by Wendy Gill
"He taught me to fly a kite, to fish, to fence, to ride a horse and shoot. He took me abroad and so I have a vast amount of knowledge in all these things. My practical work in the classroom left much to be desired. I had tutor after tutor, none willing to stay and teach me schooling, they did not agree with the way my father was bringing me up.
"I guess that is one of the reasons I am not a very good governess, but the skills he taught me have been more use to me than ABC or 1-2-3. I can fight with the best of them and since trying my hand at this governess lark, those skills have come in very handy on more than one occasion.
“In fact, in all three cases where I gained employment as a governess the eldest son of the house soon found out that I was not fair game in their love interests and they all got me dismissed,” Ella told him.
Mr Grundy burst out laughing at this and stood up saying, “Come now, enough for tonight. I will show you to your room. There will be time enough tomorrow to carry on this conversation.”
Mr Grundy held out his hand and she placed hers in it. Standing up Ella followed the portly gentleman out of the kitchen and up the steep narrow staircase and along the landing.
Opening a door at the head of the landing, Ella walked into a bedroom and turned to say goodnight and thank you for all he had done, but he would hear none of it.
Mr Grundy held out her carpetbag and told her, “There is a bolt on your side of the door. If it makes you feel safe, it is there to be used, goodnight my dear, sweet dreams.”
Ella took her carpetbag and closed the door, but she did not put the bolt across. She would give the old gentleman the benefit of the doubt, but she would take her pistol and put it under her pillow before she rested her head on it, just in case.
Chapter Three
When Ella finally opened her eyes the following morning, the sun was shining into the bedroom through a crack in the curtains. It had been a long time since she’d had the luxury of having a lie-in on a Saturday morning.
She dressed and went over to the window to draw back the curtains. To her delight, the scene that met her eyes was a joy to behold.
Her window overlooked the thatched roof of the extension which in turn bordered a large meadow that fell away and joined what looked like a river that flowed on and disappeared in the large wood that lay at the far end of the meadow.
Birds flew overhead, and she watched as a hawk chased a sparrow and was more than pleased when the little sparrow made a dive for the thatched roof and the hawk swerved and flew away. No little sparrow for his breakfast this morning, thought Ella.
She was about to turn away when she observed the figure of a man limping across the meadow and one arm hanging at a funny angle by his side. He too made for the extension and was lost from sight.
Hurrying out of her bedroom, Ella headed downstairs and into the kitchen where she found Mr Grundy eating a thick slice of toast with loads of butter melting on top of it.
“Just in time for some breakfast, it would seem we have both had a lie-in this morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, thank you Mr Grundy, it was a wonderful sleep. I have not felt so rested for a long time.”
“Good. Sit down and have something to eat, then we will go into town and do some shopping. Once we have that out of the way, we will have the rest of the day to show you around and explain things in a little more detail.”
A loud banging on the front door made Ella jump out of her skin and Mr Grundy spill his tea.
“Who the devil is that trying to break down my door?” he raged as he stood up and headed for the front door.
Ella heard raised voices and two smartly dressed gentlemen came striding into the kitchen with Mr Grundy following behind.
“You have no right to come barging in here, no right at all. There is nobody here except for my niece and I, as you can see. Will you please leave my house immediately?”
“We saw him heading this way. We are going to have to search the house before we leave. He cannot have gone much further, he had a bullet in his leg and I think we winged his shoulder too. You search upstairs Bert, and I will do the same down here,” the taller of the two gentlemen said to his companion.
Bert headed up the stairs and the speaker of the pair did his rounds on the ground floor with Mr Grundy following close behind him, telling him he would hear more about this and demanding to know who they were.
The speaker ignored poor Mr Grundy and they met Bert at the bottom of the stairs. Bert shook his head and the speaker turned to Mr Grundy and asked him who lives in the building at the side of the house.
“Nobody lives there. It was my wife’s workshop when she was alive. Who is it you are looking for, whoever it is, he is not here.”
“We will have to have a look anyway, to make sure, lead the way,” the speaker stood aside and indicated the front door to Mr Grundy.
Mr Grundy did not move.
“It would be better for you and this young woman if you comply with my request,” Mr Grundy was told.
The tall thin man and Mr Grundy locked eyes.
Mr Grundy relented and went over to a cupboard at the side of the sink, opened a drawer and took out a bunch of keys. Mr Grundy then walked straight passed the speaker, pushing him against the wall with his huge bulk before heading out with the tall stranger following.
Ella looked at Bert, who was still standing on the bottom step of the stairs and he indicated to her, with a nod of the head, towards the front door. She made her exit out of the front door and round the side of the house and was just in time to see Mr Grundy fumbling with the door before he managed to open it and walk in. The tall stranger followed.
So did Ella and Bert.
Mr Grundy went to stand by the window and Ella went to join him.
As she headed his way, she saw in front of a dome-topped trunk, a few drops of blood on the floor so she went and sat on the trunk, primly folding her hands on her lap at the same time hiding the drops of blood with the hem of her gown.
“We saw him heading this way, out of the wood,” the speaker told them. “He cannot have gotten very far with a bullet in his leg.”
“Did you see whoever this poor man is, entering my house or this workshop?” Mr Grundy demanded.
“No,” was the reply.
“Then you have no right to enter either of these properties without my consent. What I want to know is, who you are? I shall write a letter of complaint to the Chief Constable.”
“I should not bother if I was you, he can’t do anything about it. You should be grateful to us for making sure our prey is not hiding here, he is a dangerous character. Once we have made sure he is not here, we will be on our way,” the tall gentleman said.
Ella and Mr Grundy watched the two men look under the desk and behind a curtain that hid a little kitchenette. Their search proved to be fruitless and when they could find nowhere else that could possibly hide a man, they gave up the search.
“I think your prey as you call him; will be well on his way to escape by now. You have wasted too much time here looking for someone that does not exist,” Mr Grundy told them.
The speaker looked at Bert. “Let’s go.”
Ella and Mr Grundy watched the two unwelcome guests head back across the meadow and vanish back into the wood from which they had come.
“What do you make of that?” a shocked Mr Grundy asked.
Ella stood up and moved away from the trunk. “He’s in the trunk.”
“Who is in the trunk?”
“The man they are looking for. That was what I had come downstairs to tell you. I drew my curtains back and saw this man come running out of the wood, limping badly and his arm hanging loose at his side. He then disappeared beneath my bedroom window. I never saw the two men though; they must have come out of the wood while I was making my way downstairs to the kitchen.”
“You mean there is someone hiding here? The door was not locked when I came to unlock it. I must have forgotten to lock it the last time
I was in here, so I suppose it is possible for someone to have used the workshop as a bolt hole.”
Ella nodded and indicated the drops of blood on the floor.
“He’s in the trunk?” whispered Mr Grundy after observing the drops of blood.
Ella nodded again. “I am only guessing. Was that blood there the last time you came in here?”
“How the devil should I know, I do not go around looking for pools of blood at the base of trunks,” said a confounded Mr Grundy.
“There is only one way to find out,” Ella went towards the trunk.
“You are not going to open it, are you?”
“How else will we know if he is in there or not? Anyway, we need to see if he is alright. If he is losing blood, he must be hurt. If you think he will be of danger to us, I will go and get my pistol and that should make you feel safer.”
“Very well, but I will open the trunk just in case he is dangerous. There is no need for firearms, they are nasty things, you never know when they will go off and I might be at the receiving end. You leave your pistol where it is.” Mr Grundy bent down and lifted the trunk lid and stepped quickly back.
Sure enough there he was, a gentleman curled up in the foetal position, head slumped forward onto his chest and his eyes closed.
“Bless my soul, nothing like this has ever happened before,” Mr Grundy said staring at the motionless figure.
“We must try to get him out of there and see what we can do to help him,” Ella said.
“Go next door and get Charlie, he will know what to do,” Mr Grundy told her.
“Who is Charlie? Why don’t you go and get Charlie? You know him, I do not.”
“I am not leaving you here on your own with the man in the trunk. What if he regains consciousness? Those two thugs said he was dangerous. A fine protector I would turn out to be. Fran would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you. Charlie will know what to do. He is my friend as well as my neighbour. Go on, hurry up and bring Charlie back.”
Reluctantly Ella used the doorknocker of the house next door and waited, nothing happened. She rattled the doorknocker again and waited, still nothing happened. She began to pound the knocker continuously until the door swung open, and there stood a middle-aged man, dressed in loose fitting clothes and in need of a shave and a good hairbrush.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Are you Charlie?”
“He’s in the library if you want him.”
“I do, I do want him, can you tell him please?”
“You will have to wait while I go and get him then,” he closed the door on her and she was left standing on the doorstep, all she could do was stand and wait.
The gentleman in the library looked up from his desk and asked, “Where is the fire Jackson?”
“Stood outside on the doorstep, said she wants you.”
“It’s a she knocking my door down, is it? And she wants me, does she? What is the verdict, Jackson?”
“She is the one.”
“The devil she is.”
“Aye, it took a long time coming, but she is here now.”
“Who is she?”
“She is your woman not mine, so you go and see her. It is you she wants not me. Do you want me to do all the work? Besides, if Blanche found out I had been talking to a woman on the doorstep she would be none too pleased.”
Charlie stood up and went to the door with Jackson tagging along behind.
When Charlie opened the door, he observed a young woman in a plain grey woollen dress, her mousey brown hair tightly tied back in a bun, pacing to and fro on his top step.
The young lady stopped pacing and observed the two gentlemen watching her. “Are you, Charlie?”
“I am A Charlie; whether I am THE Charlie you are seeking is yet to be established.”
“How many Charlies live here?”
“There are other Charlies residing here, by nature rather than by name,” he pointedly looked at Jackson.
“I want you,” Ella told him.
Charlie was dressed in white shirt, tight black trousers and highly polished top boots.
The white shirt was open at the neck and Ella had a difficult time keeping her eyes averted from the brown chest hair that was peeping out.
“I am very gratified by the thought that you want me, especially as Jackson has given his approval.”
“He has given his approval for what?”
“You of course, Jackson approves of you.”
“Me! He does not know me. He has never laid eyes on me before this day so how can he give his approval of me?”
“He has not met a lot of other women either, but of the ones he has met he has never given any of them his approval, so that makes you a very interesting person.”
“What exactly is he giving you his approval for?”
“For us to get married, what else could it be?”
“He has given you his approval to marry me?”
“He has.”
“I gather you are not married already then?”
“No.”
“So basically, your name is Charlie and you have a few other Charlies residing here, you are not married, and you have to have the approval of Jackson before you can get married?”
“That is correct.”
“Do you usually conduct interviews standing on your doorstep?”
Charlie glanced down at his doorstep and asked, “You have taken offence to my doorstep? Jackson, have you been neglecting your duties and not keeping my doorstep clean?”
“Why should I put myself out to clean the doorstep? The rain does a good job of washing it and the wind blows anything away that is not tied down.”
“That is fair comment, don’t you think?” Charlie asked her.
Ella could not contain herself any longer and she set off in a fit of laughter that she had difficulty in controlling.
When she regained control of herself, she continued, “Are you and Jackson capable of dealing with a body in a trunk?”
“A body in a trunk you say. Is it dead or alive?”
“We do not know. The good news is he was alive when he went into the trunk, for he climbed in himself, whether he has died since we do not know. There is a certain amount of blood. We are told he has been shot. I have been sent to fetch you.”
“Are you married?”
“I am not.”
“So basically, you are not married, you want me, and you have an alive or dead body in a trunk.”
“That is correct.”
“You might just be right this time Jackson, if you are, it will be the first time in your life. She sounds just the sort of girl for me. Get your bag.”
“I am totally undervalued,” Jackson muttered, turning to get his bag.
“You are not surprised we have a body in a trunk?” asked Ella.
“Bodies in trunks are my speciality,” he smiled down at her.
When Jackson returned with his little black bag, Ella turned and headed for the workshop with the two eccentric gentlemen following her.
“Where are we going?” asked Jackson.
“We are following this delightful young woman to the ends of the earth?” replied Charlie.
“Here we go again. You might be following her to the ends of the earth, but I am damned if I am,” muttered Jackson.
Ella had a thought. She wondered how many Charlies lived in the house next door. She stopped and turned, and Charlie crashed straight into her. Instinctively, he put his arms around her to steady the collision and Jackson in turn, hurrying to keep up with them, crashed into the back of Charlie.
Ella found herself clasped to Charlie’s chest and her eyes were on the level with his unbuttoned shirt and for a brief second, she allowed herself a crafty glimpse before looking up into Charlie’s gentle, amused blue eyes and her mind went blank.
“Jackson, get off my back,” Charlie said still looking down at Ella.
“You first,” he said, “You let go of the gir
l and I will get off your back. Until you have learnt not to take girls in your arms after only five minutes of making their acquaintance I am sticking like glue, for the girl’s sake. There is no wonder you cannot keep a girl if you go mauling her as soon as you meet her. I thought you would have known better by now, given your age and lack of success with the women.”
"Jackson was found on a rubbish heap and was brought to me by Fran, the lady that lived next door. She said she did not want her precious Mr Grundy, landed with someone she had found on a rubbish dump. He was in a wretched state, even worse than he is now if you can believe that. He was unconscious and when he came to, he could not remember a thing.
“I think, his being booted off planet Mars and landing on his head in that rubbish dump has made him addled. Fran should have left him there, on the rubbish heap where he belonged. I fed him once and now for the devil of me I cannot shake him off,” Charlie explained.
“When I find a kennel that offers better food and accommodation than you do, I shall be off,” replied Jackson.
Charlie felt Ella’s body pressed close to his, shaking with laughter and he only released her when she made a move to turn away. All thoughts of what she was going to say had completely gone out of her head.
She had not had such a good time since her father died. For the past three years it had all been very hard, depressing and boring work. She could see no happy future for herself, but the last two days had turned out to be very interesting and entertaining. She even had a body in a trunk; there are not many people of her acquaintance that could boast that.
Ella was still laughing when she opened the door to Fran’s workshop and found Mr Grundy sitting at the desk, his eyes glued to the trunk.
Mr Grundy stood up when the door opened, and he wobbled across to Charlie.
“Thank goodness you were in Charlie. Look at this.” He pointed to the inert body in the trunk.
“What have you been up to now Clarence? I thought you didn’t like firearms of any kind?” Charlie asked poor Mr Grundy after seeing the blood seeping from the bullet holes and spreading into the inert man’s clothes.
“I did not do it. Two well-dressed thugs pushed their way into my house and ransacked it, said I was hiding somebody. I have never hidden anybody in my house before, never had the need. I got the shock of my life when Ella told me there was a man in the trunk and when I opened it, there he was. I could not believe it, but there he is.”