She asked them what they intended to do in the meantime, and Langdon decided that, for the moment at least, they should be free to remain. It was, after all, still the Seddons’ house and they were all still, officially, in the Seddons’ employ. We couldn’t help but agree.
At length we said our goodbyes and Langdon offered Daniel’s services to take us both home in the Rolls Royce. We gratefully accepted and left them to discuss their new lives.
I slept well that night, and next morning Lady Hardcastle and I were up bright and early to make our statements at the little police station in the village.
Constable Hancock was effusive in his praise and showed us a note from Bill Lovell, thanking us both for our efforts and pledging his undying service in return for saving his life.
When we had finished, we set off to walk towards home, but the sun was shining and it promised to be another wonderful summer’s day, so Lady Hardcastle suggested instead that we take a walk.
We crossed Toby Thompson’s field and stopped briefly to pass the time of day. He congratulated us on catching the killer and I marvelled at the efficiency of the village news service which had already spread details of events which had occurred several miles away only the night before.
We crossed the lower pasture where I didn’t look back even once, then carried on into the woods where I remembered which tree was an elm and spotted hedgehog droppings on the track. The clearing was beautiful, with the sun catching the rich green leaves of the oak and I couldn’t help feeling that we were home. We were safe, and we were home in this charming part of Gloucestershire.
‘I think we stumbled through that pretty well, don’t you, Flo?’ she said as we crossed the clearing and made towards the road.
‘Pretty well for a couple of bumbling old biddies with no idea what they were doing,’ I said.
‘You speak for yourself.’
‘I should have thought, though,’ I said, ‘that after everything we’ve been through over the years, all the things we’ve survived, all the baffling situations we’ve become embroiled in, all the difficulties we’ve overcome... I’d have thought that after all that, two women as experienced and resourceful as us would have made a much more impressive fist of catching a lack-witted greed monkey like Ida Seddon.’
‘“Lack-witted greed monkey”? Flo, you do make me chuckle. Detective work isn’t nearly as easy as the stories make out, you know, we’ve a lot to learn.’
‘We certainly have,’ I said.
‘There’s a lot we should have done differently. One thing in particular...’
‘What’s that, my lady?’
‘I could really have done with a Derringer in my hat last night.’
I laughed. ‘I can see you now, fumbling and snatching at it, it going off by mistake, shooting a hole in that ghastly portrait...’
‘I’m going to get one, you know.’
‘No, my lady. No you’re not.’
‘I bally well am, and there’s nothing a slip of a thing like you can do to stop me.’
‘You’d be a danger to yourself and others, my lady.’
‘No, my mind is made up. I shall make an appointment with a hatter in the morning.’
‘Foolish and irresponsible.’
Down the lane we went, bickering amiably, and on into the house. I even left the front door unlocked once we were inside.
We took tea in the dining room while I helped Lady Hardcastle clear up the “crime board”.
‘Not such a bad idea, this,’ she said. ‘Needs a bit of work, but it might come to really help us.’
‘Help us, my lady?’
‘Oh, you know, future cases.’
‘There will be cases in the future?’
‘Oh, Flo, I do hope so. Don’t you? Tell me that wasn’t absolutely the most fun.’
‘That wasn’t even slightly the most fun, my lady.’
‘Oh, you.’
We were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.
I left her unpinning her sketches and went to the door. It was the boy from the Post Office.
‘Telegram for her ladyship, miss.’
‘My lady hasn’t got a... oh, never mind. Is there to be a reply?’
‘No, miss. Morning, miss.’ And he scampered off.
I took the telegram through to Lady Hardcastle. She tore it open and read it, her face turning white. She dropped the paper on the table and hurried from the room.
I picked it up. It was from her brother Harry in London.
HONEST - MAN - NO - LONGER - WHERE - YOU - LEFT - HIM - STOP - SEEN - THIS - AM - IN - LONDON - STOP - YOUR - CURRENT - WHEREABOUTS - STILL - UNKNOWN - TO - HIM - STOP - STAY - OUT - OF - SOCIETY - PAGES - STOP - WILL - CONTACT - WHEN - HAVE - MORE - NEWS - STOP - LOVE - HARRY
The “Honest Man” was their name for a German killer called Günther Ehrlichmann, and Lady Hardcastle had left him in a the hallway of a rented house in Shanghai with a bullet through his heart in 1898. We had believed him dead these past ten years and thought that we were safe at last. So what made Harry so sure he was alive and well and once more posing a threat? And why the admonition to stay private? Was he after her? If he was, then things didn’t look good for a woman whose name was due to be in tomorrow’s newspapers as the daring detective who saved an innocent man from the gallows.
TWO
The Circus Comes to Town
‘Emily! Darling girl! What the devil are you doing here?’ called the handsome man as he strode across the village green to greet Lady Hardcastle.
‘George?’ said Lady Hardcastle, equally surprised.
‘Of all the... fancy meeting you in a place like this,’ he said, kissing her cheek in greeting.
‘I could say the same about you. How are you, my darling?’
‘Passing well, mustn’t grumble.’
The whole village had been abuzz for the past week because...
The circus was coming to town.
On the previous Tuesday, the village had awoken to discover that posters had appeared over night on the church hall noticeboard, on trees, on lampposts, on, indeed, pretty much anything that stood still long enough to have a poster pasted to it. They had all proclaimed that, “On Monday, the 20th day of July, for five nights only, Messrs Bradley and Stoke will present their most magnificent, most spectacular, most incredible circus and carnival on the village green at Littleton Cotterrel. Come one, come all!” The posters further promised, “Lions, Elephants, Dancing Horses, Acrobats, Jugglers, Clowns and featuring Abraham Bernbaum, England’s Strongest Man.” How could we not be excited?
The first wagons had begun to arrive on Saturday morning, some of them absolutely enormous, and by nightfall the green had become a giant entertainment encampment.