Jemima produced a bottle of brandy and poured out two glasses.
Selena sat feeling the spirit fire down her throat and into her stomach.
A feeling of lassitude swept over her and she hardly heard Jemima’s horrified reaction to the Earl’s account of Lord Taverner’s iniquity.
Later she managed to revive a little over dinner and realised that both the Earl and Jemima were making every effort to entertain her with stories of amusing incidents of the visitors over the last three days, carefully avoiding any mention of Lord Taverner.
“There was a farmer who came on his cob,” said Jemima. “He wants us to loan him Billy, the elephant, so that he can clear some tree trunks he has felled.
“And there was one splendid fellow who arrived by bicycle, said it was well worth the effort just to see both the portrait of the first Earl and the tiger – he thought that there was something in common about the eyes!”
Suddenly Selena burst out,
“I have had an idea. So far all our visitors have had to provide their own transport. Could we, do you think, hire a vehicle, such as an omnibus, to carry people from the centre of Stallden to here, wait and take them back?”
The merits of her idea were discussed and finally the Earl suggested,
“I think we should wait and see just how popular Wakefield is. It may be that after a week or two everyone who wants to come has already visited –
“But I like the idea,” he ended, smiling at Selena.
“On that note, I think we should bring the evening to an end,” proposed Jemima, rising. “It is time you went to bed. Selena, you have had a most tiring day.”
It was true.
Selena had hardly finished undressing, before she was fast asleep – exhausted.
*
Long before the usual hour, Martha was banging on Selena’s door.
“You must get up, miss, the tiger’s gone!”
Selena looked at her, unable to take in what she was saying.
“You mean someone has stolen Stripey’s cage? But that’s not possible, George would have heard – the other animals would have let him know.”
“Not the cage, miss, the tiger. George has brought the news and now he has gone off to find the Earl. He be bringin’ him back here.”
Selena hurriedly dressed herself and ran downstairs, followed immediately by Jemima.
Soon Martha brought in coffee and bread and was preparing eggs and bacon.
“Food will be needed,” she announced.
She had everything ready by the time the Earl and George joined them.
George outlined what he knew.
“Somethin’ woke me. I don’t know what it was. I couldn’t ’ear anything so I lay in my bunk for a while just listenin’. It were still dark, but the sky was beginnin’ to lighten. Birds were up, but that was all I could ’ear.
“Later on I couldn’t sleep no more so I got up, took my cudgel and stole out, not wantin’ to wake Marie as she can be right mifty if she ’as ’er sleep broken into.”
Outside George had started to check the cages.
“It weren’t that easy at all ’cos of the critters being asleep. Though the parakeets were talkin’ – likes to get goin’ they do and then, last of all, I gets to Stripey’s cage.
“The sliding door were up, which I was certain I didn’t do ’cos of ’ow I likes to clean up first thing, see? Then I realises that the cage door is open and Stripey ’ad gone!”
“And the door was locked last night, George.”
“You knows me, sir,” he replied indignantly. “I just wouldn’t take no chances with somethin’ like that. And I soon saw what ’ad ’appened.”
He reached into his pocket and placed a padlock on the table.
“See, the ’asp is sawed through. Someone came by and did that. I found it on the ground, underneath the cage. Must’ve been that what I ’eard.”
“Risky thing to do with a rampaging tiger ready to be let loose,” commented the Earl.
George shook his head.
“Did’na look risky, sir. He didn’t ’ave to open the door, just cut the padlock. Stripey’s asleep, see. Whoever it is then pulls up the slidin’ door and moves off. Though it was a lot riskier than ’e thought.
“Stripey must’ve been awake ’cos it couldn’t ’ave bin long afore I was on the scene and Stripey ’ad gone by then. Hope the poor fool what did it ain’t lyin’ somewhere with his leg bitten off!”
Selena shuddered.
“But Stripey isn’t really aggressive is he?”
George shook his head.
“Not unless he’s provoked, like what that gent did to ’im yesterday. If Stripey catches up wiv ’im, ’e’s a real goner!”
Selena looked at the Earl in sudden fear.
“I’ve just had a terrible thought. Lord Taverner’s estate is nearby. What if Stripey goes over there?”
“We must alert him. And the whole countryside.”
He sighed deeply.
“Just as we were thinking that events were going our way! This is a disaster. The entire County will be up in arms against us.”
“What are the chances of recapturing him?” Selena asked George.
“There you’ve got me, miss,” he muttered, rubbing his hand up the side of his cheek.
“I’d say there’s a good chance that once old Stripey gets over all the excitement of escapin’, he might very well find it’s all, well, a bit foreign like and thinks ’e’d like to be back in his cage wiv me to look after ’im.”
“How would we recapture him?” enquired the Earl.
“I got a big strong net. It’s always to ’and ’cos you never knows when it might be needed. But I keeps a gun at ’and too – just in case.”
“Oh no!” cried Selena. “You can’t shoot him. Not Stripey!”
“If it’s to be a choice between some innocent being savaged and the tiger being shot, I don’t think there’s much to doubt about the decision,” the Earl advised gently.
Selena felt stricken.
“We have to set out a plan of action,” continued the Earl. “Jemima, some paper and a pen, please.”
A plan was quickly sketched out and soon Joe was sent off to Stallden to inform the Police and then to call in on as many village shops as he could – to include Lord Taverner’s agent.
*
Then the Earl organised a search party, bringing in Sam, Morland and a number of estate workers.
Each man was equipped with a gun and a whistle.
A system of signals was carefully worked out – two long blows told that the tiger had been sighted – one short and one long meant a report of a sighting had been made – three short ones meant come urgently.
Then the Earl gave out his orders,
“We will set out in a long line so we can undertake a systematic combing of the area and I will take my horse in case speed is needed at any stage.”
Just as they were about to start, a horse ridden at top speed dashed into the stable area.
“A message from Lord Taverner,” the rider gasped as he ground to a halt. “He’s heard about the escaped tiger, my Lord, and he says on no account is you to use this as an excuse to invade his property and harry his Lordship. And if the animal sets foot on it, he’ll shoot him dead.”
Selena stifled a whimper of distress.
“Inform his Lordship that we have the matter under control,” answered the Earl calmly. “I would suggest that his Lordship proceeds with care – normally the tiger is not aggressive, but in his Lordship’s case, it may bear a grudge against him.”
The man tipped his finger to his forehead in salute.
“Aye, I’ll tell his Lordship.”
“And also tell his Lordship that I strongly suspect that he is responsible for the escape of the tiger!”
“My Lord?” the servant stammered.
“If I’m wrong, I’ll apologise.”
They searched all that day.
No whistles were
blown. Every now and then they met a scared neighbour. When questioned, the answer was always the same – no, nothing had been seen.
They toiled on.
Just after midday, the Earl asked Sam to go back to the house on his horse to collect all the sandwiches he had instructed Mrs. Cropper to prepare and return with them, together with some bottles of cider.
When Sam returned, the exhausted party broke for refreshment.
“At least it isn’t raining,” said the Earl, finishing off his sandwich.
He told Sam to keep on riding the horse, saying that the higher viewpoint could be an advantage.
By the time the light began to fail a large area had been covered without any sign of the tiger.
“I think we will now have to call it a day,” sighed the Earl.
Just as he was about to blow three short bursts on his whistle, the same signal came from the end of the line.
A ripple of tired excitement and apprehension ran through everyone as they rushed in that direction.
It was Morland who had summoned them.
Beside him sitting on a fallen tree and looking terrified was a local housewife.
Morland’s face was almost as white as hers.
“Mrs. Fry has found a body!” he reported.
CHAPTER NINE
There was a collective gasp of horror from the searchers.
“Mrs. Fry, will you please lead us to the body,” the Earl asked, clearly shaken.
Selena felt panic.
Stripey must have done it, she could hardly bring herself to think it, but it seemed that he had slaughtered someone.
And it was all her fault.
If she had not suggested bringing the menagerie to Wakefield, the tiger would not have had its cage tampered with and he would still be safe inside it. And whoever had been killed would still be alive.
The Earl looked around his helpers.
“George, you had better come with me. Everyone else wait here. You will be a lot safer in a group here than returning to the Hall. Morland, you are in charge whilst I am gone and keep your gun at the ready. George and I will return with news as soon as possible.”
The place where they waited was by a field of cows with calves and Selena tried to concentrate on the sight of the young sucklings, but it was hard to banish the dreadful thoughts that filled her mind.
Soon the evening sky was filled with golden glory edged with red as the sun prepared to set.
To Selena the sight seemed to conjure up visions of a bloody corpse.
With the setting of the sun, the gloom deepened and soon it would be dark. How long would they have to stay here – and where was the tiger?
“The Earl will be back with us very soon or he will send word,” Jemima told the assembled company sounding most confident as a suggestion was made that they should all go home.
“He wouldn’t want us all to wait here in the dark,” muttered Sam.
Just as Selena was beginning to think that Sam was right, the Earl returned, carrying a lantern.
“Thank you so much for waiting, I am sure you have been much safer that way. I can now put all our minds at rest. The so-called ‘body’ is that of a calf. I am sure that the tiger was responsible as the carcass was stripped pretty bare. I think he provided an evening meal for Stripey!”
“And you mean that stupid woman, my Lord, could not see that it had hooves, not feet or hands?”
Sam sounded contemptuous.
“She’s not a country girl – she married into farmer Fry’s family,” responded the Earl soothingly. “She was so terrified, first by the story of the tiger on the loose and then by finding the carcass that she gave it only the briefest of looks.
“Her husband will be going out with his brothers to take the stock into a safe barn as they are terrified of losing another calf. I will, of course, recompense him for the loss he has suffered.”
“I told them there’s no danger of another one goin’, at least not until tomorrow,” added George. “Stripey’s ’ad ’is meal, so ’e’ll be ’appy for the next twenty-four hours.”
The Earl raised the lantern.
“There’s no point in going any further tonight, we will have to start again early in the morning.”
The group followed the Earl back to Wakefield Hall.
The path they followed home seemed very steep to Selena.
“I didn’t realise we were moving downhill during the search,” she commented to Jemima as they walked up a steep incline.
“We were searching in a semi-circle that followed a gentler slope,” she replied. “It’s tougher walking now, but shorter than returning the same way we went.”
Sure enough, they were soon back in the stable yard and the Earl was organising spicy mulled cider from Mrs. Cropper to cheer them up.
Selena sat quietly in the kitchen, watching the now noisy group of searchers and nursing her warming drink in a pewter mug.
Her thoughts went round and round in her mind, trying to think of some way they could find the tiger.
How far would it wander?
She attempted to put herself in the tiger’s place as everything must seem so strange to him. He had found a source of food, but by tomorrow it would have vanished. Would he go further afield or try and follow the scent to where the cattle had gone?
She wondered feverishly where Stripey would find to sleep that night and where he would move to tomorrow.
She tried to visualise the country they had covered, remembering Jemima’s comment.
Gradually the geography took shape in her mind’s eye and she realised that when they had come to a halt, it must have been in a straight line from the top of the hill where the Earl planned to launch his glider.
A crazy idea took hold of her feverish mind.
Crazy because it was something she was terrified of as it could mean terrible danger to the man who was dearer to her than life itself.
But if it could save someone else’s life and it was something he was going to do anyway –
The Earl was leaning against the kitchen dresser, as he joined in the discussion, but not dominating it, allowing it to be one where everyone was equal.
He smiled at Selena as she joined him.
“Exhausted?”
“A little,” she confessed, wondering how tired she looked.
“My Lord,” she started, as she would never call him Alex in front of his staff.
“Is your glider ready to fly?”
He looked curiously at her.
“Why do you ask?”
Then, as he studied her face, light began to dawn.
“You’re thinking that if I launched it tomorrow, I might be able to see where the tiger is?”
“Do you think you might? You told Sam to keep riding along with us, because it gave him a better view – well, the view from your glider would be even better.”
“It’s not impossible,” he mused. “But the wind has to be in the right direction. It could be the answer if it is. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.”
At that moment Mrs. Cropper produced a huge dish of stewed chicken and placed it on the table with a pile of plates and knives and forks.
“You all help yourselves,” she called, adding boiled carrots and potatoes to the feast.
“Mrs. Cropper, you are a real genius,” exclaimed Jemima. “How could you produce such a perfect meal without any notice?”
“Bless you, I have had more than enough notice. The moment you all set off, I started killing chickens as I knew that sandwiches would not be sufficient by the time you returned!”
Tucking into the delicious spread, Selena was most impressed at the thoughtfulness of Mrs. Cropper – the Earl certainly had staff who could think for themselves.
Selena now wondered if she was beginning to take control of her life rather than letting circumstances dictate her future.
If only they could find and recapture Stripey before more than a calf suffered, perhaps she really could take charge of
her own fate for the first time.
*
Next morning Selena’s first thought as she woke up with the dawn chorus was about the wind. Would there be enough? And would it be blowing in the right direction for the Earl to make his all-important glider flight?
Unless, of course, news arrived that the tiger had already been found.
But there was no news.
The Earl had suggested Selena present herself in his workshop, dressed in her riding habit.
When she got there, she could see immediately that preparations for a flight were already under way.
The glider now had a rudimentary seat in the centre of the machine and a complicated web of wires that led directly to the rudder at the rear and to the wings.
Sam was attending to something on the tail and the Earl was bent over the wing struts.
“Did you check the one that was damaged, Sam?”
“Of course, my Lord.”
“How did it get damaged?” enquired Selena.
“A faulty throw of the hammer,” the Earl answered. “And I have to confess that I was the one that lobbed it to Sam and it was my aim that wasn’t straight!”
“But we’ve replaced the strut,” added Sam quickly. “And the machine is quite ready now.”
“What about the wind?” asked Selena nervously.
“Could not be more perfect,” replied the Earl.
He was dressed in leather dungarees and jacket and high boots. Leather gauntlets and a helmet sat on a bench.
There was a rumble from the yard and the clip-clop of horses’ hooves.
“Ah,” exclaimed the Earl, “our transport.”
He and Sam opened the double doors of the barn.
Outside Morland was driving a long low cart pulled by a heavy shire horse.
As soon as the doors were opened, he backed the cart into the barn.
“Right,” called the Earl. “Careful, now.”
Selena watched intently as the three of them gently manoeuvred the glider off its bench and onto the cart. The wings overhung the side of the cart and she hoped that they would not be damaged as the vehicle with its precious load was driven towards the hill.
George was there too with a huge pile of netting loaded into a wheelbarrow and beside him stood Jemima with the trap, its horse already harnessed.
Love Came From Heaven Page 11
