by D J O'Leary
Henrietta tried to refuse, but failed dismally. ‘But Elspeth, we have just had a meal here tonight. We can’t come again tomorrow as well. I think Charlie and I should treat you to a meal. After all, if you’re preparing nibbles as well, you have very little time to sort out an evening meal for four people. How about trying the Vine in Goudhurst? It’s building a good reputation for its food.’
‘Yes,’ said Charlie, endorsing his fiancée’s suggestion. ‘And what’s more we will order a taxi for you.’
Elspeth looked at Tolstoy and raised one eyebrow questioningly. Tolstoy said, ‘I think that’s an excellent idea. It will also give us a set time to entertain Andrew and Miriam, so we will not be in danger of overdoing the pre-prandial drinks. After all, if they were to stay on for too long, we should probably feel obliged to invite them to stay for a meal as well, which would put a further burden on you.’
‘All right,’ conceded Elspeth. ‘The Vine it is. And thank you. Now, I am ready for my bed, so let’s sort out these canapés.’
Elspeth and Henrietta sat down and worked out a menu, while Tolstoy volunteered to wash up their glasses. Then Charlie and Henrietta, after saying they would book a table for eight-thirty at the Vine, took their leave, promising to be back shortly before six the following evening.
Eight
Tolstoy was slightly nervous. He was sitting at a table in the Snitcher’s Head on his own with a woman. What’s more, he had to ask her something and there was no one else to help him out. It was up to him, and him alone, to put the question to her. He took a sip of coffee and looked at Kate Harborne over the rim. She had taken the morning off work and had bumped into Tolstoy outside the village store. They both agreed it was a little too cold to stand around chatting, so at Kate’s suggestion a coffee in the pub was decided as the ideal solution.
She pre-empted him by turning towards him with a quizzical expression. ‘Before we go on, I have to ask you something. You weren’t waiting outside the village shop hoping to “bump into” me, were you?’
‘Good heavens, no,’ protested Tolstoy. ‘This meeting is pure chance. I was hoping to catch you in here this evening, or over the weekend, to ask you a favour. When you suggested coffee here I thought that now would be as good a time as any, that’s all.
‘I do have a question for you; it’s to do with history. Would you, offhand, know how to get old documents authenticated? I was told you were a historian and that you used to work for a museum in their documents and manuscripts department, so I thought you might have contacts there, still.’
‘I certainly have a few former colleagues and friends there with whom I stay in touch. We meet up from time to time for the odd lunch or evening drink. Why would you need me to get in touch with them?’
‘I have uncovered some documents at Stottenden that I need to have authenticated, and dated if possible, and I have no idea how to go about doing that. I assume it involves forensics, but I don’t have a clue whether any laboratory can do anything and everything, or whether it requires a specialist company. And I was also wondering about how expensive all that might be. So I hoped you might be able to help.’
‘Well, I have a couple of good contacts at the forensic laboratory that we used, and from what you have said I should think they would be more help to you. I shall get in touch with one of them, Wayne, he’s a really nice guy and very good at his job. He’s the deputy forensic scientist at his company in North London. Do you have the documents with you?’ She then answered her own question. ‘No, of course you don’t. You weren’t expecting to see me. OK, when can you get the documents to me?
‘I am around for the rest of the morning, but I do have to go to the shop this afternoon. And that’s when I might be able to get in touch with Wayne, to see about fixing a date. I take it they are house deeds or something like that and that you need them authenticated sooner rather than later?’ There was a faint query at the end of her statement. Tolstoy gave a nod, then said, ‘Excellent. And thank you. This could be great news. Um, but the documents are not exactly deeds, well, not really, anyway, but I have to ask you to keep this absolutely secret for the time being. Only Elspeth, Charlie, Henrietta, me and now you, know of the existence of these documents, no one else. We have invited the colonel around to Stottenden this evening to show him the documents, because they may well relate to the Buttercup Field, and if so, they might well bring an end to the matter, and leave the Buttercup Field as it is, safe for the village.’
Kate’s face took on a glow of excitement. ‘Oh Tolstoy, that sounds wonderful. I promise I shall keep it secret. And I shall ask Wayne to treat it as a matter of urgency and confidentiality. Oh, I can’t wait to see them and handle them, it’s like handling history. It makes everything so much more real.’
‘If you have time, why not come back to the Manor with me now?’
He looked at her hopefully. She leaned forward, lifted her coffee cup and took a last thoughtful sip, before replacing the cup and sitting back in her chair. Tolstoy couldn’t help noticing a faint tinge of her delicate pink lipstick on the rim of the cup, which prompted him to glance at her full-lipped mouth. ‘OK, let’s go look at these documents now,’ she said.
Ten minutes later Kate was on the verge of fulfilling her wish to see and handle the documents. She, Elspeth and Tolstoy were in the library, looking at the old brown legal envelope.
‘I think, before you pull them out of the envelope, you ought to put on some gloves to handle the documents. Preferably cotton ones, to keep any acids or grease from your fingers and hands from getting onto the documents and causing possible damage. The older the documents, the more damage can be done.’
‘Oh,’ said Tolstoy, frustration in his voice, ‘I don’t possess any cotton gloves, in fact I don’t have any gloves of any description.’
Elspeth came to his rescue. ‘Don’t worry, I have some cotton gloves. They probably won’t fit you, but I am sure they would fit Kate. After all, she’s the expert and so she should be the one to handle the documents from now on. I’ll go and get them.’
‘Sorry, when I found them in the cellar neither Elspeth nor I thought about putting on gloves. We just didn’t consider the possibility of damaging them with our bare hands,’ said a chastened Tolstoy. ‘Don’t worry too much. I am just being extra cautious. I’m sure that you won’t have done them any harm,’ said Kate consolingly. ‘And it also depends on how old they are. The older they are the more prone they are to absorbing the oils from our skin and other secretions.’
‘If the date that is written on them is accurate, then they are not far short of two hundred years old. Will that mean they will be OK?’
Hearing the anxiety in his voice, Kate reassured Tolstoy. ‘Yes. There should be no problem.’
Elspeth returned with a pair of dove grey gloves and handed them to Kate. She pulled them on, then picked up the envelope and inserted her right hand, gently extracting the papers that lay within. She unfolded them, and after studying the plans, she read the letter, looked at the plans again then nodded her head.
‘While I don’t want to raise your hopes, I do think these are what they say they are and that they were drawn up when they say they were. I’m pretty certain Wayne will be able to authenticate these fairly quickly. The ink can be dated, so can the paper, and the handwriting and style of English can also be used to establish when the documents were created.
‘In fact,’ she glanced at her watch, ‘I think I shall ring Wayne now. It’s not yet lunchtime and anyway he has his lunch sitting at his desk. I will sort out a time when I can get the documents to him.’ She pulled her phone from her pocket and began dialling. Tolstoy protested, telling her she could use the house phone, but she demurred and interrupted him by greeting her former colleague, who must have answered at his end on the first ring.
Kate moved away and slowly wandered towards the library door, all the while explaining what was n
eeded. Then she paused. Tolstoy realised he had been holding his breath, letting it out with a soft woof when he heard Kate say, ‘Oh, that would be brilliant. I’ll meet you at Tunbridge Wells station and treat you to lunch. That’s so kind of you. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow, OK, and thanks again, bye.’
She turned back to the expectant Elspeth and Tolstoy. ‘Well, that’s fantastic. Wayne has said he’d be happy to do it for a very modest fee, and a contribution to his travel expenses and any other incidental expenditure necessitated by the research. And, he can pick up the documents from me tomorrow. He has no idea how long it will take but he’s certain, given the relative youth of the documents, that he’ll have something to tell us by the middle of the week after next. Isn’t that great?’
‘It most certainly is,’ said Elspeth. ‘I thought it would be weeks if not months of arcane tests and examinations. This is really good news and so exciting.’
‘I think it would be sensible then if you were to come round here for drinks this evening with the colonel and Miriam,’ said Tolstoy. ‘That means you could take them away with you after we have all finished looking at them. Is that going to be a problem? Otherwise I could always drop them in at your place later this evening or first thing tomorrow morning.’
‘Thank you, and no, it’s no problem, I’d be happy to call round this evening for a drink. I might not be able to make it at precisely six, because I have some stuff to sort out at the shop, and traffic on the way home can be dreadful on a Friday evening.’
‘We’ll excuse you being late,’ said Elspeth, smiling. ‘Good. That’s settled then. Thinking about you transporting them home and then to Tunbridge Wells and remembering how careful we have had to be in handling the envelope and the documents, do we need to put the envelope into something else to prevent any 21st century contamination?’
‘If you have any kind of file folder that should be good enough,’ replied Kate.
‘We have the very thing in the desk,’ said Elspeth. Tolstoy turned to look. ‘Third drawer down on the right, Tolstoy, there should be half a dozen of them. They are pastel-coloured cardboard ones.’ Tolstoy withdrew a pale blue folder from the drawer and held it up for all to see. ‘Will that be OK, Kate?’ asked Elspeth.
‘Perfect. Now I really do have to go. The earlier I get to the shop, the earlier I can leave this afternoon. See you both at or just after six.’ Tolstoy showed Kate to the door, then returned to the library.
‘This is so exciting,’ said Elspeth. ‘I can’t wait to see the faces of the councillors, and especially Jack Bentley’s, when we produce these documents.’
‘Let’s just hope they are the real thing and that Jack’s collection is not,’ said the ever-cautious Tolstoy. ‘Well, I’m really looking forward to seeing Andrew and Miriam this evening. It’ll be good to pass on this news. And I’m sure these,’ she indicated the brown envelope, ‘are the genuine article.’
‘Well we’re soon going to find out. We’re so lucky to have someone with Kate’s expertise and contacts for something like this. Now, do you need me to do any shopping? I can nip down to the village shop if you like.’
‘No, I’m heading off to the supermarket shortly, once I’ve written out a comprehensive shopping list. They should have everything I need there. The village shop is my usual port of call, but I need more specialist things for the nibbles. It is so kind of Henrietta to volunteer to help out this evening with the canapés. What are you going to do now?’
‘I think I’d better head back down to the cellar and tidy things up. I might even take the vacuum cleaner down there and get rid of some of that dust.’
‘Right. I’ll leave you to it. I thought we’d have soup for lunch. That OK with you?’
‘Lovely, thanks Elspeth.’
‘Right, I’ll be leaving in a few minutes.’
Tolstoy headed for the cellar via the kitchen. Elspeth sat at the library desk and began to write out her shopping list. There was still a lot to do and time was running out.The colonel was punctual, pulling on the Victorian doorbell of Stottenden Manor on the stroke of six. He and Miriam were greeted by Tolstoy, who had managed to smarten himself up after a long hard afternoon in the bowels of the building, double-checking all the boxes, trunks and suitcases to ensure there was nothing more of import that had been overlooked. The dust had, for the large part, been vacuumed, he had even changed the old-fashioned lightbulb for a much brighter one that used a tenth of the electricity. He and Elspeth had made a brief tour of the cellar just prior to the colonel’s and Miriam’s arrival, and Elspeth had declared herself thrilled that such an unpleasant task had been carried out so well.
Once Tolstoy had taken their coats and hats and had hung them on pegs in the cloakroom off the cavernous hall of the Manor, he ushered them into the library, where logs blazed in the large fireplace, and Elspeth waited to greet them, along with Charlie and Henrietta, who had arrived earlier, bearing half a dozen plates and trays, each of which was laden with a different canapé, as Henrietta had promised.
The all-important envelope, whose contents had already been viewed by Charlie and Henrietta, lay on the antique partners’ desk. Tolstoy eyed it as he entered the room, but said nothing. Elspeth offered the guests a drink, a gin and tonic for Miriam, a Scotch and soda for the colonel. Once all four had a drink Elspeth asked them to come over to the desk. Tolstoy then indicated for Elspeth to do the honours. She stepped up to the desk, pulled on her cotton gloves, picked up the envelope and removed its contents.
She spread out the documents on the desk and invited the colonel and his wife to have a look, warning them to try to avoid handling them if at all possible. Meanwhile Tolstoy explained where he had found them.
‘Well, well,’ said the colonel, straightening up after a couple of minutes, having studied them closely, ‘if these are the real thing, then we have all the proof of ownership that we need.’
‘As far as we can tell these are genuine,’ said Elspeth. ‘But Tolstoy chatted to Kate Harborne this morning and she’s contacted a forensic chap she knows, who told her he’s willing to take these and authenticate them and date them for us, which is wonderfully exciting. I’m certain they will be found to be the real thing and then this whole nonsense of the Buttercup Field can be laid to rest.’
The colonel looked astounded, but pleased. ‘What an absolutely amazing find, and what a stroke of luck being able to have them authenticated like this. When is Kate’s chap going to look at them?’
‘She’s meeting him tomorrow in Tunbridge Wells and he will take them back with him to London. Kate seems to think that we could have the result of the tests by the middle of the week after next, which would be fantastic. But even if it takes longer, very little is going to happen between now and the rescheduled hearing. By the way, when is that?’
‘I still haven’t heard. I think I’ll contact them on Monday and remind them that we are running out of dates for this year. We’re not too far from Christmas, and I’m certain most government departments will not be functioning at full throttle in the run-up to the festive season. Of course, if we get positive results from these authentication tests, then it would surely obviate the need for a hearing, which would be wonderful news for everyone. I’m sure no one is all that keen on taking part at this time of year, when there is so much else going on, what with Christmas shopping, arranging holidays, relatives coming to stay, or going off to visit members of the family.’
The doorbell sounded again. ‘Oh, I expect that’ll be Kate,’ said Elspeth. ‘Tolstoy, do you mind letting her in?’
Tolstoy could hardly wait. He shot out of the library and hauled the door open. It was indeed Kate. She was smiling. Tolstoy smiled back. ‘Come in.’
‘I’m sorry I’m so late. I got held up at the shop by a couple of phone calls and then the traffic was appalling.’
‘You’re not late, we’ve barely taken a sip of our first d
rink of the evening. Here, let me have your coat, I’ll hang it up over there.’ He indicated the cloakroom. ‘Right, let’s go into the library.’ Once Kate had been handed a drink, the colonel quizzed her about whether they should be optimistic about the authentication of the documents. Kate was cautious, but encouraging. ‘It’s not quite my field, but having had a chance to study them this morning, and in good light, I think there is nothing to suggest they are forgeries, or at least, if they are, then they are 200-year-old forgeries. But I’m not the expert. That’s Wayne’s field, my forensic scientist friend. And he really is good. Also, when he says that he should have finished with the documents by the middle of the week after next, then that’s when we can expect to have them back. He would never raise our hopes unless he was ninety-nine per cent certain that the investigation will not take any longer.’
‘Well, that is excellent,’ said the colonel. ‘Hearing that has really fired me up to get on to the Home Office and sort out a date for this public inquiry, although I should be inclined to warn them that we might not need a hearing of any description.’
‘Has Jack Bentley recovered from his heart problem?’ asked Tolstoy. ‘Only we heard that he was in the pub yesterday evening and apparently behaving like a dog with two tails.’
‘Yes, I was told that as well,’ said the colonel. ‘But I wasn’t able to hang around long enough to hear what had made him so upbeat.’
So while Tolstoy did the rounds, refilling glasses, Charlie repeated his news of the previous evening, that Bentley had also announced the discovery of some documents proving ownership of the Buttercup Field.
At this the colonel raised an eyebrow. ‘So where does that leave these documents, then?’ He indicated the documents that lay in front of them all.