She Shoots to Conquer
Page 31
And now there I was, drugged to the gills, the candlestick a wasted attempt at protection under my pillow, my chivalrous whim not to confide my suspicions until proved true precluding rescue by Mrs. Malloy, who would have so thrilled to the opportunity. Later, Ben would tell me in no uncertain terms that if I ever attempted such heroics again, he would never make me another chocolate orange gateau-which didn’t have quite the impact it would once have done. I had been a well-meaning fool, undeserving of the passionate devotion that brought Thumper to the rescue, leaping through the window onto the bed, barking to raise the dead… or in my case the stupored. But, unlike Whitey, who so needed his little cuddles, he lingered not a moment beyond the one it took to pry myself up. Away he raced into the cubbyhole. To my horror in following him, I saw Judy’s bed was empty. Nor had Thumper dallied there; he was out on the rooftop growling menacingly.
I had not taken Mrs. Foot for the killer, and I had been right in thinking that one of the two who loved her beyond her deserts had taken care of matters for her. It was Boris who stood like death personified holding Judy in his arms. The empty eyes stared through me before he laid her down with a gentleness she had seen in him and remarked upon, and took the graceful leap of a trapeze artist to his death.
Epilogue
I hope I’m a woman as learns from trial and tribulation,” said Mrs. Malloy from the backseat as we left the gates of Mucklesfeld behind us. “’Course there’s no overlooking quite yet your leaving me in the dark about what you was up to. Could be you thought I needed being taught a lesson, what with me not being overly nice to Judy Nunn, that I have come to see as a good egg, and a brave one at that, though she didn’t remember any of the night, which is a blessing. Although it could be said she missed out on one of the most exciting moments in her life, and for most of us they don’t come along often.”
“I’d think you’d be glad of some peace and quiet after all that’s happened,” said Ben, looking remarkably handsome behind the steering wheel. Thumper had not, as it turned out, been the only hero of the hour. Lord Belfrey had mentioned to Ben his belief that I wanted Judy in my room in case something happened to her. He believed I feared she might take a turn for the worse, but Ben construed it differently, explained my concern might be from a different cause, and the two of them in manly accord had kept watch outside my door throughout the evening, neither of course making anything of Mrs. Foot’s arrival with the tray. What neither they nor I had anticipated was that Boris would come up by way of the fire escape, and then creep through both rooms to lock my door. Thumper’s frantic barking had alerted the men of trouble, but also drowned out their subsequent pounding on the door. So they had broken down the door and entered upon the scene to lift Judy from the roof edge and carry her back to bed.
“Mr. Plunket is the one I now feel most sorry for,” I said. “His worried knowledge was what turned him back to drink. But I’m sure Lord Belfrey and Dr. Rowley will come up with a solution as to where he should go, if the police let him off lightly, which won’t be the case with Mrs. Foot after her unremorseful confession.”
“Glad of some peace and quiet!” Mrs. Malloy had fastened on Ben’s words. “There won’t much of that waiting at Merlin’s Court, what with the children and Tobias and everything that will need putting to rights, after your parents leave-no offense, Mr. H, but your mother will keep putting out doilies no matter where I hide them.”
“Speaking of hiding places,” I turned my head, “it was your treasured collection of shoes that gave me the idea where Celia Belfrey might have hidden the family jewels that Eleanor was thought to have stolen. And then there was your talking at lunch about the clue that revealed the identity of the murderer in The Landcroft Legacy-the contusion left on the arm of an archer releasing too soon. On a right handed person, the abrasion would be on the left arm between wrist and elbow, remember? Boris had his right hand around his left arm when I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water for Judy. Mrs. Foot made a big thing about Thumper having scratched him-nerves making her overly eager, I suppose, to have an explanation ready in case Charlie Forester should suggest checking people’s arms.”
“Did I do anything else?”
“Yes. Giving me a living person to fight for in addition to Suzanne.”
A sniff, followed by, “I still say you should have told me it was Boris.”
“But I wasn’t sure, right up to the end. I had this dreadful fear that it might have been Tommy Rowley. Mrs. Spuds said he went out for a walk in spite of the fog, and he might have gone down with the bouquet into the ravine to look for the torch. When I found out that he too had worked at Shady Oaks, I couldn’t write him off entirely, and there was Livonia so in love with him.”
“Well, I suppose I can see…”
“There was always the possibility that Lord Belfrey had done away with Suzanne because of something that happened when they met on that cruise. Or it could have been Celia… she could have followed Suzanne after she stopped at Witch Haven for directions to the rectory. To ruin any plan of Lord Belfrey’s would cause her delight, and then there was Nora… Eleanor, who could be expected to hate the family. Oh! One last detail. It was Lucy who found Eleanor’s gown in a trunk in Giles’s room and thought it perfect for the skeleton. No sinister motive there.”
“At least some of those we’ve met would seem to have a good chance of happiness.”
“Yes, but there are Judy and Alice and Molly!”
“Don’t you worry,” answered Mrs. Malloy with her old confidence. “Things will work out perfect for them, along with everyone else. Celia Belfrey will do a bunk, Lord and Lady will go to live at Witch Haven, but they’ll keep Mucklesfeld as a refuge for the homeless old and young. Sad the way some can’t manage to put roofs over their children’s heads. Molly will stay on to teach dancing; Alice handwork; and Judy will turn part of the grounds into a paying proposition as a market garden. She’ll have plenty of help. And because it will all be a great big success, Georges LeBois will make a documentary about it that will help pour in money for a staff of health professionals under the direction of Dr. Belfrey. Livonia will help out as much as poss, but she’ll have two cats and a new son named Thomas after his dad and…”
I didn’t interrupt. Fiction makes such a wonderful change from reality. Or-maybe not. Amazingly, everything turned out much as she predicted, except that Livonia also had a little girl named Eleanor… Ellie, for short. Alice married the detective involved in the case, who proved to be a great help with the sometimes troubled youth. And Molly gained fame from choreographing a ballet titled The Cobweb Fairy, but refused to give up teaching her Mucklesfeld pupils.
But all that was for the future, and I was entirely in the present. I had fallen in love during that week, passionately, irrevocably in love. When I confided this to Ben, he had not shown the smallest jealousy. It was he who managed it all… the talk with Tommy and Livonia, who talked to Mrs. Spuds, who talked to Mrs. Spendlow, who talked to her husband… who better than the rector to lift the burden of guilt over an ill-made promise from Mrs. Dawkins’s shoulders?
She was waiting at the gate with Thumper when we pulled up outside the house. He had on a new collar and a bright red lead.
“Just look at his lordship,” said Mrs. Malloy, sticking her head out the car window. “Now don’t go thinking you’ll be keeping him all to yourself, Mrs. H. I’ll be the one fixing up his dinner a treat and making sure he gets enough walkies. Like I’ve always said, who needs a man when you can have a dog?”
To my knowledge she’d never said anything of the sort. But perhaps neither reality nor fiction can ever be quite sufficient on its own… and life at its richest must be a perfect blending of the two.
Dorothy Cannell
***
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