Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
Ben, abandoning his donkey, was the first to reach Belinda. She lay flat on her back on the grass. He knelt at her side and leaned over her. Their donkeys calmly strolled off, nibbling the short turf.
Inevitably people quickly gathered round, so Daisy, running, couldn’t see Bel. At her side, Alec rapped out in his policeman voice: “Let us through. And clear a space, please.”
“Find Dr. Hopcroft,” Daisy begged, charging onward.
Bel’s eyes were open, thank goodness. She was clasping to her face a large cotton handkerchief, sodden with blood.
“I think I’ve got another one somewhere,” said Ben, searching feverishly through his pockets.
Daisy knelt down beside Belinda, who promptly burst into tears. “Bubby, it hurts!”
“What hurts, darling? A pain in your back? Arms, legs? Do try not to cry, sweetheart, it’ll make your nose worse. Does your head ache?”
“By dose hurts. Daddy, ab I goi’g to bleed to death?”
“Of course not, pet.” Alec squeezed the hand she held out to him, then put a clean hankie in it. “Here, press as hard as you can bear to. But try not to move otherwise in case you’ve hurt your back.”
Dr. Hopcroft and Derek arrived.
“I thought I’d better find the doctor first,” Derek panted. “Is Bel all right? Gosh, that’s quite a nosebleed!”
“Let’s just make sure it’s all that’s wrong,” said the doctor as Daisy and Alec moved aside to give him room.
A couple of minutes of “Move this,” and “Can you feel that?” sufficed to indicate no serious damage.
“Whed will by dose stop bleedi’g?”
“That I can’t tell you. But put the hankie aside and take this cotton wool instead. Let’s see if the flow is diminishing.”
Belinda cautiously obeyed. The cotton wool showed seepage rather than the previous flood of blood.
With the doctor’s arrival, most of the gawkers had scattered to find something else to gawk at. The donkey man had rounded up his animals and was tethering them. Edgar, having presented the winner of the race with his five bob, came over with anxious queries.
Reassured, he said, “Given the alternative attraction, the lad had to make do without public acclaim. You’ll be a nine days’ wonder, Belinda.”
“I do’t want to be a wonder,” Bel said crossly, starting to sit up.
Dr. Hopcroft pushed her down. “Flat on your back for quarter of an hour,” he ordered.
“But it’s trickling down my throat! It tastes disgusting.”
“I’ve set my stopwatch for fifteen minutes, Bel.” Derek held up his watch for her to see.
“Not a minute longer!”
The doctor smiled down at her. “That should do it. Stuff a bit of cotton wool up each nostril. That will absorb some. And when you get up, if it starts bleeding seriously again, back down on your back at once.”
Bel sighed. “I hope my nose won’t be swollen.”
“Cold compresses, and send for me if it starts bleeding freely again.”
“Have I lost a lot of blood?”
“Good gracious, no! You could spare a pint or two yet. I’m off.” He strode away towards the fortune-teller’s tent.
Ben examined Belinda’s nose gravely. “It looks all right. Apart from the blood.”
“I’ll send someone with water and cloths to clean you up a bit,” said Edgar. “I have to go and present some more prizes. Good heavens, look, there’s a Scarlet Tiger!”
They all looked round nervously, before reminding themselves who was speaking, and spotting the bright-coloured butterfly.
“I don’t have my net with me,” Edgar lamented. “What’s it doing in this crowd? It should be by the water.”
“It was attracted by your blood, Bel,” said Derek. “It looks as if it dipped its wings in it.”
“Does not!”
Attention was diverted by the arrival of the donkey man. Scowling, he demanded, “What did the young miss do to my Bonnie to make her behave so?”
Alec said sharply, “My daughter did nothing. You shouldn’t be letting kids ride on such a dangerous animal.”
“Ho, dangerous is it? I’d have you know Bonnie’s never done aught like it in her life before!
Gentle as a lamb and calm as a dove, saving she don’t like flashing lights.
I don’t never take her out at night, but ’tis broad daylight here and now.
No one using ’lectric torches or them motor lamps, stands to reason. ”
Derek suggested, “Maybe some village brat in the crowd hit her with a peashooter.”
“A pea wouldn’t bother her none,” the man said contemptuously. He narrowed his eyes. “Mind, I’m not saying a stone from a catapult wouldn’t make her shy.”
Ben raised a tentative voice. “About flashing lights. That’s what happened to me. A light flashed in my eyes, and I put up my hand to block it.”
“And that’s when Bel pulled ahead,” Daisy recalled.
“I bet the same light flashed in the donkey’s eyes,” said Derek. “Don’t you think so, Uncle Alec?”
“Could be.” He turned back to the donkey man. “Well, we’ll say no more about the beast’s manners.”
“I’m not doing no more races. Talked me into it, they did. Rides for little kids, that’s what my donkeys do. And a good day to you, sir.” He stalked back towards his patient beasts.
The district nurse bustled up in her witchy costume, bearing a flask of water and a roll of lint.
“His lordship sent me, Mrs. Fletcher. Well, now, Miss Belinda, looks like your poor nose copped it good and proper. Let’s get you cleaned up a bit.
I never saw an accident like this in your future, I must admit. ”
Daisy and Alec and the boys stepped back to let her get at her patient.
An accident? Daisy was beginning to wonder. “Alec, don’t you think it’s rather too much of a coincidence—”
He gave her slight shake of the head, his lips compressed. She abandoned the subject for the present.
A couple of minutes of scrubbing and one loud “Ow!” from Belinda left her face more or less normal, apart from the lint sticking out of her nose.
Her yellow frock was a disaster, fit only for the rubbish bin.
Admittedly, even before the nosebleed, after her various pastimes of the afternoon, culminating in riding the donkey, it hadn’t been fit for much but the rag bag.
The nurse went back to more esoteric activities.
“Derek, is it quarter of an hour yet? I want to get up.”
“The alarm hasn’t rung yet. Three minutes.” He and Ben amused themselves with counting down the seconds until the watch chimed.
Alec helped Belinda up. Ben picked up her hat, dusted it off, and handed it to her.
“Thanks.” She put it on and pulled the brim down at the front. “I ache.”
“I bet you’ll have whacking great bruises.” Derek’s tone suggested admiration.
“Daddy, have you got an extra hankie, just in case?”
“I always have an extra hankie.” Alec was usually well supplied, as his work often involved a lot of weepy people: witnesses, suspects, the friends and relatives of murder victims.…
Relatives and murder. Daisy tried to find something else to occupy her mind.
She and Ben followed Alec, Belinda, and Derek towards the gate. Frank caught up with them.
“I just heard the news.” His breath smelled slightly of beer. The fête was supposed to be nonalcoholic but someone always managed to smuggle in a crate or two of bottles, all in a good cause. “No serious injuries, I take it.” He gestured at Belinda who was walking unaided.
“Just a bloody nose, Uncle Frank,” Ben assured him. “And bruises. I might have won the race but I stopped when she fell off.”
“Good for you, young ’un. Rotten luck for both of you!”
The mention of Ben’s near win reminded Daisy of the crowd cheering him on. “Ben, do you mind them calling you Blackie? I can put a stop to it in the village.”
“Not much point in minding, is there? At home there’s plenty more like me.” He glanced at his stepfather. “Uncle Frank says there’s some in London. But round about here—Well, I looked and looked and never another black face did I see.”
Frank nodded.
Daisy regarded Ben thoughtfully. “It’s not actually black, is it. A rather nice brown. Would Brownie be better?”
“Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Don’t let it worry you, Aunt Daisy. I’ll be all right.”
“Are you too old to be hugged and kissed? Because I’m going to hug and kiss you.” She suited action to the words. “I’m happy to have you as a nephew, or cousin, or whatever exactly you are.”
Shyly he kissed her cheek. “Me too. And Belinda and Derek are bricks!”
“I see you’re picking up Derek’s school slang,” said Daisy, laughing.
“They sounded friendly to me,” Frank said thoughtfully. “Encouraging, not heckling. Wouldn’t you agree, Daisy?”
“Absolutely.” Daisy refrained from elaborating. At present Ben had a certain novelty value. Many of the villagers had probably never seen a black—or brown—face before. Should Ben turn out to be heir to the viscountcy, the local people might be less receptive, and he’d have the wider world to face.
Bill Truscott was waiting with the Vauxhall just outside the gate, in case anyone wanted to be driven back to the house. He had already been told about Belinda’s mishap. He swooped upon her and lifted her into the car. Alec handed Daisy in after her.
“May we stay here a bit longer, Aunt Daisy?” Derek asked. “Ben and I have a couple of shillings left.” He put his hand in the pocket of his shorts and jingled his change.
Daisy looked to Alec, who nodded.
“All right. But please stay away from donkeys and bows and arrows!”
“I’ll keep an eye on them,” said Frank.
“Would you like me to go back with you?” Alec asked Daisy and Belinda.
“No thank you, Daddy.”
“We just have to get her cleaned up and changed, darling. Frankly, you’d be in the way. Truscott, does Mrs. Warden still make that wonderful salve for bruises?”
“Yes indeed, Miss Daisy. Madam, I should say.”
“It smells funny,” Bel complained. She had had cause to be annointed with the salve on previous visits.
Daisy assumed she couldn’t be feeling too sore if she was concerned about the smell.
* * *