by Nicola Slade
I was just dropping off to sleep when I remembered the oilskin packet that I had… er, acquired from Papa. It had slipped my mind in all the turmoil but Alix was already asleep so I followed suit. Tomorrow would be a good time to see how much money Papa had inadvertently donated to the family fund.
Monday, 18th March
At six o’clock in the morning I woke Alix, who was still tucked up in bed with me. I couldn’t wait any longer.
‘We should count it,’ I said after I’d told her about the money. ‘I did see some genuine-looking bank notes but this is Papa we’re talking about. If he planned to sail away to South America or the East we should be prepared to find notes from China or Paraguay or somewhere equally useless.’
We didn’t though. I counted out the notes and stared at Alix. Then she counted them too and we both stared at the money laid out on my eiderdown.
‘Five hundred pounds?’ I whispered it again. ‘Five hundred pounds?’
Alix was awed. ‘Where on earth did he get all that money?’
‘He must have sold the gold nugget,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘The one the badger man talked about. Papa hinted that he’d pawned something valuable in New York before he boarded the Lusitania, and he said he’d retrieved it quite recently. When he took Captain Halliday’s money it was just habit; as he said, he lives by his wits so it was second nature to take a dead man’s wallet.
‘You know Papa, he laughed in the end when he realised I wasn’t going to let him have the money. What were the odds? He had enough to be going along with, so it was on with the game. There’s always a game where Papa is concerned and he’s probably in London now, tossing a coin to decide on his next destination.’
Alix stared at the notes and her brow creased. ‘There’s still our American nuisance,’ she said. ‘Addy’s half-man, half-badger. I don’t imagine Papa gave him a second thought. If he turns up here again you must make sure I do the talking. I haven’t seen Papa so I can present a completely innocent face and deny all knowledge of his whereabouts.’
She gave me a stern look. ‘Don’t you dare start thinking the badger man deserves a share in this money, Christabel. It’s quite obvious that he stole the gold originally and we’ll never track down the miner it belonged to.’ She touched a five-pound note with a gentle finger. ‘I’ve hardly ever seen one of these before,’ she said wonderingly. ‘Let alone touched one.’
I scooped up the money and put it into my bag. ‘Better burn this packet just in case it can be traced,’ I said as I clambered out of bed and started to dress.
‘What are you going to do with it?
‘I’m going to put it in the bank,’ I said firmly. ‘I’ll tell the manager we’ve had a windfall, which is true enough. We won’t tell Addy, she’s too young to burden with this kind of secret, though Granny will have to know of course.’ Alix agreed and I went on, ‘In a week or two, when everything has calmed down, I think I’ll go and talk to Henry’s Cousin Edgar, the Senior Partner. Henry trusts him and that’s good enough for me.’
The morning proved to be packed with achievements for the whole family. Mother triumphantly bullied Lady Esmerelda into marrying the right man after all and wrote The End on the last page. She then had to lie down to recover from the strain.
As soon as the bank opened its doors I deposited almost all of the five hundred pounds. The bank manager accepted without question my story of a legacy from a distant relative and I certainly hoped Papa was at a distance now. The manager’s congratulations gave me a warm glow; it would be nice, I thought, to celebrate, if we could do it without disclosing our new-found wealth. Champagne, perhaps, though that would be hard to explain away. Our friendly butcher waved as I passed his window on my way towards the bridge so I called in on impulse. To my astonishment Mr Bristow proudly brought out a tray of lamb cutlets, enough to feed family and lodgers alike and as cutlets will always trump champagne in my view, I paid up without a qualm.
Granny finished the tricky yoke on Addy’s new jumper and was happy to join in the usual family chatter instead of muttering in the corner as she counted stitches and rows. Alix set off to town to see her employer with renewed vigour and couldn’t wait to find out the latest developments at the Hall in the afternoon.
Judith Evershed ate all her breakfast and persuaded me to help her into her dressing-gown and slippers. When the nurse came down from Groom Hall to check on her progress Judith was sitting in an easy chair after a wobbly journey from her bed. Addy was so thrilled that she agreed to run assorted errands for everyone after luncheon, provided Judith was happy with her morning’s school work, and when I came home from the bank I fished out a newspaper that Mother had “borrowed” from the Public Library. In it was a long, informative article about the Zeppelin raids on London. Exactly what I needed for my new book.
Just after half-past-three Henry appeared at the back door. His face lit up when he saw me and just for an instant he touched my hand before hanging up his coat, then he electrified Granny and me (though how I wish I had not already known about it) with the news that the mute Captain Halliday had been fatally attacked.
As we digested this shocking news, Alix surprised us by arriving home early.
‘Been dismissed?’ I asked and she smirked.
‘If you must know, nice Sister Wisden has given me the rest of the afternoon off. She said it was very unselfish and public spirited of me to give up my Sunday yesterday and I deserved a treat.’
At that moment the back door slammed and Addy bounced in from the scullery. She put her parcels on the kitchen table and surveyed us with an expression of extreme complacency.
‘You’ll never guess what has happened.’
‘The war is over?’
She heaved a loud, pitying sigh. ‘Silly.’
I opened my mouth but Alix was before me. ‘Go on then, tell us.’
‘St Mildew’s has closed down for ever. Everyone’s been told not to go back.’
‘What? Why? Addy, what are you talking about?’ I frowned at her. ‘You haven’t been expelled again, have you?’
I heard Henry’s faint murmur of “Again?” but ignored it. Life is too short to go into the history of my sister’s continuing misdemeanours.
‘Of course not,’ Addy pouted and went on, in an injured voice. ‘You’re so mean, Christy. You always think the worst of me.’
I waited in silence, as did Granny and, for once, Alix. Henry watched us all but said nothing.
‘Oh, all right,’ Addy said with an air of granting a concession. ‘I’ll tell you, even though you don’t deserve it. I was walking home with Granny’s shopping when Jessie Moore caught up with me and told me all about it. She says the parents will receive a letter tomorrow.
‘It seems that Miss Hereford has inherited some money from an uncle so she’d planned to give up the school but not until the summer. And a jolly good thing too, she’s a terrible teacher. But…’ Her eyes danced as she teased us.
‘Last night, her mother, old Mrs Hereford, escaped from the house and found her way into the railway station just as a trainload of soldiers came in. She marched up to the sergeant-major and told him she was volunteering to join the army! We’ve all known she wasn’t quite right, poor old thing, since Mr Hereford died, but that’s not why they’ve finally closed the house.
‘Something has gone wrong with the drains. There’s been a problem for days and the plumber’s been in and out with no success and since yesterday there’s been the most frightful smell. Nobody could possibly do lessons there so Miss Hereford and her mother have given up the lease, dismissed the maids and the mistresses, and moved to the Blue Boar until they can retire to Weston-super-Mare.’
‘What about school?’ Judith Evershed limped into the kitchen where she sat down gratefully in the chair Henry hastily pulled out for her. ‘You have your examinations in the summer.’
‘That’s all right,’ Addy beamed at us all. ‘I’ve had an absolutely splendid idea about that. We’ll keep t
he lodgers, of course, but next-door’s cellar has electric light and a separate door.
‘We can open a school down there.’
THE END
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