Chapter 2 #2
At dinner, over Lancashire hotpot and broad beans, Daisy reported the second part of Cousin Geraldine’s letter. “Edgar wants the whole family to turn out to celebrate his birthday and to meet the three heirs—or rather, I presume, as many as haven’t been debunked by then.”
“Sounds like a jolly party,” Alec grunted. “More Geraldine’s idea than Edgar’s, I’ll be bound.”
“Oh yes, she loves playing Lady Bountiful, whereas August must be a prime season for moths and butterflies, don’t you think? Edgar will want to be out in the fields with his nets and jars.”
“If that’s where he wants to be, that’s where he’ll be, after gently agreeing with his wife that his place is with his guests. So this grand gathering is to be at Fairacres in August?”
“Yes, the first week. From the thirtieth of July, actually. His birthday is the sixth of August, but the first is August bank holiday and the village fête. There’s plenty of time for you to arrange to take a few days off.”
“Me! I’m not family, and I don’t want anything to do with games of ‘debunk the heirs.’”
“Darling, of course you’re family. Geraldine specifically says you’re expected, and the children, too. Johnny and Vi will be taking all three of theirs.”
“You mean they’ve already accepted? They were invited before us?” Alec pretended outrage.
“Idiot! As though you cared. No, Geraldine just says she’s inviting them. But Violet’s bound to accept. She’ll see it as a family obligation. And I have to agree, actually.”
“Your family. No, sorry! I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
“I should hope not,” Daisy said severely. “Edgar may be obsessed with lepidoptera but he’s a sweetie, and I wouldn’t dream of spoiling his birthday by refusing, even if the celebration is really Geraldine’s idea.”
“You’re right. You know I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try to get a few days off for it.” With any luck, he’d be unsuccessful, he thought. He’d much prefer to go to the New Forest with Daisy and the children.
“They owe you a holiday. You’re so often late for dinner that Mrs. Dobson never makes anything that can’t be eaten cold, unless it wouldn’t suffer from being kept hot or reheated!
Not to mention last summer: We were supposed to have a week on the Isle of Wight and they called you back after three days. ”
“It was an emergency.”
“It always is. Anyone would think you were the only detective chief inspector in the CID. Not that I’m not proud of you for being indispensable, but there ought to be a limit. I don’t suppose Mr. Crane would be impressed by Edgar’s title?”
“I’ve no intention of using it to impress him. On the other hand,” Alec went on thoughtfully, “if I told him my mother-in-law insists on my presence and I’m terrified of her…”
Daisy laughed. “What bilge, darling!”
“Not at all. Your mother can be very intimidating. Besides, can you think of any words more likely to strike fear into the average male breast than ‘mother-in-law’ and ‘dowager’? The Super would credit it.”
“I’m not at all sure whether Mother is planning to take any part in the affair. She still hasn’t forgiven Edgar for inheriting Fairacres, though he had no choice about it. One couldn’t describe her as being on neighbourly terms with them, even if the Dower House is all of half a mile away.”
“But she’s bound to want to vet the next heir, or claimants to heirdom, don’t you think?”
“I certainly do. It’s an intriguing situation. But you never can tell with Mother.” Daisy grimaced. “I’d better see if she has anything to say on the subject. I’ll open her letter after dinner.”
“You haven’t read it yet? Coward!”
Daisy wrinkled her nose at him. “I am,” she acknowledged, “when it comes to Mother. You deal with her much better than I do.”
“So that’s why you’re so determined to get me down to Fairacres?”
“She’s going to be breathing fire at these poor people Tommy’s digging up. Not that I’m too keen on them myself.”
“I don’t know why you want to go,” Alec grumbled, “when you’re already prejudiced against them.”
“I’m not!”
He merely raised his eyebrows, well aware that the simple change of expression always had the devastating effect of making her examine her conscience.
It had much the same effect on suspects and recalcitrant witnesses, though for them he put enough ice in his stare to intimidate; some claimed he froze the marrow of their bones.
With Daisy, he was laughing at her—usually.
“I can’t dislike them when I haven’t even met them yet.
But I resent them,” she admitted. “I resent anyone who might take Father’s and Gervaise’s place.
When it happened before, I didn’t have a chance to think about it beforehand so …
it came as a shock but I didn’t have to participate.
I expect it sounds silly, but I feel disloyal. ”
“Not silly at all, love. Very natural.” Reluctantly he resigned himself to doing his best to be there to support her. “But if we’re committing ourselves to staying for several days, I hope you’ll try not to show your dislike.”
“I don’t dislike them, truly. I’m just a bit disgruntled.”
“Well, gruntle yourself, love, or I’ll conjure up an emergency at the Yard and go back to work.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“I might.”
“You will come, then?”
“If I can wangle the time off, yes. I take it you’ve decided not to participate in Pearson’s interviews with the claimants.”
“Of course I shall. I’ve already made an appointment with him to talk about it. It’ll be easier to cope with meeting them one at a time, rather than facing a horde of strangers at Fairacres, don’t you think? And I might be able to help weed them out so there isn’t a horde by then.”
“‘A consummation devoutly to be wished,’” said Alec.
After dinner, when they were settled with coffee in the sitting room, Daisy picked up the Benares brass letter opener and attacked the dowager’s cream linen paper envelope.
“At least it’s short,” Alec remarked, as she took out a single sheet.
“Mother can pack a lot into a few pithy sentences when she tries. Ah, I might have guessed. It’s all Edgar’s fault. He was unforgivably remiss not to ascertain the identity of his heir as soon as he had appropriated the title.”
“Appropriated? Is that the word she uses?”
“I told you she’s by no means resigned to dowagerdom. Dowagership? Dowagerhood?”
“All the same, she has a point about his being remiss.”
“Remember, the poor man wasn’t brought up to the business of being a lord.”
“Lordhood, as it might be.”
“To do him justice, though he must be glad not to be surviving on a schoolmaster’s pension, he doesn’t care two hoots about the title. So, not having any children, why should he care who gets it next? Mother does, however. Wouldn’t you think she’d have learnt that she has no say in the matter?”
“Your mother considers herself a law unto herself.” And her younger daughter occasionally followed her example, as he’d discovered the very first time Daisy had interfered in one of his investigations.
“Anyway, she intends to keep a close eye on things, since Edgar has neither the common sense nor the breeding to.… Yes, well, we’ll skip the invective.
Aha, here we are. She expects me to bring you down to Fairacres, because if a policeman can’t sort out the impostors from the real heir, what’s the use of having one in the family?
She’ll be very disappointed in me if—As if that was an inducement!
She’s disappointed in me whatever I do.”
“Whereas,” Alec smugly pointed out, “she has at least acknowledged the value of having a policeman in the family. Although she seems a little confused about the function of the various branches of the law. Pearson would have every right to resent my poking my nose into his business, supposing I were inclined to interfere, which I’m not. ”
“But you must admit it’s an intriguing situation. Gruntled or not, I wouldn’t miss it for anything. Besides, Bel and the twins will enjoy seeing their cousins, and you’ll have time to spend with them, darling.”
“I can’t say intriguing is the word I’d use.” The word he’d use was not to be pronounced in feminine company. “Still, I expect you and Pearson will sort them out before we get there. How difficult can it be to tell the fake heirs from the real one?”