by Carola Dunn
A couple of minutes later, the woman who had greeted them at the door turned to first one then the other of her neighbours and shook hands, as they did in turn with others on the bench. Apparently that was a signal.
‘Those are the elders,’ Bel whispered. ‘That’s the end.’
People began to stir and to talk together. Daisy had survived her first Meeting. Several people came over to speak to her and her friends, seeming particularly anxious to make sure Sakari was welcomed. By the time they extricated themselves and reached the street, Sakari was beaming, her usual effervescence restored.
‘You were lucky, Mummy,’ said Belinda. ‘Sometimes no one speaks at all and it seems to go on forever. Are we going to the Bridge End Garden now, before lunch?’
‘I shall drive there,’ Sakari said firmly. ‘The walk up here from the Rose and Crown to the Meeting House was enough for me. This town has too many hills.’
‘It can’t be much more than a quarter of a mile to the Garden,’ Melanie protested, ‘going by your guidebook, Sakari.’
‘I’ve got to go back to the hotel anyway,’ said Daisy, ‘to see if there’s a message from Alec.’
Belinda’s face lit up. ‘Oh, Mummy, do you think Daddy may come after all?’
‘Don’t get your hopes up, darling. I rather doubt it, but I’d hate him to arrive and find us not there.’
No message awaited them at the Rose and Crown. Daisy asked the receptionist how long it would take to walk to the Bridge End Garden.
‘About ten minutes, madam, if you cut through the churchyard.’
‘You see, Sakari,’ said Melanie, ‘it’s no distance.’
‘Is it uphill?’ Sakari asked suspiciously.
The receptionist admitted that there was indeed an uphill slope from the Market Place to the church. Sakari promptly sent for Kesin, but the others all decided to walk.
The day was still pleasantly cool, and Daisy enjoyed the walk. They passed the Sun Inn, another fourteenth-century building, with its fantastic plasterwork. Most was typical pargetting in repeated patterns, to be found on many local walls, but birds and fruit also appeared, in bas-relief, and one gable-end boasted two figures. The guidebook named them as the giants Gog and Magog, or possibly the Wisbech giant and Tom Hickathrift, whoever he might be. The controversy was unlikely ever to be resolved.
They came to the parish church, from which wafted the strains of organ and choral music. Though its spire was visible from most of the town, Daisy hadn’t realised how big it was. According to the guidebook it was a ‘wool’ church, built with the enormous profits of the medieval wool trade.
She started to wonder whether her American editor would be interested in an article about the ancient town.
Crossing Castle Street, they looked for the narrow passage between two houses that the receptionist had described. Sakari drove up just as they found it.
‘You’ll have to walk from here, Mummy,’ Deva told her, ‘but it looks as if it’s downhill.’
The girls ran ahead, their elders following at a pace suited to Sakari. They passed between several houses accessible only by the footpath, before a meadow opened out to their right. On the far side was a low, decorative stone wall. Beyond it, topiary shrubs were visible.
‘Nearly there, darling,’ Daisy assured Sakari.
‘If there is no bench near the entrance, I shall sit down on the grass!’
The entrance was between two brick pillars topped by stone eagles. One had its wings spread, and the other appeared to be giving it a quizzical look. Wrought iron gates decorated with scrollery stood open, and just beyond was an iron bench. Sakari promptly sat down on it, and Daisy and Melanie joined her. It faced a formal garden, yews trimmed in geometrical shapes and low box hedges forming an asymmetrical pattern of flowerbeds, divided by gravel paths. In the centre was a circular lawn, with a small pool and a fountain. The children were already racing about in a game of tag.
‘Well, if this is the maze,’ said Melanie with a sigh of relief, ‘they can’t possibly get lost in it.’
‘This is not the maze.’ Sakari dug in her handbag for the guidebook. ‘It is the Dutch Garden, if I am not mistaken. Yes, look. The maze has high hedges, like the one at Hampton Court.’
They all studied the book for a few minutes. The Garden as a whole was layed out in various sections, including a walled kitchen garden (called the ‘Walled Garden’), a rose garden and a wilderness (called the ‘Wilderness’). There was plenty of space for poor Miss Bascombe and Mr Tesler to wander at leisure.
Then Mel looked up and exclaimed, ‘They’ve disappeared!’
There was no sign of the girls.
‘They’re probably playing hide and seek now,’ said Daisy, ‘behind those tall topiaries.’
‘I hope they haven’t gone into the maze by themselves and got lost. Or in the Wilderness.’
‘No, look!’ Daisy pointed. Bel, Deva and Lizzie appeared to be standing about eight feet above the ground, waist-deep in a hedge. They were waving and calling. ‘What on earth … ? Let’s go and see what they’re up to.’
They walked along the central path, round the fountain – three fish with intertwined tails supporting a small boy with curly hair and no clothes – and came to the base of the yew hedge supporting three giggling girls (fully clothed).
‘There’s steps, Mummy,’ Lizzie explained, ‘inside the hedge.’
‘Do be careful!’ Melanie was ever the worrier.
‘There’s a railing, Mrs Germond,’ said Deva. ‘We won’t fall.’
‘Come up and see,’ Bel invited them. ‘You get a good view of the Garden from here. We’ll come down first, though. There isn’t room for everyone.’
Was the dreadful Harriman in the habit of lurking up there to spy on Tesler and his sweetheart? Daisy wondered.
Even Sakari climbed the iron steps. From the platform at the top, the pattern of the Dutch Garden spread out below, each box-hedged shape filled in with colourful flowers. In the opposite direction, Daisy was glad to see a gardener scything grass under the trees in the so-called Wilderness, which was more like a copse. She had been afraid that, as it was Sunday, there would be no staff present to retrieve the girls from the maze if they did manage to get themselves lost.
By the time they descended the steps, the girls were impatient to explore the maze. All Sakari wanted, of course, was another bench. They found one, shaded by a spreading tree, on a wide lawn on the way to the maze. Daisy offered to go with the girls so that Melanie could keep Sakari company.
To get to the maze, they passed a statue of a peacock, went up several steps between grinning gargoyles and passed through another elaborately scrolled iron gate. On one side was the brick wall of the Walled Garden. The high yew hedges of the maze itself were surrounded by a lawn, trees and shrubs. No one else was visible, though of course there might be someone in the maze. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing one did by oneself, though, and Daisy couldn’t hear anyone talking.
The girls, still full of energy, rushed to the nearby gap in the hedge. Deva and Lizzie disappeared. Belinda looked back.
‘Aren’t you coming, Mummy?’
‘I’ll wait here, in case you have to be rescued.’
‘We won’t!’ Bel vanished after the others.
Irritatingly, now that Daisy really wanted one, there was no bench. She strolled round the outer edge of the maze, hearing the girls voices:
‘This way!’
‘No, this way!’
‘I’m going that way!’
‘Lizzie, Bel, where are you?’
‘I’m just the other side of the hedge.’
‘How did you get there?’
‘Here’s a bench.’
Inside, not outside, Daisy thought with indignation.
‘Oh, this is another dead end. Bother!’
‘I’ve found a sort of a stone vase.’
‘I think I’ve gone round in a circle!’
Then one of them began to screa
m.
CHAPTER 14
Daisy’s instinct on hearing a child scream was to rush to the child. She ran round the outside of the maze towards the entrance and had nearly reached it when she realised how idiotic it would be to go in.
The only result would be another person lost. Why had she not gone into the maze with the children and insisted that they stay together?
Through the sound of the screams, she heard Belinda and Deva shouting in fearful voices.
‘What’s happened?’
‘Where are you, Lizzie?’
A futile question if ever there was one, though Daisy had been tempted to do the same. Instead, she stuck her forefingers in her mouth and uttered the piercing whistle Gervaise had taught her. As she had hoped, all three girls were surprised into silence.
‘Lizzie, can you hear me? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?’
‘No.’ Her voice was barely audible, muffled by a sob, not to mention the thick hedges. ‘Oh, Mrs Fletcher, it’s Mr Harriman, and I think he’s dead!’
Harriman? Dead? This couldn’t be happening! Daisy had a nightmare feeling that if she could only stop and think she would know what to do. But the children were wailing, panic-stricken. She had to say something at once.
‘Deva, Bel, be quiet, and stay where you are. Lizzie, are you still looking at him?’ Harriman? Dead? ‘Turn your back!’
‘But he might—’
‘If he’s dead, he’s not going to do anything. Move farther away from him. What makes you think he’s dead?’ Suppose he was hurt and needed help?
‘He’s lying so still! On his back, with his eyes shut and his arms by his sides. And his face is white as … as anything. He’s not moving. I’m sure he’s not breathing!’
‘Is he bleeding?’
‘N-no. I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure not. Oh, Mrs Fletcher, can’t you come—?’
‘I don’t know how to get to you, darling. Lizzie, can you be very brave?’
‘I – I don’t know.’ Her voice quavered. ‘What … ?’
‘I want you to look at him more closely. Can you bear to? I need to be sure he’s not bleeding.’
‘Do I have to … touch him?’
‘No, darling.’ Fingerprints, she thought, and footprints … but she had to be sure he wasn’t bleeding to death. ‘Just look. Take a deep breath, then turn round. If you start to feel funny, sit down quickly and take another deep breath, all right?’
‘All right. I’ll try.’
‘I think you’re awfully brave, Lizzie,’ called Belinda.
‘I wouldn’t look at him,’ said Deva, unhelpfully. ‘I want to get out of here!’
‘Be quiet, Deva. I’ll get you out as soon as I can. Lizzie?’
‘I can’t see any blood on him, Mrs Fletcher. Not on the ground, either. May I stop looking?’
‘Yes, darling. And – this is a bit complicated – move away from him to a place where you can’t see him but you know exactly where he is, so that you can tell us how to find him.’ There must be a viewing platform somewhere, so that lost visitors could be directed out of the maze, but a man flat on the ground might not be visible. ‘Can you do that?’
‘Y-yes. It’s a dead-end. I’ll just go past the first corner. It doesn’t branch or anything.’
‘Good girl. Now, all of you, I’m going to fetch a gardener to get you out. Stay where you are. There’s no point running all over the place.’
‘We might be able to find Lizzie, Mummy,’ said Belinda. ‘Then we could wait with her.’
‘Oh yes, please try! It’s scary on my own.’
‘All right, I suppose you might as well try. I’m off. I’ll be as quick as I can, I promise.’
Daisy sped back through the fanciful gates, past the oblivious stone peacock, towards the bench where Sakari and Melanie sat. Mel saw her coming and jumped up in alarm.
‘What’s wrong? Is someone hurt?’
‘No, the girls are lost in the maze, as was to be expected, but no one’s hurt. Not exactly …’
‘Daisy, what do you mean, not exactly?’
Realisation and reaction hit Daisy. She flopped down on the bench. ‘They’ve found a body. Harriman. The games master.’
‘Dead?’ Mel and Sakari demanded with one startled, incredulous voice.
‘That’s what it sounds like. In the maze. I didn’t see him.’
‘We must get them out of there!’ Melanie started across the lawn towards the peacock.
‘No, Mel, wait!’ Daisy pulled herself together. ‘You’d only get lost with them. I’m going to fetch the gardener I saw in the Wilderness. If he can’t direct them out, he’ll have tools to cut through the hedges. What you’ve got to do is go for the police. Quickly. Go back to the car. If you can’t find a telephone at once, Kesin will drive you to the police station.’
‘But—’
‘Please, Mel, go at once. The police and a doctor, just in case … Sakari will stay here so that we have a rallying place.’
‘You can go much faster than I, Melanie,’ Sakari pointed out.
‘All right.’ Reluctantly, but walking fast, Melanie set off for the main gates.
Daisy had deliberately not told her friend it was Lizzie who actually found the body and was the only one to have seen it. Melanie would have refused point-blank to leave. Not only did Daisy feel she herself was better able to get the gardener moving, she didn’t want to have anything more to do with the police than she absolutely had to. Melanie was so obviously a respectable, sensible citizen that they were bound to take her report seriously. Sakari had a more commanding presence, but the colour of her skin was all too likely to be counted against her.
‘You don’t mind staying put, Sakari?’
‘Staying put,’ Sakari mused, ‘another odd idiom. I am happy to stay put. Daisy, are you sure the children are not making up stories?’
‘If you’d heard the screams, you wouldn’t ask. I’m going to look for that gardener.’ Standing up, she turned towards the Wilderness. ‘Oh, here he comes.’
A flat cap covered his hair, if any, and the weather-beaten face gave no clue to the age of the man trudging across the lawn, his scythe over his shoulder. His demeanour gave no clue that he had noticed the presence of the ladies. Daisy thought he’d have passed without so much as a glance in their direction if she hadn’t accosted him.
‘Excuse me, I need your help.’
‘It do be me dinnertime.’ He continued walking.
At least he was heading in the right direction. She walked alongside. ‘There are three young girls lost in the maze.’
‘They can woit.’
‘No they can’t. There’s a dead body in there with them.’
He stopped and looked at her without speaking, his bright blue eyes assessing but incurious.
‘Really! My friend has gone to fetch the police.’
Turning his head away from her, he spat, then set off again, still without speaking and at the same steady pace. However, his course altered slightly so that instead of aiming at the door to the Walled Garden, he was making a bee-line for the gates to the maze.
‘Thank you!’ said Daisy with heartfelt relief. She went on beside him for a few yards, then realising that nothing would speed him up, she hurried ahead. Up the steps, through the trees: ‘I’m back! You’ll be out of there in no time.’
‘I found Lizzie, Mummy. She can’t stop crying.’
‘I don’t blame her. Stay with her, darling.’
‘I found the middle, Mrs Fletcher,’ Deva called, sounding pleased with herself. ‘There’s a sort of thing here you can climb, but I’m not tall enough to see much from the top. I can’t see Bel and Lizzie.’
‘Stay there, Deva.’ Daisy turned to the gardener as he caught up with her, now without his scythe. ‘Do we really have to go all the way to the middle to see where they are? To tell them how to get out?’
‘Aye.’
Surely it would have been more practical to build a platform outside! Wh
at would it matter if some people succumbed to temptation and tried to work out a route to the centre before they started?
The gardener trudged on into the thicket, his heavy footsteps crunching on the gravel path. Daisy followed.
Start with a right turn. She was determined to remember the way. Right, then wind about for a bit. Left – no, that didn’t count as there was no alternative. Left here. That was right, left, another left, left again – right, three lefts – Round a curve, straight ahead, but there was a left turn possible, so did straight ahead count as a keep right?
She heard Lizzie crying just the other side of the hedge and promptly forgot the lot.
‘Lizzie! Bel! We’re coming!’ She wanted to stop and offer words of comfort, but the gardener had already disappeared. She hurried after him, just in time to see him make another left turn, then immediately right.
Without him, she would have been hopelessly lost already.
There was a long straight stretch, with an obligatory right turn at the end. On her left was the entrance to a small open space, with a bench shaded by a wooden shelter. Daisy could have done with a sit-down in the shade, but she plodded on, determined to keep the gardener in sight. It would be too humiliating to have to be rescued herself!
Turn followed turn. Then she heard Deva’s voice, behind and above her:
‘Mrs Fletcher, I can see your hat!’
She scarcely dared look back in case the gardener vanished again. ‘I hope that means we’re nearly there,’ she called back over her shoulder.
Left curve – again she heard Lizzie, whimpering now, just the other side of the thick, impassable yew – left turn, and a long open space lay before her.
It was mostly lawn, the gravel path continuing all round the edge. A pair of iron benches faced each other across the grass. In the middle stood a sort of menhir, an odd-shaped stone. At the far end rose a wrought iron structure, a steep ladder leading up to a railed platform on stilts. From the platform, Deva waved excitedly.
Daisy had found one of her charges.
The gardener, going straight to the platform, hooked a thumb at Deva in an easily interpreted gesture.