The Tall Stranger

by D. E. Stevenson

  ‘What on earth is that?’ exclaimed Colonel Scott.

  ‘It’s mostly glass, I think,’ said Bet, turning it over. ‘Look, here’s a piece of red glass. It’s nice and shiny, isn’t it? I expect that’s why Bogle liked it – and here’s half a silver spoon – and some blue beads – and a broken wine-glass. Oh goodness, here’s your ear-ring, Mummy! You lost it that day when we had a picnic on the moor.’

  ‘The jackdaw’s treasure!’ murmured Henry. ‘Now we know all about it, don’t we?’

  ‘Not quite all,’ said Colonel Scott.

  ‘I suppose I ought to have told you before,’ said Bet, looking up at them appealingly. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t, now, but honestly I thought it was just rubbish. I didn’t know Mummy’s ear-ring was here. I thought it was just things he’d found in the rubbish heap. Honestly I did. You see, it was one day when I was playing Indians and stalking him and I saw him sitting on his doorstep with the parcel beside him on the ground. He was playing with the things and polishing them to make them shine. I thought it was all just bits of broken glass and things like that.’

  ‘Is that all you know?’ asked Colonel Scott.

  Bet nodded. ‘Yes, I’m not going to have any more secrets – ever. Bogle kept the parcel in the shed where the dynamo is. It was hidden under the floor. That’s why he didn’t want anybody to come and look at the dynamo, you see, in case they found it.’

  ‘Well, that proves you can’t blame Bogle,’ said Jennifer with a sigh. ‘Poor Bogle is just a – just a jackdaw.’

  Henry had been poking about with his finger amongst the rubbish. ‘I’m not so sure,’ he said. ‘Is that just a piece of broken glass – or what?’ There was a glittering object in the palm of his big brown hand; a tiny thing which sparkled in the sunshine with rainbow lights.

  ‘A diamond!’ exclaimed Barbie involuntarily.

  ‘That’s what I thought. It looks uncommonly like a diamond to me.’

  ‘It can’t be!’ cried Jennifer, taking the sparkling object from his hand. ‘It can’t be a diamond. But it is a diamond! Look, Alec!’

  ‘It’s a diamond all right,’ agreed Colonel Scott. ‘It has been taken out of a setting. You can see the little scratches –’

  ‘And here’s another of the same breed,’ said Henry. ‘It strikes me that our jackdaw is rather clever. I mean if you happened to have a little hoard of stolen gems you might do sillier things than hide them amongst a pile of broken glass.’

  ‘Where could Bogle have found them,’ Jennifer exclaimed.

  ‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ replied Henry. ‘The police will have to solve that problem.’

  ‘Will they put Bogle in prison?’ asked Bet in horrified tones.

  ‘No,’ said Colonel Scott. ‘At least – that depends –’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  So much had happened during the last two days that Barbie felt as if she had been staying at Oddam Castle for weeks. She had almost forgotten what she had come for – it had been pushed into the back of her mind – but now that life was returning to normal she realised she would have to complete her job and go back to London. The Scotts pressed her to stay for at least a week – more if she could – and Henry added his persuasions. His leave was nearly over and he would be going back to London himself, to his job at the Admiralty, so it would be much better for her to wait and go with him.

  ‘I must go tomorrow,’ said Barbie. ‘It’s very kind of you but I’m a business woman. I’ve got all the measurements; I’d just like to go over them and show you the patterns and make the final decisions. Could we do it this afternoon?’

  ‘You should rest, Jennifer,’ said Colonel Scott. ‘You look all out. Henry and I had better take this stuff over to the Police Station. Why not look at Barbara’s plans and patterns after tea?’

  This arrangement suited Barbie for it gave her a little more time (she knew how important it was to have everything properly prepared) so she brought down the pattern-books and arranged them in the drawing-room. It made a very good show-room and she was pleased with the effect. There were just a few more measurements to be made and then it would all be ready; she borrowed the ladder from Jardine and took it into the Cinderella-room.

  Barbie had been feeling tired but she was so interested in her work that the sleepy feeling wore off quite quickly.

  She had almost finished measuring the window when Henry came in.

  ‘I thought you were going to the Police Station with Colonel Scott!’ Barbie exclaimed.

  ‘Well, I didn’t,’ he replied. ‘Alec is quite capable of dealing with the matter himself. I’ve been trying for days to get five minutes alone with you; but, if Bet wasn’t hanging around, you were discussing patterns with Jennifer. I wish you’d come down,’ he added. ‘It gives me a crick in the neck talking to you up there.’

  Barbie chuckled.

  ‘It is rather funny,’ agreed Henry. ‘History repeats itself – but it feels like a week since last time.’

  ‘It feels like a month to me.’

  ‘Please come down, Barbara.’

  ‘I can’t – honestly – I’m not just being difficult. I must have all my measurements completed before tea.’

  ‘When can I speak to you?’ he asked. ‘There’s something I want to know.’

  There was something Barbie wanted to know – something she wanted to ask him – but for the moment she could not think what it was.

  ‘When can I speak to you?’ repeated Henry. ‘If you’re going away tomorrow there will be no time. There will be tea – with all the Scott family – and then your show, which I have just seen arranged with admirable efficiency in the drawing-room. Then there will be dinner, I presume, with the Scott family, of course. After dinner more chat with the Scott family – and so to bed. See what I mean?’

  Barbie saw. She remembered now what she wanted to ask him.

  ‘Give me ten minutes,’ she said. ‘Go away and come back in ten minutes.’

  ‘Can’t I help?’

  ‘No,’ said Barbie.

  Henry went away for exactly ten minutes and then came back. He shut the door behind him, and Barbie came down from her perch.

  Barbie had decided to get in first with her question – but so had Henry.

  ‘It’s just something I don’t understand,’ said Henry quickly. ‘You see Steyne told me that you and he were engaged to be married – and you say you’re not engaged – but he showed me the ring.’

  ‘There wasn’t a ring!’

  ‘But he showed it to me! It was that day at the club when –’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ declared Barbie in bewilderment. ‘You keep on saying “that day at the club” … and Edward never gave me a ring. I was engaged to him for two days – that’s all. Then I – broke it off. I just – decided I had made a mistake, you see. People do sometimes, don’t they? So if Edward said we were engaged it wasn’t true – and he couldn’t have shown you the ring because there never was a ring.’

  ‘I saw it,’ said Henry. ‘Steyne showed it to me. It was a large emerald in an old-fashioned setting. He had it in his pocket in a little white case. He said he had intended to buy you a new ring but this had been his mother’s engagement ring and you had said you would rather have it because of its associations, so he had it cleaned and repaired for you. It was very sparkly.’

  Barbie gazed at Henry; she could not speak.

  ‘It does matter,’ said Henry. ‘I mean it has nothing to do with me. I only mentioned it because –’

  ‘But it does matter!’ cried Barbie. ‘I must know. When did he show it to you?’

  ‘The day after the Mainwaring wedding.’

  ‘It couldn’t have been! You’ve made a mistake!’

  ‘No, I haven’t made a mistake,’ said Henry. He had been watching Barbie’s face which had suddenly become very pale and pinched. He dragged forward an old battered sofa and threw the window open.

  Barbie subsided on to the sofa. ‘I felt rathe
r queer,’ said Barbie in a faint voice. ‘It’s – so – horrible.’

  ‘What’s horrible?’

  ‘About the ring – and all he told you. The ring wasn’t Edward’s ring. It didn’t belong to his mother – or anything. It belongs to Aunt Amalie – at least I suppose that was the ring he showed you.’

  ‘You mean it was all lies?’

  She nodded. ‘Edward tells lies. That was why I couldn’t marry him. I simply can’t bear lies … and the worst of it was he didn’t understand; he wasn’t ashamed or anything … but of course you don’t know what I’m talking about.’

  Of course Henry didn’t. How could he?

  Barbie tried to remember exactly what had happened. She said slowly, ‘It was the first time Edward came home to Underwoods after I was ill. Aunt Amalie was wearing the emerald ring and Edward admired it. He noticed the stone was loose and offered to take it and have it repaired, so she gave it to him. That was in April. It took ages to have it repaired. He didn’t give it back to her until the day Nell came down to lunch at Underwoods – it was the end of June. I remember distinctly because –’ she hesitated. She remembered because Nell had said Edward would have liked to put the ring on her finger. ‘Anyhow I remember distinctly,’ added Barbie.

  ‘Are you quite sure about the date?’

  ‘Quite sure.’

  ‘The emerald wasn’t loose when I saw it. Steyne showed it to me the day after the Mainwaring wedding. I know that quite definitely, because that was when he gave me your message about not coming to tea.’

  ‘About not coming to tea?’

  ‘Yes. I was practising some putts on the last green and he came over to me and explained that you and he had just got engaged and that under the circumstances a stranger would be de trop. He did it very nicely of course –’

  ‘He would!’

  ‘You mean that wasn’t true either?’

  ‘Of course it wasn’t true.’

  ‘But you were engaged to him.’

  ‘Not then,’ said Barbie. ‘Oh dear, it’s so difficult. It wasn’t all lies. It was lies mixed up with truth – which is the worst kind of lies, because you can’t disentangle them.’

  ‘Let’s try to disentangle them.’

  ‘I suppose we had better,’ said Barbie miserably. ‘Elsie’s wedding was in June and Edward and I weren’t engaged until a month later. We got engaged on Aunt Amalie’s birthday. We had fizz for dinner and drank each other’s healths.’ She hesitated and then added, ‘What was the object? It seems pointless. Why did Edward say we were engaged when we weren’t?’

  ‘To warn me off,’ murmured Henry.

  Barbie was not listening. She was trying to follow the tortuous workings of Edward’s mind. ‘And why did he show you the ring?’ she added. ‘That was a most extraordinary thing to do, wasn’t it?’

  ‘It didn’t seem extraordinary at the time. He just took it out of his pocket in a casual sort of way.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘If he hadn’t showed me the ring I wouldn’t have believed him,’ said Henry. ‘I think he knew that. The ring sort of – clinched it. Seeing is believing. When I saw the ring I couldn’t help believing that you and he were engaged to be married. It made me very angry.’

  ‘Angry?’

  ‘Yes, very angry. I knew it was all wrong.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Barbie helplessly. ‘What was wrong?’

  He was standing beside her, looking down at her, but now he pulled up a dilapidated old stool and sat down on it so that their eyes were on a level. How blue his eyes were!

  ‘Listen,’ said Henry. ‘We’re all in a fog, and the only way to get clear is to start at the very beginning. I knew it was all wrong for you to marry somebody else because you belonged to me. You belonged to me,’ he repeated with absolute conviction. ‘The moment I saw you in that crowded tent I knew you were the One. I asked a fellow who you were and he told me. I seized two glasses of fizz and a piece of cake – as a sort of excuse to speak to you – and I was just trying to barge my way through the crowd when you disappeared through the flap. Of course I followed. I’d have followed you to Timbuktu if necessary, but it wasn’t necessary – there you were, sitting on the seat under the tree! It was almost too good to be true.’

  Barbie gazed at him. Her heart had begun to thump. She was breathless.

  ‘I didn’t exactly fall in love with you at first sight,’ continued Henry thoughtfully. ‘It wasn’t like that. I just knew for certain that you were my woman. You were the woman I was going to marry; the woman I’d been looking for all my life. When I talked to you I was more sure than ever – and I thought you felt it too. I’m being quite frank, you see. There’s been too much misunderstanding already. I thought you – felt something.’

  He paused and looked at her.

  ‘But – this is mad,’ said Barbie in a whisper. ‘We scarcely – know each other –’

  ‘I know you,’ he said confidently. ‘It’s written on your face; it shines out of your eyes; I can hear it in your voice. First of all you’re honest. That’s terribly important to me. You’re real gold all through. You’re brave. You’re fun – yes, you’re tremendous fun. Above all you’re kind and – and comfortable. You’re all the things I want my wife to be.’

  Barbie’s eyes were pricking with tears. She said, ‘But I’ve got a bad temper.’

  He chuckled.

  ‘I have, really. It’s my red hair.’

  ‘I adore your red hair,’ said Henry.

  ‘This is mad,’ she said. ‘It really is – mad.’

  ‘It’s sane and sensible,’ said Henry, taking her hands in his. ‘When two people find each other – Oh Barbara, I do love you so frightfully! You dear, sweet, beautiful darling! Oh Barbara, say you love me – just a tiny bit. If you don’t love me I shall go to China or Singapore or somewhere. Say it quickly,’ said Henry frantically. ‘Say it’s all right. Just say it’s all right –’ He went down on his knees on the dirty floor and put his arms round her.

  ‘I thought we were being sensible,’ said Barbie. She was half laughing and half crying – and to tell the truth was not much more sensible than he was.

  ‘Say you love me,’ he implored. ‘You do – don’t you? I can’t believe that a feeling like this only works one way. It couldn’t come – like this – unless there was a sort of something in both directions. There is, isn’t there? Say yes! Please say yes.’

  She said breathlessly, ‘There is – something –’

  ‘I knew it! I knew you felt it!’ cried Henry joyfully. ‘When are we going to be married? Let’s fix the day –’

  The idea of ‘fixing the day’ brought Barbie to her senses. She pushed him away firmly. ‘No,’ she said. ‘No, Henry – honestly – you’re going too fast. You’re like a hurricane – or something –’

  ‘But look at all the time we’ve wasted! We might have been married by now!’

  ‘No – really – please, Henry. Please be sensible!’

  ‘But you love me, don’t you? I mean it’s going to be all right?’

  His eyes were gazing into hers anxiously. He was waiting for her answer.

  ‘I think – it’s going to be – all right, but we must be – sensible,’ said Barbie with a little catch in her breath. ‘It’s so – important, isn’t it? So important. You must give me time – to be sure. I made a mistake before.’

  ‘That was different.’

  ‘Yes, but I must be sure. We must wait and see.’

  ‘Barbara, I don’t understand!’ he exclaimed. ‘Why must we “wait and see”?’

  She tried to explain. ‘We must wait and see whether it lasts over into my ordinary world,’ said Barbie earnestly. ‘This isn’t my ordinary world. For the last few days I’ve been living in a sort of dream. Everything is so different. Oddam Castle doesn’t seem quite real – and the old hills – and the storm – and the bright sunshine – and all the things that have happened. It isn’t real.’

  �
��But life is more real here than it is in London. There’s nothing artificial about it. Isn’t it more real to go out in a storm and look for a lost child than to stand in a queue for a bus?’

  ‘Not to me,’ she replied. ‘To me the last few days have been like – like living in the middle of a play: Mary Rose and The Tempest and – and Treasure Island – and –’

  Henry had begun to chuckle.

  ‘Well, it’s true,’ said Barbie smiling. She added, ‘When I arrived Jennifer told me that this was a very quiet place; she hoped I wouldn’t find it dull.’

  ‘Barbara, you’re marvellous!’

  ‘And that’s another thing,’ said Barbie, quite serious again. ‘That’s another thing that makes me feel as if I weren’t really me. You all call me Barbara. In my real life nobody calls me anything but Barbie. It isn’t that I don’t like you calling me Barbara – I do like it – but it makes me feel a different person.’

  ‘I shall call you Barbie,’ said Henry after a moment’s thought.

  ‘Not here,’ said Barbie quickly. ‘I mean Jennifer would notice and think it odd.’

  ‘All right – not here – but we’re getting off the subject. The question is –’

  ‘No, we aren’t getting off the subject. It’s all part of the same thing. I must wait and see whether this – this Midsummer Madness lasts over into my own ordinary world. Don’t you understand, Henry?’

  She saw that he did.

  ‘So what?’ he asked anxiously.

  ‘So we wait and see. Not long, you know, but just till we meet in London and talk it over sensibly. You can come and see me at the flat.’ She paused for a moment and then added, ‘But be sure to come. Don’t get put off by anybody telling you fairy stories.’

  ‘Nothing will put me off – nothing on earth,’ declared Henry.

  The bell was ringing for tea. Barbie rose and tried to tidy her hair and collect her scattered wits. She remembered that the Scotts would be waiting in the drawing-room for her to show them the patterns and tell them about her plans.