by CW Browning
“Is he sure the window wasn’t just left off the latch?” she asked after a moment of silence.
“Oh, it was definitely forced. He had to call a locksmith to come out and replace the lock. While he was at it, he replaced all the locks on the ground floor.” Rob leaned against the window sill and looked at her. “Everything seemed fine and the local police put it down to kids. But it did get me thinking that perhaps Mum shouldn’t be here all alone.”
“She’s not all alone, though. She has the servants.”
“But for how long? Thomas won’t go anywhere. He’s too old to join up, bless him, and so is his wife. And I suppose Jones will stay on with the horses, and Samuel to take care of the cars and drive her. But the others will probably go, and then Mum will be in this old house alone, with only the older servants.”
Evelyn pressed her lips together thoughtfully. “Auntie Agatha is coming in January,” she said slowly. “She’s going to stay indefinitely. Mum said that she doesn’t want to stay in London while there’s a war on. Can’t say I blame her. If Hitler does attack, London will be hit hard. So Mum will at least have her.”
“That’s true.” Rob brightened. “And I defy anyone to try to break in while she’s around. The woman’s terrifying.”
Evelyn was surprised into a laugh. “She’s hardly terrifying. She’s just rather blunt.”
They were both quiet for a moment, Rob smoking at the window and Evelyn staring at the wall, lost in thought.
“It was the study, you said?” she asked suddenly, turning her eyes back to him.
He nodded and leaned out the window to put out the cigarettes on the bricks before tossing the butt away.
“Yes, why?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s just disconcerting. I mean, that was Dad’s domain. The thought of a stranger breaking in there...”
He nodded and closed the window again.
“I know what you mean. That’s how I felt when I heard. It’s almost like a desecration somehow.” He looked down at her. “I wish you weren’t stuck up in Scotland. I’d feel better if you were stationed somewhere closer. Not that you could be of any help from an air field, but at least you wouldn’t be hours away.”
“Actually, I’m being reassigned after Christmas,” she told him. “I don’t know where yet, but I think it will be closer to London.”
His face lit up. “Really? That’s fantastic news! Why didn’t you say anything last night?”
“I didn’t think of it,” she said with a shrug. “But being closer to London won’t help Mum at all. It’s a four-hour drive.”
“Still better than Scotland,” he said, turning to go towards the door. “That makes me feel heaps better. And we can meet in London once in a while!”
Evelyn grinned. “Yes, so I’ve been told,” she murmured. “Don’t get your hopes up, though. I don’t know where I’ll be yet.”
“Doesn’t matter where you are if you’re closer to London.” He reached for the door handle. “And I’m sure I’m just making a mountain out of a mole hill with the study window. It was probably just some kids on a dare, as the police said. Nothing’s happened since, and Thomas has been vigilant about ensuring all the windows are secured every night. With Auntie Agatha here, I’m sure everything will be just fine. I’m going to hunt out Miles and see if he fancies a game of billiards before luncheon. Care to join us?”
“I’m going to finish writing this letter, but I may join you later,” she said absently.
“Right-o.”
And with that, he went out the door. Evelyn stared at it for a long moment, deep in thought, then her eyes slowly shifted to look at the wardrobe consideringly. Getting up, she crossed the room and opened the doors, pushing dresses and skirts out of the way to reveal shelves built into the back. She reached up to the top shelf and pulled down a wooden box, turning to carry it over to the desk. Setting it down, she stared at it thoughtfully.
The smallish box was made out of smooth wood with several panels connecting together seamlessly. It was a Chinese puzzle box, and ever since their stint in Hong Kong, her father had delighted in giving her a new one every year on her birthday. Each year they got progressively more difficult, and this one she hadn’t figured out yet.
Evelyn sat down and stared at the box. Instead of giving it to her on her birthday, her father had surprised her with it in August, a week before he left on that fateful trip. He’d called her to his study to give it to her. When she entered, he’d just been sliding a panel into place on the box. It was their little game. He always left something inside the boxes for her to find.
Why would someone break into a house and not take anything? And what kind of vandal didn’t make a mess? Robbie said that Thomas found nothing out of place. As soon as she heard that, warning bells had gone off in her head. Something would have been knocked over, or moved, or been put back where it didn’t belong. Especially if it were kids on a dare. They would have taken something, even if it was just an ashtray, to prove they’d done it. If it was any kind of standard break in, there would have been obvious signs of an intruder. The very fact that there weren’t made Evelyn’s skin go cold.
Rob had no idea that their father was anything other than what they had always thought he was: a diplomat on whom very powerful men counted to keep the precarious balance between ambassadors and politicians. Rob, her mother, Thomas...even the police had no reason to believe there could be anything more to this break in. But she knew differently. And she knew that if she mentioned it to Bill, he would realize the same thing she had.
Someone had been searching for something specific, and they were careful enough not to leave a trace of their search. Too careful, as it turned out.
Evelyn eyed the box in front of her. When he gave it to her, her father had said it was a special box. She’d thought it a strange thing to say at the time. Weren’t all puzzle boxes special? What if it wasn’t the box that was special, but what was inside it?
She reached for it.
Chapter Thirty
Evelyn laughed as Rob threw his cards down disgustedly.
“I swear I don’t know how you do it,” he complained. “That’s the third straight hand you’ve won.”
“Well if you insist on broadcasting your every move, how am I not to?” she asked, gathering up the cards.
“Are you having difficulties, Rob?” Bill asked, looking over from where he was pouring himself a drink. “Never say your sister is trouncing you.”
“I am, and she is.” Rob got up to walk over to the mantel to retrieve his forgotten cigarette case. “Miles, come and even the field, will you?”
Miles looked up from where he was playing dance tunes on the piano in the corner.
“And ruin the fun watching you squirm? Not a chance, old boy.”
“Well I’m not playing another hand with this shark. She’ll have me bankrupt before I go to bed.”
“I’m sure your luck will change,” Evelyn said with a twinkle. “It’s bound to.”
“Aha! See? That’s what all the sharks say! The next thing you know, you’re wandering home at dawn without a farthing left!”
Evelyn stood up and stretched, then moved across the drawing room to join Bill at the drinks.
“I do think you’re being a bit dramatic, Robbie dear,” Mrs. Ainsworth said from the couch where she and Marguerite had been happily ensconced together since they all moved in from dinner.
“Is he?” Bill asked Evelyn, setting down the brandy decanter.
“I did take him for quite a bit that last hand,” she admitted with a grin. “I couldn’t resist. It was too easy!”
Bill chuckled. “That’s my girl,” he said under his breath. “What would you like, my dear?”
“I’ll have some of that wine, thank you.” She watched as he poured it into a glass. “Did you know that the study here was broken into last month?”
They were far enough away from the others that they wouldn’t be overheard, but she lowered her
voice anyway. Bill glanced at her sharply.
“No. When?”
“The beginning of November. Robbie told me earlier today.” She took the glass from him. “The window was forced in the middle of night. Thomas saw the light on and went to turn it off. It was the next morning that he saw the broken latch.”
“What was taken?”
“That’s the interesting part. Absolutely nothing. And nothing was out of place.”
Bill’s brows snapped together in a scowl. “Nothing at all?”
“No. The police think it was a couple of kids. Mum’s had all the locks on the first floor replaced and nothing’s happened since.”
“Then they may have found what they were looking for,” he murmured. “Damn! Robert was always careful never to bring anything here that would expose him, or any of us. But last summer he told me he’d come across something that was too important to leave anywhere. I never did find out what it was.”
“He didn’t tell you anything?”
Bill shook his head.
“No. He said he needed to confirm the information and that was the last I heard of it.” He lifted his brandy glass to his lips. “I completely forgot about it until after we received word of his death.”
Evelyn frowned. “What made you remember?”
He hesitated for a moment, then sighed.
“I suppose there’s no point in keeping it from you now. His office in London was ransacked a few days after he died. His assistant was blamed and discharged, but I wondered at the time if it was something more ominous. Now you’re telling me that a few weeks later, someone went through his study here.”
Evelyn’s heart sank. Her suspicions were correct, then. It hadn’t been a simple break in. While she’d known it couldn’t be, a small part of her had been hoping that Bill would have another explanation. Instead, all he’d done was confirm it.
“Well, there was nothing for them to find,” she finally said, sipping her wine. “I can assure you of that.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because I’m fairly confident that whatever my father may have had in there was given to me a week before he left for Poland.”
Bill stared at her. “What?”
She shrugged. “I can’t get to it at the moment, but I will eventually.”
“What do you mean you can’t get to it?”
“It’s inside a puzzle box.”
The confusion on Bill’s brow cleared and a slow smile crossed his face.
“The sneaky old devil. He was still finding new boxes for you every year? I thought that had stopped.”
She shook her head. “No. The last few have been near impossible to figure out,” she admitted.
“And he gave you one before he left for Poland?”
“Yes. I worked on it for three days after he left, but then I went back to Scotland and left it here. After Rob told me what happened, I pulled it out and started again. It will take time, but I’ll figure it out. I’ll take it with me when I leave.”
Bill pursed his lips together and slowly shook his head.
“No,” he said softly. “Leave it here for now. It will be safer here. If it really does have something inside, this is the best place for it.”
“Unless they come back,” she argued. “I can’t leave it here and put my mother at risk.”
They both glanced over to the sofa where Madeleine and Marguerite had their heads together, laughing over something they were looking at in a magazine.
“She won’t be at risk,” Bill said after a moment. “I’ll send someone to keep an eye on things.”
Evelyn gaped at him. “What?”
“Don’t look so shocked. I’ll arrange for a footman or gardener, or something. Someone who will keep an eye out and alert us to anything. We can’t wait almost two months to find out something happened again.”
She chewed her lip for a minute, then nodded slowly.
“That would certainly set my mind at ease,” she admitted. “I know Rob is worried. He said as much this afternoon. When the servants start to join up, he’s worried that Mum will only be left with the older ones who won’t be much use against an intruder. I know he’s wishing I wasn’t away from home now.”
“I’ll make the arrangements,” Bill said with a quick nod. “In the meantime, leave the box here and work on it when you come to visit.”
“What if it’s time sensitive?”
“I’d rather risk that than have it lost or destroyed by moving it around.” Bill finished his brandy and set the glass down. “And given your penchant for getting yourself into sticky situations, I think it’s safer here.”
Evelyn made a face at him but couldn’t argue. The box would be safer in her wardrobe than in a room on a RAF base where people came and went practically at will.
“Evie!” Rob called from across the room. “Come tell Miles about the time you made it to London in the Lagonda in two hours and twenty minutes. He doesn’t believe me!”
Bill smiled and winked at her.
“Go and enjoy yourself,” he said. “Forget about work for a while. It’s Christmas, after all.”
Evelyn nodded and turned walk towards her brother and Miles. It was easy for him to say that. He wasn’t the one who had a box with a secret in it, a secret that was apparently worth breaking into a country manor over.
A secret that she had no idea how to get to.
Evelyn sighed and tucked her feet up beside her comfortably. A large, cheerful fire crackled in the hearth, casting a comfortable glow over the study. She smiled as Miles handed her a glass of sherry before taking the chair across from her. After her mother had gone to bed, they had come into the study with Rob. But after smoking a cigarette, he’d cast Evelyn a sly grin and taken himself off, leaving her alone with Miles.
“Your brother isn’t very subtle, is he?” Miles asked, sitting back and crossing his legs.
“Not very, no,” she agreed with a laugh. “Do you mind?”
He smiled slowly. “Not a bit.”
“I hope this wasn’t all too strange for you,” she said after a moment. “It’s been a very odd Christmas. We’re usually much more lively than this.”
“I imagine it’s not easy, being the first holiday without your father.”
“It’s not,” she said frankly, shaking her head. “I don’t think I was fully prepared for how difficult it would be. One realizes, of course, that things will be different, but I suppose I didn’t think of the little things.”
“Like the goose?”
Evelyn nodded. When they sat down to dinner and the roast goose was set on the table, there was a moment sheer panic as Mrs. Ainsworth and her children all stared at each other. None of them had even considered who would carve it. It was always her father’s pride and joy to do it.
“Thank goodness for B—Mr. Buckley,” she said. “If he hadn’t stepped in, I don’t know what would have happened. Robbie can’t cut anything to save his life.”
Miles grinned.
“I expect he would have just torn it apart with his hands and chucked it onto our plates like a cricket ball.”
Evelyn choked on her sherry as she laughed.
“That’s probably exactly what he would have done!” she gasped, her eyes watering. “Good heavens. Here’s to Mr. Buckley!”
Mile raised his glass and sipped his brandy.
“I wish I’d got the opportunity to meet your father,” he said slowly. “Rob’s told me some stories. I think I would have liked him.”
Evelyn smiled. “He would have liked you.”
“Do you think so?”
“Yes.”
They were quiet for a moment and then Evelyn shook her head.
“We’re in danger of being thrust into a maudlin silence,” she announced, “and that will never do. Tell me why you became a pilot.”
“I’ve always loved flying. I talked your brother into taking lessons down at the auxiliary flying club near university. Never looked back after t
he first day.”
“What about your father? What did he say?”
Miles shrugged. “Not much, actually. He knew I wasn’t cut out for a career in politics. I think by that point he was just hoping I wouldn’t bankrupt him before I finished university.”
Evelyn grinned. “Was that a possibility?”
“Me? Not a chance. I’m an angel, m’dear, the perfect son.” He winked. “After it became clear that the flying wasn’t just a passing phase, he warmed up to the idea. I think he’s rather proud to have a son in the RAF now.”
“What will you do when the war’s over? Will you continue with the Air Force?”
“That depends on my father. Eventually I’ll have to take over the estate.” He shrugged. “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Before you joined the WAAFs and started training young things to work in the grid stations, there must have been something you wanted to do. Come on. Fess up. What was it?”
“I love how you assume to know what it is that I train my girls to do,” she said a grin.
“I thought we’d already established that I know all your dirty secrets,” he retorted teasingly. “There’s no point in pretending now.”
Evelyn swallowed as guilt washed over her. If he had even an inkling of her dirty secrets, he would run as fast and as far as he could. And who would blame him?
“And you still haven’t answered the question,” he continued, oblivious to her discomfort.
“I was still trying to figure that out,” she said honestly. Here, at least, she could be truthful with him. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. My mother wanted me to get married and set up house with a respectable and suitable peer, of course.”
A faint smile played on his lips. “But that didn’t suit you?”
She shook her head. “Not much, no.”
“What about your father? What did he have to say?”
“He suggested a career, actually. He said I should go to university and find a use for my talent for language. I toyed with the idea of journalism, but then all this happened and, well, here we are.”