The Balmoral Incident

by Alanna Knight

  ‘Not at all. She came to me – oh, two to three months ago through a friend whose recommendations I trust entirely. I did not deem it necessary to request more than that, indeed it would have seemed rather an insult.’ She sighed. ‘However, in the present circumstances, it seems regrettable since the girl was unreliable and indeed, rather foolish.’

  Gray pursed his lips. ‘The girl was sadly drowned,’ he reminded her. ‘And now, madam, we need these details immediately. We cannot proceed without them.’

  I had been watching him as he conducted this interview. His surprise arrival was bothering me. Too fast for him to be summoned from Aberdeen, he must have been at the castle already. A coincidence? An unlikely guest? I must ask Vince.

  Mabel was staring out of the window as if she hadn’t heard his request. ‘I will, of course, pay for her funeral. I presume she can be buried in the local cemetery.’

  Vince who had been silent throughout interposed: ‘Not without a proper identity, Mabel. A death certificate bearing date of birth and so forth. We have to know more than her name,’ he added gently.

  Gray regarded him gratefully, before turning again to Mabel. ‘Perhaps your friend will provide us with the details we require.’ And picking up his pen: ‘Her name and address, if you please.’

  Mabel smiled. ‘That, alas, I am unable to give you at present. Lady Frances is travelling abroad for her health for several months, precisely the reason for sending Lily to me.’ She shrugged. ‘I’m afraid I haven’t the faintest idea of her present whereabouts. I imagine she is travelling somewhere on the Continent at this moment, possibly in Switzerland or Germany.’

  Gray nodded. ‘Your friend’s family will perhaps have details. May we have their name and address, if you please?’ he added patiently.

  Mabel certainly was not pleased. She said coldly. ‘Her family have a place in Sussex, but Lady Frances severed all connection with them some years ago. They wished her to make an unsuitable marriage. She refused. She belongs to the race of womankind who live and travel alone,’ she added proudly. ‘Lady Frances is a very private person.’

  I wondered if their link was the suffrage movement.

  Vince and the inspector were exchanging grim looks as well they might. If this Lady Frances was the only one with any information about Lily, it might well take some considerable time to track her down or wait for her return to England. And doubtless the two men were thinking: what to do with the body in the ice house meanwhile?

  Gray turned his attention to Olivia and me. ‘As this is a somewhat unusual case, it would be helpful to know when you last saw the young woman.’

  So we were required to provide answers to questions more usually supplied as alibis in the case of a homicide. Did Gray have reason for suspecting that Lily had not met an accidental death, that she had been murdered?

  He turned to Olivia. ‘Mrs Laurie?’ his smile a gentle disguise.

  She shook her head. ‘I haven’t seen her for a couple of days, but that isn’t unusual for she spent most of her time attending to Miss Penby Worth.’ She nodded towards Mabel. ‘As a lady’s maid she had much to keep her busy attending to her mistress’s needs. She was not expected to be available to the rest of us.’

  Mabel had made that very plain I decided, as Gray turned to me. ‘And you, Mrs Macmerry?’ He had made the transition very smoothly from Mrs McQuinn to my second marriage.

  ‘I can only endorse Mrs Laurie’s statement, Chief Inspector. I have not seen Lily either, although I heard Miss Penby Worth talking to her when I was going upstairs to my bedroom.’

  ‘And when would that be?’

  ‘The day before yesterday – in the afternoon.’

  Gray thanked us, briskly closed his notebook, and said he might need to talk to us again. After he left Mabel, went quickly to her room without a word, leaving me to wonder once again what her feelings were at this deplorable tragedy which she seemed intent on regarding as merely an annoyance; that she had lost her lady’s maid – a matter of inconvenience. Was she further dismayed, at this moment considering the consequences that Lily could not be laid to rest until the absent Lady Frances provided the required information? Or that the inspector’s interest suggested the poor girl might have been murdered?

  Olivia said, ‘What she said about this reclusive friend who was Lily’s previous employer – don’t you think it is extremely doubtful that they’ll be able to trace her? And frankly, if she shares Mabel’s feeling and regards servants as an impersonal commodity, then it’s very unlikely she’ll have any knowledge of Lily’s parents or background either.’

  I agreed, and looking out of the window, Vince and Gray were talking earnestly, their heads turned in the direction of the stables. Was that the next direction of their enquiries?

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Olivia went out to join the two girls and Thane in the garden. ‘Time for a walk.’ And to me: ‘Coming with us?’

  I shook my head. Suddenly the enormity of Lily’s drowning overwhelmed me. I needed help to sort out my confused thoughts. I must talk to Vince. I was unlucky, wrong in my assumption that the stables were Gray’s destination. As I opened the front door he was coming through the gate.

  ‘Ah, Mrs Macmerry, I have observed that you have an uncommon interest in this enquiry.’

  ‘No more uncommon than would seem natural for a girl who has been living in the cottage with us and has unfortunately drowned.’

  His lips tightened. ‘Perhaps I should make it clear to you that the police are quite capable of clearing up this unfortunate incident and any interference by a private investigator will be severely dealt with as unwarranted interference.’

  That said, the warning made, he touched his hat and, turning left, hurried in the direction of the stables. He had certainly made his view clear but, had he known me better, would have realised that he had made it obvious there was, in this ‘unfortunate incident’ as he had called it, more than a mere death by drowning. And that would make me all the keener to carry out an investigation of my own.

  Vince hadn’t waited for him at the stables. As he was leaving I caught up with him and said: ‘If you’re heading back to the castle I’ll walk back with you. We need to talk.’

  His wry smile said that he knew what I had in mind. ‘Has it occurred to you that Lily might not be English?’ I asked.

  He thought about that. ‘She always seemed reluctant to speak, is that what makes you think she was foreign? I’ve never had anything beyond a yes or no.’

  ‘Nor I. And considering her somewhat nomadic previous employer, as described by Mabel, could not this Lady Frances person have picked up Lily on her travels?’

  Vince nodded. ‘True. It is often the way these days, when regrettably we British pay our servants a mere pittance, foreign incomers, often refugees, are glad to work hard for little more than food and a sound roof above their heads.’

  ‘I find it quite extraordinary that in Lily’s tragic death, heart-wrenching even to those of us of who hardly knew her, Mabel could be so disinterested in the background of one who was her personal maid.’

  Vince merely nodded and stared ahead, his mind elsewhere. I knew him of old. There was something that he wasn’t willing to discuss after Gray’s inconclusive interview with Mabel.

  Seeing Vince, withdrawn, silent, I felt a sudden ominous chill. It was one with which I was painfully familiar. It told me a lot, the presence of a mystery, of unanswered questions and, most fearful of all, regarding the unknowable Lily White, who was she and had her death been accidental?

  We had reached the castle and as we entered the gardens Vince prepared to take his leave. ‘Tell Olivia I may be late, I have things to do.’

  I put my hand on his arm. ‘Is there something wrong, Vince?’

  His laugh was mirthless. ‘You may well ask. Only a drowned girl, the maid of one of my guests. As if that wasn’t dire enough, a guest in HM’s cottage. Aren’t there enough complications, Rose? Don’t you see them looming ah
ead?’

  I had to confess that I hadn’t until then realised that there were issues regarding Lily’s death involving Vince too as he said:

  ‘I’m not satisfied, nor I think is Gray, with this abysmal lack of information about Lily. There is something wrong here; I feel it in my bones. And we have to keep this low key, Rose. As far as HM is concerned, it must never appear to be more than an accident.’

  I looked at him and he went on: ‘Surely you can understand the gravity of the situation from the King’s point of view? This was not a tenant on the estate, it was a stranger, a stranger unfortunately who was living in his private cottage. The servant of a guest of his household physician in whom he has the utmost trust,’ he added heavily.

  ‘Are you suggesting, then, that it might not have been an accident?’

  He sighed. ‘Think of the complications if that was so. He has foreign visitors, royalty from Europe and beyond, with half the aristocracy of Great Britain, all here for the shooting. Some of them have wives and families with them. Imagine the panic if it came out that there had been a murder, even if it was only a servant,’ he stressed the words bitterly. ‘And what if it got into the newspapers? “Murder at Balmoral Castle!” Think of that, the press would have a field day.’

  He sighed. ‘What if she didn’t accidentally drown? Mabel has no satisfactory explanation for why the girl was wandering away on her own by the river. What if she was lured there, killed first and her body thrown into the water with a forlorn hope that it would drift away for ever, by someone who wasn’t aware of the unlikelihood of that.’

  At my questioning look, he said: ‘All the signs suggest that if this was murder it was by someone who was not acquainted with Deeside and the river.’ Again that bitter laugh. ‘Think what headlines that would make. There’s another possibility too, Rose.’

  ‘You examined the body.’

  He looked unhappy. I knew what was worrying him when he said: ‘She had been battered by the currents and the rocks, but the injury to the back of her head was not consistent with tripping and falling face forward into the river.’

  I thought for a moment. ‘Was she shot?’ I had another swift vision of my rescuer in the dark forest with his rifle and the gunshot I had heard shortly before he appeared, as Vince shook his head. ‘No. There was no bullet wound. That would have remained in her skull. Most likely a piece of wood.’

  We were both silent, then I said: ‘So it could have been murder. And you would have kept it quiet.’

  He sighed. ‘We might add rifle butt to the blunt instrument. Thinking of an attacker with the shooting parties. All of those gallant sportsmen, some of them keen as mustard to bring down a bird or two but a bit useless with the guns. What if it had been one of them, one of HM’s aristocratic guests, head of a foreign power?’ He shuddered. ‘The consequences are horrendous. Look, I must go.’

  ‘Why is Gray so interested in the stables?’

  ‘So you saw that – nothing escapes Miss Sharp Eyes.’ He laughed. ‘Mabel knew nothing of Lily’s personal life. Gray’s theory – remember he’s never the one to think the best of anyone – is that she was probably a whore under that quiet exterior. Jack would tell you, there’s plenty of them in high places as well as the kitchen. What if she had struck up an affair with a stable lad?’

  I shook my head. I couldn’t imagine Lily having sex appeal, but that was a secret chemistry only a man could detect. ‘Wait. I have one more quick question. Is Gray staying at the castle?’

  He frowned. ‘What makes you think that, Rose?’

  ‘Well, he is obviously lurking somewhere in the neighbourhood …’ I paused to let that sink in, ‘or how did he appear so quickly after Lily was discovered?’

  Vince shrugged. ‘He has business here.’ The same words Jack used when he wasn’t prepared to say more. I was not to be put off.

  ‘About Lily?’

  ‘No.’ Sharply but not sharp enough.

  I persisted. ‘Something at the castle, then. Someone pilfering the silver. It’s a long way from Aberdeen, the last time I saw him with Jack.’

  Vince turned, looked at me sternly and sighed. ‘If I don’t say something to keep you quiet I know you won’t let it rest. Jack didn’t say anything to me.’

  ‘What, about rumours?’

  He sighed, perhaps a sigh of relief. ‘There are always rumours, Rose, and precautions must be taken, especially at this time of year, the shooting season. So many different nationalities all crowded together. And God knows they are all related by courtesy of the King’s mother who provided for most of the thrones in Europe.’ And when he added ‘There are always dangerous people’ I thought of the Kaiser and Alice von Mueller’s strange story.

  ‘Like assassins,’ I said gently.

  ‘Who knows, Rose. We certainly hope not. And there’s nothing definite, just rumours that we always have to be on our guard.’

  ‘And nothing to do with Lily?’ I persisted but I didn’t get an answer from Vince. The nurse appeared from his surgery, he was urgently needed.

  I was walking back very thoughtfully when Olivia and the girls appeared having left Thane at the cottage and decided to come and meet me. Meg and Faith were full of what they had seen, what I had missed on their woodland walk, normally so uneventful.

  Today they had seen a deer herd, squirrels that were quite tame, and some of the royals fishing in the river, on and on. Enough to keep Olivia unaware of my silent preoccupation, for I had much to mull over concerning my conversation with Vince.

  When we reached the cottage Mabel wasn’t in evidence. I made tea and took it upstairs to her. She was sitting by the window, staring across towards the woods. Was this just the aristocratic stiff upper lip and she was upset too, with delayed reaction? As she turned to face me, her expression was no longer defiant. She looked scared and I had another thought to add to my misgivings.

  If she knew something more about Lily that she wasn’t telling us, was she thinking that her own life might now be in danger?

  I considered Lily’s possible murder. According to Vince the body had been in the water for about two days but Mabel was certain that she had been missing not more than a day.

  Then I remembered my rescuer near the river where her body had been washed up, rifle slung over his shoulder, and I returned again to the gunshot I had heard. The time fitted. Had I been in the presence of a killer and had a lucky escape?

  But why Lily? Her presence, so insignificant that none of us noticed her in life, now loomed ominously large in death, regrettably, as far as Mabel was concerned; one she was determined to regard as an unfortunate incident, not as murder but as an inconvenience to herself.

  I wasn’t satisfied and neither I suspected was Inspector Gray. We hadn’t seen the last of him by any means as later that evening he was back again asking more questions.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Olivia had sent the girls up to bed and Gray took a seat at the table with us.

  ‘We need to ascertain who was the last person to see the young woman before the accident.’ A question that to my ears again sounded familiarly like the preliminary enquiry in a murder investigation. Neither Olivia nor I were sure of when we had last seen her, used to her flitting silently to and fro in the cottage, ignoring us and never indulging in any conversation, however trivial, that might have been remembered. But we both knew that it was Mabel the inspector had in his sights, failing to understand that the girl had been her personal maid and, with all that implied, must have had a daily routine.

  All I remembered was that Lily didn’t go out with Mabel in the pony cart because she wasn’t feeling well. And that was while we were at Braemar Castle two days ago. That was the last thing I recalled, although I had heard them after that, talking upstairs with Mabel haranguing Lily as usual. I could not swear that was only yesterday and neither could Olivia.

  Gray seemed to think this very odd, until we explained that as Lily was Mabel’s maid we did not expect her duties to i
nclude waiting on us, beyond obliging with an occasional cup of tea or, when Mabel was absent with us at some grown-up function, looking after the two little girls. In retrospect now, this latter made me very fearful for their safety.

  Everyone was being questioned. Gray insisted that, secretive by nature, Lily was a young woman, after all, and using phrasing more delicately for our benefit, he suggested as he had done to Vince that she might have been enjoying the attentions of some young man unknown to us. He had obviously profited by his visit to the stables.

  I didn’t see her in the role of a flirtatious tease or a seductress, but following Gray’s philosophy, boys would be boys too. Mabel immediately endorsed that Lily had visited the stables frequently.

  ‘On the slightest excuse. I had to reprimand her on several occasions when she should have been attending matters relating to my toilet and wardrobe,’ Mabel added grimly.

  And so began the wearisome prospect of Gray interviewing any whose path Lily might have crossed in the faint hope that she might have told someone her life story. This included our two daily maids; the exotic gipsy-looking Yolande and Jessie in the slender hope perhaps that Lily might have shared girlish confidences with them.

  They shook their heads. ‘Never spoke a word to us. Thought a lot of herself, she did. Head in the air, went on as if she was too good for us, being a lady’s maid and all that.’

  Olivia said hopefully that maybe she had made a friend among the stable boys, one who had been bold enough to pierce that secretive shell. I felt this was a waste of time. I had my prime suspect. The mystery man of the dark forest, my rescuer with his rifle.

  I put this to Vince later, carefully omitting that incident and merely remarking how I thought I had seen Lily in conversation with him in Ballater, and that Dave our driver saw them together.

  I added: ‘Remember, the same man who almost missed the train in Edinburgh and was at the gipsy encampment?’

  Vince, baffled for an instant, shook his head. ‘Oh him, one of the ghillies,’ was his only reaction as if this was quite insignificant.