The Missing Diamond Murder Page 14
‘I reckon you’re just trying to trick me into saying summat.’
‘The thing is, Connie, I don’t need you to confirm that something improper took place between yourself and Mr Charles, because although you may not be aware of it, you and Mr Charles were seen together in compromising circumstances that afternoon, so if evidence were required in respect of a divorce, there is already someone else who can provide it.’ Fran hoped that she sounded confident and commanding, because she really had no idea whether a glimpse of a kiss and a slap on the behind was anything like enough evidence to support an accusation of adultery, and in fact she strongly suspected that it was not.
Fortunately she was convincing enough for Connie who capitulated at last. ‘Very well then,’ she said sulkily. ‘I know that silly wife of his saw us together in the garden, but I didn’t realize she had followed us back to the house.’
‘Well, there you are,’ said Fran, greatly relieved. ‘The thing that I need to know is how long the two of you were together – and where you were. That way I can be sure that Mr Charles was never with his father, you see.’
‘I don’t see as why I should do anything to help him,’ grumbled Connie. ‘A girl agrees to meet a gentleman and he takes advantage, well then the girl naturally expects a present or something. There’s a lot of gentlemen as can be very generous, so long as a girl is discreet. The major now, he had offered me a place as his secretary. In Hampshire. That would be a step up. I made up my mind a few years back that I mean to get away from ’ere and get on in life and I thought that would definitely be a step in the right direction. That’s why I gave my notice at the Copper Kettle, only then I got word that his wife is cutting up rough, you see.’
Fran could not help feeling that the less she heard about the major – whoever he might be – the better. ‘Getting back to Charles Edgerton,’ she said. ‘I gather that you had arranged to meet him in the garden that afternoon, after lunch.’
‘After lunch was the best time. It’s quiet then and with old Jamieson and Mrs Remington snoozing in their rooms, it’s pretty easy to slip off for an hour or so.’
Thinking that Jamieson had been absolutely correct in his assessment that Connie had the wrong attitude for domestic service, Fran prompted: ‘So you met in the garden and then went back to the house together?’
‘We slipped in through the tradesman’s entrance and then up the back stairs. I’d never been in one of those bedrooms for anything other than dusting and tidying and the like and it tickled me, knowing what Her blooming Ladyship would think of the likes of me, up to all sorts on one of her silk counterpanes. I was giggling and we was shushing each other, though there wasn’t anyone there. No one knew what was going on ’cepting for Mr Charles’s wife seeing us together in the garden.’
Little do you know, Fran thought. Out loud, she said, ‘Did Mr Charles realize that his wife had seen you?’
‘No. He was facing me, with his back to the path and that Mrs Dolly, she just appeared for a minute between the bushes as run alongside the path. I knew she’d seen us like, but she turned and headed off the other way.’
‘Didn’t you tell Mr Charles that his wife was there?’
‘Of course not.’ Connie was openly scornful. ‘If she wants to set a detective on him and they pay me to tell tales, well, that’s all to the good, isn’t it? She won’t though, not that one. She married him for his money, they say and perhaps she’d not be sure of getting too much good out of a divorce.’
Fran found that she could imagine, all too easily, the look of surprise and pain on Dolly’s face, as she glimpsed her husband, trysting with one of the maids. Poor Dolly, despised by her husband’s relatives and cheated on by the man himself. ‘But what about Mr Charles?’ she asked. ‘Didn’t you think you ought to warn him that his wife knew what he was up to?’
Connie made a derisive sound verging on a snort. ‘Dirty old goat,’ she said. ‘He deserves all the trouble he gets, if you ask me.’
‘Can you tell me how long you were with him that afternoon?’
Connie tossed her blonde curls. ‘Wasn’t looking at my wristwatch. About an hour, maybe? I went down to meet him as we’d arranged, at three p.m. I waited for him a short while and just as I thought he wasn’t coming after all, he came panting up the path. Right eager he was. We went straight back up to the house and afterwards I left him in the bedroom. I had to get back into my frock and down to the servants hall to start laying up for family tea. And he didn’t take long, if you know what I mean.’
Connie made to nudge her but was thwarted when Fran stood up abruptly and ostentatiously dusted down her coat. ‘Thank you for your help, Connie, you have said quite enough.’ She turned on her heel and strode swiftly away, ignoring what she fancied was a call of ‘Stuck up cow’.
Oh dear, she thought, as she headed back down the hill. What on earth am I to say, if Eddie asks me whether I have found anything out? Fortunately her chauffeur merely expressed concern that she appeared to be rather cold and insisted on putting a rug around her knees for the drive home.
NINETEEN
‘Oh, bravo!’ exclaimed Eddie when he saw Fran appear in the doorway of the drawing room. ‘Your chariot awaits, Milady Juliet.’
‘Juliet didn’t have a chariot, did she?’ asked Mellie.
‘Didn’t she say something about wanting one?’ asked Henrietta. ‘I’m sure I remember something about it at school. Doves drawing Cupid’s chariot, or something was it?’
‘It’s the speech in Act II,’ said Fran. ‘“Loves heralds should be thoughts, which ten times faster glide than the suns beams—”’ She came to a halt, blushing slightly lest the Edgertons might think her a show-off or a bore.
‘Good heavens!’ cried Roly. ‘You don’t just look the part, you actually know it.’
‘Do go on and give us some more,’ begged Eddie, but Fran shook her head, protesting that she didn’t know the rest and then Mellie asked whether they oughtn’t to see if the cars had been brought down from the garage.
The party at the Lyndons’ turned out to be far more fun than she had expected. Most of the costumes were considerably more elaborate than anything she had encountered at the modest fancy dress parties she remembered from childhood, with everything from teddy bears to Tutankhamun represented. Mabel Trenchard’s Charlie Chaplin disguise was so successful that no one initially recognized her, though her sister’s elaborate Britannia took a bit of managing, leaving Fran secretly grateful that her own outfit fitted her so well and was surprisingly comfortable, apart from the beaded skull cap, which needed a lot of well-concealed Kirby grips to keep it in place.
There was a splendid buffet supper, an endless supply of fruit punch laced with gin and a professional band had been engaged for the dancing, which took place in a real ballroom, for the Lyndons’ residence was much larger and grander than Sunnyside House. Though she knew no one but the Edgertons, Fran experienced no shortage of partners willing to take her for a turn around the dance floor, and Eddie made a point of ensuring that she was never left on her own between dances. She could hardly believe it when she realized that everyone was beginning to leave.
As they joined the line which had formed to thank their hosts, Fran took a lingering look at the portraits on the walls and the decorated plaster ceilings. It wasn’t every day that she got to dance in surroundings like this – in fact, it wasn’t any day and it might never happen again.
‘Such a pleasure to meet you,’ Emmeline Lyndon said in response to Fran’s thanks. ‘I do hope that we’ll be seeing a lot more of you in the future.’
There wasn’t time to explain that she was only in Devon temporarily and besides which it seemed impolite to respond that she would probably never see them again, so Fran just nodded and smiled and said ‘thank you’ again.
‘Phew,’ said Eddie, as he climbed into the Riley, having seen Fran safely into the passenger seat. ‘At last I can take off this blasted beard. It’s frightfully hot and itchy.’
‘Toss it into the back with the beard,’ said Eddie. ‘What say we go back via the coast road? It’s not much out of our way and it’s such a beautiful clear night.’
‘Morning,’ she corrected him. ‘Goodness, but it’s ages since I’ve stayed up so late – or had so much fun.’
The beam of the Riley’s headlights sliced through the darkness of the lanes. They met nothing on the road and within about a quarter of an hour, Fran could see that they had reached the coast, for when the road emerged on to high ground, she was immediately confronted by an expanse of dark water stretching out before them, overlaid with a glittering mantle of silver, where the moonlight had made a pathway across the sea.
‘Oh,’ she gasped. ‘How lovely!’
‘There’s a good place to stop here.’ Eddie slowed the car as he spoke, steering it to the side of the road. ‘Come out and see it properly,’ he instructed. ‘Hold on. Let me put this rug around you so you don’t get cold.’
After draping the rug about her shoulders, he guided her a few steps away from the car, and sure enough she saw that the land fell away gently, revealing an even lovelier aspect.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Fran said. ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.’
‘The drawing room at Innominate House faces the sea. This will be the view from there every night, when the moon is in the right place.’
Fran was silent. Vistas of dancing and laughter and coming home to a beautiful view and someone who cared tremendously for one swam enticingly on a silvery ocean of moonlight and a little too much gin.
They stood in silence for a few moments before Eddie spoke. ‘I know we’ve hardly known each other for a week yet, but sometimes that’s all it takes. No, no … please don’t say anything yet … You see, you are the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met – and I know you’re probably in the same camp as everyone else, thinking I’m a complete and total idiot, and I don’t mind that. Only don’t say “no” just yet. Let me keep my hopes up, Fran – darling Fran – that one day, soon, you will agree to be my wife.’
Fran opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.
‘I expect you’ve got a string of fellows in pursuit and you must think it’s jolly presumptuous of me to ask, but you see I saw that you had taken off your wedding ring and I thought that maybe you were doing it as a sign … to let me know that, well, you’d seen how much I care for you.’
‘Oh no.’ Fran managed to get a word in. ‘Oh no, Eddie, I didn’t mean anything by it at all. Nothing was further from my mind.’
‘Of course not. Of course not,’ he hastened on. ‘As if you are the sort of girl who would ever encourage a man or lead him on in any way at all. I didn’t mean that, of course I didn’t. I’m an idiot, such an idiot. The thing is, that … well … I’d be honoured. Only … well … yes … as I say, please don’t give me an answer now. Please think about it first. Take as long as you like. Only promise me that you won’t say “no” tonight.’
Fran couldn’t see his face, but she could imagine it, his eyes looking earnestly into hers. She made no objection when he put both his arms around her and kissed her. It was very nice to be kissed, properly kissed, after such a long time. When the kiss was over, he released her, very slowly and gently, saying, ‘Promise me you will think about it.’
‘Very well, I promise.’
They walked back to the car in silence.
‘You won’t say anything to your family?’ she asked.
‘Not until … unless, you say “yes”.’
‘Everything just as normal tomorrow,’ Fran said, firmly.
‘Of course. Everything just as normal.’
TWENTY
… But of course, everything is not normal at all, Fran wrote to Mo. I am supposed to be here on a detective mission and instead I’m attending fancy dress parties and receiving proposals of marriage. Eddie Edgerton is supposed to be one of the suspects, not a prospective suitor. He is driving me see Mrs Headingham in Sidmouth this afternoon, which means …
Fran put down her pen and reread the most recently written page. What did it mean? She could just imagine Mo, could almost hear her saying, ‘But you haven’t said “no”, have you? He’s a jolly nice chap and he’s obviously crazy about you. You could do a damn sight worse. In fact, you already have done, once …’
She picked up the last sheet of notepaper and tore it carefully into tiny pieces. She would bring Mo up to date another time about the Eddie complication. Anyway, it was time to set off for Sidmouth.
It took them almost an hour to drive to Sidmouth, but much to Fran’s relief, Eddie stuck to safe, ordinary topics and made no reference to the conversation which had taken place on the coast road in the early hours. She did wonder if she ought to interpret his silence as an indication of him having thought better of it, now that the effects of the gin punch had worn off, but somehow she rather doubted that. Instead they talked about the places they drove through and he asked her about the countryside where she lived, rather in the manner of a person who intended to visit the area soon.
Mrs Headingham lived in a white-painted terraced house, a couple of streets back from the promenade. Her maid opened the door and showed them into a rather over-furnished drawing room which reminded Fran very much of her own mother’s. She had been half expecting a faded femme fatale, but the woman who had once been Frederick Edgerton’s mistress was disappointingly ordinary. Warned to expect them by a telephone call from Roly, Mrs Headingham appeared to be as curious about them as they were about her.
‘Edward,’ she said. ‘Do come into the light, so that I can see you better. There now … very much like your grandfather, when he was younger. But you, my dear.’ She turned to Fran. ‘You are not like the Edgertons at all. But then you’re not a member of the family, are you? Roland tried to explain it on the telephone, but I’m afraid I couldn’t get the gist. You are going to have to tell me again. And do speak up, because I’m a trifle deaf.’
‘Mrs Black is helping the family with a bit of a mystery,’ Eddie said, probably rather too loudly. ‘It’s all to do with a piece of jewellery that we’ve lost. Grandfather was a little bit confused at times, in his last few months, and he may have put it somewhere unexpected. Mrs Black just thought that perhaps you – having known him very well at one time – might have had some ideas.’
‘Did she really? So this has got absolutely nothing to do with the fact that your grandfather met his death by falling off a cliff? Now really, young man, don’t look so surprised. I may be old but I’m not senile. I read the newspapers and my eyebrows hit the ceiling at that.’
‘It is just possible that old Mr Edgerton’s death was not an accident,’ Fran said, having made a swift assessment that Mrs Headingham’s unusual circumstances meant that her discretion could be relied upon. ‘We don’t know whether the missing jewellery is connected to his death or not.’
Mrs Headingham nodded thoughtfully. ‘Old Mr Edgerton? That’s what they call poor Fred now, is it? Well, well, I suppose there are probably people who call me old Mrs Headingham too. Which piece of jewellery is it that’s gone missing?’
‘You may not know it. It was a single diamond, which he never had made up into anything. It was kept in a black velvet pouch.’
‘And you can’t find it?’
‘No.’
‘When did you last see it?’
‘No one is really sure. Just some time before he died.’
‘Well, perhaps he gave it back.’
‘Gave it back?’ Fran asked, careful not to betray her suspicion that Mrs Headingham was also fairly well advanced in her dotage, in spite of the sentiments she had expressed a moment before.
‘Gave it back to its owners.’ Mrs Headingham scrutinized their faces before adding, ‘I can see that you haven’t the least idea of what I’m talking about. You don’t know the f
ull story of that diamond, do you?’
Fran and Eddie shook their heads in perfect unison.
‘Well, what do you know about it?’
It was Eddie who answered. ‘As I’ve always understood it, Grandfather brought it back from Africa, along with various other assets. He had the stone cut, but for some reason or other, he never had it made into a piece of jewellery. I think he used to like to keep it close by him for some reason, and he often showed it to people. I expect it was worth a good deal of money, but I don’t ever remember him telling us how he got it – and certainly not that it belonged to anyone else,’ Eddie added by way of an afterthought.
Mrs Headingham looked thoughtful. ‘I suppose Fred told me a great many things that he would never have confided in anyone else. He wasn’t a man to make close friendships and after his wife died I became the next best thing. He asked me to marry him once, but I turned him down. I was very fond of him but I never could have loved him the way I had loved my husband.’ She sighed. ‘I told him that it wouldn’t have worked out well for him anyway, marrying his children’s governess. People would have looked down on us, I said, but that wasn’t the real reason. I couldn’t forget that I loved my first husband more than him. I suppose it was foolish really, because I was happy enough with Fred in a way … and I could never have my poor dead husband back again. It may sound strange to you, but I quite enjoyed being his mistress rather than his wife. There’s a lot of tiresome responsibility goes with being a wife, particularly one who is expected to participate in local society. But then, of course, your father, young Frank, married Lady Louisa and she was very shocked at the idea of living under the same roof as her father-in-law’s mistress, so I was shipped off to live here and Fred could only come and visit me after that. As he got older, the gaps between those visits grew longer and longer and I admit that I missed seeing him, perhaps rather more than he missed seeing me.’ She laughed softly and shook her head. ‘I hadn’t anticipated that and I admit I sometimes thought then that perhaps I should have settled for marriage, when it was offered, all those years before, but there, I didn’t and that’s all there is to it.’