by Clara Benson
‘But I don’t, I tell you,’ said the man obstinately. ‘I came here to see someone. I’ve been down on my luck and this seemed like a handy place to sleep for a few nights, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I haven’t seen any princesses—or any queens or emperors, for that matter, so you might as well save your breath and stop asking me about them.’
Hesketh and William glanced at each other. He seemed sincere enough.
‘Get up,’ said Hesketh.
‘Where are you taking me?’ said the man fearfully.
‘Up to the school,’ said Hesketh. ‘I still have some questions to ask you. If you’re telling the truth then you’ll get a bed, a wash and a hot meal for your pains. If not—well, the Princess had better be safe and well, or it will be the worse for you.’
They bundled the man out of the barn. Angela was waiting for them outside.
‘Is this the man you saw?’ said Hesketh.
‘Yes,’ said Angela. ‘I take it Irina wasn’t there.’
Hesketh shook his head.
‘We’ll take this fellow back to the school anyway, just in case,’ he said.
‘You’re wasting your time,’ said the man.
‘What’s your name?’ said Hesketh.
‘Fazackerley, if you must know,’ said the man.
‘You’re related to Miss Fazackerley,’ said Angela. ‘I saw you together.’
‘She’s my sister,’ he agreed.
‘Has she been bringing you food?’
He nodded.
‘As I said, I’ve been down on my luck lately. Joyce disapproves of me but she isn’t a bad old stick and won’t let me starve.’
That seemed to explain the scene Angela had witnessed between the two the other day. It was looking increasingly as though this man had nothing to do with Irina’s disappearance. Still, they could not let him go yet.
They arrived back at the school, and Fazackerley made no protest as they escorted him up to Mr. Hesketh’s room and locked him in, perhaps enticed by the comfortable bed and the hot meal he had been promised.
‘What are you going to do now?’ said Angela to Mr. Hesketh. ‘You have nowhere to sleep.’
‘It’s half past four,’ said Hesketh. ‘Nearly morning—and I couldn’t sleep now even if I wanted to. No, I had better get to work. There will be plenty to do tomorrow—not least explaining to Jameson how I managed to lose the very person I was meant to be protecting. I am going to call the police now, as we will need them for the search.’
‘I should like to help if I can,’ said Angela. ‘I feel rather bad myself that I lost sight of Irina. I ought to have run after her instead of coming back to fetch you, but I had no idea that she was the person I’d been following. I thought it was an intruder.’
‘There are many things we might have done differently,’ said Hesketh, ‘but it’s no use worrying about it now. The important thing is to get her back, and we can’t do much about that until daylight.’
‘Then if you don’t mind I shall go to bed,’ said Angela. ‘William, you had better do the same. We may need you tomorrow.’
William went off back to the coach-house, while Hesketh went to look for Miss Bell and ask her to call the police. Angela retired to her room and got back into bed, expecting to lie wide awake until morning. Instead, she fell asleep within minutes.
TWELVE
By half past eight on Sunday morning Miss Bell, Mr. Hesketh, Mr. Everich and Mrs. Marchmont were all gathered together in Miss Bell's study to discuss how best to proceed following the shocking disappearance of Princess Irina. They were joined by Miss Finch, wary and suspicious, whose bedroom was in another part of the building, which had caused her to miss all the excitement of the previous night. Miss Finch was most put out at not having been informed earlier of Mr. Hesketh's real identity, and her very expression said that she had no intention of believing a word she was told this morning without receiving some proof of it. She was particularly suspicious of Angela, the purpose of whose presence at the meeting was unclear to her, and she darted frequent sideways glances at her.
‘Then Miss Devlin was quite happy to do chapel duty this morning?’ said Miss Bell, addressing Miss Finch.
‘Yes,’ said Miss Finch, ‘although I’m not quite sure what’s got into her. She was muttering something about praying for forgiveness and went quite pink when I asked her what she was talking about.’
Angela here resisted the urge to look across at Mr. Hesketh, whose jaw sported the beginnings of a bruise.
‘Good,’ said Miss Bell. ‘After church I will speak to the rest of the teachers. This is a most terrible situation, and is likely to do untold damage to the school if we cannot resolve it quickly. I am confident that when the teachers are informed of what has occurred, they will do everything in their power to assist. Mr. Everich,’ she went on, turning to that gentleman, ‘please do not suppose that my only concern is the reputation of Wakeley Court school. Of course, the most vital thing at present is to find Her Highness at once and bring her back safely. I shall not waste time in useless apologies, but please be assured that we are doing our utmost to recover her. Mr. Hesketh has reported her disappearance to the police, who have already begun a search of the area, and today I intend to speak personally to Irina’s closest friends, in order to find out whether they can shed any light on the question of why she should have decided to run away.’
‘Do the police know who she is?’ inquired Everich.
‘No,’ said Miss Bell. ‘We judged it expedient to tell them only that a girl has gone missing and that we are afraid she may have been taken away by an unknown person or persons.’
‘Good,’ said Everich. ‘I think that is best. As you say, this is a very serious matter, and I cannot deny that I am very dismayed that it should have happened. Also, it is most mysterious. Why did she leave the school? Can we be certain that she did it of her own accord?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Miss Bell. ‘There is no doubt of it. We discovered her disappearance very quickly, and Miss Devlin and Mrs. Marchmont even chased after her, but she was quite determined not to be caught.’
Everich acknowledged Angela’s efforts with a bow in her direction.
‘If you have no objection, Madam,’ he said to Miss Bell, ‘I should also like to speak to Her Highness’s friends today and find out what they have to say.’
‘Why, certainly,’ said Miss Bell. ‘There is a small group of girls with whom she is friendly: Barbara Wells, Violet Smedley, Florrie Evans, and one or two others. You shall speak to them all if you like.’
‘Barbara Wells, Violet Smedley, Florrie Evans,’ repeated Everich, and for some reason he seemed almost relieved at the prospect. ‘Ah, yes. I should be very grateful if you could arrange it.’
Angela looked at him curiously. The smooth demeanour of yesterday had quite vanished, and he wore a nervous air—not surprising given the disappearance of his important charge. If Mr. Hesketh was worried about the carpeting he would receive from Henry Jameson when he returned to London, how much worse must it be for Everich? Angela had no idea how they did things in Morania, but she suspected that Everich might lose more than his job if it should turn out that the Princess had come to harm. He was perspiring slightly and rubbing his hands together restlessly. Angela noticed that one of them was bandaged, but could not remember whether it had been like that when she had met him the day before.
Just then, there was a soft knock at the door. Angela, who was nearest, opened it and saw William standing there.
‘What is it, William?’ she said.
‘Pardon the interruption, ma’am,’ he said quietly, ‘but I thought you ought to know that Edwards the gardener has gone missing.’
Angela stared at him for a second.
‘You’d better come in,’ she said.
William entered.
‘This is my chauffeur, William,’ said Angela to the others. ‘He knows about the Princess and helped us in our search last night. When we came to Wakeley Court
I gave him the task of keeping an eye on one of the gardeners, who it seems has now disappeared.’
‘Do you mean Edwards?’ said Hesketh.
‘Yes, sir,’ said William. ‘I heard the servants talking about it. They went to look for him this morning but found that his bed hadn’t been slept in and that he’d taken all his things.’
Miss Bell looked surprised.
‘Why, you don’t think he had anything to do with Irina’s disappearance, do you?’ she said.
‘I don’t know, ma’am,’ replied William, ‘but I thought you would want to know as soon as possible.’
‘I don’t suppose he told anybody he was going?’ said Hesketh.
William shook his head.
‘None of the servants I spoke to knew anything about it,’ he said.
‘We must find out whether anybody knows where he has gone,’ said Hesketh. He turned to Miss Bell. ‘What exactly do we know about this man Edwards?’ he said. ‘He is new, I know, and you said he had excellent references, but other than that what can you tell me about him?’
‘Well, er—’ began Miss Bell, who was used to being in charge and was slightly taken aback at Mr. Hesketh’s newly authoritative tone. ‘I know he was formerly employed by the Marquess of Bessington, who sang his praises most highly.’
‘Oh, then you followed up the references,’ said Hesketh.
‘Of course I did,’ said Miss Bell indignantly. ‘I always do. I wrote to the address given and received a letter in reply which assured me of Mr. Edwards’ honesty and capability.’
‘I shall take a look at that letter later, if you don’t mind,’ said Hesketh. ‘I rather wonder whether it wasn’t a forgery.’
‘If it was Edwards who lured Irina away from the school, I wonder how he did it?’ said Angela. ‘I suppose he might have sent her a letter purporting to be from someone she trusted. We must ask the girls whether Irina had received any mysterious communications lately.’
‘Excuse me if I am a little slow,’ said Miss Finch, who could contain her curiosity no longer, ‘but am I correct in thinking, Mrs. Marchmont, that your visit to Wakeley Court has nothing in fact to do with the new Mathematics scholarship? It seems to me that you know an awful lot about what has happened for someone who is meant to be merely visiting.’
‘I certainly did come here to make arrangements for the scholarship,’ Angela assured her. ‘That’s true enough. However, Mr. Hesketh’s superior in the Intelligence office knew that I was intending to visit, and since I have done a little work for him in the past he asked me to help Mr. Hesketh investigate the threat to Princess Irina while I was here.’
‘Really?’ said Miss Finch, looking Angela up and down in undisguised surprise. ‘I must say, I should never have guessed it. You don’t look at all like a detective.’
Angela resisted the urge to ask Miss Finch exactly how she thought a detective ought to look, and merely said politely:
‘No?’
Mr. Hesketh glanced at his watch.
‘It is nearly nine o’clock,’ he said. ‘I shall give this Fazackerley fellow a little more time to sleep off whatever it was he was drinking last night, and then I’ll go and question him. Does anybody know when Miss Fazackerley is due back?’
‘She usually arrives shortly after lunch,’ said Miss Finch.
‘His hard-luck story may well be true,’ said Hesketh. ‘Perhaps he really did come just to beg some food and blankets from his sister, but we can’t let him go until we are sure of it. I should say he hasn’t the wits to plot anything off his own bat, but someone might have paid him to kidnap the Princess and deliver her to the real ringleader. We simply can’t be sure at present, and until we are he will have to stay here. He is locked safely in my room for now and so we have nothing to fear from him.’
‘Very well,’ said Miss Bell.
‘In the meantime I had better telephone Mr. Jameson,’ said Hesketh. ‘He has asked me to keep him informed of developments. I think he is hoping that we will find the Princess before he has to confess all to the Foreign Secretary and the whole thing blows up into an international incident. After that I shall go and speak to the servants and find out what they know of Edwards’ movements. Unless you would prefer to do that, Miss Bell?’ he said politely.
‘No,’ said Miss Bell, in tacit acknowledgment of Mr. Hesketh’s present authority in the matter. ‘I think you had better do it.’
‘Very good,’ said Hesketh. ‘In that case, perhaps you would be so good as to look out Edwards’ letters of reference?’
‘Certainly,’ said Miss Bell.
‘And perhaps Miss Finch can arrange to allow Mr. Everich to speak to the Princess’s friends this morning.’
‘Of course,’ said Miss Finch.
‘I think that is all for the present,’ said Hesketh. ‘The police are scouring the area and so there is little we can do in that regard. All we can do is wait and see what they come up with.’
Everyone nodded and murmured their agreement, and there was a general movement towards the door as everyone went off to do what had been asked of them. Angela and William were left standing in the passage, the only ones who had been given nothing to do. Angela had no intention of being idle, however. She turned to William and smiled.
‘Let’s go and do some detecting,’ she said.
THIRTEEN
‘We didn’t have much of an opportunity to look around carefully last night,’ said Angela as they walked across the grounds. ‘Miss Devlin and I were too preoccupied with finding Irina as quickly as possible, and had no time to scout around for clues, or anything of that sort. As a matter of fact, nobody has had much time to think at all, as we’ve all been too busy chasing about, but we really ought to try and discover exactly what she did after she came outside.’
‘Are you quite sure she left of her own accord?’ said William.
‘As sure as I can be,’ said Angela, ‘since I was first on the spot, so to speak. I’m fairly certain it was she who woke me up as she passed my room. I followed her downstairs and discovered that she had run out into the grounds. I then wasted far too much time in fetching Mr. Hesketh, and things got a little confused, and by the time we all came downstairs again it was too late. I do wish I’d followed her when I had the chance,’ she said. ‘I could kick myself for it. Had I run after her at the time then all this might never have happened. But I thought the person I was following was an intruder and didn’t particularly want to get into an altercation. I never dreamt for a second it was actually Irina.’
‘You weren’t to know, ma’am,’ said William.
‘I suppose not,’ she said. ‘And there’s no use in crying over spilt milk anyway, so I’ll just have to try and put things right if I can. Now, then, since we are pretty certain that Irina came out voluntarily, we must ask ourselves why.’
‘To meet someone?’ said William.
‘I think so,’ said Angela. ‘Unless she was walking in her sleep, I can’t think of a single reason why she should suddenly take it into her head to run out of the school grounds and into the village. So, let us assume that she had arranged to meet someone. Where?’
‘The summer-house looks like a pretty good place,’ said William.
‘Don’t you think? As I said, we just peeped in quickly last night, but this time I’d like to take a good look around.’
They arrived at the building in question as she spoke, and stopped. There was not much to it; it was merely a little wooden hut, white-painted with a pitched roof, with inside a few old easy chairs and one or two low tables. The girls came in here in the warmer weather to read or day-dream or do nothing at all, but avoided it in the winter as it was damp and draughty and had a tendency to mould. Angela opened the door and they both stepped inside. There was a musty smell of dry, rotten wood—along with something else. Angela sniffed the air delicately.
‘Cigarette smoke,’ she said. ‘Very faint, but someone has been smoking in here.’
William bent down and
picked something up. It was a cigarette-end.
‘Are the girls allowed to smoke?’ he said.
‘I sincerely hope not,’ said Angela. ‘That’s not to say they don’t do it, of course. Here, let me see.’
She examined the remains of the cigarette. It was a very slim affair of a type with which she was unfamiliar, but other than that she could deduce nothing from it. She gave it up.
‘I don’t know what I thought it would tell me,’ she said. ‘All I know is that it’s not one of mine, and whoever smoked it wasn’t wearing lipstick. Now, is there anything else?’
They poked about a little more, then Angela spotted a small, dark splash of something on the edge of a low table. She peered at it more closely.
‘What is that, do you suppose?’ she said.
William came to join her.
‘It might be blood, I guess,’ he said doubtfully. ‘It’s hard to tell against the wood.’
‘It’s quite dry,’ said Angela.
She took out her handkerchief, rubbed a corner of it against the stain, and then held it up to the light. There was a brownish smear on the fabric.
‘It certainly looks like blood,’ she said. ‘It might have nothing to do with Irina, of course.’
‘Even if it does, there’s not much of it,’ said William.
‘No,’ said Angela thoughtfully. ‘Certainly not enough to have caused whoever shed it too much damage. I’d like to look around outside, though, just to make certain there’s no more.’
They left the summer-house and spent some minutes scouring the surrounding ground for clues, but could find nothing conclusive.
‘Do you think the person the Princess came to meet waited in the summer-house for her?’ said William at last.
‘I shouldn’t be a bit surprised,’ said Angela. ‘It was rather chilly last night and I shouldn’t have fancied standing outside for hours myself.’
‘But he wasn’t here by the time you arrived.’
‘Of course not,’ said Angela. ‘Now that I come to think about it, we must have been making a tremendous racket. Anyone might have heard us coming a mile off. I think Irina probably met whoever it was, and then they heard or saw us coming and crept out before we got here. I don’t know what happened after that, but I imagine they must have split up and hidden in the bushes over there, waiting for us to leave. Miss Devlin and I looked around here and then went over to those huts. That gave Irina the opportunity to escape along the path to the village.’