by A. O'Connor
Margaret nodded, relieved. “Now, we don’t have much time to act. We’ve very little time to save that girl upstairs from having her life ruined and all of us along with her. The police will have to be called very shortly.”
“The police!” said Arabella, panicking about Prudence. She hadn’t even thought about that side of it. She sat in the Queen Anne chair shaking, a full glass of undiluted gin in her hand.
Margaret locked the door into the room.
Victoria sat down on a couch beside Harrison, his arm around her. Emily went and stood beside Arabella.
Margaret surveyed them all.
“This is what we’re going to tell everyone. Victoria never came here last night. Charles left the house in his carriage to come and discuss estate matters with me. He left the house in a carriage, on his own, and as he was leaving the main gates, he was ambushed by a peasant farmer and shot. Harrison was visiting me at Hunter’s Farm at the time. When I heard the shot, I opened my door and saw a peasant rushing by on the road with a shotgun. I called Harrison and he went down to the road and saw the carriage stopped up at the main gates, so we drove up in the motor car and found Charles unconscious in his carriage.”
All eyes widened as they stared at Margaret.
“But why are you saying such a thing?” demanded Victoria.
“Because it’s the only way to avoid Prudence’s life being ruined. If what happened comes out she will be finished.”
“Ohhh!” cried Arabella as she started to shake madly.
“I don’t think I can go along with this lie,” said Victoria.
“You will go along with it! Otherwise it won’t just be Prudence ruined, we all will be. Prudence says you were eloping with Charles. Is that correct?”
“Of course I wasn’t!” shouted Victoria. “I came to warn him I’d heard his life was in danger from a threat from an evicted farmer.”
“And you led him to his demise by doing so,” Margaret accused.
Victoria sank her hands into her face.
“But how can we get away with that?” asked Arabella, suddenly hopeful.
“Only we know what actually happened. Who will disbelieve us for a second? We are Armstrongs – they will not doubt us,” announced Margaret. “Why would they doubt us? Charles was much hated and his life under known threat. They just blew up his motor car and threw a rock through his bedroom window last week.”
“It’s a cover-up!” objected Victoria.
“What’s the alternative? Prudence will be destroyed and so will we all be if the truth ever comes out. It’ll be in all the newspapers, here, England, America. An earl shot by his daughter as he tried to run off with his sister-in-law, a Van Hoevan! And regardless of that not being the truth, that is what will be said, Victoria.”
“I don’t want Prudence connected with this shooting,” Arabella said with determination as she shook.
“Emily?” Margaret asked.
“I’ll say nothing,” Emily agreed.
“Harrison?”
Harrison turned to Victoria. “It’s our only way out of this. Mother’s right, Victoria, the scandal will overwhelm us.”
“Victoria?” asked Margaret, staring coldly at her.
Victoria looked at Harrison and then finally nodded.
“Good. Now we’ve very little time to get the story watertight,” said Margaret.
There was a knock on the front door. Emily rushed to the window and looked out.
“It’s a policeman!”
Margaret stood up with confidence. “I’ll take care of this.”
She walked out into the hall where she found Fennell coming up from the stairs behind the main staircase.
“I’ll take care of this, Fennell. Return to the servants’ quarters immediately. You and the servants are to remain there until I say so,” said Margaret.
“Very good, my lady,” nodded Fennell, looking bemused, as he quickly retreated back to the kitchens.
Margaret unlocked the door and found a young policeman standing there.
“Good morning, my lady. The hospital has reported an incident here. Lord Armstrong was admitted there last night after being shot. There’s a motor car down at the gate that looks –”
“I need you to return to Castlewest with immediacy and inform your superior, Sergeant Cunningham, to come here,” ordered Margaret.
The young policeman looked at her, surprised. “Could I just ask exactly what happened?”
“Young man, Lord Charles Armstrong has been shot by a criminal is what has happened. Now get me Kevin Cunningham!”
The young policeman nodded and rushed to his bicycle and cycled off.
Margaret came quickly back into the room and then watched as the policeman cycled quickly off down the drive.
“We need to get that motor car away as quickly as possible. Harrison, take Victoria away from here back to Ocean’s End in the motor car and hide it. Wash it and have that windscreen removed.”
“But that policeman will have seen the motor car at the gates,” said Emily.
“Yes, we’ll say Harrison abandoned it there last night as he took Charles to hospital in the carriage,”
“But he’ll have seen the glass and blood in the car!” said Victoria.
“Never mind that,” said Margaret.
“But –” began Victoria.
“Oh shut up, Victoria and do as I say! I’ve known Sergeant Kevin Cunningham since he was a boy. He will believe me and never dare to question me, over what some silly young policeman thought he saw. Now go!” Margaret pushed them out the French windows.
chapter 79
An hour later Sergeant Kevin Cunningham was shown in by Fennell.
“Lady Armstrong, this is appalling news. You wished to see me?”
“Yes, Kevin, come in,” said Margaret.
Kevin went into the parlour and interviewed them all separately. Margaret was interviewed first.
“I was at home in Hunter’s Farm with my son Harrison who was visiting me. My daughter Emily had gone to bed. I suddenly heard a gunshot, Kevin. I was expecting my son Charles for a visit –”
“Why so late?”
“He had been busy with the estate all day and it was the only time he could see me. When I heard the gunshot I rushed to my front door and opened it.”
“Were you not frightened to open the door?”
She smiled at him. “It would take more than that to frighten me, Kevin.”
Kevin nodded appreciatively.
“Then I saw a peasant man rushing by Hunter’s Farm with a shotgun. I thought he might be a poacher or something. I called Harrison and he walked out to the main road and saw the carriage up at the main gates, where the man was running from. I was concerned over Charles as I had been expecting him, so we went up in the motor car to see what was going on. We found Charles . . .” Margaret broke off and dabbed her eyes with a handkerchief.
“Terrible for you . . . And?”
“And Harrison got him to the hospital as quickly as possible. We came up to Armstrong House and informed Arabella.”
“Why didn’t you call the police straight away?” asked Kevin.
“I presumed Harrison had told you, and he presumed we were telling you.”
“Where’s Harrison now?”
“He’s at his home with his wife at Ocean’s End. He was at the hospital all night and came straight here this morning to tell us how Charles was and collect his motor car. She must have been frantic with worry, wondering where he was.”
Arabella sat opposite Kevin, shaking.
“I’m sorry, I know how upsetting this is for you,” sympathised Kevin.
Arabella nodded.
“Tell me what happened, Lady Armstrong, in your own time.”
Arabella’s voice kept breaking as she spoke. “I was sitting here reading after Charles had gone down to visit his mother. Next thing my mother-in-law and Emily arrived up to tell me my husband had been shot and taken to the hospital.”
/> “You didn’t think to go to the hospital?”
“And leave my daughter asleep upstairs at a time like this? No. Besides, after what happened to Charles we were too scared to go out and leave the house in case the gunman was still there waiting for us.”
“Very wise. Did you hear anything suspicious?”
“Not a thing.”
“What about the servants?”
“Nothing. They go to bed early.”
Emily came into the parlour and sat down.
“I really saw or heard nothing,” said Emily. “I was at Hunter’s Farm when Mother came and said Charles had been shot. We both came up to Armstrong House to tell Arabella.”
Harrison opened the door at Ocean’s End.
“Hello, Kevin,” he said, leading him into the parlour.
“This is a very unfortunate business,” said Kevin, sitting down. “I just left Armstrong House and everyone is devastated. I just want to ask a few questions so we catch the person who did this to your brother.”
Harrison nodded, sitting down.
“Can you just tell me what happened?”
“When we found him shot, I took him to the hospital straight away.”
“Sorry – there’s one thing that I have to ask. Why not take him in your motor car? I believe you travelled to Hunter’s Farm in that to see your mother?”
“The motor car is my wife’s, and I find it unreliable – it keeps breaking down, and I didn’t want to risk it.”
Kevin nodded. “They are unpredictable, they’ll never catch on.”
“And that’s it really. They operated on him when I got him to the hospital.”
“You didn’t see anyone suspicious as your mother did?”
“No, I didn’t go to the front door of Hunter’s Farm with her.”
“You wife wasn’t with you?”
“No – Victoria was at home.”
“I won’t take up any more of your time, you look exhausted. We’re about to start interviews with everyone on the estate and in the town. I’m aware that one of Lord Armstrong’s evicted tenants had made threats he would kill him a couple of weeks ago. A Joe McGrath. He’s been in a lot of bother with the police before. We’re trying to find him, but he doesn’t have any family so we don’t know where he is.”
Victoria sat in her bedroom in the same trance she had been in since the shooting.
Harrison came in and looked at her. “The police have left.”
“Did they believe what you said?” she asked.
“Of course,” he said.
She nodded and stared out the window at the sea.
chapter 80
Later on in the week Sergeant Kevin Cunningham was at his desk in the police station in Castlewest with the file on Charles’ shooting opened in front of him. They had conducted extensive interviews on the estate and in the town. It was obvious Charles Armstrong was much hated and it was only a matter of time before something like this would happen. They were trying to locate an evicted tenant called Joe McGrath who had openly boasted he would shoot Charles. McGrath seemed to have escaped to America before they could arrest him.
A young policeman, Tadhg Murnahan, knocked and entered.
“I have those photographs developed from the morning after Lord Armstrong’s shooting,” he said, handing them over.
Kevin inspected the photographs and saw the motor car with the bullet-hole through the windscreen.
“Did any of the Armstrongs know you took these photographs?” he asked, looking up.
“No, I took them just before I called to their house. It’s as I told you, sir, there was a bullet-hole in the windscreen and blood all over the inside of the motor car,” said Tadgh anxiously.
Kevin nodded to him. “Right. That’ll be all.”
Tadgh made for the door.
“Murnahan!”
“Sir?”
Kevin hesitated then leant forward and said, “I expect you to be absolutely discreet about this whole matter. Don’t talk to anyone whatsoever about it – not even our colleagues. Do you understand?”
“Not a word, Sergeant. You can rely on me.”
“I know I can. Good work, by the way, Murnahan. With your grasp of modern police methods, I can see you’ll go far.”
“Thank you, sir.”
After the young man had left, Kevin studied the photos intently. Then he reread Lady Margaret’s and the others’ statements. He sat back in his chair thinking.
It wasn’t adding up. He thought about the Armstrongs. They were still very powerful. He remembered growing up on the estate and the food and clothes Lord Lawrence sent down to his family during hard times. He remembered Lady Margaret coming to his mother’s sick bed in their cottage and holding her hand while she died.
And later on, Margaret had encouraged him to join the police force and had used her influence in Dublin to get him promoted to sergeant. He owed them a lot. And their influence could make or break a policeman’s career. He knew this family. They had been the most powerful and respected family in those parts for years. What they said could not be doubted. Kevin took the photographs and buried them at the bottom of the file.
chapter 81
Victoria stood at the back of the garden at Ocean’s End looking at the waves lap against the beach. Soon she and Harrison would be the other side of that ocean starting their new life. She heard the motor car start up and turned and saw it being driven away from the house by the garage owner in Dublin it was sold to, its windscreen long since replaced, ready to start its own new life with a new owner.
She had relived that night over and over again in her mind. The gun firing first and only just missing her. The gun firing a second time and striking Charles. Victoria hadn’t returned to Armstrong House again or met with any of the Armstrongs.
Their agreed deceit was a bond that she feared would break if she met them and spoke to them. Harrison had been in constant contact with them. She knew all that was happening through him. Charles drifting back and forth from critical status. Arabella a bundle of nerves. It wasn’t clear what was pushing her over the edge – what had happened to Charles or what Prudence had done, or fear of the truth coming out. Margaret had reigned over all proceedings, her iron will and her surefootedness stoic and unbreakable. As for Prudence, Harrison never mentioned her and Victoria never asked. All Victoria knew was that her own belief in her capabilities, her own strength, had very nearly cost her her life. Harrison always said she thought she could fix anything and anybody. Now she was fully aware of how limited she was.
“Everything’s been packed up,” said Harrison as he walked down the garden to her. “The removal men will be here in an hour.”
She nodded and reached out for his hand which he took.
“We need to get going, or we’ll miss the train,” he said.
His words brought back her own words that night to Charles and she got a shiver.
She nodded and smiled and they turned and walked back through the garden hand in hand.
chapter 82
Summer 1904
Arabella stood at her bedroom window looking out at the sunny day. She could see two of the footmen carrying Charles across the forecourt with Prudence directing them. Charles was mostly in his room since he returned from hospital, but Prudence had insisted he get some fresh air that day. Arabella felt herself tremble as she replayed in her mind the last few months. Charles hovering near death for months. When he finally came home he could barely walk and rarely talked and needed a nurse at all times. If he could remember what happened that fateful night he never said, and went along with the conspiracy Lady Margaret had insisted on. It saved Prudence from ruin, and that was Arabella’s main concern.
Then the government had called an inquiry and they all had to testify at that as well. Arabella remembered herself shaking with nerves as she testified. As for Prudence, the girl seemed unaffected. She had just been her normal self and Arabella often wondered if she had a mental block causing a me
mory loss of what she did that night. Arabella certainly never broached the subject – in fact, nobody ever mentioned it, as an unwritten rule.
“Mama! Mama!” shouted Prudence from the gardens, waving up at her. Arabella waved back and knew she must go down to them. She took a quick swig of gin and went downstairs. She walked down the steps into the terraced garden where Prudence had organised a table set up with afternoon tea. Charles was sitting in a wheelchair, staring out across the lake.
“Isn’t it a beautiful day, Mama? I was just telling Papa he needs to get out every day and enjoy the weather and he’ll be feeling better in no time,” said Prudence happily.
“Yes, if nurse agrees,” said Arabella, sitting down in the chair left for her at the table.
“I’m sure she will. She’s much better than the last nurse I sent on her way last week,” said Prudence.
Arabella reached out for the silver teapot and started to lift it to pour herself tea. Suddenly her hands started shaking and the tea spilling. Prudence jumped up from her seat and grabbed the teapot.
“Let me do it for you, Mama,” she said, pouring the tea. She picked up Charles’ cup and brought it to him. “Do you want a sip yet?”
“No,” he said, his gaze never leaving the hills in the distance at the other side of the lake.
“No bother!” said Prudence, putting down the cup and sitting down. “Just think, Pierce will be home from school soon, and we’ll have the whole summer to be together! We can do all the things we used to do.”
epilogue
Present Day
Kate and Nico were considering the information that had been revealed by the re-emergence of Mrs Fennell’s last page of her diary.
As Kate looked around the drawing room she tried to imagine the scene that had played out there in 1903 between Arabella, Charles and Victoria which seemed to have led to him being shot that night.
“So since Victoria was in the passenger side of the car and that’s where the bullet was aimed at, it seems she was the intended target in the car all along, and Charles somehow got hit in a crossfire,” said Kate.
