11 - Ticket to Oblivion
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Sir Marcus insisted on taking Colbeck and Leeming back to the house so that everyone could congratulate them. The welcome was extraordinary. The entire staff was waiting outside the front door. As the hostages walked between the two lines, they were given enthusiastic applause. The only person not clapping was Win Eagleton. She had lost Tolley for good now.
As the front door opened, they saw everyone was standing in the hall. Paulina needed to use Cassandra for support but it was not to her mother that Imogen instinctively ran. It was the Reverend Percy Vaughan who found her inexplicably in his arms. Colbeck and Leeming were amused at his expression of mingled perplexity and sheer delight.
Everyone wanted to shake the hands of the detectives and tell them what a remarkable job they’d done. Colbeck and Leeming let the praise ooze all over them. It was Sir Marcus who sidled up to them for a quiet word.
‘You did manage to retrieve all my money, didn’t you?’ he asked.
On their return to London, they had to deliver their report to the superintendent. As soon as that was done, Leeming went home to his wife and family while Colbeck caught a cab to the house in John Islip Street. Madeleine wanted to hear all about the reception they’d had in Worcestershire and was surprised to learn of the way Imogen had first turned to her cousin.
‘He’s a curate,’ she said. ‘You told me that he was intense and scholarly. He’s the complete opposite of an intrepid soldier like Captain Whiteside. A man who wears a cassock can hardly compete with one in a bright-red uniform.’
‘Oh, I think he’ll compete very well, Madeleine. Besides, Whiteside was no soldier. He was a deserter who exploited an impressionable young lady. Percy Vaughan will never do that. That’s why his cousin turned to him. There’s no doubt in my mind that she made the right choice this time.’ He cocked his head to one side. ‘Which would you prefer – soldier or curate?’
‘I’d like someone with the courage of one and the compassion of the other.’
‘Do you think that such a man exists?’
‘I know he does,’ she said with a smile. ‘I married him.’
The rest of the conversation took place elsewhere.
About the Author
EDWARD MARSTON was born and brought up in South Wales. A full-time writer for over forty years, he has worked in radio, film, television and the theatre, and is a former chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association.
www.edwardmarston.com
By Edward Marston
THE BRACEWELL MYSTERIES
The Queen’s Head • The Merry Devils • The Trip to Jerusalem
The Nine Giants • The Mad Courtesan • The Silent Woman
The Roaring Boy • The Laughing Hangman • The Fair Maid of Bohemia
The Wanton Angel • The Devil’s Apprentice • The Bawdy Basket
The Vagabond Clown • The Counterfeit Crank
The Malevolent Comedy • The Princess of Denmark
THE RAILWAY DETECTIVE SERIES
The Railway Detective • The Excursion Train
The Railway Viaduct • The Iron Horse
Murder on the Brighton Express • The Silver Locomotive Mystery
Railway to the Grave • Blood on the Line
The Stationmaster’s Farewell • Peril on the Royal Train
A Ticket to Oblivion
Inspector Colbeck’s Casebook:
Thirteen Tales from the Railway Detective
The Railway Detective Omnibus:
The Railway Detective, The Excursion Train, The Railway Viaduct
THE CAPTAIN RAWSON SERIES
Soldier of Fortune • Drums of War • Fire and Sword
Under Siege • A Very Murdering Battle
THE RESTORATION SERIES
The King’s Evil • The Amorous Nightingale • The Repentant Rake
The Frost Fair • The Parliament House • The Painted Lady
THE HOME FRONT DETECTIVE SERIES
A Bespoke Murder • Instrument of Slaughter
Five Dead Canaries
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
12 Fitzroy Mews
London W1T 6DW
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2014.
This ebook edition first published in 2014.
Copyright © 2014 by EDWARD MARSTON
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1645–6