Chapter 19 #2
By then the sun was rising. The sky was as clear as if the storm had been a dream. When Daisy looked out of the window, a faint mist hazed the grass but everything higher was fresh and bright, leaves washed clean by the downpour, and lingering raindrops sparkling.
As Alec again slept through the alarm’s bell, Daisy decided it wouldn’t hurt to put him under an obligation by letting him sleep. If he was reluctant to discuss his theories with her, she’d be able to point out that he owed her.
When she reached the turret, the boys were already getting up, although it was not yet six o’clock.
“It’s such a ripping day,” Derek explained. “We can sleep in some day when it’s raining. We’re going to the river.”
“To, not on,” said Daisy. “It’ll be in full spate after the rain.”
“That’s half the fun,” he protested.
“Not the boat. And not swimming, either.”
“Oh, all right.”
“Did you go out in the boat yesterday?”
“Yes,” Ben chimed in enthusiastically. “They let me have a go at rowing.”
So the boat hadn’t been sabotaged. Or at least not effectively. Daisy would make sure Edgar had it examined thoroughly before it was used again.
“On the backwater?” Derek bargained.
“Also out of bounds. The storm will have swelled the stream, as well.” She interpreted with ease the look Derek and Ben exchanged. “If you must. As long as you stay upstream, in the woods or farther.”
“Thanks, Aunt Daisy!”
“But let me look at Ben’s head first.”
Since she stood on the steps protruding into the room from the waist up, Ben came and knelt in front of her. “I feel fine. It hardly hurts at all, only when I touch it. Can I take the bandage off? It looks silly.”
“Let me have a look.” She undid the safety pin and unwrapped the bandage. The wound had stopped bleeding and was not inflamed, though there was some swelling around it.
“Sorry, Ben, it still needs something to keep it clean and protect against bumps. I could try to make it less obtrusive, but if I use sticking plaster, it’s going to hurt like the dickens when it comes off.”
“And pull out your hair,” Derek added. “I’d keep the bandage if I were you. We can pretend you’re a wounded soldier or something.”
Daisy had left supplies in the turret, so Ben’s turban was soon restored.
“There. Do try not to bump it!”
“Aunt Daisy, if you’re going back to your room, could you possibly stop at Bel’s and tell her we’ll meet her in the kitchen in five minutes?”
“I’m glad you’re including Belinda in your plans.”
“Oh, she’s not a bad sort, for a girl.”
Daisy couldn’t reach to box his ears for the last part of that remark. She let it pass. “Don’t leave a mess in the kitchen.”
“We won’t,” they promised in chorus.
“And don’t expect Bel to clear it up because she’s a girl.”
She went to give Belinda their message. Bel was already awake. “Five minutes!” She scrambled out of bed. “Is Ben all right, Mummy?”
“I think so, but keep an eye on him for me. And stop the boys from doing anything too harebrained if you can.”
Alec woke up when Daisy slipped back into bed beside him. She interpreted his grunt as an enquiry as to Ben’s well-being.
“He seems to have been lucky. I’ve said they can go out, Bel and the boys.”
“Out?” he mumbled.
“On one of their expeditions. No boating.”
“An expedition?” Alec was now thoroughly awake. “At this time in the morning?”
“They’re young, and the sun is shining.” In spite of which she was quite chilled after her expedition to the turret. She snuggled up to him.
Quite some time later, Alec said, “No boating?”
“Because the river will be dangerous. If it rained heavily here, you can bet it bucketed down in the hills where the Severn rises. But also, I’m awfully afraid the boat may have been sabotaged. I don’t want them going out in it until it’s been thoroughly checked. Tell me that’s nonsense.”
“It’s a reasonable precaution. Even though I can’t work out what’s going on, nor who’s responsible, I’m pretty sure there is something going on.”
“It must be Raymond! Or is it just the thunder that makes me suspect him?”
“The thunder?” Alec asked, astonished.
“I’m not serious. It’s ridiculous. Just because there was thunder when I came to Fairacres to meet him the first time, and then again last night.
… It gives me a sort of uneasy feeling. Superstition, I suppose.
Nonsense, of course, but when nothing makes sense …
Raymond is the most likely. Vincent was attacked. ”
“He has a vague impression that he may have been attacked.”
“Ben twice,” Daisy continued.
“I’ve come up with a sort of motive for Frank, though.”
“A motive for wanting his stepson out of the way? It’s not as if Frank can possibly inherit.”
“I said ‘sort of.’ Assuming he hopes to get his hands on some of the loot, a younger child, Ben’s brother, would be more pliable, more easily persuaded, or cheated.”
“Not with Tommy looking out for him. Besides, though it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Frank Crowley is out to feather his nest, I don’t believe for a moment that he’d harm Ben.”
“You’ve probably seen more of the two of them together,” Alec conceded. “It’s worth bearing in mind, though.”
“So after sleeping on it, you believe there’s a plot to do with the inheritance? Although it could well have been Derek who fell? And although the fall was not very likely to be fatal?”
“I don’t know what to believe. What I do know is that I can’t guard all of Edgar’s blasted heirs.
If one of them is killed at Fairacres and I’ve done nothing to prevent it, I’m going to be well and truly persona non grata at the Yard, with the county police, and at Fairacres, not to mention your mother. ”
“No, please don’t.” Daisy shuddered. “Clearly you need to be seen to be doing something. What?”
“First, I’m going to have a chat with the chief constable.”
“Is it still Sir Nigel?”
“Colonel Sir Nigel Wookleigh himself. Or was, last time I had occasion to lend a hand in Worcestershire.”
“He was very cooperative that time when—”
“Don’t remind me! All the same, that’s why I’m going to tackle him first.”
“You’re going to ask him to send in bobbies to watch everyone? That wouldn’t go down very well.”
“Great Scott, no! The most I can do is advise him that we may have trouble on our hands and ask for prior permission to request aid from the Yard if necessary. What I’d really like is to get Tom and Ernie down here, but the AC would never go for it without far more evidence of wrongdoing than I’ve got.
I wouldn’t myself, if I wasn’t in the middle of the situation.
All it amounts to as yet is a broken butterfly net.
Dammit!” He flung back the covers and swung his feet to the floor.
“I should have secured it last night. Was it still there this morning?”
Daisy pulled the covers back up. “Yes. I nearly brought it back with me, but I thought you might want to make a note of the position of the pieces. And splinters on the banisters—that’s what you spotted last night, wasn’t it?”
“Will the housemaids have done that corridor already?” Alec retrieved his notebook from a drawer and shoved it in his dressing-gown pocket.
“Shouldn’t think so. They start on the ground floor and work up, and it’s still quite early.”
“I hope to heaven the boys haven’t mucked about with it,” he flung back at her from the doorway.
“They won’t have dusted the banisters,” she assured the door.