At the last minute Maud had decided to stay hidden in the house to watch the final unfolding of her plan. It was so beautiful a plan, so neat and smooth, she could not bear to just go away and not know its culmination.
And something else kept her here–something she hardly dared admit to, but which had been gradually nagging. Where was she to go? She tried to ignore this nagging thought, but it got a claw-hold on her mind, squeezing almost everything else out. Where will you go, Maud? It’s all very well to have made that frantic journey to Seven Dials, and you did that very well indeed. But you had a purpose, an aim, and once this is over, you won’t have any purpose at all.
Maud could not think what she could do or where she would go. She had almost all of the ￡200 from the desk, and that would last quite a long time, but what would she do when it was all used up? Would she have to find work? She had no knowledge of how you went about finding work. All she could do was paint and play the piano. She might get a position as a governess, but she thought you needed references for that, and she did not have any.
But first things first. She would make absolutely sure what happened here tonight. She would lie in wait and watch. She decided to hide in the attics, at the head of a narrow little flight of stairs through a small door. If she left that door ajar, she would be able to hear most of what went on. She would not be able to see any of it, which was a pity, but you could not have everything.
The attics were silent and dark, and there was a thick layer of dust everywhere. Maud’s eyes adjusted to the dimness fairly quickly, and she made out the shapes of discarded household items. Pieces of furniture that no one had a use for any longer or that needed mending; bundles of old newspapers; two or three deep old tea chests which would contain clothes or curtains. She thought her mamma’s clothes were up here. It was quite comforting to know that, as if a little part of mamma was still in the house, looking after her.
At one end of the attics was a massive water tank, with a pipe opening into the roof to catch the rainwater. The tank took up the entire space between the floor and the sloping ceiling on that corner of the house, and Maud found its squat blackness somehow sinister. But there was no need to sit anywhere near it; she could curl up by the door, with her back to the tank.
She found some old brocade curtains in the smallest of the chests, and made herself comfortable. She had no idea how long she might have to wait, but it did not matter.
Bryony had half fallen down the stairs, and was across the hall and into the safe warm scullery almost without realizing it.
She gabbled out what she had found, and halfway through the story discovered she was clinging to Daniel as if he was a life raft in a tempest. She blushed, and tried to withdraw her hands, but he held on to her.
When Bryony said, ‘I may have imagined the sounds, but I didn’t imagine George Lincoln’s body,’ he said, grimly, ‘I don’t think you imagined the sounds at all.’
‘Who…’ But Bryony already knew the answer to that.
‘At a guess,’ said Daniel, ‘it’s Maud Lincoln.’ He looked across at Freda, who was staring at them both, her mouth a round O of surprise, and said, ‘Matron, do you feel up to walking down to Amberwood and bringing the police sergeant back here? You’ll be perfectly safe–our quarry’s in this house. But I think we’re going to need some help with what’s ahead of us.’
Really, thought Bryony, Prout was a cold-hearted, self-serving creature, and she would not have wagered tuppence on her honesty, but you had to hand it to the old girl–when it came to a situation of this kind, she was no coward.
She said, ‘I’ll go at once, Dr Glass. I’ll be as swift as I can.’
‘Bryony, you stay here. I’ll go upstairs.’
‘Armed with only a hypodermic needle?’ Bryony was glad this came out firmly and very nearly ironically.
‘Chloroform,’ he said, reaching into his bag. ‘It’ll be effective and fast.’
‘I’ll come with you. She may not be there, though. I may have imagined it.’
‘I don’t think you did,’ said Daniel.