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By Root 1067 0

Most telling was her hair, whiter than any snowfall and a mute testament that whatever ended her life had already been visited upon Lieutenants Ashe and Kempshall. But why this woman and only this woman among a community of more than a thousand people? Vollmer looked about the room but its contents offered few clues to the identity of the dead woman - no personal papers, no family portraits. She wore a wedding ring but the clothes in the dresser did not indicate a husband or children. It was a mystery, but only that much was certain. The sergeant was leaving when he heard a shout from outside. Vollmer opened the single window to see a soldier looking up at him with frightened eyes. `What is it, Lennox?'

`You'd better see for yourself, Sergeant,' the private replied, his features pale and haggard. 'I think it's the local doctor. Place is strewn with broken bottles of potions and medical equipment.

He's dead, just like we found the lieutenant: Another one, Vollmer thought to himself. Why now, and why these people? He told Lennox to go back to the doctor's house and wait for him there. The sergeant took one last look around the woman's dwelling. So much about this didn't make sense. He knew there was probably a clue here but he was no detective. Vollmer decided to see whether Lennox was right about this other corpse. He pulled the broken door closed, not seeing the carefully stitched sampler hanging on the back of the oak: BLESS THIS HOUSE 0 LORD read the message, with a name modestly stitched inside a floral border

- Martha Lees.

`But Your Majesty -' Ponsonby protested, following his Queen along the corridors of Windsor Castle.

Òur decision is final, Sir Henry,' Victoria replied, cutting him short. 'Time and again we had listened to your doubts and denunciations but General Doulton has found proof. And still you persist in contradicting and second guessing us!'

`Your Majesty, I only wish to ensure your safety.'

The Queen turned on her private secretary. 'You would see us wrapped in a thousand sheets of calico and locked away from the world, unable to make our own decisions nor choose our own destiny'

`Please forgive me, ma'am, but I must -'

`Have you ever stopped to think about what we want, what is best for us? We have suffered the loss of a husband as well as a consort, the father of our nine children. We shal be alone until the grave, without his good judgement and counsel to guide us. Now, at last, when we have the possibility of being reunited with our beloved Albert, you would deny us! It shall not be borne! We will accept the general's gracious invitation and travel north into Scotland! We will do so accompanied only by our most faithful and loyal servants - you shall not be one of them, Sir Henry. Good day to you!'

`Two civilian casualties you say?' Doulton marched back and forth impatiently by the riverbank while his men removed the lid from a massive wooden crate. Getting the huge object there from Lanark had taken all morning, a task not made any easier by travelling against the flow of a thousand people and their possessions evacuating the cotton-mil ing community downstream. In the meantime Vollmer had completed his search and was reporting back on the corpses found after the evacuation.

`Yes, sir. A man and a woman. He was apparently the local physician, Dr Robert Kirkhope. About fifty to sixty years old. Both had the same terrified expression and snow-white hair that we found on the lieutenants. The woman's identity isn't known, but it seems likely she was a worker at the mil s.'

`Very wel . What progress at the dam downstream?'

Ì have authorised the men to begin opening the floodgates now the evacuation is complete. The Walker brothers said it would take fully twenty-four hours to empty this val ey if no further water was flowing into it,' the sergeant said.

`Good, then everything is proceeding to schedule,' Doulton replied. The ground beneath their feet shook for a second, fol owed moments later by an almighty rumbling boom that echoed down the valley. A flock of startled birds flew away