My first thought was to try the wine cellar. I ruled it out immediately – it was Mrs McLelland who had told me about it, so why would he hide from her in the one place she knew he might be? After fifteen minutes’ fruitless searching, I ruled it back in again – she was so furious with him that she wasn’t going to be looking for him anyway, so why not hide there? While I was still on my way, I ruled it out again – if she wanted to make trouble for him, she would complain to Mr Spinney, so there was no point in hiding where Mr Spinney would be sure to find him. Once Evan had been found, Mr Spinney would have no choice but to reprimand him, no matter how reluctant he might be to do so. And then . . . And then I just went to the wine cellar. It was the only place I hadn’t yet looked.
I found Evan in his corner, sitting on his barrel and staring at the vaulted ceiling. Even in the flickering candlelight, I could see that he had been crying.
‘What do you want?’ he asked. I imagine that he had intended to sound belligerent, but the fight had gone out of him, and instead he sounded weary and defeated.
‘I came to see if you were all right,’ I said. ‘That was a disgraceful display from Mrs McLelland. She has no business treating anyone that way, but you’re not even her responsibility. You’re one of Mr Spinney’s footmen.’
‘Not for long, I don’t reckon,’ he said forlornly. ‘I was only doin’ what you asked, an’ all.’
‘What I asked?’ I said.
‘I was only doin’ it for you,’ he said. From beneath the pile of books on his barrel table he produced the cricket team photograph and two pieces of foolscap, each folded neatly in half. He handed them to me.
‘They was in Kovacs’s room,’ he said. ‘I thought you said they was important, so I took ’em before they got tidied away.’
‘Tidied away?’
‘Soon as the police is done, they’ll clear everythin’ out, won’t they? Only the old witch caught me comin’ out of the room.’
The photograph was quite familiar by now, but I was curious to find out why Evan had attached such significance to the papers. I unfolded the first. It was a familiar list, written in an even more familiar hand – the race order for the fateful motor race. The second was somethin’ new, somethin’ I knew would interest Lady Hardcastle very much.
‘Thank you, Evan,’ I said. ‘I have a feeling that Lady Hardcastle will want these. I think she’s on to something.’
‘Something worth losin’ my job over, I hope.’
‘It won’t come to that. I have them now, so Mrs McLelland has no proof that you’ve done anything. And I’ll make sure Mr Spinney knows you were working on our behalf, even if she complains. There’s nothing she can do to you.’
‘’Cept make my life a misery,’ he said.
‘She does her best to make everyone’s life a misery. We’ll soon settle her hash.’
‘His lordship won’t do nothin’. He reckons she’s the best housekeeper anyone ever had.’
‘We’ll see,’ I said. I refolded the paper and placed it with the photograph. ‘Don’t do anything rash, like skedaddling out of here. We might still need your help.’
He huffed dispiritedly, and I left him to pull himself together.
I closed the wine cellar door behind me and made my way to the servants’ stairs, still clutching the purloined items. A few junior members of the household staff bustled past me as they went about their own business. I didn’t see anyone I knew until I rounded the last corner and was all but bowled over by Betty Buffrey, who was heading in the opposite direction. She was crying. It was clearly the day for that sort of thing.
‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Flo. I’m so sorry.’
‘Whatever’s the matter, Betty, fach?’ I said.
She sniffed loudly and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her dress.
‘Oh, Flo,’ she said, and threw her arms about me as she began weeping again.
As gently as I could, I manoeuvred her to the foot of the stairs and helped her to sit down.
‘Tell me what happened,’ I said.
‘The old cow got back from gaol,’ she said between sobs. ‘I told her I’d given it careful consideration, but given everything that’s happened, I have my own reputation to think of. I told her I’d stay with her until she found somebody else, but that I’d be looking for a new position.’
‘But that’s good, isn’t it?’ I said. ‘Well done, you.’
‘It would be good, except she said, “Well if that’s the way you feel, you disloyal little trollop” – she had the bloomin’ cheek to call me a trollop, after everything she’s done – “if that’s the way you feel, you can go straight away. I don’t want you. You can make your own way back to London. If you haven’t picked up your traps by month’s end, I’ll sell anything valuable and give the rest to the church jumble sale.” I’m out on my ear, Flo. I’ve got no job, no home . . .’ She resumed her snotty sobbing.
There was an obvious solution. Obvious to me, at least, and to anyone who wasn’t currently sitting on a stone staircase crying their eyes out and wiping their nose on the sleeve of their dress.
‘I’m not intending to sound overly harsh, Betty,’ I said, ‘but how quickly do you think you can stop crying and pull yourself together?’
‘What?’ she said through a renewed bubbly sob.
‘We can almost certainly get you re-employed in five minutes flat. There’s actually no rush, and the job will probably be yours even if you don’t apply until next month, but, you know, strike while the iron’s hot, and all that.’
‘What?’ she said again.
I gave her my handkerchief. ‘Dry your eyes, blow your nose, and follow me,’ I said. ‘There’s a new position waiting for you upstairs. Chop-chop. No, it’s all right, you keep it. I’ve got another.’
By the time we reached the library, Betty had calmed down a little, though she was still very puffy around the eyes. We found Lady Hardcastle and Miss Titmus still in the armchairs.
‘Ah, there you are,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘We were beginning to fear you might have been abducted.’
‘Sadly no, my lady,’ I said. ‘I’m still here. No escape for me. I brought you a present.’ I gave her the photograph and the two sheets of folded foolscap.
‘You shouldn’t have,’ she said. ‘Oh, I’ve already seen these.’
‘Only two of them,’ I said. ‘The third is rather interesting.’
‘So these are what Evan pinched from Herr Kovacs’s room?’
‘And earned him his wigging,’ I said.
‘Ah,’ she said. ‘We must have missed this other sheet in all the clutter on that writing desk. Good old Evan. It’s a shame his light-fingeredness sent Mrs McLelland into a rage. We might have to do some work there to sort things out for him.’
‘I’m sure we can talk her round. She’s a bit of a martinet at times, but she’s an intelligent and rational woman.’
‘Just so,’ she said. ‘But well done, Evan. And well done, you, for getting him on our side. This gives us plenty more to ponder. Now then, you seem to have brought a colleague. Welcome back, Miss Buffrey. Your mistress has returned, I hear. We’ve not actually seen her – she went straight up to her room – but his lordship did pop in to tell us that all was well.’
Betty merely nodded.
‘Yes, my lady,’ I said. ‘That’s actually why I brought Betty up here. There’s been a bit of a falling out.’
‘Oh no, how awful. She’s been through a lot, though. Perhaps we should make allowances?’
‘That would be the proper thing,’ I said. ‘But it’s gone a little further than harsh words that can be taken back in calmer times. Mrs Beddows has sacked her.’
‘I say,’ said Lady Hardcastle. ‘That will never do.’
‘Well, quite. The thing is, you see, I was wondering . . .’