by Nicola Slade
‘You hated her?’ I was shocked. He was trembling with nervous energy and I saw tears glittering in his eyes. ‘But why?’
He was sweating profusely and he gave a dry sob as he shifted along the log away from me. A few seconds passed as he drew a deep breath, then heaved himself up from the log. I watched in fear as he limped towards the bag he had left on the grass.
‘That was the last time I ever saw Alan.’ There was so much pain in his voice. ‘He went home to his people first and from there to the house party the following weekend. As did Miss Evershed. After what happened, there was no time. The powers-that-be made sure he went straight back to his regiment which was sent to France without delay. You know what happened.’
‘It wasn’t Judith’s fault,’ I said, indignant despite my fear, and he turned tragic eyes on me.
‘She was there. We’d quarrelled just minutes before she turned up. A silly spat but Alan was angry with me. I couldn’t even touch him apart from a brief handshake and I couldn’t say the words I wanted him to hear.’ He dashed his hand across his eyes once more. ‘She took that from me.’
‘You hit her and knocked her into the ha-ha,’ I said accusingly, caught up in the story and forgetting to be afraid.
‘It’s tedious hanging around when the visitors are there,’ he nodded with a sigh. ‘There’s always an undercurrent of whispering and they look at me as though I’m a sideshow freak. I’ve taken to walking in the park at that time because there’s always the off chance some acquaintance of Halliday’s will turn up and denounce me as a fraud, though I’d have done the blank, shell-shocked stare, of course.
‘I’d come to rest on a bench in the garden when I heard Major Larking bawling at Miss Evershed; she’d come rushing out of the house and he came raging after her. He caught up with her on the terrace but I was too far away to hear what he said. She was certainly in a fine tizzy when she got away from him, crying, though whether with temper or grief I didn’t know and didn’t care. She passed me without noticing, then she paused where the bank is steepest, but not as far along as the plank bridge. She was only about three or four yards away from me by then, and she stopped to fish out her handkerchief.
‘I thought of Alan and had a blinding, terrifying moment of incandescent anger. The next thing I knew I’d hit her with my crutch and she was toppling over into the ditch.’ He shuddered. ‘I got myself into the kitchen-garden without being seen and sat on the bench in the greenhouse, a favourite haunt of mine. When the fire alarm rang someone came out to fetch me. It was that simple.’
I had nothing to say to him but as I wondered what on earth I should do, I was struck dumb and horrified to see my father sneaking up on us. His full head of hair had vanished since the morning and instead he had acquired a neat pepper-and-salt moustache and beard and was stealthily creeping along under cover of the hawthorn hedge. I glanced quickly back at Captain Halliday and summoned up a tremulous smile.
‘Acting mute and shell-shocked has worked well for you.’ My voice sounded too loud as I pressed home the point hoping to keep his attention, while trying not to notice that Papa also seemed to have taken Holy Orders, judging by his clerical collar. ‘You can use that method again, in another place, somewhere much safer.’
Captain Halliday half smiled.
‘Oh, don’t look so scared,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to use this on a kid like you.’ As he spoke, hefted the pistol but his next words went unsaid for Papa hit him with his stick, the heavy silver knob catching the side of his head. Captain Halliday went down like a log and Papa and I looked at each other, utterly shocked.
‘Hell!’ exclaimed my father, gathering his wits. ‘I might have hit him harder than I meant, you’d better take a look at him, Christy, he’s out cold. I can’t bend as well as I used to with this blasted rheumatism. Hanging about in a sinking ship did me no good at all.’
He raised an eyebrow but looked sulky when I managed to stop shaking and glared at him, appalled at his levity. I fell to my knees and held Captain Halliday’s hand while I looked for a pulse, though in all honesty I had no need. Too soon, as I watched in terror, the hazel eyes gazed at me in a brief moment of recognition, then he gave a gentle sigh and the light went out.
‘You’ve killed him!’ I hugged myself, tears running down my face as I gasped and rocked to and fro. ‘He wasn’t going to hurt me, Papa. You had no cause to do that. He was going to let me go.’
‘He had a gun pointed at you, Christabel. What else was I supposed to do?’ Papa bent awkwardly to kneel beside me. ‘Oh, my poor knees,’ he said, panting as he took off his coat. ‘What? I don’t want to get bloodstains on it,’ he said peevishly as, grunting and grumbling he proceeded to rifle the dead man’s pockets.
‘What are you doing?’ I was scandalised. Typical of my long-lost father to put his own selfish interest first.
‘Don’t be sanctimonious,’ he snapped, unwarrantedly indignant. ‘He was planning to run so he’ll have documents and cash. It will come in handy for me.’
‘But…’ I was stumped. This was a new low, even for Papa.
‘Christy.’ He was serious for a moment though he didn’t stop checking the contents of the other man’s wallet. ‘I live on my wits, I always have. You know that. This fellow has no further needs and I do, it’s that simple.’
‘What are we to do?’ I set aside the moral implications because there was a more pressing concern and I was terrified. ‘You said you were leaving. Papa. Why haven’t you gone?’
‘I was on my way to the station,’ he said, looking through Captain Halliday’s papers. ‘I thought you might be making for the fishing lodge so I doubled back for my gear. As I struck out for the road there you were in the distance with this fellow heading your way, though I don’t believe he had spotted you. He looked furtive.’ Papa grinned unexpectedly. ‘I recognise furtive when I see it, none better, and I didn’t want him upsetting you.’ I was briefly wrong-footed as I recalled the debonair, if erratic, parent whom we had loved in spite of ourselves. I rapidly pulled myself together as I remembered disappointments too numerous to mention.
‘As it happens it was a good job I followed him.’ He became brisk. ‘I’ll sneak out through the gap in the hedge where I came in. As to this poor fellow, it’s clear to me that some ruffian caught him unawares and has fled, but it’s nothing to do with you. You were never here so off you go, my dear, scurry home as fast as you can.’
He pulled the dead man’s travel bag towards him and rapidly transferred some of the contents to his own suitcase. ‘A few shirts,’ he grunted. ‘Better than nothing.’ As he rose to his feet an oilskin packet fell out of his pocket. I picked it up but he was too busy struggling into his coat to notice.
Mild curiosity made me glance at it but I was soon wide-eyed when I realised the packet contained banknotes. Lots of them.
‘Whatever’s this, Papa?
‘What’s that you…’ I saw his expression change to a wary assessment of the situation, the paternal smile fixed to his face. ‘Ah, thank you, Christy. I’ll take that now.’
He held out his hand and the smile faded when I shook my head.
‘There’s a great deal of money here, Papa,’ I said sternly. ‘If you had this, why did you rifle that poor man’s pockets and take his wallet?’
‘You never know when you might need a little extra,’ he said airily. I held on to the packet and watched him calculate the odds against trying to snatch it out of my hand. He hesitated and I glared at him, then I tucked the oilskin packet into the front of my blouse.
‘Christy, Christy,’ he laughed. ‘What a suspicious girl you are. The money’s yours, of course. I was about to hand it over to you.’ He patted my shoulder. ‘You’re a brave young woman, my Christabel, the pick of the bunch, and I’m proud of you.’
I waited, unmoved.
‘Before I spotted you I was planning to leave it in the hen house, you silly girl.’ The fatherly expression was almost convincing. ‘I knew nobody
else would find it, you’re the only one who ever sees to the hens. No need to look at me like that, you know. For once it’s honestly come-by, more or less. At any rate I made certain there would be no trail back to me. I mean – to you.’
‘Have you robbed a bank, Papa?’ I was upset and suspicious.
‘How can you say such a thing?’ He tried to look wounded but laughed instead. I caught another glimpse of the maddening parent we had adored in our childhood and knew he had conceded defeat. ‘Never you mind, Miss Impertinence! I converted something I had no further use for into bank notes and sovereigns. Used notes too, for added security.’
He examined the dead man’s wallet again, cocked a hopeful eyebrow at me and, receiving no encouragement, hunched his shoulders, looking resigned. ‘Plenty to give me a start,’ he said, his eyes brightening as they used to when he was off to the races. ‘I suppose you do deserve it, after everything. Call it your dowry.’
‘You owe us this money, Papa,’ I said fiercely. ‘It will do a great deal more good in our keeping, than in yours.’
‘I don’t doubt that, my sharp-witted daughter.’ His smile was one I didn’t recognise and if I had not known him all my life, I would almost have thought he had regrets about abandoning his family. But I did know him…
With this afternoon’s transformation I could see the father we had thought lost to us. Gone was the heavily padded figure from this morning, gone the full head of silver hair, and in a gesture familiar from my childhood, he adjusted his coat with a dandified flourish, brushed some fluff from his sleeve, and turned to me with sparkling eyes.
‘You should find there’s enough to keep the wolf from the door for a while.’
I nodded, then reached up to kiss his cheek, taking care not to dislodge the natty little Vandyke beard.
‘Take care, Papa, and promise you’ll never come back.’
‘Saucy young madam,’ he said as he hugged me. ‘How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is an ungrateful child. I have a fancy for Australia, that’s far enough away, isn’t it? I’ll let you have news now and then but don’t tell anyone.’ He started to laugh. ‘Let me see… ah, I have it. Miss Agatha Trubody will send the occasional postcard. I’m only sorry I shan’t see the lengths you’ll have to go to when you dream up an explanation for her.’
With that he turned away with a cheerful half-salute and scrambled through the hedge again. I watched until he was out of sight then shook myself and ran towards home as quickly as I could, leaving the erstwhile Captain Halliday to contemplate divine justice.
Chapter Fifteen
Sunday, 17th March – later
I expected Alix to creep downstairs from her attic that night and she was there even before I had undressed.
‘I hope you’re going to tell me what you’re hiding,’ she said as she hopped in bed with me. ‘I told you all the gossip from the Hall, didn’t I?’
She had, too. Dr Pemberton had been shipped off home and his wife made speedy arrangements to take him to Bridlington (her home town) for a much-needed rest a very long way from wagging tongues. Or so Alix had overheard when she eavesdropped on the telephone extension in the staff room.
‘The temporary doctor arrived within a couple of hours,’ Alix told us over dinner. ‘And with him a very senior army nurse who is to act as Sister-in-Charge for the time being. Trained nurses, even one with a vicious tongue, are too valuable to lose, apparently, so Matron – now Nurse – Ruddock is to be transferred to Netley where she will work under close supervision.’
‘That’s not fair,’ Addy was disappointed. ‘I hoped she would be shot at dawn by a firing squad. I could have sneaked out with Henry’s Kodak and photographed it all.’
‘You, Adelaide Georgina Fyttleton, are a ghoul,’ I scolded and she subsided into sulks. ‘Go on, Alix,’ I prompted.
‘I heard all the gossip after Matron left,’ she said. ‘Nobody dared say a word until she was whisked away by car. It seems one of the previous intake of officers made a formal complaint about Matron’s unduly harsh regime and when they looked into it, a whole stream of similar complaints turned up in the records. She’s worked at several hospitals over the years, most recently in Oxford and London, but as I said, there’s a serious shortage of nurses so she was always moved on, rather than dismissed. Besides, Dr Pemberton admired her ship-shape management and wouldn’t hear a word against her.’
‘Judith comes from Oxford,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘She was sure she’d come across Matron somewhere. We’ll probably never know but perhaps they saw each other if Judith was visiting a patient. You’d certainly notice a senior nurse or matron barking ferociously about an untidy bed or snapping at an underling. Matron might well have recognised Judith; the Evershed family is well-known there. I hope the new Sister is kinder, Alix. You’ll have to work with her.’
‘We volunteers are too lowly for Sister Wisden to notice yet,’ Alix said cheerfully. ‘However, she seems kindly disposed. She took Mrs Mortimer under her wing at once and summoned the temporary doctor. Almost the first thing he did was examine Lt Mortimer’s arm and whip out that piece of shrapnel that was causing trouble; a pity he won’t be here long.
‘Mrs Mortimer was quite overcome,’ Alix added. ‘I took her a cup of tea in the morning-room and held her hand while she cried with relief. She had a little nap and we walked home together.
‘Oh yes, I nearly forgot. I know that Sister has a grasp of what is important, because after she carried out a tour of inspection, she ordered a special pudding for tonight’s dinner saying the patients could do with a treat, and when better than a Sunday to do so. The patients all cheered when she sent out to the pub for some beer too! It sounds promising.’
‘Now,’ Alix said when she crept into my bed to warm her feet. ‘Tell me everything, starting with what you were doing in town this morning. Did you really go to church?’
It took some time but I told her all that had happened. How I’d had a hunch that Papa, if he really was in town, would go to church; that we’d had coffee together and that he had upset me by being a hypocrite about Bertie. She cuddled me then and we both had a little weep.
‘Alix, did you hear that Granny sent me out for a walk after luncheon? I blew the fidgets away and was just coming down the hill when I heard someone swearing because he’d ripped his uniform. It was Captain Halliday and he spoke clearly and in perfect English!’
I kept back the bit about Henry. That was too private, even for Alix’s ears.
‘Judith still hasn’t remembered anything about falling into the ha-ha,’ I said thoughtfully and Alix agreed.
‘Actually, she doesn’t remember anything at all about Friday afternoon. I asked her again yesterday and she remembers going to the Hall but nothing else until she woke up in our dining-room.’
‘She was so upset at the idea of being taken back to Groom Hall.’ I screwed up my eyes as I remembered. ‘She probably half-recalled being shouted at by her brother-in-law.’
When I had told Alix the whole dreadful story of Papa sneaking up and hitting Captain Halliday – or whoever he really was – she was aghast.
‘You mean Papa murdered him?’ she squealed. ‘Under your very nose?’
‘Yes… no – I don’t think it was murder,’ I demurred. ‘He was defending me because he thought the man was going to attack me. He was holding a pistol, don’t forget. I’m certain Papa only meant to knock him out, even he was shocked when he realised what he’d done.’
I heaved a weary sigh and she pinched my hand.
‘What’s the matter? If Papa’s gone and Judith is all right, surely we can sleep in peace?’
‘I know.’ I was frowning in the dark. ‘It’s just that – it was so horrible, Alix. He was looking up at me and then he just died. I keep feeling sick when I think about it because I’d been quite excited about detecting a murderer, and it isn’t a game. It was never a game.’
‘Poor Christy.’ She stroked my hair. ‘You were right all along, I’m sor
ry I ever doubted you.’
‘In the end it was just scraps of memories, ideas, smells, all muddled up in my head but not making any sense,’ I whispered. ‘Addy took the photos at the Hall and when I looked at the photo of the men all smoking pipes I remembered that something had upset me but I couldn’t think why it made me uneasy. Henry said almost all the officers smoke pipes, except him and Major Peebles – and poor Trevelyan, of course. Matron and Major Larking and Captain Halliday all smoked cigarettes. When I thought about that last check on the patients I remembered starting to splutter. They’re not allowed to smoke in the ward but something definitely set me off and I thought about how the smell lingers on clothes so perhaps a smoker had recently been at that end of the ward – where the beds were all occupied by non-smokers. It wasn’t pipe smoke, you can’t mistake that, so if there were only three cigarette smokers, it had to be one of them. But why? We were there all night and Matron never once walked round to look at each individual. She merely stood at the hall door and surveyed the room, apart from when Hutton said he saw her go into the conservatory and you saw her come out.’
‘That left Major Larking and Capt. Halliday,’ Alix nodded thoughtfully. ‘You’re clever, Christy. When did you work it all out? Surely not when you had a gun pointing at you?’
‘You’d be surprised how sharp your brain is in those circumstances,’ I conceded, feeling the tension drain away at last. ‘No, I think it’s been churning around in my head for a while. Halliday calmly admitted deception, desertion, all of that, which was when it hit me that he might have done something worse. When he came closer and I started coughing and spluttering, I just blurted it out, which was a stupid thing to do.’
‘Oh, Christy,’ she hugged me tightly. ‘We’d better go to sleep, tomorrow’s bound to be an awfully busy day.’