Miss Seeton's Finest Hour (A Miss Seeton Mystery)
Page 25
“You seem to have picked up the jargon quite nicely, Miss Seeton.” Chandler smiled, though the smile appeared forced. “So you enjoyed your assignment?”
“A teacher,” Miss Seeton replied, “should try to keep an open mind and make the most of each new experience. In that respect, I may say I found it interesting—if not necessarily enjoyable—but in time of war one must do what one can, without complaint, for one’s country. As I believe I did.”
“You did, yes.” Chandler hesitated. “For one’s country ... Look, Miss Seeton, it’s about Jerry.”
Miss Seeton’s gaze rose automatically to the swirling vapour trails of battle.
“No,” said Chandler, “I’m sorry, I meant Gerry. Haynes. Gerald Haynes ...”
“Gerald,” echoed Miss Seeton. Here was one piece of the puzzle solved.
She suspected she did not want to know any more of it.
But she was a soldier’s daughter ...
“Major Haynes,” she said. “My departmental superior, as one may call him.”
“That’s the chap,” said Chandler. He took a deep breath and began to gabble. “Look, Miss Seeton, soldiering’s a bloody, begging your pardon, business, and Gerry had to go down to Dover on ... business I’m afraid I can’t tell you, and they got it pretty badly the day he was down there with bombs, and shells from the coastal guns—and nearly fifty people injured—and ... and seven people killed.”
“I see,” said Miss Seeton quietly.
“Yes,” said Chandler.
Miss Seeton found that gazing so intently into the sky had dazzled her. She looked away, pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, and wiped her eyes.
“It was quick,” said Chandler at last. “He ... couldn’t have known a thing about it. He ... hadn’t wanted to go, you know, but when you’re in the forces, orders is orders, and the job was ... necessary, believe me, and he managed to finish it before ... He’d been hoping you’d be back in time for ... It was your birthday, you see.”
“I see,” said Miss Seeton again. “The date was ... in the files, no doubt.”
Chandler nodded. He did not speak. Neither, for a long time, did Miss Seeton.
“I think,” said Chandler at last, “he would have wanted—have liked—you to ... Come with me,” he concluded with a brisk shake of his shoulders. In silence, Miss Seeton followed him; from kindness, he did not look round.
“After you,” he said as he unlocked and opened the door of his office. Miss Seeton walked in and waited.
“Here.” He strode across to the hat stand, and from one of the hooks lifted down ...
“The major’s swordstick umbrella!” cried Miss Seeton.
Chandler thrust it at her. “Go on, take it. He said he gave you a demonstration—very proud of his skill, was our Gerry. He had it made specially, did he tell you? That’s why it was his password—that daft riddle.”
Miss Seeton, accepting into her startled hands the bicoloured brolly, stared at it for a moment. Then a gentle smile crossed her face. “What,” she whispered, “goes up a chimney down, but can’t go down a chimney up? Of course!”
She was oblivious to the salutes of the sentries as she made her way slowly from the Tower. In the office Chandler had thumped her on the shoulder in a comradely gesture before escorting her to the sentry box on the bridge, where he said he knew he had no need to remind her that she had signed the Official Secrets Act, and that because she had done such a splendid job for them she should not be surprised if they were to call on her again. The country (he ended) owed more to her than perhaps she realised.
Miss Seeton tried to reply that the country owed her nothing, but her voice was as mute as her heart was full. She clutched the umbrella as if it were a talisman, and, when Chandler thumped her shoulder again, she could only nod and walk away.
At the far end of the bridge she stopped. She did not look up at the sky, but down at the umbrella in her hands. The job was necessary. He managed to finish it. For this, at least, she could be glad. He had died for his country: her country. Mr. Churchill’s words came back to her ...
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed, by so many, to so few.”
Select Bibliography
Readers interested in learning more of the background to Miss Seeton’s wartime adventures may find the following titles useful:
Calder, Angus, The People’s War: Britain 1939–1945 (Jonathan Cape, 1969; Pimlico, 1992)
Deighton, Len, and Hastings, Max, Battle of Britain (Jonathan Cape, 1980; Michael Joseph/Penguin, 1990)
Fleming, Peter, Invasion 1940 (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)
Henshaw, Alex, Sigh for a Merlin: Testing the Spitfire (John Murray, 1979)
Longmate, Norman, How We Lived Then: A History of Everyday Life During the Second World War (Hutchinson, 1971; Arrow, 1973)
Walker, David, Adventure in Diamonds (Evans Brothers, 1955)
Ziegler, Philip, London at War: 1939–1945 (Sinclair-Stevenson, 1995; Mandarin, 1996)
Glossary
The following expressions were well understood in wartime Britain, but may be unfamiliar to American readers seventy years later:
Ack-ack, anti-aircraft
Almoner, old-fashioned term for (medical) social worker
ARP, Air Raid Precautions (later, Civil Defence organisation)
Barrage balloon, large balloon tethered by wire ropes, causing enemy aircraft to fly higher above the target and to drop their bombs with less accuracy
ENSA, Entertainments National Service Association (entertainers to the armed forces)
LDV, Local Defence Volunteers; civilian force of non-enlisted men, later renamed the Home Guard (and, thirty years on, nicknamed Dad’s Army for the benefit of a highly successful television series)
Maginot Line, the French fortifications that had been expected to prevent invasion by the Germans but didn’t (the Germans wisely went round the end of the Line rather than attacking it)
pillbox, a small concrete fort, generally half-buried in the ground
WVS, Women’s Voluntary Service; the “Ladies in Green” who were (and, with an additional “Royal” in their name, still are) committed providers of tea, sympathy, and even more essential unpaid social services
Note from the Publisher
While he was alive, series creator Heron Carvic had tremendous fun imagining Emily Seeton and the supporting cast of characters.
In an enjoyable 1977 essay Carvic recalled how, after having first used her in a short story, “Miss Seeton upped and demanded a book”—and that if “she wanted to satirize detective novels in general and elderly lady detectives in particular, he would let her have her head ...”
You can now read Heron Carvic’s essay about the genesis of Miss Seeton, in full, as well as receive updates on further releases in the series, by signing up at http://eepurl.com/b2GCqr
Preview
COMING SOON
Miss Seeton Quilts the Village . . .
It’s practically a Royal Marriage! The highly eligible son of Miss Seeton’s old friends Sir George and Lady Colveden has wed the daughter of a French count.
Miss Seeton lends her talents to the village scheme to create a quilted ‘Bayeux Tapestry’ for Nigel and his bride. But her intuitive sketches reveal a startlingly different perspective—involving buried Nazi secrets, and links to a murdered diplomat and a South American dictator . . .
Serene amidst every kind of skulduggery, this eccentric English spinster steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles, armed with nothing more than her sketchpad and umbrella!
Can’t wait? Buy it here now!
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OUT NOW
The Fox Among the Chickens ...
The squawking from the hen-houses continued unabated. Miss Seeton arrived at the runs. She beat the wire door with her umbrella.
“Stop that,” she called. “Stop that at once, do you hear me?”
“Sure, lady. I hear you.”
She gasped. A sha
dow moved forward, reached through the wire and unhooked the door. With the moon behind him Miss Seeton could see little but a dark shape muffled in a coat, a hat pulled low. But the moon shone on the barrel of the pistol he held.
“Now, just take it nice and easy, lady. Back to the house and no noise, see.”
Buy here
About the Miss Seeton series
Retired art teacher Miss Seeton steps in where Scotland Yard stumbles. Armed with only her sketch pad and umbrella, she is every inch an eccentric English spinster and at every turn the most lovable and unlikely master of detection.
Reviews of the Miss Seeton series:
“Miss Seeton gets into wild drama with fine touches of farce ... This is a lovely mixture of the funny and the exciting.”
San Francisco Chronicle
“A most beguiling protagonist!”
New York Times
“This is not so much black comedy as black-currant comedy ... You can’t stop reading. Or laughing.”
The Sun
“She’s a joy!”
Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Not since Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple has there been a more lovable female dabbler in crime and suspense.”
Amarillo News
“Depth of description and lively characters bring this English village to life.”
Publishers Weekly
Further titles in the series:
Picture Miss Seeton
A night at the opera strikes a chord of danger when Miss Seeton witnesses a murder ... and paints a portrait of the killer.
Miss Seeton Draws the Line
Miss Seeton is enlisted by Scotland Yard when her paintings of a little girl turn the young subject into a model for murder.
Witch Miss Seeton
Double, double, toil and trouble sweep through the village when Miss Seeton goes undercover ... to investigate a local witches’ coven!
Miss Seeton Sings
Miss Seeton boards the wrong plane and lands amidst a gang of European counterfeiters. One false note, and her new destination is deadly indeed.
Odds on Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton in diamonds and furs at the roulette table? It’s all a clever disguise for the high-rolling spinster ... but the game of money and murder is all too real.
Miss Seeton, By Appointment
Miss Seeton is off to Buckingham Palace on a secret mission—but to foil a jewel heist, she must risk losing the Queen’s head ... and her own neck!
Advantage, Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton’s summer outing to a tennis match serves up more than expected when Britain’s up-and-coming female tennis star is hounded by mysterious death threats.
Miss Seeton at the Helm
Miss Seeton takes a whirlwind cruise to the Mediterranean—bound for disaster. A murder on board leads the seafaring sleuth into some very stormy waters.
Miss Seeton Cracks the Case
It’s highway robbery for the innocent passengers of a motor coach tour. When Miss Seeton sketches the roadside bandits, she becomes a moving target herself.
Miss Seeton Paints the Town
The Best Kept Village Competition inspires Miss Seeton’s most unusual artwork—a burning cottage—and clears the smoke of suspicion in a series of local fires.
Hands Up, Miss Seeton
The gentle Miss Seeton? A thief? A preposterous notion—until she’s accused of helping a pickpocket ... and stumbles into a nest of crime.
Miss Seeton by Moonlight
Scotland Yard borrows one of Miss Seeton’s paintings to bait an art thief ... when suddenly a second thief strikes.
Miss Seeton Rocks the Cradle
It takes all of Miss Seeton’s best instincts—maternal and otherwise—to solve a crime that’s hardly child’s play.
Miss Seeton Goes to Bat
Miss Seeton’s in on the action when a cricket game leads to mayhem in the village of Plummergen ... and gives her a shot at smashing Britain’s most baffling burglary ring.
Miss Seeton Plants Suspicion
Miss Seeton was tending her garden when a local youth was arrested for murder. Now she has to find out who’s really at the root of the crime.
Starring Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton’s playing a backstage role in the village’s annual Christmas pageant. But the real drama is behind the scenes ... when the next act turns out to be murder!
Miss Seeton Undercover
The village is abuzz, as a TV crew searches for a rare apple, the Plummergen Peculier—while police hunt a murderous thief ... and with Miss Seeton at the centre of it all.
Miss Seeton Rules
Royalty comes to Plummergen, and the villagers are plotting a grand impression. But when Princess Georgina goes missing, Miss Seeton herself has questions to answer.
Sold to Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton accidentally buys a mysterious antique box at auction ... and finds herself crossing paths with some very dangerous characters!
Sweet Miss Seeton
Miss Seeton is stalked by a confectionary sculptor, just as a spate of suspicious deaths among the village’s elderly residents calls for her attention.
Bonjour, Miss Seeton
After a trip to explore the French countryside, a case of murder awaits Miss Seeton back in the village ... and a shocking revelation.
Miss Seeton’s Finest Hour (A Prequel)
War-time England, and a young Miss Emily Seeton’s suspicious sketches call her loyalty into question—until she is recruited to uncover a case of sabotage.
Miss Seeton Quilts the Village
Miss Seeton lends her talents to the village scheme to create a giant quilted tapestry. But her intuitive sketches reveal a startlingly different perspective, involving murder.
About Heron Carvic and Hamilton Crane
The Miss Seeton series was created by Heron Carvic; and continued after his death first by Peter Martin writing as Hampton Charles, and later by Sarah J. Mason under the pseudonym Hamilton Crane.
Heron Carvic was an actor and writer, most recognisable today for his voice portrayal of the character Gandalf in the first BBC Radio broadcast version of The Hobbit, and appearances in several television productions, including early series of The Avengers and Dr Who.
Born Geoffrey Richard William Harris in 1913, he held several early jobs including as an interior designer and florist, before developing a successful dramatic career and his public persona of Heron Carvic. He only started writing the Miss Seeton novels in the 1960s, after using her in a short story.
Heron Carvic died in a car accident in Kent in 1980.
Hamilton Crane is the pseudonym used by Sarah J. Mason when writing 13 sequels and one prequel to the Miss Seeton series. She has also written detective fiction under her own name, but should not be confused with the Sarah Mason (no middle initial) who writes a rather different kind of book.
After half a century in Hertfordshire (if we ignore four years in Scotland and one in New Zealand), Sarah J. Mason now lives in Somerset—within easy reach of the beautiful city of Wells, and just far enough from Glastonbury to avoid the annual traffic jams.
This edition published in 2017 by Farrago, an imprint of Prelude Books Ltd
13 Carrington Road, Richmond, TW10 5AA, United Kingdom
www.farragobooks.com
By arrangement with the Beneficiaries of the Literary Estate of Heron Carvic
First published by Berkley in 1999
Copyright © Sarah J. Mason 1999
The right of Sarah J. Mason to be identified as the author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
Quotation from Winston Churchill reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown, London on behalf of The Estate of Winston S. Churchill, © The Estate of Winston S. Churchill.
Excerpt from The Dumb Shall Sing, copyright © 1999 by Stephen Lewis
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re
trieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN: 978-1-911440-11-6
Version 1.2
Cover design by Patrick Knowles