Chapter 10 #2
“Alec has to start by suspecting everyone. Even me, so perhaps you ought not—”
“Daisy, you must not tease Melanie. Her concern is natural. Whatever Alec may say for form’s sake, he cannot really suspect you, but this does not hold true for the young ladies.”
“No, but can you honestly imagine, Mel, either Fay or Brenda, or even the two together, creeping out of the house in the middle of the night to stab a man with a halberd and push him down a flight of steps?”
Mel gasped. “No! Is that what happened?”
More worldly, or more cynical, Sakari said, “To meet a young man, perhaps, with whom she did not wish to be seen.”
Daisy shook her head. “On a fine night, yes, but last night down by the river we had a foul, clammy fog. Not at all inviting for lovers.”
“Who else is available to be suspected? The general, of course, and the Tebbits.”
“The Tebbits! Oh, surely not!”
“Now who’s teasing?” Daisy reproved Sakari.
“Mel, darling, you’re an angel to put up with us.
But I don’t suspect the Tebbits, though they’ll be on Alec’s list, along with everyone else at the Tower.
Several hundred people. No one outside could get in after ten o’clock, though come to think of it, someone could have come in earlier and hidden. ”
“My dear Daisy, this is altogether too many. We shall not consider any possible outsiders.”
“We can eliminate those in the Outer Ward, too, which is where most of the Yeoman Warders live. There are only three ways through the inner wall, and all have sentries posted who would take note of anyone going through.”
“Excellent.”
“But there are still several hundred.”
Sakari groaned. “I give up. We shall have to leave the investigation to Alec and his excellent men.”
“I’m sure we should,” Melanie said hopefully.
Daisy was still pondering the question. “It seems to me unlikely that the murderer should be one of the garrison. The Hotspur Guards, that is. They don’t on the whole have much to do with the yeomen.”
“And the yeomen, you say, live outside the wall,” said Sakari triumphantly, “so we are left with the inhabitants of the King’s House. And since we have eliminated the Tebbits and the young ladies, we are left with the general. That was easy.”
“No, no, I said most of the yeomen live between the outer and inner walls, not all of them. Besides, there’s Mr. Webster, General Carradine’s secretary, in the King’s House, too. He’s quite peculiar. I don’t think I’m letting his appearance influence me, am I, Mel?”
“Not entirely. He is a bit odd.”
“And he’s obsessed with the Crown Jewels. Suppose Crabtree came across evidence that he was plotting to steal them.” Daisy reflected on the extensive display of gold and precious gems. “Well, some of them.”
“Surely not,” Mel protested. “They must be well guarded.”
“Yes, but presumably they were thought to be well secured when Colonel Blood tried to run off with them. He was only stopped by a lucky chance.”
“Colonel Blood!” Sakari was all agog. “You are inventing this, Daisy! Or your guide was having you on.” Occasionally, Sakari’s precise speech blossomed into unexpected idiom.
“No, I’ve read about it, too.”
“Tell us.”
“It was soon after the Restoration, after they’d remade all the crowns Cromwell destroyed—”
“Not a history lesson!” Mel moaned.
“But yes, a history lesson,” said Sakari.
“How else am I to understand? Don’t look so dismayed, Melanie.
It is all right. I have learnt about your Commonwealth and cutting off the head of Charles the First, although I was not aware of the Lord Protector’s destruction of the Regalia.
You may continue without the history lesson, Daisy. ”
Daisy laughed. “It doesn’t really matter when it happened, I suppose.
Colonel Blood dressed up as a parson and brought his supposed wife to see the crown.
The Keeper showed it to her, and she pretended to faint.
Being a kindly man, the Keeper let them into his private quarters.
That led to a developing acquaintance with the Keeper’s family, and eventually to Colonel Blood offering to marry his nephew, a young man of means—or so he claimed—to the Keeper’s daughter.
Naturally, the Keeper and his wife were delighted. ”
“Some things never change,” Sakari observed.
“The wedding day arrived. In those days, people didn’t get married in church, so Colonel Blood brought his nephew and friends to the Tower.
His wife, he said, had been delayed but would join them shortly.
While they waited for her, he suggested, they might pass the time looking at the jewels.
So the Keeper unlocked the room and took them in.
As soon as he closed the door, they hit him on the head with a mallet and gagged him.
They started breaking up the treasures and stuffing them into pockets and down their breeches. ”
Sakari chuckled. “This scheme could not have been attempted in the time of the doublet and hose, nor that of skintight pantaloons.”
“No, they needed baggy breeches and cloaks to carry it off. But as it happened, the Keeper’s son came looking for his father. Seeing him unconscious on the floor, he raised a cry of ‘Treason! The crown is stolen!’ The ruffians made a break for it, but they were all captured.”
“And had their heads chopped off?”
“No, that’s the oddest thing. Colonel Blood’s sheer cheek amused Charles the Second, and he became a favourite at court.”
“How extraordinary,” said Melanie. “But Daisy, I simply can’t imagine Mr. Webster doing anything so outrageous.”
“Nor can I. If he’s plotting, his plot will be much more subtle.
Anyway, the jewels are kept in a sort of cage now, with guards all over the place, not just one man.
In fact, I don’t think the present Keeper has much to do with them, at least on a daily basis.
It’s more of a ceremonial post. I did wonder .
. .” Daisy hesitated. “Sir Patrick—that’s General Sir Patrick Heald, the Keeper of the Regalia—did appear to regard Webster with suspicion. ”
“There you are, then.” Sakari was delighted. “The sinister Webster is the murderer.”
“I can’t see how Crabtree could have found him out, though, and if he did, I’d expect him to have taken the information straight to General Carradine, not to tackle Webster himself.
There are the servants living in the King’s House to be considered, too.
I don’t know anything about them. And it could be one of the Guards, however unlikely. ”
“What about the Yeoman Gaoler?” Melanie asked. “Where does he live?”
“In the Inner Ward, next door to the King’s House. It all keeps coming back to him, doesn’t it? Perhaps Alec has already arrested him and all our speculations are futile.”
“You are feeling better, are you not, Daisy? Discussing it has calmed you, so it is not futile. But now I must be on my way.” Sakari rose with her customary majestic grace. “May I offer you a lift, Melanie?”
“No, thanks. The rain seems to be slackening, and I must talk to Daisy about this wretched tennis party. I wish I’d held my tongue!”
“Daisy, may I look in on the twins before I leave?”
“Oh, yes, I’d love to see them, too,” said Melanie. “Is Nanny still giving satisfaction?” She had recommended the nurse. “And coping with two babies at once?”
“Yes, but she’s making ominous noises about needing a nursery-maid when they start to crawl.” Leading the way upstairs, Daisy laughed. “We’re hoping for an unexpected legacy, because we’re going to have to move to a bigger house.”
As Miranda and Oliver were both awake, Nanny permitted a few minutes of cooing and clucking. Then she declared that it was time to change their nappies and the ladies would not care to be present. Her manner made their dismissal more an order than a suggestion.
“English nurses are very fierce,” Sakari commented as they returned downstairs. “My ayah would not dare to speak so to me.”
“I suppose we’ve all been brought up on ‘Nanny knows best,’ ” said Daisy. “It carries over into adulthood. Thank you for rushing to succour me, darling. I do feel much better.”
Sakari left. Daisy and Melanie returned to the sitting room.
“More coffee?” offered Daisy, who had heard Mrs. Dobson come in and wanted an excuse for biscuits.
“No, thanks. I do wish I could invite Sakari and her husband to the tennis club.”
“That would set the cat among the pigeons! One would be almost tempted to do it, if only it wouldn’t be so unpleasant for the Prasads.
Take comfort in the fact that Sakari hasn’t the least desire to play tennis.
Not to mention its being largely your doing that they’ve found as much acceptance in St. John’s Wood society as they have. ”
“I hardly did anything.”
“That’s not what Sakari has told me.”
“I’m glad I was able to help, and I’ve grown very fond of Sakari. But initially, it was Robert’s doing,” Mel confessed.
Daisy did her best to hide her amusement.
To a banker, naturally, what mattered was not the colour of a person’s skin but the colour of his money.
Still, it was to Robert Germond’s credit that he had supported his dutiful wife in introducing the Prasads to their neighbours, not merely entertaining them in the way of business.
Daisy had her own criteria for judging people.
On the whole, she expected to like people she met, and on the whole, she did.
It seemed to her a much pleasanter way to live than to go about looking for superficial defects such as the wrong class, or a brown face, thus eliminating a lot of delightful people from one’s acquaintance.
If she had felt that way, had remained true to her upbringing, she would have let Alec pass out of her life without a second thought.
No Alec, no twins: The very idea was unbearable.
“Whoever gets the credit, it was a very good deed,” she said to Melanie. “No doubt you want me to come to your tennis party? As long as you don’t insist on my playing!”
“I certainly expect you to come and support me. What I wanted to ask you is whether you think it’s proper for the Carradine girls to go to a party in the circumstances.”
“Why not? It wasn’t a death in the family.”
“No, but . . . You said they’re under suspicion.”
“So am I, Mel, strictly speaking. I don’t think it matters a hoot, but if it makes you uncomfortable, just postpone the party. Fay and Brenda shouldn’t be too disappointed. They have quite enough excitement in their lives at present.”
“They do, don’t they?” said Melanie with relief. “How can a mere tennis party compete with a murder case? I do hope you won’t get drawn into Alec’s investigation.”
“There isn’t much hope of that.” Daisy sighed. “I can’t think of any excuse to return to the Tower.”