To her relief, there was no sign of the manila envelope or the clothes when they entered the shed. She wondered where Thomas had stashed them, and then she saw her bulging backpack. She shuddered. She would hand the grisly bits of clothing over to Thomas at the earliest opportunity.
“This is Dr. Banbury,” she told Thomas. “He has kindly offered to rescue us. He can arrange to have Morris taken to the hospital.”
Thomas surprised her. “Dr. Banbury and I met briefly a few days ago,” he told her. Laura noticed that he looked faintly alarmed.
“Aha! The gentleman who was looking for his daughter,” Adrian exclaimed. “It seems you’ve found her. Excellent! Mr. Smith, isn’t it?”
Catherine stared at her father. “So you did come to look for me,” she said softly. Her smile lit up her face, but then confusion replaced her obvious relief. “But then why did you say you were looking -”
Thomas cut off the rest of her sentence. “Yes, I did find her, I’m glad to say,” he replied heartily. “Good to see you again, Banbury. You’ve come along just when help is urgently needed. We are most grateful.”
Catherine and Laura exchanged a baffled look. Why had Thomas switched from missing daughter to missing wife?
Adrian’s voice distracted them. “I’ll go back to the truck and bring it closer,” he offered, reverting to practical matters. “Then we’ll get you into it.”
“Thank you, Adrian.” Laura smiled at him. She tied the walking stick to one of the straps on her pack and hoisted it onto her back. It felt very heavy.
“I’ll help you stand up,” she told Thomas. “Do you think you can walk?” He nodded, and Catherine came to help. By the time Adrian returned with the truck, they were waiting for him and ready to go.
“Will Morris be all right up here?” Laura asked worriedly. “It seems awful to leave a wounded man up here alone.”
“I’ve already radioed for help and told them exactly where to find him,” Adrian reassured her. “They’ll be here in a matter of minutes and get him right to hospital. We can wait if you like, though.”
“Let’s get Thomas into the truck and then see,” Laura answered. They helped Thomas into the front seat; Catherine clambered into the back of the truck with Adrian’s dogs, which Laura was delighted to see were a great deal smaller than Jasper and Lucy. She squeezed herself between the two men – a position that reminded her she was very sore indeed.
By the time the truck had lumbered down to the first curve, lights were already visible coming the other way. Adrian stopped to confer with the hospital attendants, and then they set off again. Laura gave a long sigh of relief. Morris at least was taken care of. And she was going to have a restorative drink if Adrian would provide one.
She shifted uncomfortably, trying to brace herself against the bumps. Adrian noticed her discomfort and gave her an inquiring glance. “The horse,” she explained. “I hadn’t been on one for forty years or more and found it a remarkably uncomfortable experience to get on one again.”
She clapped a hand to her mouth in consternation, remembering too late that Catherine had said they’d followed Senator on foot.
Dr. Banbury chuckled, but she had no doubt he had taken note of her slip. He was too polite to mention it, however. “I’ll give you some of my miracle liniment,” he said instead. “It smells terrible, but it is purported to work.”
After that, none of them tried to talk above the grumble of the engine and the crunch of tires. Laura was grateful for the silence. It was wonderfully peaceful just to sit there and try not to bounce, and to know that for the moment at least, she didn’t have to rescue anyone.
Adrian seemed to understand. Not until he had them ensconced in chairs by a warm fire with a small tumbler of brandy for her and for Thomas, as well as a frothy cup of hot chocolate for Catherine, provided by his housekeeper, did he ask any questions. “Now,” he said, “what were you and Catherine really doing up on the moors with the horse? You are both excellent storytellers, but I still know a story when I hear one.”
Catherine looked insulted, but Laura laughed. “I thought we were quite creative,” she answered, “but I guess I gave us away by mentioning that I’d ridden Senator. In fact, we were trying to help Catherine’s father. He’d been hit over the head and taken away, we assume by Morris, though I’m not sure why.” She stopped, trying to think what else she could say without giving too much away - or alarming Catherine, who still knew nothing about the missing and presumably dead cook, the masks and various other pieces of the complicated story.
Thomas came to her rescue. “I’ve been told you have a fine collection of paintings, Banbury. I would love to see them one day.”
Adrian looked annoyed. “I will be happy to show them to you, but first I would like to find out what two unsuspecting women were doing on the moor at this hour of the night. I gather they were looking for you, but I might ask what you were doing there.”
Thomas nodded agreeably. “I fear I annoyed Morris, and he lashed out at me when I was in the barn at Torrington Manor. Or perhaps I frightened him. He’s a volatile fellow. At any rate, he picked up a stick and clubbed me. Rather a nasty blow. I’m afraid I passed out for a time, and the next thing I knew I was up at the shed and these two were trying to ward off Morris themselves.”
He shook his head gravely. “Why he took me up there I cannot imagine, except that I have begun to think the man is mad.”
Laura was impressed. What an accomplished liar the man was! Much better than her. A pretty good actor, too. Was that all part of his job?
“We saw Morris taking my dad away in the van and we didn’t have a car, so we rode up here on Senator to help,” Catherine contributed with the blandly innocent face Laura was coming to know.
Adrian looked baffled. “There’s no doubt Morris is volatile,” he agreed. “But I would never have thought him capable of this!”
“I hadn’t known he was Antonia’s brother,” Laura put in, just to see how the others would react.
Thomas looked at her with respect; so did Catherine. Adrian’s reaction was different. “Yes, I suspected they were brother and sister as soon as I saw him,” he replied with an almost condescending nod. “I am rather a student of faces and they have the same classic features, same fair hair and blue eyes – and the same deficits of character.”
His voice became harsh. “Antonia certainly can’t be trusted. She puts on an excellent act as the lady of the house but -” He stopped abruptly, as if ashamed of revealing emotion.
“I noticed that, too,” Laura observed. “She does seem to be acting all the time. She’s good at it too.”
“Too good, I fear,” Adrian agreed.
Laura remembered Maude’s remarks about the other man Antonia had seduced. Could he have been Adrian? He would be no match for her, with his old-fashioned notions about women.
Catherine yawned hugely and covered her mouth with her hand. Laura wondered if she had done it on purpose to suggest that the interview come to an end. Regardless, the yawn gave her a perfect opportunity to move on.
“I think I had better get Thomas and Catherine back,” she told Adrian. “Thomas should probably see a doctor, and Catherine is exhausted. So am I, for that matter. We don’t have these sorts of adventures normally.”
“I trust you will avoid any more of them,” Adrian said reprovingly. “From what you have told me, the situation with Morris could get unpleasant, and I hope you two will let Catherine’s father handle any further developments. I shall of course look into things myself, as I know most of the people involved, but I assume you and Catherine will have the sense not to become any more entangled.”
How incredibly pompous the man could be! Laura held on to her temper and merely nodded, trying to look serious. Thomas, she noted, was trying not to laugh. His levity was irritating, but she was glad to see some of his normal insouciance returning. He hadn’t sounded like himself without it.
“Now, where can I take you?” Adrian asked, re
suming his brisk tone. “I assume that you, Mr. Smith, are staying at the manor.”
“Catherine and I are staying at the Fairfax House in Stourton,” Laura told him. “It would be wonderful if you could take us there. And I really am sorry to cause you so much trouble.”
Adrian repeated the formal little bow he had displayed earlier. “It is indeed my pleasure to be of service to a pair of such gallant ladies,” he replied.
Thomas uttered a choking sound and clutched his chest. Not a heart attack, Laura was sure, just more suppressed laughter, which undoubtedly played havoc with ribs that had recently suffered a vicious kick.
Still with a hand on his chest, he rose slowly to his feet. She and Catherine each took an elbow as they trooped back to the truck. Thomas wobbled between them, but seemed to regain strength as they approached Torrington Manor.
“Perhaps it would be easier for you, Banbury, if you dropped us at the Manor,” he suggested smoothly. “My car is there, so I can take Laura and Catherine on to their lodging.”
Laura had no intention of letting him drive, but to her surprise, Adrian agreed to the plan. Maybe he’d had enough of these strange beings called Americans who were always getting themselves into trouble.
“I’ll drive. You’re not fit to,” she said firmly after Adrian had left them. “Why don’t I drop Catherine off at the B&B and then take you to the hospital so they can have a look at you? You’ve probably got a broken rib or two as well as a concussion.”
“I’m feeling a great deal better now,” Thomas assured her. “You can drive, but I’ll skip the hospital. There’s not much they can do anyway.”
Laura didn’t argue. She was too tired. What energy she had left had to be devoted to staying on the correct side of the road. She never had been able to tell right from left with any accuracy, so it wasn’t going to be easy.
“I want to know why you said you were looking for your wife at the manor, but told Dr. Banbury you were looking for me,” Catherine asked from the back seat.
“I saw Banbury before I realized there might be an art fraud going on at the manor,” Thomas answered, and in the rear-view mirror Laura watched Catherine’s face light up with relief. “After that, it seemed prudent to keep your name out of it so no one could use you to get at me if they found out that I was an investigator.
“And then Laura materialized out of the mist like the proverbial answer to a prayer,” Thomas added, “so I found myself a wife instead. Best idea I ever had.”
“Well, don’t let them get hold of her, whoever they are,” Catherine admonished sleepily. “She’s part of the team. We need her.” She yawned. “A bed sounds wonderful,” she admitted. “The stable was nice with the dogs but it’s itchy too. And there are rats. I saw a lot of strange activity, though. It’s interesting there at night.”
Thomas turned toward her sharply. “What did you see? Besides rats.”
“Well, a truck drove up a couple of times and parked outside the barn. A bunch of guys were there, and they were loading stuff into the truck, just like they did tonight. Only then it was paintings, at least that’s what they looked like. I didn’t dare go close enough to see who the men were, though.”
“Did you see anything else?” Thomas was fully alert now.
“Not much else except Antonia getting it on with Stewart,” Catherine answered. “I guess they do that a lot.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust.
Thomas blinked. “Antonia and Stewart,” he murmured tonelessly.
Laura wanted to laugh. If Thomas was having an affair with Antonia, that bit of information would certainly rankle.
“She’s not your type, Dad,” Catherine declared. “I told Laura that when she asked.”
Thomas’s face was a study in astonishment and Laura suspected her own was a study in embarrassment. She hadn’t really asked that, had she?
Thomas gave her a curious look. “I’ve been meaning to ask you how you met Adrian,” he said, changing the subject completely.
“I met him when he gave me a lift over the flooded road at Torrington Manor,” Laura explained. “He was kind enough to show me his gallery,” she added, feeling she should say something in Adrian’s defense.
Thomas’s eyes widened. “That really is a coup! I’ve been told that he only lets a few chosen people go in there, and so far I’m not one of them.”
“I think he asked me because I look like one of his portraits,” Laura told him. “At least Adrian seems to think so.”
“He fancies Laura,” Catherine said from the back seat. “That’s why he asked her. He can’t take his eyes off her. Haven’t you noticed?”
“No, I can’t say I had,” Thomas answered, sounding disgruntled.
He turned to Laura. “Why did you ask if I was involved with Antonia?”
“I didn’t quite ask that,” Laura replied, “just if you were the type to have affairs.” She hesitated and then plunged ahead. “I was curious because I saw you in that clinch with Antonia in the barn.”
Thomas confounded her again. “Clinch? What clinch?” He sounded genuinely astonished.
Laura squirmed in her seat, a motion she immediately regretted. “Well, I went to look for you this morning to say I was leaving, and Antonia’s arms were around you, and…” Her voice trailed off, and she felt her face flush.
Thomas shuddered. “They were? No wonder I felt so horrible. That’s like being embraced by a viper. Damned woman must have doctored my morning coffee as well as knocking me on the head. I haven’t been able to clear my brain all day.”
Laura blushed even harder. That didn’t sound like a pretense. Obviously, she had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Thomas saw her face redden and grinned. “You are charming when you’re that pinkish color, especially when your hair is decorated with twigs and leaves, and the rest of you with dirt.”
“I am sorry if my appearance disturbs you,” Laura answered stiffly. “I shall try to moderate it in the future.”
“That was a compliment,” Catherine corrected sleepily.
“A compliment?”
“My mom spends hours getting her hair right, and her nails and her clothes and her face and everything else,” Catherine drawled. “It’s pretty boring, so you’re a relief.”
Laura wasn’t sure being a relief was a compliment, but she let it ride. At least she’d found out something about Thomas. He wasn’t keen on women who fussed over their appearance. In her case, that was a pretty good start.
Catherine suddenly sat up. “You know what?” she exclaimed, tapping her father on the shoulder, “I think Laura is really Miss Marple in disguise, except she’s much younger and prettier. He loves Miss Marple,” she explained tolerantly to Laura, and stretched out on the seat again.
“Much prettier,” Thomas agreed. “In fact I would say she’s the prettiest detective professor – or should it be professor detective - I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.”
“As well as the smelliest,” he added sotto voice to Laura. “That liniment Banbury gave you is horrendous. I bet he did it on purpose so he can have you all for himself.”
Laura glared at him. “You are impossible!”
Thomas smiled broadly. “If we ever get to know each other really well, and I sincerely hope we do, I shall strictly forbid smelly liniment of any kind.”
“And I,” Laura responded through gritted teeth, “will never, ever again come to your rescue on a horse.”
She brightened, considering another possibility. “For that matter, maybe I’ll just use the liniment as my special perfume when you’re around instead.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
When Laura came down to breakfast the next morning, she was greeted by an unwelcome piece of news.
“That poor child’s been kidnapped,” her landlady informed her excitedly as she brought in some freshly baked muffins that smelled gorgeous. “The one at the Manor, you know. She’s an odd little thing but still…”
Laura was horrified. “You mean Angelina?”
“That’s the one,” her landlady agreed. “Vanished, she has. She was staying with Lady Torrington’s mother, but now she’s run off, or more likely been taken by one of those horrible child molesters. They’ve got everyone they can find out looking for her.”
“Now, now, my dear, nothing to worry the guests about,” her husband rebuked as he brought in Laura’s pot of tea. “The child will turn up safe and sound just the way she did the last time she disappeared.
“She’s a one for tricks, Angelina,” he explained to Laura. “The last time she persuaded a friend to invite her to stay for the night but she never told her grandmother or anyone else. She likes getting everyone all excited.”
He was right about that, Laura reflected, remembering how Angelina had stood in the middle of the drawing room and announced dramatically that the woman on the bed really was dead. She felt a sudden pang of fear. Who else had Angelina told? Whoever had killed the cook might view the child as a threat. He or she had gone to great pains to hide the fact that a death had even occurred.
Laura drank her tea gratefully but found the rest of her breakfast hard to get down, despite the truly superb muffins.
“Lord Torrington was worried about Angelina running away again,” Catherine commented when she came down for breakfast. “I guess she did. She sounds like one determined kid.”
“She is that,” their host agreed, appearing with the coffee pot this time. “They’ll find her, though, just like the last time,” he added confidently.
Laura wasn’t comforted. Angelina hadn’t seen a dead body on that occasion and had been no threat to anyone. Thomas was another concern. He had driven himself off last night, saying not to worry about him because he might have to be away for a few days, but how were they not to worry?
“I feel badly about leaving you with Catherine,” he had apologized, “But I can’t think what else to do. I never thought when I came here that I would get embroiled in this blasted case. I really did come here to look for Catherine, you know, and one day I will be able to explain what happened. For now, I can only ask for your help.
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