A False Mirror - Charles Todd [149]
Rutledge spoke to the kitchen staff and arranged for an evening meal to be prepared for Casa Miranda. When someone came to tell him the packages and covered dishes were ready, he put them in the motorcar and took them up himself after one brief stop along the way. While at the station, he gave Bennett instructions that included calling off his own watchers this night.
Darkness was just falling. To the west a long line of silvery clouds stretched out across the horizon, and under them the fading pink of sunset left a bright afterglow. Fair skies at night, he thought. Sailor’s delight.
The occupants of the house, fretful after a day of their own company, fell on the food with the pleasure of people grateful for distraction.
Matthew Hamilton came down, sat in the armchair at the head of the table, and toyed with his plate.
“You aren’t hungry?” Felicity asked, surprised.
He smiled at her. “I’ve always liked roasted ham, you know that. I was just thinking….”
“About Nan.”
“Yes. What do you say, my dear, to a few days in London, when I’m stronger? We might search for a new house on our way there.” It was an oblique acknowledgment that Casa Miranda was haunted by ghosts, one living and one dead.
She smiled at him in turn. “I’d like that.” There was no emphasis in the words, merely acceptance.
“Done, then.” He turned back to his plate and ate with apparent gusto, but Rutledge could see that he was pretending. He wondered if Felicity could.
They had finished their pudding when Mr. Putnam looked at his watch and exclaimed, “I’m late. If you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment at the rectory. It shouldn’t last long. But I must keep it.”
Avoiding Rutledge’s eye, he rose from the table, thanked everyone for the meal, and went to find his coat.
Rutledge listened to the opening and closing of the outer door, then tried to concentrate on something Mallory was saying to him. Soon afterward, he went around the house and looked carefully at each of the windows and doors.
The fortress was secure. But for how long?
Between them, Rutledge and Hamilton managed to persuade Felicity to retire early, though she was certain she wouldn’t sleep for hours.
“I’ll feel better, knowing you’re just there, through the door,” Hamilton told her. “It won’t be long before I’m stronger and can manage on my own.”
“I wish you would remember everything,” she said suddenly. “It must be very uncomfortable, not knowing. I shan’t be able to walk down a street in Hampton Regis without wondering about everyone I pass, thinking this one or that one might have tried to kill you. How much worse will it be for you?”
“It’s worrying,” he told her. “What if I never remember all of it?”
“Don’t think about that,” she replied, and there was a thread of fear in her voice that both men heard clearly. She closed her door and Hamilton listened for the turn of the key in its lock, and then nodded to Rutledge, waiting at the head of the stairs.
Around nine o’clock that evening, someone came to the house and left a message with the constable on duty outside.
It was from Putnam.
Mr. Joyner is ill again. I’m going with Dr. Granville to see him.
When Rutledge questioned the constable, he identified the messenger as the Allen boy.
Rutledge closed the door and prepared to wait for Putnam to return.
It was almost eleven o’clock when the church bells began to ring wildly. Mallory, rushing to a window, said, “What’s that in aid of? Rutledge, I don’t like it.”
“Nor do I. Go upstairs, Mallory, and take up your post. Tell Mrs. Hamilton there’s a fire in the town and not to worry.”
“Where will you be?”
“In the drive. To see what’s happening.”
He watched Mallory take the stairs two at a time, then let himself out the door. The night was quiet, but he thought he smelled smoke.
When he reached the constable on duty, the man said, “Must be a fire. I heard the pumps go out.”
People were in the streets now, shouting and running. Rutledge walked on,