Chapter Thirteen
THIRTEEN
As Daisy, Sakari, and Melanie reached the Meeting House, they saw a crocodile of schoolchildren approaching, halfway down the hill. They had arrived a few minutes early, hoping they wouldn’t have to walk into a room full of silent people.
Belinda had told Daisy about Quaker Meetings, so she had a rough idea of what to expect.
She was surprised, though, when she entered the room with Sakari and Melanie, to see the pews arranged in a square facing a central table with a vase of pink roses.
Beside the flowers lay a bible and another book, but there was nothing remotely resembling an altar!
Several people were already there, sitting quietly with their hands folded in their laps.
Most wore subdued colours, but one woman had a bright red hat, so Sakari, who didn’t own anything subdued, wasn’t too far out of line in her peacock sari.
A soft-voiced elderly lady in grey greeted them. “Welcome to our Meeting,” she said. “The seats facing this way are reserved for the children from the school, but please sit anywhere else.”
Sakari chose the nearest pew, closest to the door. “You two go first,” she whispered, “in case I want to escape.”
They left space between them for the girls, who had said they were allowed to sit with parents, when present.
Several more people came in, and then the children arrived, remarkably quiet, the boys ushered by Mr. Tesler, the girls by Miss Bascombe.
Bel, Lizzie, and Deva had no difficulty finding their mothers, given the beacon of Sakari’s vivid turquoise.
With a big smile, Belinda kissed Daisy’s cheek, but she didn’t say anything.
Quite a few of their fellow-pupils also joined parents, while the rest filed into the reserved pews opposite.
Tesler and Miss Bascombe stood at the back, on the outer edge of the boys’ and girls’ sections respectively, where they could keep an eye on their flocks.
They waited till everyone was settled before they sat down.
Daisy thought they both looked harassed and ill at ease.
Twitchy was the word that came to mind. She wondered whether they had quarrelled, or perhaps that wretched Harriman had been making trouble for them.
Would the Committee that oversaw the school frown on their romance? Perhaps they were not sufficiently discreet about it, given that the children were apparently well aware of it.
Or perhaps just being in charge of keeping all those teenaged children quiet for an hour was enough to explain their anxiety.
More people had come in while Daisy’s thoughts were wandering.
Now the woman who had greeted and directed them, closed the door and went to take her seat in a space obviously saved for her on the front bench at right-angles to the school pews.
The hushed room took on a deeper stillness.
Though the loud, slow tick of the clock on the wall intruded, clearly it was time to turn one’s mind to higher things.
Despite her best intentions, Daisy’s continued to wander.
She soon ceased to notice the clock and started to wonder what Alec was doing.
Was he any nearer to solving the triple murder?
Perhaps he had already arrested someone and would join them in Saffron Walden for the afternoon.
They had better go back to the hotel after Meeting to see if there was a message from him.
If he didn’t know by then, it would be too late to make the journey worthwhile.
He might as well stay at home with the twins.
A man in front of her stood up and prayed for Mahatma Gandhi’s success in his path to peaceful reform. From the corner of her eye, Daisy saw Sakari’s shoulders relax their tautness. She hadn’t realised her friend was feeling uncomfortable in these surroundings, unsure of her welcome.
Tesler, also, regained his characteristic serenity in the course of the Meeting, absorbed in meditation. Daisy wondered whether he would notice his charges misbehaving, as long as they didn’t make a lot of noise.
In the next half-hour, several people stood and spoke.
Some had an overtly Christian message, others talked about an act of kindness they had witnessed, or something inspiring they had read.
One ancient woman rambled on for several minutes in a mumble Daisy couldn’t make out at all, but on the whole, she found plenty of food for reflection during the periods of silence.
Then the small children thundered down the stairs from Sunday School.
They were very well-behaved, but inevitably a bit restless, as Bel had foretold.
A short, stout, balding man rose and said gloomily: “‘Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.’” As he sat down, Daisy wondered whether he did the same every week, just to remind himself.
A couple of minutes later, the woman who had greeted them at the door turned to first one then the other of her neighbours and shook hands, as they did in turn with others on the bench. Apparently that was a signal.
“Those are the elders,” Bel whispered. “That’s the end.”
People began to stir and to talk together.
Daisy had survived her first Meeting. Several people came over to speak to her and her friends, seeming particularly anxious to make sure Sakari was welcomed.
By the time they extricated themselves and reached the street, Sakari was beaming, her usual effervescence restored.
“You were lucky, Mummy,” said Belinda. “Sometimes no one speaks at all and it seems to go on forever. Are we going to the Bridge End Garden now, before lunch?”
“I shall drive there,” Sakari said firmly. “The walk up here from the Rose and Crown to the Meeting House was enough for me. This town has too many hills.”
“It can’t be much more than a quarter of a mile to the Garden,” Melanie protested, “going by your guidebook, Sakari.”
“I’ve got to go back to the hotel anyway,” said Daisy, “to see if there’s a message from Alec.”
Belinda’s face lit up. “Oh, Mummy, do you think Daddy may come after all?”
“Don’t get your hopes up, darling. I rather doubt it, but I’d hate him to arrive and find us not there.”
No message awaited them at the Rose and Crown. Daisy asked the receptionist how long it would take to walk to the Bridge End Garden.
“About ten minutes, madam, if you cut through the church yard.”
“You see, Sakari,” said Melanie, “it’s no distance.”
“Is it uphill?” Sakari asked suspiciously.
The receptionist admitted that there was indeed an uphill slope from the Market Place to the church. Sakari promptly sent for Kesin, but the others all decided to walk.
The day was still pleasantly cool, and Daisy enjoyed the walk.
They passed the Sun Inn, another fourteenth-century building, with its fantastic plasterwork.
Most was typical pargetting in repeated patterns, to be found on many local walls, but birds and fruit also appeared, in bas-relief, and one gable-end boasted two figures.
The guidebook named them as the giants Gog and Magog, or possibly the Wisbech giant and Tom Hickathrift, whoever he might be.
The controversy was unlikely ever to be resolved.
They came to the parish church, from which wafted the strains of organ and choral music. Though its spire was visible from most of the town, Daisy hadn’t realised how big it was. According to the guidebook it was a “wool” church, built with the enormous profits of the mediaeval wool trade.
She started to wonder whether her American editor would be interested in an article about the ancient town.
Crossing Castle Street, they looked for the narrow passage between two houses that the receptionist had described. Sakari drove up just as they found it.
“You’ll have to walk from here, Mummy,” Deva told her, “but it looks as if it’s downhill.”
The girls ran ahead, their elders following at a pace suited to Sakari. They passed between several houses accessible only by the footpath, before a meadow opened out to their right. On the far side was a low, decorative stone wall. Beyond it, topiary shrubs were visible.
“Nearly there, darling,” Daisy assured Sakari.
“If there is no bench near the entrance, I shall sit down on the grass!”
The entrance was between two brick pillars topped by stone eagles.
One had its wings spread, and the other appeared to be giving it a quizzical look.
Wrought iron gates decorated with scrollery stood open, and just beyond was an iron bench.
Sakari promptly sat down on it, and Daisy and Melanie joined her.
It faced a formal garden, yews trimmed in geometrical shapes and low box hedges forming an asymmetrical pattern of flowerbeds, divided by gravel paths.
In the centre was a circular lawn, with a small pool and a fountain.
The children were already racing about in a game of tag.
“Well, if this is the maze,” said Melanie with a sigh of relief, “they can’t possibly get lost in it.”
“This is not the maze.” Sakari dug in her handbag for the guidebook. “It is the Dutch Garden, if I am not mistaken. Yes, look. The maze has high hedges, like the one at Hampton Court.”
They all studied the book for a few minutes.
The Garden as a whole was layed out in various sections, including a walled kitchen garden (called the “Walled Garden”), a rose garden, and a wilderness (called the “Wilderness”).
There was plenty of space for poor Miss Bascombe and Mr. Tesler to wander at leisure.
Then Mel looked up and exclaimed, “They’ve disappeared!”
There was no sign of the girls.
“They’re probably playing hide and seek now,” said Daisy, “behind those tall topiaries.”
“I hope they haven’t gone into the maze by themselves and got lost. Or in the Wilderness.”
“No, look!” Daisy pointed. Bel, Deva, and Lizzie appeared to be standing about eight feet above the ground, waist-deep in a hedge. They were waving and calling. “What on earth…? Let’s go and see what they’re up to.”
They walked along the central path, round the fountain—three fish with intertwined tails supporting a small boy with curly hair and no clothes—and came to the base of the yew hedge supporting three giggling girls (fully clothed).
“There’s steps, Mummy,” Lizzie explained, “inside the hedge.”
“Do be careful!” Melanie was ever the worrier.
“There’s a railing, Mrs. Germond,” said Deva. “We won’t fall.”
“Come up and see,” Bel invited them. “You get a good view of the Garden from here. We’ll come down first, though. There isn’t room for everyone.”
Was the dreadful Harriman in the habit of lurking up there to spy on Tesler and his sweetheart? Daisy wondered.
Even Sakari climbed the iron steps. From the platform at the top, the pattern of the Dutch Garden spread out below, each box-hedged shape filled in with colourful flowers.
In the opposite direction, Daisy was glad to see a gardener scything grass under the trees in the so-called Wilderness, which was more like a copse.
She had been afraid that, as it was Sunday, there would be no staff present to retrieve the girls from the maze if they did manage to get themselves lost.
By the time they descended the steps, the girls were impatient to explore the maze. All Sakari wanted, of course, was another bench. They found one, shaded by a spreading tree, on a wide lawn on the way to the maze. Daisy offered to go with the girls so that Melanie could keep Sakari company.
To get to the maze, they passed a statue of a peacock, went up several steps between grinning gargoyles, and passed through another elaborately scrolled iron gate.
On one side was the brick wall of the Walled Garden.
The high yew hedges of the maze itself were surrounded by a lawn, trees, and shrubs.
No one else was visible, though of course there might be someone in the maze.
It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing one did by oneself, though, and Daisy couldn’t hear anyone talking.
The girls, still full of energy, rushed to the nearby gap in the hedge. Deva and Lizzie disappeared. Belinda looked back.
“Aren’t you coming, Mummy?”
“I’ll wait here, in case you have to be rescued.”
“We won’t!” Bel vanished after the others.
Irritatingly, now that Daisy really wanted one, there was no bench. She strolled round the outer edge of the maze, hearing the girls voices:
“This way!”
“No, this way!”
“I’m going that way!”
“Lizzie, Bel, where are you?”
“I’m just the other side of the hedge.”
“How did you get there?”
“Here’s a bench.”
Inside, not outside, Daisy thought with indignation.
“Oh, this is another dead end. Bother!”
“I’ve found a sort of a stone vase.”
“I think I’ve gone round in a circle!”
Then one of them began to scream.