Death at Dawn - Caro Peacock [108]
My whole body tingled, not with shock yet but the feeling of shock coming, like lightning singing in the air.
‘A gentleman where?’
‘In France.’
I’d picked up the water jug to refill her glass. I almost dropped it and when I managed to put it down on the wash-stand, my hand was shaking as badly as hers. I tried hard to keep my voice steady.
‘You said he didn’t come back. What happened to him?’
‘They told me he’d been shot. I don’t know what to believe from anyone any more.’
‘What was his name?’
‘He said he was Mr Lane, but I don’t know if it was his real name.’
‘It was his real name. He was my father.’
Visions of beautiful ladies and angry husbands fell away. The search for the woman in my father’s letter had ended here, in this bleak room, with a dumpy woman in a brown wool dress, water-drops clinging to the little hairs on her upper lip from drinking so thirstily. She was staring at me as if my distress had woken up something in her mind.
‘Do you know, I thought you had the look of somebody I recognised when I saw you up there. Only I couldn’t call it to mind. There’ve been so many of them, you see, and I haven’t been myself.’
‘The old lady, Mrs Beedle, she was killed last night,’ I said.
I was past being careful. Her mouth fell open, showing small, gappy teeth.
‘Where?’
‘Downstairs in the schoolroom.’
‘Is that the room with the horse and the big globe?’
‘Yes. How did you know?’
‘She took me in there, before she brought me up here. She said I was to come back down when she gave me the signal.’
‘Signal?’
‘She was going to tap on the bottom stair with that stick of hers. I waited. I washed myself and I put on the shawl and I waited a bit more. Then I heard a noise from downstairs.’
‘Her stick tapping?’
‘It might have been that, or it might have been a door closing, I wasn’t sure. I thought I’d better go down, so I did. The door was closed, but I heard her voice from inside the room, talking to somebody about me.’
‘What did she say?’
‘It was something like them having no right to bring me there in the first place. Then she said, quite loud, “No, I’ve no intention of telling you where she is.”’
‘Who was she talking to?’
‘I told you, the door was shut.’
‘You didn’t hear another voice?’
‘I didn’t wait to hear anything else. I guessed whoever was in there with her was working for the fat devil, so I was away and back up the stairs. I couldn’t stop in this room in case he made her tell him where I was, so I climbed on up the ladder and came out on the roof.’
‘Did she sound scared?’
‘Not scared, no. Angry.’
I sat down on the bed. We looked at each other, beyond crying, beyond even being suspicious of each other.
‘Your name’s Liberty?’
‘Yes.’
‘Your father talked to me about you. He said you were kind hearted and he was going to rent a house in London and I could stay with you until I found somewhere else. He said he was going to write to you and let you know.’
‘He did, but he was dead by the time I had the letter. I don’t even know your name.’
‘Martley. Maudie Martley.’
‘Please, Mrs Martley, tell me anything else you can about my father.’
She opened her mouth then closed it again, looking terrified. Somebody was coming up the stairs from the nursery corridor. The steps stopped at the maids’ landing and a voice called out.
‘Miss Lock, would you come down please.’
Betty, sounding alarmed.
‘It’s all right, but I must go to her,’ I whispered. ‘Stay here. Sleep in my bed if you’re tired.’
She still looked terrified. I should have liked to tell her that she’d be safe there, but I didn’t know what safety was any more. In any case, I’d no idea where else to put her.
‘Wait for me,’ I said. ‘Please wait. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’
Betty was on her way back downstairs.
‘There’s a gentleman insists he must speak to you. He won’t go away. I’ve put him in the boys’ bedroom.’
She was hot and miserable at this violation of her sanctuary. I went into the bedroom and there was Daniel, tapping out Voi Che Sapete on James’s xylophone. He put down the hammer