Having been so long in India, he knew the reason only too well – people who had been starving could never eat very much until they gradually acclimatised themselves to more and better nourishment.
They retired to bed early because he was tired.
David had found out from Benina that there was a chaise available for hire if he wanted it.
“What about our own horses?” he asked her.
“I think that they are too weak if you are going into town. They have been out to grass all winter and are only now getting enough to eat.”
David’s lips tightened.
If there was one thing that infuriated him most, it was unnecessary cruelty to animals and he knew only too well what effect this would have on well-bred horses.
“I am going to give you a list, Benina, of items we need urgently, like feed for the horses, and something for us to drink. Perhaps you could go into the village whilst I am seeing my grandfather’s Bank Manager?”
“I thought that is what you would do, my Lord. I know it is very stupid of me, but I did not think before how we could gain access to the cellar.”
“Did my grandfather have nothing to drink?”
“He did sometimes, I think just when he felt ill, but he kept the keys of the rooms and cupboards to himself, so I have never been inside the cellar.”
“I can see we have a lot of exploring to do, Benina, but first I must go and see the Bank Manager, so that we know exactly where we stand.”
Benina agreed to this plan of action and then she took David upstairs.
He washed in a room that had obviously not been cleaned or dusted for a long time, but after cooking dinner, Nanny had done the best she could to the Master bedroom.
Actually David did not really feel like sleeping in his grandfather’s bed, but he knew it would upset Benina and Nanny as they had taken so much trouble for him.
It was certainly an imposing room and had been the Master Suite for many generations.
The huge four-poster bed was hung with curtains that had faded and were torn but were still colourful.
David bade Benina goodnight and then he asked as an afterthought,
“Where do you and Nanny sleep?”
There was a little pause before she answered,
“You may think it perhaps rather impertinent of us, but we were not very comfortable in the old nursery where your grandfather put us, and there were so many flights of stairs for Nanny to climb – ”
She paused before she added apologetically,
“It was when the Marquis was so ill and required a lot of attention that we both moved down to this floor.”
“That was quite right. It would have been silly for you to do otherwise.”
Benina smiled.
“You are so kind and understanding, my Lord. We were so frightened you would be like your grandfather and turn us out immediately.”
“I have already told you, Benina, that I need your help. There is no one else to tell me the appalling things that have been happening here and somehow I have to put it all right.”
Benina drew in her breath.
“Can you – really?”
“I will do my best.”
“I think you are wonderful! Now, I must go and tell Nanny at once.”
She ran to the door then stopped to look back.
“Thank you for being you. Nanny and I will have breakfast ready for you in the study at eight-thirty.”
She was gone again before David could reply.
He heard her running down the corridor.
He thought as he undressed that he had expected to find strange goings-on at Ingle Hall.
Yet he had never anticipated there would be a very beautiful young girl to help him.
‘It is really lucky,’ he said to himself, ‘because if I was here alone with no servants, I would not know where to begin.’
He climbed into the vast bed and as he had not been able to sleep very much last night worrying about what was awaiting him, he fell asleep at once.
*
He woke early because having been a soldier it was what he was used to.
When he went downstairs, he found Nanny dusting the study.
“Good morning, Nanny.”
She turned round and smiled at him.
“I hope, my Lord, you’ve had a good night’s sleep, and if you want the truth, it’s the first night for months that I haven’t lain awake a-worrying.”
David laughed.
“I am glad, but we all still have a lot of worrying to do and the first thing, as you know, Nanny, as there are no secrets from you, is to find out if we have any money.”
“It’s what I’ve been saying to myself over and over. But just where’s it all gone? His Lordship certainly didn’t spend it on riotous living!”
“I am sure,” smiled David, “and thank you for the delicious dinner last night. I want you to buy anything that you need from the village, so that I can with luck eat many more delicious meals!”
He saw Nanny was pleased at his praise.
“Do you think that the butcher and the baker and whoever else there is in the village, will allow you to open an account or will they expect to be paid cash down?”
“I thinks when I a-tells them your Lordship’s going to put things back to normal, they’ll all be flying flags and singing in the streets.”
Her voice changed as she added seriously,
“It’s been really terrible these past years to see the cottagers a-needing their roofs thatched, the shops closing down because there weren’t customers and the pensioners dying ’cos his Lordship wouldn’t give them any money.”
“Why did no one do anything about it, Nanny?”
“The Vicar did his level best, but when his Lordship threatened to reduce his stipend, he gave what he could out of his own pocket.”
“I must try to pay him back for what he has spent,” David said, as if he was speaking to himself. “But first I have to find out what has happened to all the money.”
*
Benina sent the gardener’s son to order a carriage to take him into Canterbury.
It arrived at ten o’clock and it was not the smartest vehicle and the old horse was not very fast.
David knew that the first thing he wanted more than anything else was some decent horses to ride, but it was no use ruminating about what he required before he had the wherewithal to pay for it.
As he picked up his hat in the hall, Benina came running down the stairs and he knew she had been tidying his bedroom.
“Are you going now, my Lord?” she asked him rather breathlessly.
“The sooner I go, the sooner I will come back and then we will know where we stand.”
She stood still beside him for a moment and then she murmured,
“I am praying now as I prayed last night that you will find what you want and everything will turn out for the best.”
“Thank you, Benina, and I think that we will need all your prayers to put matters straight.”
He climbed into the carriage, wishing that he could drive himself.
He sat back on the upholstered seat and, as it was a sunny day, the hood was raised.
As they drove down the drive, he could see first the dilapidated lodge – his grandfather must have evicted those who had lived there.
Both the gates were off their hinges and the gardens that David was sure used to be full of spring flowers were untended.
As he became aware of the really pathetic condition of the village, he realised that Benina had not been exaggerating when she had told him that every cottage needed to be re-thatched.
As he passed the Church, he saw there were bricks missing from the top of the tower and the gutters round the main building had fallen down.
He was thankful, when they were finally out of the village and into the countryside, so that he could not see any more.
He had no idea how far the land belonging to Ingle Hall went, but the hedges had not been
cut for years and the field were unploughed or fallow.
By the time he reached Canterbury, he was feeling exceedingly apprehensive.
What would he learn from the Bank Manager?
*
As soon as he entered the Bank and explained who he was, he was taken immediately into the Bank Manager’s office and an elderly man received him respectfully.
“My name is Morley, my Lord,” he began, “and I have been expecting you.”
“I arrived last night and having seen the condition of Ingle Hall, I am waiting for you to tell me exactly what the current situation is.”
He sat down in a comfortable armchair, which Mr. Morley held ready for him.
“I find it difficult, my Lord, to tell you how strange matters have been these last years.”
“In what way, Mr. Morley?”
“His late Lordship was always exceedingly careful with money, but when he reached old age, I think, to be honest, it became an obsession with him.”
“How?”
“I believe he thought that he would lose all his money and that he could trust no one.”
“So what did he do?”
“He started nearly four years ago to draw out from the Bank everything he possessed.”
“Everything!” exclaimed David.
“He insisted on selling all his shares,” Mr. Morley continued. “They were all in Companies paying out good dividends and were promising investments for the future.”
“But surely his firm of Solicitors would have had said something about this to my family?”
“I don’t think, my Lord, there were many of your family left with the exception, of course, of his Lordship’s elder son, Viscount Stone, and his second son, Lord Cecil.”
“Did they not say anything about it?”
“Lord Cecil was away from home for some years before he was killed in battle, and I think to be honest, the Viscount was far too intimidated by his father to question anything he did.”
“Did no one else make any enquiries? There must have been some cousins or other relatives of the Ingles?”
“If there were or there are, they did not contact me and I think the Marquis would not entertain any of them at Ingle Hall. I was convinced that if they communicated with him, he would not answer.”
David drew in a deep breath.
“Now please tell me exactly what has happened?”
“The late Marquis took out of the Bank practically everything he owned. I tried to expostulate with him, but he would not listen. He merely demanded that I sold share after share and he came and collected the proceeds himself every month – mostly in coinage.”
David stared at the Bank Manager.
“Are you saying that my grandfather, old though he was, came here himself and carried every penny away.”
“That is exactly what happened, my Lord, and, of course, we did not talk about him in the town or anywhere else in case he should be set on by highwaymen or robbers when he was driving back home.
“It always astonished me that, as his Lordship had very few servants to guard him, the robbers did not break into Ingle Hall and steal what he had secreted there.”
David stared at him,
“Are you saying that my grandfather collected his money in cash that must have come to a considerable sum and then carted it all back to Ingle Hall?”
“That is exactly what occurred, my Lord, but what happened to it afterwards I have no idea.”
For a moment David was speechless.
Then Mr. Morley continued his story,
“I have a complete list of what has been sold and what has been taken away and I obtained the highest price possible for the items we sold for him in the open market.”
“I really cannot understand why he was doing this,” murmured David.
“It is something I have asked myself thousands of times, my Lord, but I never found an answer.”
“And what is left, Mr. Morley?”
He knew that this was the most important question.
“I am afraid, my Lord, you will be upset to know that the answer is in fact very little.”
“I have always believed that my grandfather, when he came into the title, was an exceedingly rich man.”
“He was, my Lord, and if the money he has taken from this Bank is still in existence, as it should be, then it is worth nearly two million pounds!”
David gasped.
He had realised that as the Head of the family, his grandfather was unbelievably rich, but he had not thought he was as rich as that in actual cash.
And if one included the house, its contents and the estate, the total would amount to considerably more.
“I must tell you, my Lord,” Mr. Morley carried on, “there were some shares that we could not sell, but which may be worth a great deal more in the future than they are at present. I have a list of them.”
He took a piece of paper from the table.
“Your grandfather, my Lord, invested in steamships when they were first driven by oil. However, he invested into an English Company that has not done as well as the Americans.”
He handed the list to David.
“My directors believe it has prospects, although at the moment the dividends are hardly worth mentioning.”
David looked down at the paper he was holding.
He saw that the Marquis had, as the Bank Manager had just revealed, quite a number of other investments.
America, he had been told, was booming and it was therefore reasonable to believe they might be worth a great deal more in the future.
“There are several shares, my Lord, in Companies that are involved in developing inventions for machinery and photography. But they are of little value at present, but we can hope that they will prove successful in the future.”
“I think there could be every likelihood that they will, but equally I need a great deal of money now to put the estate in order.”
“I have been told so, my Lord, and I can only hope that by some miracle you will be able to find the money your grandfather withdrew from us.”
“Do you think that it could be hidden somewhere in Ingle Hall?” David asked him.
Mr. Morley held up his hands in a helpless gesture.
“How can we possibly tell? I think before he died his Lordship was not reasonable in any way, nor was he, I feel, entirely aware of what was happening around him.”
David thought that this was true, seeing the condition of the house and the grounds.
He then asked the Bank Manager if he could have an overdraft and some cash immediately.
“I have spent what I had when I left India on the journey and providing myself and the two people in Ingle Hall with something to eat last night. I have no wish to go hungry tonight or next week while I look round to see what has happened to the two million pounds that should still be safely in your keeping.”
“I only hope that you will find it, my Lord, and of course, as we have been of service to the Inglestone family for many years, we will be pleased to permit your Lordship to overdraw a reasonable amount without security.”
“As you are well aware, Mr. Morley, everything in Ingle Hall is entailed, yet I cannot help thinking that I will be able to find something I can either sell or pawn until we set matters straight or better still, find the enormous fortune my grandfather has hidden away.”
“We are only too willing to help in every way we can, my Lord, but as you are well aware, I am responsible to our Head Office in London, who will undoubtedly ask questions if anything unusual occurs at this branch.”
“I am most grateful to you and also for the way you have kept this unhappy affair secret. Please continue to do so, as I have no wish to have the newspapers hammering on my door or people coming to stare at Ingle Hall.”
“They would have been far too frightened to do so when your grandfather was alive. I heard he threatened to shoot anyone who wandered round Ingle Hall at night!”
David had not hear
d of this, but made no comment.
Then he asked Mr. Morley for an advance of one hundred and fifty pounds for which he signed a cheque.
He shook him warmly by the hand and thanked him for his cooperation.
“As you can imagine, my Lord, it is to the Bank’s advantage, as well as to yours, that the money is found.”
“I promise you I will do my best, and without it, as you realise better than anyone else, life is going to be very difficult for me.”
The Bank Manager smiled.
“I believe, just like your father, Lord Richard, that you will eventually win your way through.”
David was amused.
His father had married for love and gone off on his explorations, and as a consequence became a hero in the eyes of his friends and those in Canterbury who were old enough to remember him.
As he drove back, he was trying to decide what he should do first.
Actually there was no question about it – he had to find the hidden money.
He reasoned it out.
If his grandfather had gone mad in his old age and would not trust the Bank with his money, he would surely not have trusted anyone else.
Therefore it was quite obvious that the money was hidden somewhere in Ingle Hall or on the estate.
Such a large amount, especially as it was in coinage, could not be pushed into the back of a drawer, nor could it be put in a small safe as it would take up too much space.
But there were enough rooms at Ingle Hall to hide a herd of elephants!
*
David returned to be greeted excitedly by Benina.
She ran down the steps as soon as the chaise came to a standstill.
He thought as he saw her approach how pretty she really was and he remembered that he had had no time to think about anything except the task ahead of him.
He paid the driver and then walked into the house, recognising that Benina was longing to find out what had happened at the Bank.
She was controlled and tactful enough not to ask him anything until they had reached the study.
Then she regarded him questioningly with her large blue eyes and, as he sat down, David told her quietly,
“I don’t know whether it is worse or better than I had anticipated.”
“What has happened? Please tell me, my Lord,” she pleaded. “I have been praying all the time you have been away.”
Hide and Seek for Love Page 7