“One never knows what people’ll do when they’re a bit funny in the head,” observed Nanny gloomily.
“You have forgotten the gun room, my Lord,” said Newman. “It’s big enough for a man to hide any amount of secrets in those cupboards and drawers.”
“I will leave that to you, Newman,” smiled David. “Meanwhile Miss Benina and I are intending to work very hard and the only person who will not be concerned with looking for the money is Nanny.”
“I knows you’ll do better if your tummies are full,” muttered Nanny, “and that’s what they’re a-going to be!”
“I am already looking forward to luncheon, Nanny. Now come on, Benina, let’s start work!”
“I was thinking what a lot of rooms we have to do, my Lord.”
Benina had not exaggerated.
David found that on the first floor there were not only the Master Suites and twelve Staterooms, there were fifteen other bedrooms as well as the picture gallery, the china room and a large room that contained the armour and the robes of each succeeding Marquis.
There was also, which David could not help lingering over, a room filled with stuffed wild animals and birds.
There were heads of tigers, black bears, stags and panthers and many weird and unusual stuffed birds. They were exhibited on tables or hanging down from the ceiling.
“I call these fascinating,” David observed to Benina.
“I felt so too when I first saw them, my Lord, but these birds are not heavy enough to have coins inside them and I am sure you would not wish to open them up.”
“That would be sacrilege. Let’s go on.”
The picture gallery boasted pictures he knew were of inestimable value if they were put onto the open market and china that had been collected by early Marchionesses of Inglestone who had superbly good taste.
It was impossible not to linger over some Japanese china figurines and wonder at some of the early English models, which were very colourful.
“Come along, my Lord, you are wasting time,” said Benina when he had stopped for quite five minutes gazing at a cabinet full of Russian snuff boxes, ornamented with portraits of the Czars in enamel surrounded by diamonds.
They went into the Master Suite but David was not hopeful that there would be a special safe where his grandfather could have deposited his money.
Most private safes, he thought, were too small and the amount of money the Marquis had withdrawn from the Bank would not have fitted into any he had ever seen.
Anyway there was no safe to be found in the Master Suite.
They searched through the cupboards, the cabinets and the drawers and they even looked on top of the canopy over the bed.
There was no sign of even a sixpence anywhere.
They stopped for luncheon and ate hurriedly.
Actually they were both hungry as moving furniture about was much more tiring than even David had expected.
He had somehow suspected that his grandfather might have hidden some paper money behind the pictures in the picture gallery, but although some of them needed repair, there was no sign of any notes.
Also the Bank Manager had said that a great deal of the money his grandfather had taken away was in the form of golden guineas and they would require a large amount of space to conceal them.
They had finished most of the first floor by teatime, and there were still a number of ordinary bedrooms not yet investigated.
“Now what we are going to do,” David said as they took tea in the study, “is to go and look at the horses, and see if we can possibly go riding tomorrow morning.”
“Oh, could we ride?” asked Benina.
“I need exercise and fresh air after spending so long in those stuffy rooms that have not been opened for years.”
“They were rather smelly,” laughed Benina. “And I suppose you know you have now got white hair!”
David turned round to look at himself in the mirror.
It was quite true!
The dust from the cupboards he had opened and the shelves he had inspected had fallen on his head and he now might have been a man nearing sixty.
“I tell you what I am going to do,” he suggested suddenly. “I am going to swim in the lake.”
“Do you really think it’s warm enough, my Lord? I thought of swimming in the summer, but felt it might have annoyed his Lordship. So I had to be content with carrying water upstairs to have a bath and I found it very tiring.”
“Now we will swim in the lake – and I will race you, so at least we are warmed up before we jump in.”
Benina thought this a splendid idea, so she hurried upstairs to find Nanny and ask for her best bathing dress.
“You’ve grown a bit since you last wore it,” Nanny said, “so I thinks it’ll be a bit tight on you.”
“Tight or not, I cannot swim naked!”
However, they found that the bathing dress, although somewhat dilapidated like the rest of her clothes, fitted her perfectly as she had grown so thin.
Nanny gave her a big bath towel to throw over her shoulders.
She ran downstairs to find David, also with a towel over his shoulders, halfway down to the lake.
As she caught up with him, panting a little because she had run so quickly, he remarked,
“The last time I bathed in India it was even hotter in the water than it was outside!”
“I don’t think you will say that now, my Lord.”
Actually the water in the lake was not too cold.
They were regarded angrily by a mallard duck, who collected all her babies and swam away indignantly to the other side of the lake.
David was surprised to find that Benina could swim well and strongly for a woman, as he was used to women in India wearing elegant bathing clothes, who could seldom do more than stand in the water up to their waists – hoping that the men would be lost in admiration for their elegant but décolleté costumes.
Benina not only swam beside him but also splashed him with water.
She laughed when he complained she was blinding him and he ducked her.
They enjoyed their swim and then wrapped in bath towels they walked back towards the house.
“I feel better after that, Benina, and if we can ride tomorrow, I shall feel better still.”
“Ben said it will not be too soon for the horses. He has been so kind in looking after them. If it had not been for him, they would have both died like the other two.”
“On my instructions he has been feeding them the finest oats and if we take them gently, I think it will be good for their legs.”
“And good for us too!” exclaimed Benina. “I used to sneak out and ride whenever I could. But I was always afraid that the Marquis would think that the horses were an extravagance, even after they had been put out to grass, and have them destroyed.”
“The more I hear about my grandfather, the more I am convinced he was completely and absolutely crazy. In any well conducted country he would have been certified and put into an asylum!”
“Everyone was far too frightened to suggest that for anyone so grand! I think you forget how important you are now and there is no one to tell you but Nanny and me.”
David laughed loudly.
“I don’t feel at all important at present, but I am perfectly prepared, once I find all those millions, to be very overbearing and autocratic!”
Benina shook her head.
“I don’t believe you could ever be like that. Nanny says you are the kindest man she has ever met and what she calls ‘a real gentleman’.”
“Now that is praise. The whole trouble in the world today is that there are not enough nannies to teach all the men to be the gentlemen they should be.”
He was pondering that no gentleman would have behaved like his grandfather unless he really was mad and did not know what he was doing.
All through the history of the family there had been Inglestones who had become distinguished Generals and Statesmen.
It was only his grandfather who in his dotage had behaved in such a lunatic fashion.
If they were lucky enough to find what they were seeking, he would have to make the family name as famous and as respected as it had been in the past.
Everyone was tired after a delicious dinner and, as they left the dining room where Newman had arranged dinner for the first time, David announced,
“I am now retiring to bed.”
“I have received strict instructions from Nanny that is what I am to do too. I only wish before we go, we could celebrate having found the treasure.”
“There are still some rooms we have not looked at on the first floor, but I am not very optimistic.”
Benina gave a deep sigh.
“I feel the same, my Lord.”
“If we could only get some form of guidance to tell us where to look. If some of the money was in notes, he would not have hidden it in the garden, so it must be in the house somewhere.”
He was thinking as he spoke that the house was as large as an Army barracks and it could take months, if not years, to search it from top to bottom.
“I will pray very hard before I go to sleep tonight,” suggested Benina, “but I do think we have done something wrong that we ought to put right first.”
“What can that be?”
“We have not yet looked in the Chapel, my Lord. When I first saw it, it looked very unused and empty.”
She glanced round at David a little nervously as if she thought he might resent what she was saying.
Then she continued,
“I think because what we have to find will help not only ourselves but so many others, we should have prayed in the Chapel and perhaps made an offering, as people in ancient times used to do before they went into battle.”
“I know what you are saying, Benina, and I am sure you are right. I have never been particularly religious in the fullest sense of the word, but when I was in desperate danger in India and it seemed absolutely impossible for me to come out alive, I prayed to God.”
“Of course you did, as we all do – ”
Benina paused for a moment before she added,
“Mama and I both prayed very hard that we would be able to stay here at Ingle Hall after we had first arrived and your grandfather had shouted at us to go away.”
“I just cannot imagine how he could have been so unpleasant,” David responded almost beneath his breath.
“I prayed despairingly, my Lord, for Mama’s sake that we would be allowed to stay, and finally, although it was so very difficult, we did.”
Her voice rose as she went on,
“And now because you have come and everything is very different, I think that I must give a thank-offering, and you must say a special prayer that God will send his angel to show us where the money is hidden.”
David thought this a rather touching idea.
“Yes, of course we will. So let’s go and look at the Chapel now and see what we can do with it.”
They walked down the long corridor on the ground floor, which led towards the billiard room and just before they reached it there was a turning that led down a narrow passage to the Chapel.
It was very old and Benina had read that it had been built at the same time as the main part of Ingle Hall.
As it was not yet dark, David thought it unnecessary for them to take a candle or a lantern with them.
They opened the door that felt stiff and unused.
The last rays of the evening sun were still shining through the stained-glass windows.
There were several cracks in the windows, but they did not detract in the slightest way from the beauty of the Chapel, which was perfectly proportioned.
With its oak carved pews and marble altar, it was outstandingly beautiful.
Needless to say the floor and the pews were thick with dust and yet, although it was so neglected, it still had, Benina thought, an atmosphere of Holiness about it.
The gold cross on the altar seemed to shine through the dust and the six candlesticks needed polishing yet they were all in place.
For a moment David and Benina just stood in the doorway.
Then, as they moved a little further into the Chapel, Benina knelt down on a prie-dieu directly in front of the altar.
For a moment David hesitated before joining her.
He prayed, as he had prayed at his father’s funeral, that he would be as happy and successful in his life as his father had been in his.
He had not taken his place as a titled Englishman as had been expected of him, but had travelled over the world making friends in every country he visited, leaving people happier because they had met him – and at the same time developing himself into a gentleman who could honestly state that he had lived his life to the full.
‘That is what I want,’ David thought to himself.
Yet he knew that, since he had become the Marquis of Inglestone, he bore far greater responsibilities than his father ever had.
He had to do something for the people who relied on the estate and the family of which he was now the Head.
If nothing else, he must set a good example to those who would come after him.
He felt that his prayer was now finished and then he glanced round at Benina.
She had closed her eyes, but she had not bent her head – in fact she had thrown it back a little, as if she was looking up into the sky, where she believed that God was listening to her, with her hands pressed together in the age-old attitude of prayer.
It suddenly struck David that he had never seen a woman look more beautiful when she was praying.
For that matter he had not seen any woman praying as Benina was praying now.
It had been compulsory in India for the Officers on duty to attend Church Parade on Sunday in Calcutta, Simla or anywhere else they were stationed.
It was a most formal occasion and the women were dressed up in their best and there was always a flutter of elegant hats trimmed with flowers, feathers and veils.
Benina’s fair hair after her swim was slightly damp and hanging down her back.
Her lovely face, David considered, was the face of an innocent and a very lovely angel and nothing could be more perfect for her than the background of the Chapel.
As he stood looking down at her, Benina became conscious of his stare.
Opening her eyes, she rose from the prie-dieu and, just as a child might have done, she slipped her hand into David’s.
They walked out of the Chapel together and when he had closed the heavy door behind him, David said,
“You are quite right, we will have the place cleaned and tidied as soon as possible. Then we will ask the Vicar to visit us and say a special prayer and bless the Chapel as it must have been blessed when it was first consecrated.”
Benina’s fingers tightened on his.
“I just knew you would understand. When we find the hidden coins, you must place the first ones on the altar and then they will be dedicated to God because he has helped us.”
“We will certainly do so and a great deal more, but we have to find the coins first and the rest of the money.”
He considered that it would really be a much harder job than he had anticipated – in fact he was beginning to be afraid they were going the wrong way about their quest.
Yet he could not think of another way.
He had not spoken, but because Benina knew what he was thinking, she suggested,
“You must not feel depressed or worried, my Lord. Now that we have prayed, I am quite, quite certain that because you want the money for the village, the estate and your family as well as for yourself, we will find it!”
“I hope you are right, Benina. I felt so optimistic this morning, after what Newman had said, that we would find it in my grandfather’s bedroom. We searched every drawer and cupboard thoroughly.”
“Maybe he was anxious not to make it too obvious, as his bedroom would be the place for a burglar to go.”
“I suppose
you are right. Of course we have a great many more rooms to search and I am sure Newman turned out the study while we were upstairs.”
“He is such a nice man,” sighed Benina, “and so happy to be back here again.”
She looked up at David and smiled.
“You see you are making everyone very happy, my Lord. Nanny said this morning that it’s just like old times to be working with a gentleman again.”
David laughed.
“That is the highest compliment I can be paid!”
“Of course it is, my Lord. Nanny has always said ‘a lady does not do it in that way’, or ‘he behaves like a real gentleman.’ And that in her estimation is you.”
“I only hope I can live up to it!”
Benina took her hand from his.
“Now we must retire, as we are both exhausted.”
“I know.”
They walked slowly upstairs side by side.
As David was undressing, he wondered if perhaps his grandfather was watching him from wherever he might be and as he saw his reflection in the mirror, he wondered if he had any resemblance to him.
‘At least we are of the same blood,’ he mused, ‘and he should help rather than hinder me in finding what I am seeking. After all, he has not been able to take it with him and it is no use to him now in whatever world he is in.’
Then he told himself his grandfather was unlikely to be thinking in such a strange way.
But everything had been very strange since he had gone to Government House expecting to be congratulated on what he had achieved at Fort Tibbee.
Instead his own world had been turned topsy-turvy and he had left for England that very night.
He had a sudden longing for India and the men with whom he had served as a soldier.
He still yearned for the thrills, excitement and danger of The Great Game.
And then he told himself he was being very selfish.
All he should be concerned with was the extremely important position he now held if only he could afford to maintain it.
‘If’ was the operative word.
Everything now depended on finding the money his grandfather had hidden.
Hide and Seek for Love Page 9