Sick of Shadows Part 20

When Lady Polly led the ladies to the drawing-room after dinner, she glared again at Daisy's gown and said to her daughter, "You must not pa.s.s on your finest clothes to your companion. That gown is quite unsuitable."

"Miss Friendly designed and made it for her."

"You are sure?"

"Oh, yes."

"She could have her own salon and make a fortune," said Daisy.

"Miss Friendly has enough to do here," snapped the countess, looking enviously at the companion's gown. "I think she should start making clothes for me."

Two days later, the earl's household set out for the country. London was still in the grip of a great frost. As the line of carriages and fourgons moved out into the countryside, white trees and bushes lined the road. Everything seemed still and frozen. Smoke from cottage chimneys rose straight up into the darkening sky.

Rose huddled into her furs. She thought of Dolly now lying under the cold earth in her father's churchyard. Poor Dolly. If only she could find out who had murdered the girl, she felt that Dolly could rest in peace. The letters from Mrs. Tremaine had abruptly ceased, but Rose supposed that it was because she had stopped answering any of them.

Harry had promised to arrive on the following day. It had been very difficult to find a Christmas present for him. Rose had finally settled on buying him a copy of The New Motoring Handbook The New Motoring Handbook. Now she wished she had bought something more expensive, like a pair of gold cuff-links. The bottle of French scent she had bought for Daisy had cost a great deal more than the book.

She found she was missing her work at the soup kitchen. It had given some purpose to her days. She had persuaded her father to let her send six geese to the soup kitchen for Christmas dinners and felt she should have been there in person to serve them.

The work in the East End had made her look too closely at her own life for comfort. When they finally arrived at Stacey Court, all she had to do was go to her rooms and rest while an army of servants unloaded the fourgons, footmen carried up the trunks and maids unpacked the clothes.

She had suggested to her mother that such great divisions between rich and poor were worrying, but Lady Polly had merely pointed out that G.o.d put one in one's appointed station. If Rose wanted to continue with good works at Stacey Court, said the countess, then there were plenty of people in the village who would be glad of her services.

The next day she confided to Matthew Jarvis that sometimes she envied her parents' indifference to the poor. "Your father is not as indifferent as he seems. None of his tenants are allowed to starve or fall sick without treatment," said Matthew. "I have instructions to tell the factor not to collect any rent from the poorest."

Rose wrapped up her Christmas presents and put them on a table under the tree. The servants' hall had their own tree and presents would be given from the earl and countess at the servants' dance, traditionally held in the afternoon of Christmas day.

Harry arrived, polite, attentive and as closed as a shut door. Christmas came and went. Harry gave her a splendid diamond-and-sapphire necklace and she blushed when she handed him that book.

And then, after Boxing Day, one of the maids fell ill with typhoid and part of the drive fell into the cesspool below.

A doctor was summoned to treat the maid. A nurse was hired for her. The factor was instructed to deal with the cesspool and the earl thought it safer to remove everyone back to London.

As they arrived at the town house, it began to snow, small swirling flakes that seemed to rise upwards in the lamplight.

Fires were hurriedly lit. The house was freezing. Rose went to bed that night with two stone hot-water bottles in her bed, or "pigs," as they were called.

She was just drifting off to sleep, watching the flames dancing in the fireplace through half-closed lids, when suddenly she was wide awake.

At last she knew what it was that had been nagging at the back of her brain. She must tell Harry.

She was sure she now knew who had murdered Dolly.

In Yorks.h.i.+re, Berrow and Cyril were feeling more like their horrible selves. They had shot every animal and bird on the estate that they could, had gone wenching in the brothels of York, and were beginning to regret having been so scared of Harry Cathcart.

It was only when the gamekeeper caught a poacher and dragged the man in to see Lord Berrow at gunpoint that Berrow began to have the germ of an idea. "I'll take him to the police," said the gamekeeper.

Berrow eyed the poacher thoughtfully. Most poachers were people who risked prison in order to feed their families during the hard winter, but this one was an unsavoury character with one wall eye, a long nose, and thin greasy hair. He dismissed the gamekeeper.

"Name," barked Berrow.

"John Finch, melord."

"Prison for you, me lad. What do you think of that?"

"Been there. Leastways get fed."

"What were you in prison for?"

"Beating the wife."

"Nonsense, man. Most men beat their wives, as is their right."

"Was living ower near place called Drifton. My Ruby cheeked me, so I took a plank to her. Local copper comes rus.h.i.+ng in. Charges me with a.s.sault and battery. Thought they'd throw it out o' court but d.a.m.ned if they did. When I got out, Ruby was gone."

"You'll get life this time. Second offence."

Finch looked frightened but tried to cover it up with a pathetic attempt to swagger. "Well, go on. Get it over with."

Berrow studied him for a long moment.

"There could be another way."

Rose fretted. Harry had gone out of town on a case. London was buried under great drifts and there were reports that the Thames had frozen.

All she could do was wait impatiently for his return.

Ailsa Bridge lifted her skirt and extracted the flat flask she kept secured by her garter. She took a hearty swig and then began to type again. Harry had a.s.sured her that Berrow and Banks were in Yorks.h.i.+re and that she would be safe from any other attempts.

Her life with her missionary parents in Burma had been full of danger and she had taken many great risks to supply the War Office in London with intelligence. She did not feel as confident as Harry and did not want to worry him. She had bought an old breastplate in an antique shop and was wearing it under her gown. She also had primed Harry's pistol and put it in her own desk.

She heard a step on the stair and stiffened. There was something furtive about that step. The n.o.bility who usually frequented the office would come cras.h.i.+ng in, full of bl.u.s.ter, demanding that some scandal or other be hushed up or some missing dog found.

Ailsa slid open the drawer and took out the pistol, laid it on top of the desk and covered it with her scarf.

The door opened and a man in a tweed coat, knickerbockers and a flat cap came in.

"Where's the captain?" he demanded.

"Out of town. Please leave."

He pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. "Go in there." He jerked his head at the inner office. "Open the safe."

Ailsa's hand crept towards the gun.

Finch saw the movement and shot her full in the chest. Ailsa crashed backwards in her chair and fell to the floor and lay still.

He searched in her desk until he found the keys. He went into the inner office and opened the safe. He was just reaching into it when a shot caught him on the shoulder. He grabbed his wounded shoulder and turned round. White-faced but stern, Ailsa was holding a pistol on him. He looked wildly for the gun, which he had put on Harry's desk, but keeping him covered, Ailsa picked it up and threw it onto the floor.

As he groaned and clutched his shoulder, she picked up the receiver and said in a crisp voice, "Police."

After she had made a statement to the police and they had left with Finch, Ailsa telephoned Harry. He listened in horror and said, "But you said he shot you!"

"I was wearing a breastplate," said Ailsa.

"You are sharper than I am. I'll come straight back. Meanwhile, you will find a negative and a photograph in the safe.

They are in an envelope. Do not look at them. I do not want the police to see them. Please call Phil Marshall and tell him to come and pick them up. The police did not find them, did they?"

"No, I told them he had no time to take anything."

"Go home, Miss Bridge. I shall go directly to Scotland Yard."

Harry was ushered in to see Kerridge. "This is a bad business," he said. "The chap who tried to kill your secretary is an unsavoury character called John Finch. He says he was hired by Lord Berrow, furnished with a gun, told to kill you if necessary and to get a negative out of your safe. We sent a man back and he retrieved the negative. It was nothing but a negative and photograph of a saucy lady in the altogether. Miss Bridge said a client of yours had paid you to get the negative and photo back. She said Berrow knew of the photograph and might use it to ruin her reputation."

Oh, excellent Miss Bridge, thought Harry.

"That is true. I never thought Berrow would go to such extremes. Furthermore I cannot, of course, give you the name of the lady. She has done nothing criminal. What are you doing about Berrow?"

"The police commissioner in York is going out to his estate to arrest him personally."

Oh, the magic of a t.i.tle. If Lord Berrow had been Mr. Bloggs of nowhere, the police would have pounced without warning. But the police commissioner made the mistake of phoning Berrow first and saying he was coming to see him on a grave matter and bringing the chief constable with him.

Berrow rushed to find Cyril, who was potting b.a.l.l.s in the billiard-room. Cyril had highly approved of the plot to hire Finch.

"We've got to get out of here," he said. "The game's up." He told Cyril about the impending visit of the police commissioner and the chief constable.

"What'll we do?"

"Get out the b.l.o.o.d.y country, that's what!"

NINE.

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.-SAMUEL BUTLER

Berrow and Cyril fled as far as Glasgow. Scottish law was different from English law, so surely, they felt, they would feel safe for a while.

They booked into the Central Hotel beside the railway station, sharing a suite and calling themselves the brothers Richmond.

"I say," said Cyril moodily, looking at their great pile of luggage, "we are drawing attention to ourselves with all this stuff. We had to employ a squad of porters to get the few yards round from the station. And I'm sick of this disguise. It's hot." Like Berrow, Cyril was sporting a false beard. They had managed to work their way north by means of several branch railway lines before they arrived tired and weary in Glasgow.

"I've got an idea," said Berrow. "You know that big motor car Cathcart has?"

"What about it?"

"We could get something like that. It would take us and all the luggage. We could then make our way by country roads to Stranraer, get over to Ireland. Great place to hide out, Ireland."

Both had taken with them a considerable amount of money and valuables. The timely warning call from the police had also enabled them to transfer their accounts to a Swiss bank.

"Good idea," said Cyril.

That evening, they inquired at the reception desk for the whereabouts of a motor car salesroom and got directions to a large one in Giffnock.

The following morning, they set out. Pride of the salesroom display was a Rolls-Royce, and Berrow decided that it would be ideal. He paid cash, to the delight of the salesman, who then discovered that neither knew how to drive.

Cyril was taken out on the road for a lesson. After two hours, he decided he knew how to start up and go forward. So long as he was not expected to reverse, he felt he could manage pretty well. They returned to the centre of the city and bought leather motoring coats, leather hats and goggles, and Berrow embellished his ensemble with a long white silk scarf.

Not wanting to cope with the Glasgow traffic, they took a cab back to their hotel. They waited until the following morning and had to hire two of Glasgow's new motorized taxi-cabs to take them and their luggage out to the salesroom.

With Cyril at the wheel, scowling in concentration, they set out on the road. Berrow studied ordnance survey maps. The idea was to go by country roads to Stranraer and take the ferry to Ireland. They planned to hide out in Ireland for a time and then sail to France and make their way to Switzerland.

The weather was fine, with feathery clouds decorating a pale blue sky. The fresh scents of the countryside blew into the open car. Cyril relaxed as he grew more confident.