the Heir is in danger, a murderer is lurking, and the first victim may not be the last. Then fortune favours Miss S again, her raffle ticket winning her a hot air balloon flight, and well, it’s just amazing what you can see from above . . .
Also Available
OUT NOW
Miss Seeton’s Finest Hour: A Prequel
The year is 1940 and the British have their backs to the wall. Everyone is preparing for the battle that, as Winston Churchill said, would see the ‘whole fury and might of the enemy turned upon us’. Everyone including the young Miss Emily Seeton, London art teacher, who finds her strangely prophetic sketches do not go unnoticed by the secret services.
At first suspected of being a fifth columnist, she soon finds herself recruited by the dashing Major Gerry Haynes and sent to carry out a very special observance task at a rural Spitfire factory. Faced with bombs, sabotage and murder, Miss Seeton must summon all her courage—it is after all her nature to Keep Calm and Carry On!
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About the Miss Seeton series
Retired art teacher Miss Seeton steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles. Armed with only her sketch pad and umbrella, she is every inch an eccentric English spinster and at every turn the most lovable and unlikely master of detection.
Reviews of the Miss Seeton series:
“Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce . . . This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“A most beguiling protagonist!”
New York Times
“This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy . . . You can't stop reading. Or laughing.”
The Sun
“She’s a joy!”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Not since Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple has there been a more lovable female dabbler in crime and suspense
.”
Amarillo News
“Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.”
Publishers Weekly
Further titles in the series:
Picture Miss Seeton
A night at the opera strikes a chord of danger when Miss Seeton witnesses a murder . . . and paints a portrait of the killer.
Miss Seeton Draws the Line
Miss Seeton is enlisted by Scotland Yard when her paintings of a little girl turn the young subject into a model for murder.
Witch Miss Seeton
Double, double, toil and trouble sweep through the village when Miss Seeton goes undercover . . . to investigate a local witches’ coven!
Miss Seeton Sings
Miss Seeton boards the wrong plane and lands amidst a gang of European counterfeiters. One false note, and her new destination is deadly indeed.
Odds on Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton in diamonds and furs at the roulette table? It’s all a clever disguise for the high-rolling spinster . . . but the game of money and murder is all too real.
Miss Seeton, By Appointment
Miss Seeton is off to Buckingham Palace on a secret mission—but to foil a jewel heist, she must risk losing the Queen’s head . . . and her own neck!
Advantage, Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton’s summer outing to a tennis match serves up more than expected when Britain’s up-and-coming female tennis star is hounded by mysterious death threats.
Miss Seeton at the Helm
Miss Seeton takes a whirlwind cruise to the Mediterranean—bound for disaster. A murder on board leads the seafaring sleuth into some very stormy waters.
Miss Seeton Cracks the Case
It’s highway robbery for the innocent passengers of a motor coach tour. When Miss Seeton sketches the roadside bandits, she becomes a moving target herself.
Miss Seeton Paints the Town
The Best Kept Village Competition inspires Miss Seeton’s most unusual artwork—a burning cottage—and clears the smoke of suspicion in a series of local fires.
Hands Up, Miss Seeton
The gentle Miss Seeton? A thief? A preposterous notion—until she’s accused of helping a pickpocket . . . and stumbles into a nest of crime.
Miss Seeton by Moonlight
Scotland Yard borrows one of Miss Seeton’s paintings to bait an art thief . . . when suddenly a second thief strikes.
Miss Seeton Rocks the Cradle
It takes all of Miss Seeton’s best instincts—maternal and otherwise—to solve a crime that’s hardly child’s play.
Miss Seeton Goes to Bat
Miss Seeton’s in on the action when a cricket game leads to mayhem in the village of Plummergen . . . and gives her a shot at smashing Britain’s most baffling burglary ring.
Miss Seeton Plants Suspicion
Miss Seeton was tending her garden when a local youth was arrested for murder. Now she has to find out who’s really at the root of the crime.
Starring Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton’s playing a backstage role in the village’s annual Christmas pageant. But the real drama is behind the scenes . . . when the next act turns out to be murder!
Miss Seeton Undercover
The village is abuzz, as a TV crew searches for a rare apple, the Plummergen Peculier—while police hunt a murderous thief . . . and with Miss Seeton at the centre of it all.
Miss Seeton Rules
Royalty comes to Plummergen, and the villagers are plotting a grand impression. But when Princess Georgina goes missing, Miss Seeton herself has questions to answer.
Sold to Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton accidentally buys a mysterious antique box at auction . . . and finds herself crossing paths with some very dangerous characters!
Sweet Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton is stalked by a confectionary sculptor, just as a spate of suspicious deaths among the village’s elderly residents calls for her attention.
Bonjour, Miss Seeton
After a trip to explore the French countryside, a case of murder awaits Miss Seeton back in the village . . . and a shocking revelation.
Miss Seeton’s Finest Hour (A Prequel)
War-time England, and a young Miss Emily Seeton’s suspicious sketches call her loyalty into question—until she is recruited to uncover a case of sabotage.
Miss Seeton Quilts the Village
Miss Seeton lends her talents to the village scheme to create a giant quilted tapestry. But her intuitive sketches reveal a startlingly different perspective, involving murder.
About Heron Carvic and Hamilton Crane
The Miss Seeton series was created by Heron Carvic; and continued after his death first by Peter Martin writing as Hampton Charles, and later by Sarah J. Mason under the pseudonym Hamilton Crane.
Heron Carvic was an actor and writer, most recognisable today for his voice portrayal of the character Gandalf in the first BBC Radio broadcast version of The Hobbit, and appearances in several television productions, including early series of The Avengers and Dr Who.
Born Geoffrey Richard William Harris in 1913, he held several early jobs including as an interior designer and florist, before developing a successful dramatic career and his public persona of Heron Carvic. He only started writing the Miss Seeton novels in the 1960s, after using her in a short story. Heron Carvic died in a car accident in Kent in 1980.
Hamilton Crane is the pseudonym used by Sarah J. Mason when writing 13 sequels and one prequel to the Miss Seeton series. She has also written detective fiction under her own name, but should not be confused with the Sarah Mason (no middle initial) who writes a rather different kind of book.
After half a century in Hertfordshire (if we ignore four years in Scotland and one in New Zealand), Sarah J. Mason now lives in Somerset—within easy reach of the beautiful city of Wells, and just far enough from Glastonbury to avoid the annual traffic jams.
First published in 2018 by Farrago, an imprint of Prelude Books Ltd
13 Carrington Road, Richmond, TW10 5AA, United Kingdom
www.farragobooks.com
Copyright © Sarah J. Mason 2018
The right of Sarah J. Mason to be identified as the author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-78842-075-4
Version 1.0
Cover design by Patrick Knowles