Murder at Downton (The Ralph Chalmers Mysteries Book 6)

by P. J. Thurbin

  Or - Chicken Liver Parfait, Red Onion Marmalade, Melba Toast, Port Reductions, Mixed Cress

  Mains:

  Pan fried Loch Duart Salmon, Fennel Puree, Sautéed Vegetables, Chive Beurre Blanc

  Or: ‘New Season’ Lamb Ragout, Gnocchi, Chilli, Fresh Peas, Celery, Cress. Or English asparagus, poached duck egg, hollandaise, parmesan

  Or Cod and Chips

  Or Lobster Salad with blood orange, English watercress, pickled cucumbers and radicchio Castel Franco.

  Dessert:

  Lemon Posset, Orange Segments, Lemon Verbena Granita, Orange Foam

  Or – Brioche & Calvados Baba, Custard Foam, Blackberry Sorbet.

  As soon as he pressed ‘send’ he had second thoughts. Too late now.

  ***

  Leaving Ditton Lodge at 10:00 meant that they avoided the commuter traffic on the M25 and M4. They arrived at The Vineyard Hotel just before noon. The Hotel was famous for its wine cellar which was advertised as having 30,000 bottles. With 32 suites and 17 bedrooms along with fine dining and the Bubbles Spa, it was perfect for a small party. Situated in the pretty village of Stockcross, it was close to Newbury Racecourse and only 8 miles from Highclere Castle. They had a light lunch after which everyone wanted time to settle in. They agreed to meet for dinner at 7:00.

  ***

  After a splendid meal they took their coffees in the bar area.

  “It’s a great place, Ralph,” said Tom. “It’s not quite what I would have expected in a little village like this. I had a picture of a small pub with a thatched roof like the ones you see in those old movies; maybe a couple of old guys sitting outside with mugs of ale and their horse and wagon tied up to a water trough.”

  “I think you’ve been watching too many old B movies, Tom,” Liam said, with a laugh.

  “Well I thought that might be the case, Tom,” Ralph said as he set his cup down on the table. “So this evening Jim is going to drive us a short way down the road to a village called Burghclere. I think the Carpenter’s Arms should live up to your expectations of what an English pub ought to look like.” Everyone laughed including Tom. Ralph was glad to see that he could take it as well as dish it out.

  There were some murmurs from one or two in the party and he heard someone say “not too much drinking, I hope.” He guessed it was probably Angela.

  “Sorry to eavesdrop, but you’re right. The Carpenter’s is a great place. Lots of atmosphere and very discreet. By the way, I’m Barry Marston. I work down the road. Well some call it working. I’m in the Downton series.” The introduction caught everyone’s attention. Barry was happy to take the floor.

  “During filming some of the cast stay here or in Newbury. It depends on how difficult it is to finish a scene on schedule,” he said looking around at his attentive audience. “My girlfriend lives in the village and sometimes I stay with her.”

  “Do Maggie Smith and Robert Crawley ever stay here?” Asked Betty, who Ralph could see was obviously a fan.

  “Once or twice I think. Hugh Bonneville plays Robert Crawley. That’s Lord Grantham in the series,” he said with a smile.

  “The head butler’s my favorite. What’s his name, Arthur?” Ralph could not imagine an ex-Navy SEAL watching a TV program about the Edwardians, but he was wrong. “Carson. He’s played by Jim Carter. I saw him on a TV interview with Charlie Rose on PBS. He’s nothing at all like the character. He rides a bike and is fit as a fiddle. I don’t understand why anyone would want to let themselves go to seed like some of these middle aged actors.”

  “The woman who plays the cook, Mrs. Patmore. I don’t expect you would find anyone like that nowadays,” said Debbie. “Everyone should have a mother like that.”

  “I have a soft spot for Anna Bates, especially when she puts down that evil butler, Thomas Barrow. What a great name. It’s my favorite part,” said Liam.

  “You would have a soft spot for Anna,” Debbie said. “I reckon ninety percent of the male audience has a soft spot for Anna Bates.” Everyone laughed. They knew that Debbie had not missed the mark on that observation.

  “Barrow is played by Rob, Rob James-Collier. He’s a really nice guy in real life and gets on well with everyone. But I’m afraid you won’t be seeing them this week as they are all off in America on a PR trip. I’m small fry, so I miss out on the jollies,” said Barry as he reached for a double whisky that the barkeep pushed towards him. For a moment Ralph wondered if Barry worked for the Hotel. Perhaps they hired him to masquerade as an actor from the series so as to entertain guests and tourists with casual tales about the stars. He tried to check his cynicism, but it was not easy.

  “If you’re going up to the Castle tomorrow don’t be surprised at the security,” Barry warned. “They had a break-in up there not too long ago and also there’s a search still going on for an escaped prisoner. Although they don’t think the two are linked.”

  “Is he being serious?” Debbie asked Ralph. “I know how you English like to wind people up.” Ralph could see that Barry was a ladies man. He hoped that Debbie was not launching into another ill-fated romance.

  “No, I’m serious,” said Barry. “There are some valuable things up at the house and what with all the stage setters and make-up people, let alone the catering firms, and of course us actors,” he laughed, “things could easily go walk-about and no one would know for weeks.”

  “What about that prisoner?” Asked Tom. “Is he dangerous?”

  “Well I only know what I read in the papers, but it seems he was the first one to have ever escaped from that prison. He killed some chap in a fight. That’s what he was in for.”

  “That’s easily done,” Arthur mumbled under his breath. Ralph wondered how many people Arthur had killed in combat. He was not someone you would want as an enemy.

  As Ralph turned to speak to Jim, who was waiting to take them down to the Carpenter’s Arms, he saw Katie walk in. When she came over he gave her a half hug before he quickly introduced her to the group. He knew that her flight had been due in at Heathrow that afternoon; he was glad that she had come down straight away rather than going back to her London house first. Ralph introduced her to the rest of the group before she dropped down onto the chair next to his.

  “So what’s on the agenda, Ralph? Am I in time for dinner?”

  “I’m afraid we already ate,” Ralph said. “But we’re just off to a local pub. Do you know if they serve food there, Barry?”

  “Home cooked. Everything comes from local farmers. If you’ve room in your vehicle I’d be glad to introduce you to the landlord, Silas Archer, he’s an old friend.”

  As they drove the few miles to the pub Ralph updated Katie and gave her a snapshot view of the group. To Ralph’s surprise, the first person he saw as he ducked under the oak beam at the entrance to the pub, was Omar Naser.

  While Barry took care of the introductions to Silas Archer, Ralph greeted Omar and explained to Katie that he was the person from Cairo who had been at the Conference at Bath. The locals glanced around at the strangers who had disrupted their evening of beer and skittles, and then turned back to their game. Katie let Ralph get on with his hosting duties as she sat at a beer-stained, oak table with a fresh piece of salmon and a salad. Shouts from the local skittles brigade competed with the Americans who were at last starting to feel and act as though they were on holiday. Ralph noticed that Ethan was not drinking and that he looked increasingly uncomfortable as the group grew more boisterous. Ralph led him over to where Omar was sitting nursing a glass of wine and reading the paper and introduced them. Omar stood up and shook Ethan by the hand.

  “I was just checking the Racing Times, Ralph. I’m off to the races at Newbury and want to pick a winner.”

  “Omar here is from the University of Cairo,” Ralph explained to Ethan. “We met at a Conference at Bath not long ago. I wanted to introduce you because I expect you may have a lot in common. Omar, Ethan teaches Arabic at Grand Valley State University in America. If you don’t mind, I’ll l
eave you to put the world straight while I keep that mob from causing a riot.” Ralph could see that Ethan was relieved to have found the one quiet spot in an increasingly noisy pub.

  Ralph rejoined Katie. It looked like everyone was busy swapping war stories. Liam, who Ralph guessed must be somewhere in his late 40’s, was in full flow. He held up a pendant on a silver chain which he had removed from around his neck.

  “This pendant is home at last. It belonged to my Grandma Grace and was left to me when she passed away.” Everyone smiled and there were a few murmurs of ‘good for you, Liam’. Ralph could see that there was a lot of affection for the likeable chap.

  “She always said that she hoped that one day it would be brought back to Highclere Castle,” said Liam.

  At the mention of the Castle, the pub went a bit quiet. He couldn’t help but notice how Ethan stared at the pendant as though mesmerized, and Omar had gotten up and was now standing next to Liam.

  The pendant was gold with a bright blue enamel panel which was shaped like an eagle’s head. It looked like the tokens that tourists might buy in the Caribbean, purportedly to ward off evil spirits. Ralph supposed it wasn’t a lot different to his wearing the silver St. Christopher that Katie had given him when they were on holiday in Devon.

  Liam continued holding court before his attentive audience.

  “It’s an Egyptian good luck charm. It’s meant to ward off evil spirits and heal the wearer.”

  Ralph could almost hear Angie’s eyebrows going up and he waited for her to say something like ‘bloody nonsense’. But for once she kept her own counsel.

  “My grandma worked at Highclere Castle when she was a young girl,” Liam went on. “She started there when she was only 15 years old after her parents were killed in a bombing raid on London. Well that’s what she told the family.”

  Ralph wondered if the older generation of Brits would ever move on from the 1940’s. ‘Best times we ever had,’ was a remark that he had heard often enough from his own parents. Then at Cambridge it had been the mantra ‘A fascination with the past dominates the working man’s views of the future,’ that his left-wing tutors canted to their impressionable young students. He turned his attention back to Liam’s story.

  “During the war she met an American soldier who was with the 101st Airborne Division stationed at Benham Vallence, near Newbury. He used to come down by train to Highclere station on Saturday nights and they’d go to the local dances. I suspect there were some wild times there, although we didn’t hear too much about that,” he laughed.

  Suddenly there was a loud shout.

  “Bloody Yanks!”

  “Steady on now, Josh,” Silas called from behind the bar. But Josh, who Ralph guessed must be in his 90’s, was not to be quieted.

  “Come over ‘ere when we ‘ad ‘arf beat the bloody Huns. Too little too late if you ask me.”

  “We aren’t asking you, Josh. And unless you simmer down you’ll have to leave,” said Silas.

  Ralph thought that this must be a common theme. It was obvious that Silas had warned Josh about these outbursts before, but it seemed to have little effect.

  “Them Yanks took our girlfriends and even some of our blokes’ wives. Easy for ‘em as they gave ‘em silk stockins, cigs and stuff. Our poor sods were in the trenches while they was ‘avin fun. Lost my girl. Never forgot it. No never.”

  “Here, Josh, have another pint on the house and get back to your skittles.” Silas said in a kindly but emphatic tone.

  Liam continued in a somewhat subdued voice.

  “Grandma got married to my Grandpa Frank in 1944. His group parachuted into Normandy that summer, and he was killed in action. She was pregnant and my Mother was born in a cottage in Burghclere village the Christmas of 1944. After the war my Grandpa’s parents contacted their new daughter-in-law and helped arrange for her to come to America along with some 70,000 other GI brides.”

  Ralph was surprised that so many American soldiers had married English brides during the war. But those were unusual times, and marriage must have been some sort of statement that there would be a future, he mused.

  “That’s an amazing story, Liam but how did your grandmother get the pendant?” Asked Katie.

  Trust Katie to cut to the chase, thought Ralph. She didn’t miss a trick, even when she was jet-lagged after a twenty-four hour flight.

  “She told me that when she left Highclere Castle her employers gave her the pendant to protect her on the journey. I think she said that it might have come from the 5th Earl’s collection, but I’m not really certain about that. It sounds plausible though.”

  Everyone wanted to look at the pendant and it was handed around to gasps and comments of everything from ‘how pretty’ and ‘you must really treasure it’ to ‘do you think it’s worth a lot of money’? Ralph noticed that Omar had taken his Iphone out to take a photo of Liam holding the pendant. Ethan just looked angry. Ralph assumed that he saw the pendant as a national treasure that belonged in Egypt, not a curiosity to be passed around an English pub by an American tourist. No doubt to him it represented yet another stolen artifact. Barry was too busy chatting up the buxom barmaid to notice anything else going on around him.

  “I don’t expect that he’ll be putting a ring on her finger anytime soon,” whispered Katie as she saw Ralph’s quizzical expression.

  “Who’s the cynic now,” he muttered.

  Betty had other ideas about how to round off the evening. Striding across to an old, well used piano at the side of the room, she plonked herself down and began playing. For a moment Ralph was afraid that she might play some complicated highbrow piece, but he should have known better. Glen Miller’s In the Mood was her salute to Liam’s grandmother and to the wartime years. From there it was straight into Waterloo and Dancing Queen and a whole medley of Abba favorites before she moved on to Elton John and other great 70’s and 80s artists. Before long some of the others had joined him and Katie on the little dance floor. His extrovert persona was in charge that night. When he looked over, he saw that Debbie and Barry were dancing quite close to one of the slow tunes. Everyone was having a ball.

  ______________________

  Chapter 5

  June was definitely the month to see the English countryside was at its best. The trees were in full bloom and the hillsides carved a neat patchwork of green and brown where ploughing had been completed. The drive from the Vineyard to Highclere Castle created the perfect introduction to their visit. But even though Cynthia had managed to get them ‘timed’ tickets for the tour of the Castle, they still had to queue.

  Jim dropped them off in front of the gates and promised to return to pick them up at 4:00. Ralph knew that what with the tour of the House and the extensive grounds, the Tutankhamun exhibition, and something to eat at the Castle tea rooms, they would not have a lot of time to spare.

  The house was just as the TV series had depicted. The theme tune playing quietly in the background as they made their way through the magnificently decorated rooms that were open to the public. Short of having Lord Grantham sweep down the staircase with a daughter on each arm and a voiceover of Violet Crawley’s acerbic remarks, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

  Entering the Tutankhamun exhibition after all that splendor was a shock for Ralph’s entourage. The transition from the fine English house into a hot and slightly damp smelling excavation site in the Valley of the Kings jolted the senses. The arrangement of the exhibits suggested that at any moment the 5th Earl of Carnarvon and his friend Howard Carter might emerge from their tent and give them a personal tour.

  Their guide was a tall man dressed in a somber black suit, with white shirt and a red carnation in his lapel. His otherwise elegant appearance was somewhat spoilt by the swollen and apparently painful eye that he sported. Ralph wondered if it was the result of an infected bite of some sort.

  “Good day Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Anton Meckler and I’ll be your guide for today. I. along with many of the arti
facts you will be viewing, am on loan from the Museum at Reading, not far from here.” His practiced delivery was smooth and professional. He was someone who was obviously accustomed to speaking to foreign tourists, thought Ralph.

  Anton proceeded to describe the various exhibits and to answer questions when they arose. Ralph found that he was quite impressed even though he remembered that Cynthia had told him that most of the exhibits were facsimiles. Ralph and Katie went over to speak to Anton as the group prepared to leave.

  “Thanks for showing us around,” Ralph said. “That was a most informative and professional tour. I can see that you’ve had a lot of experience doing this sort of thing.”

  “Twenty years at the Reading museum,” Anton agreed, sounding pleased that his expertise had been noted. “We get all sorts on these tours. Most of them are nice enough, and interested in hearing about the antiquities, but occasionally some parents bring small children who run around disrupting everything and making a nuisance of themselves.”

  “Thankfully I brought only well-behaved adults with me on this occasion,” Ralph laughed.

  “It certainly makes my life a lot easier,” Anton agreed. “Anyhow, I’m glad that you and your party enjoyed it.”

  “By the way, Ralph said. “We were over at the Carpenter’s Arms last night and someone was saying that there was a break-in at Highclere recently. Did they think it had anything to do with the exhibition?”

  “Well, no one has said anything specifically,” Anton sidestepped. Ralph could see that this was not something he was eager to discuss.

  “Surely most people know that most of the exhibits are just copies,” Ralph pointed out, “so I can’t see why anyone would bother stealing them; although I will say they still look mighty impressive.”

  “It was a while ago now,” Anton said, “and whoever it was did manage to steal one or two items. But they were of no great value.”

  “I guess if they thought these pieces were genuine gold they would have cleaned the place out. What with gold the price it is now.”