“All right,” said Astrid. “You watch me this evening. And tell me what you make the score afterward.”
They were very pleased with one another when Astrid turned the Mini into the gates of the recreation ground and bumped across to the parking space. “There,” she said, putting on the handbrake. “Where’s Luke?”
The nearest thing was a boys’ game of cricket, with Alan batting. Beyond that, there were people just mucking about, or playing football in spite of the heat, and beyond that again was official cricket, in whites. Luke, of course, was not there.
“I’ll wait,” said Astrid. “If he doesn’t turn up, I can drive you back.” She opened her handbag and took out her cigarettes. David grinned. “Bother!” she said, scrabbling about among the seventy useless objects. “Where are my matches?”
“I’ve got one,” said David, nearly laughing. “Here.” He struck one of his matches and held it toward Astrid’s cigarette.
“Thanks,” she said, puffing out a cloud of smoke. “Oh, here’s Luke.”
Luke was sauntering toward the Mini, smiling. David put his matches in his pocket and flung open the car door. He had one foot on the grass, when Luke stopped smiling and began to back away. Before David was properly through the door, Luke turned and ran, and a tall man with red-fair hair came from behind the Mini and ran after Luke in great strides.
David got out of the car and watched helplessly. Luke scampered for his life, but the tall man overhauled him steadily and easily, stride by stride. Luke might have had a start of twenty-five yards. Before he had scurried ten yards, the tall man had halved the distance between them. In another five, he had halved it again. Well before they came to Alan’s game of cricket, he reached out and caught Luke’s arm, and swung Luke nearly off his feet. Luke stumbled round to face him, rather defiantly, and the tall man laughed. To David’s surprise, so did Luke.
“Who’s that?” Astrid asked.
“I don’t know,” David said. His first thought, that the man was another of Mr. Wedding’s resources, dwindled to mere bewilderment when Luke laughed. Now the tall man was talking to Luke in a way that showed he liked him, and Luke was answering as if he were pleased to see him. Yet David saw Luke make two attempts to get away. The tall man stopped him each time by grabbing his arm again, and each time it happened he laughed. And Luke laughed too, as if it were a game. Another puzzling thing was that David was fairly sure this man had been one of the people looking over the gate at the ravens. That ginger-blond hair was hard to mistake. If so, David thought he must be a very fast runner indeed to cover three miles almost as quickly as Astrid’s Mini.
“Go and find out,” Astrid suggested.
David set out toward the two at an uncertain trot. They seemed to be arguing now. Luke was protesting about something and seemed very much less amused.
As David came within earshot, he heard Luke say: “I tell you I’ve no idea where it is. I never even knew you’d lost it.” Seeing David coming, he said: “David, I told you last night that I didn’t do anything, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” David said.
The tall man let go of Luke’s arm and turned to David. “Hallo,” he said. David saw why Luke had seemed so pleased to see him. He had seldom seen a more generous, friendly face, or a nicer smile. “It was a good idea, that meat,” the man said, laughing. “You thought you’d got clean away, didn’t you? I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I had to talk to Luke.”
“What are you going to do with him?” David said.
“Nothing,” said the man. “He’s all yours for today. You’ve earned it.” Then he turned to Luke. “Off you go then,” he said. “I’ll take your word for it and think again, but I doubt if the rest of them will. Watch out after today, won’t you?”
“Thanks,” said Luke. “I will.”
He and David strolled back to the car, and David was more puzzled than ever.
“What was all that about?” Astrid wanted to know. “Who was he?”
“One of my relations,” said Luke. “He’s lost something and he thought I knew where it was.” To David, he added: “And I see why Wedding’s so set on finding me now. It’s rather a mess.”
“He looked nice, your relative,” said Astrid. “Is he Swedish or something?”
“Not specially Swedish,” said Luke.
“That hair of his made me think he was,” said Astrid. “I envy him that red-gold. It’s a much nicer color than mine.”
“Impossible!” Luke said promptly.
“You!” said Astrid. “What are you two going to do? Do you want me to drive you somewhere?”
“Yes, please,” said David. “Somewhere near the river,” he suggested, thinking of the green river at Wallsey.
“Hop in then,” Astrid said cheerfully.
David began to wonder how he had managed to misjudge Astrid so for all these years. He supposed it must be because she had to live with his relations too, and he had been lumping her in with the rest without thinking. She drove them to the river, where it was wide and brown and overhung with willows. When they began to be hungry, which happened rather soon with Luke, she telephoned Aunt Dot to say she was taking David and Luke out to lunch. They lunched off fish and chips out of paper bags in a way which would have horrified Aunt Dot had she known, and then returned to the river for the long, hot afternoon. Astrid sprawled on the bank in the sun, while David and Luke waded over to a reedy island and hunted for mussels.
They had a stack of blue mussels—which were getting a little smelly—when David happened to glance across at Astrid. The tall man with ginger hair was sitting on the bank beside her, talking and laughing.
David nudged Luke. “Look. Is he really all right?”
“Oh, he’s all right.” Luke stood under a cloud of flies up to his knees in water, looking across the river. He spoke cheerfully, but he was thoughtful somehow. After a while he said: “He probably came to make sure no one else did. He said today was safe, and when he says a thing he means it. But I don’t like it. Wedding would never have agreed if he wasn’t pretty sure he could find me when he wanted.”
David rubbed his face with a mussel-scented hand and knew for certain that he would not be able to elude Mr. Chew and two ravens twice in a row. “Luke,” he said, “don’t you think you’d better go while he’s here and you’re safe? And I won’t strike a match till Monday. Wouldn’t that be best?”
“Oh drat!” said Luke, looking quite as mournful as David felt. “I think you’re right. Just as we were enjoying ourselves too. The trouble is, I’ve remembered what it must be that I did. It’s the only thing I can think of, so it must be. And the person I did it for is dead—years ago—and I shall never be able to prove it wasn’t me. I shall just have to keep out of the way.”
“Creep off now,” said David, “and I’ll see you Monday. Mr. Wedding promised me he wouldn’t put you in prison or punish you if he couldn’t find you by Sunday.”
“That does seem pretty watertight,” said Luke. “Though, knowing him, there must be a catch in it somewhere. All right. See you Monday.” He gave David his most engaging smile and waded quietly up among the tall reeds until he was hidden by them. For a second or so, David could hear his footsteps swishing in reeds and water. Then there was no noise except the river and Astrid laughing over the water.
David sighed. For twenty minutes or so he stayed sadly pottering about on the reedbank, to give Luke time to get away. Friday, Saturday and Sunday already seemed like three years. He left the mussels to rot and went back to Astrid.
The ginger-haired man looked up and smiled as David came wading alone across the river. “Luke gone?” he said. David nodded. “Can’t say I blame him,” the man said, and got up to go too. “I’ll see you both again,” he said, and shook David’s river-scented hand before he went striding away along the riverbank.
“David, you stink,” said Astrid. “Like a fishmonger. You need a bath. Come on.”
They drove home, and David had a ba
th because he felt he owed it to Astrid. But he felt sad. Monday was months away. He still felt sad when Cousin Ronald announced that he had sacked Mr. Chew. He did not feel really alarmed when Aunt Dot said:
“David, I want to ask you about a joint of meat.”
“You mean that meat that was in the drive?” said Astrid.
“I do,” said Aunt Dot. “It came from our refrigerator.”
“How queer!” said Astrid. “But David doesn’t know any more about it than I do. We both saw it when I was driving him out to meet Luke, and we both wondered about it like anything, didn’t we, David?” Then, before Aunt Dot could say more, Astrid turned to Uncle Bernard. “Poor Dad-in-law,” she said. “I’ve never seen you look so frail. Do you think you should go to bed? I do hope I haven’t given you this sore throat of mine.”
When Astrid was winning twenty-two to seventeen, Cousin Ronald told her angrily that he would send for an ambulance if she said another word.
11
THE FRYS
It was raining a little the next day, but the ravens still kept watch, one at the front and one at the back of the house.
“Those great birds make me nervous,” Astrid remarked as they were finishing breakfast. “What do they think they’re doing?”
“I don’t suppose they think at all,” said Cousin Ronald. He was in a bad temper because he had been forced to dismiss Mr. Chew. “Their heads must be almost as empty as yours.”
Astrid said nothing. She simply got up and went out of the room.
“Stupid woman!” Cousin Ronald called after her.
“She is tiresome,” Aunt Dot agreed. “You have a great deal to put up with, Ronald.”
“So has Astrid,” David pointed out.
“Well!” said Aunt Dot.
“Go up to your room,” said Uncle Bernard.
“I only said—” began David.
“Do as you’re told, you rude little beast!” said Cousin Ronald. Red with anger he pounced on David, seized hold of his ear and forced him to stand up. When David stood up, they were rather ridiculous, since David was actually a trifle taller than Cousin Ronald, and this made Cousin Ronald angrier than ever. David was afraid he was going to pull his ear off.
Mrs. Thirsk came in, looked at David with grim satisfaction, and said: “Mr. and Mrs. Fry have called. Shall I show them to the drawing room?”
“Yes, of course,” said Aunt Dot.
“I really can’t meet these people,” quavered Uncle Bernard, going frail on the spot.
But before Mrs. Thirsk could move from the doorway, Mr. and Mrs. Fry came pushing jovially past her into the dining room. David stared. They were two huge, glad people, larger than life, with bright fair hair and genial beaming faces. They seemed to fill the room. They laughed. Their voices rang out. Cousin Ronald let go of David’s ear in a hurry, and Aunt Dot went to meet the visitors in the gracious manner she kept for meeting visitors.
Mr. Fry put his arm round Aunt Dot. “We must get to know one another better, my dear,” he said, regardless of Aunt Dot’s rigid, frigid face, and he laughed loudly. No one could have been more unlike old, courteous Mr. Fry with the rose spray.
“And we’ve never met!” Mrs. Fry said to Uncle Bernard, and she pushed him playfully in the chest. Uncle Bernard first yipped indignantly and then sank back in his chair, frail almost to vanishing point. Mrs. Fry turned and beamed on Cousin Ronald. She was even more overpowering than Mr. Fry because she was very lovely as well as very large. She was like a huge poster of a film star. “I wish I’d met you before!” she said, and seized both Cousin Ronald’s hands, which made Cousin Ronald go very pink and simper a little.
Mr. Fry advanced glistening on Mrs. Thirsk. “My friend!” he said. In spite of her protests, he forced Mrs. Thirsk to the nearest chair and made her sit down. “No, no,” he said. “Let’s have no distinctions here. Sit, friend.”
“No, I never,” said Mrs. Thirsk. “Not in all my born. Never.” And she sat there gasping.
Mrs. Fry came on to David. David backed away. She gave him a most peculiar feeling. It was not unpleasant, but it felt too strong for him. “Hallo youngster,” she said gladly. “I like you.”
“Er—thanks,” said David, and he wondered who on earth these huge imposters could be.
Somehow, the Frys had them all sitting down, all looking half pleased, half unsure, even Aunt Dot. Mrs. Fry talked cheerfully about the weather and about gardening. And David’s relations, in a stunned way, talked too.
“Oh, by the way,” said Mr. Fry, laughing, “has any of you seen Luke? We seem to have lost him.”
David’s stomach tipped a little. He was now sure that the Frys were another of Mr. Wedding’s resources.
“I am also anxious to see Luke again,” said Aunt Dot. “I have asked repeatedly—”
Astrid came into the room just then. She had put on a new dress, perhaps in honor of the visitors, but more probably, David suspected, because she was miserable. Her face had its most pinched, discontented look.
Both Frys took one look at her and burst out laughing.
Astrid, not unnaturally, went extremely red. “What’s so funny?” she said.
Mr. Fry was still laughing. But David distinctly heard Mrs. Fry say to him, under cover of his laughter: “What shall we do with this one?”
David felt really angry. He wanted to bang their flaxen heads together. When both Frys got up to make Astrid sit down with the others, David jumped up too and took hold of Mr. Fry by his large warm arm. “What did you have to laugh at Astrid for?” he said. “It’s rude.” Mr. Fry looked down at him in surprise, with his blond eyebrows raised. “And don’t you dare do anything to her, either,” said David.
“My dear boy!” said Mr. Fry, bubbling over with amusement. “I only laughed because she was miserable when there wasn’t any need. And all I’d do to her would be to make her happier.”
David thought he was odious, and he would have told him so, except that the French windows bumped open behind him at that moment and he turned to see why. Mr. Chew quietly trudged in from the garden, with his hat misted in raindrops.
Cousin Ronald bounced up. “I told you to leave yesterday!” he said indignantly.
“Yes, but I came back, didn’t I?” Mr. Chew pointed out.
“Then I go,” said Mrs. Thirsk, bouncing up in her turn.
“No, no, sit down,” said Mr. Fry, and pushed her back into her chair.
“Mr. Fry!” Aunt Dot said majestically. “I—”
But the door to the hall opened and Mr. Wedding came in. One of the ravens was sitting on his shoulder. Aunt Dot stared. “Good morning,” Mr. Wedding said pleasantly. “There’s actually no need to keep everybody here, Fry. I’ve found some of the answers.”
“Which of them did let Luke out?” said Mrs. Fry.
Mr. Wedding’s one strange blue eye met David’s. “That was David,” he said. “He admitted it quite readily. It appears it was an accident.”
“Accident!” said Mr. Chew. “Well, I got the right one anyway.”
David realized that when Mr. Wedding took him out to lunch, he had not even been sure that David was the person he wanted. He had made David admit it by being friendly, just as Luke had feared. “You cheated me,” he said. “You pretended you knew anyway.”
“Don’t get angry,” Mrs. Fry said soothingly. “That’s his way. He’s done that to cleverer people than you in his time.”
“All the same—” said David, not at all soothed.
“Quiet, boy!” said Uncle Bernard. “Mr. Wedding, will you please be good enough to explain this intrusion.”
“Certainly,” said Mr. Wedding. “It shouldn’t take long. All I want is for David to show me how to find his friend Luke.”
“Then in that case,” said Uncle Bernard, “as I am an old man and ailing, you know, I think I shall go upstairs.” Looking his very frailest, he got up vigorously and tottered swiftly out of the room. David felt rather glad he had gone. He would only have
made things even more difficult if he had stayed.
“And may I go?” inquired Mrs. Thirsk. “I’m not staying in the room with that Chew, so I warn you.”
“Get out then,” said Mr. Chew. “Or I’ll give you some help.”
Mrs. Thirsk gave him a nasty look and swept out to the kitchen.
“It gives me great distress,” stated Aunt Dot, “that David should be causing this trouble. I hope he has done nothing very wrong, Mr. Wedding.”
“Nothing at all,” said Mr. Wedding. “Luke’s the one who’s done wrong.”
“Then you’re abetting a criminal, David,” said Cousin Ronald. “You’ll be lucky to stay out of Court and I wash my hands of you. The one thing I won’t tolerate is criminal practices. Come on, Mother. Get up, Astrid. Let’s leave the brat to it.”
“I advise you to make a clean breast of it, David,” Aunt Dot said as she got up.
“Are you two really going?” said Astrid. “You know David’s in a mess and all you can think of is to leave him to it!”
“Naturally, if David had committed the crime, I should stand by him,” said Aunt Dot, progressing to the door. “But we have Mr. Wedding’s assurance that the criminal is Luke. I must say I am disappointed in Luke. I thought he was a nice child.” She had reached the door by this time. Mr. Fry, looking highly amused, held it open for her, and Aunt Dot nodded frigidly to him as she marched out. Cousin Ronald dodged out after her under Mr. Fry’s arm. Mr. Fry shut the door behind them with a flourish.
David was neither surprised nor sorry that they had gone, but he was a little uncomfortable when Astrid stayed where she was. She, like the others, was assuming this was a police investigation, and David knew it could be nothing of the kind.
“Don’t you try to put any twist on David,” she told Mr. Wedding, “or you’ll have me to reckon with. He’s only a kid.”
“Bravo!” said Mr. Fry.
“Shut up, you!” said Astrid. Mr. Fry laughed so heartily that he made Astrid feel awkward. She opened her handbag and pretended to look for something.
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