The Deeds of the Disturber - Elizabeth Peters [38]
When the time came for her to go, she suggested I might like to take a spin on her new safety bicycle, whose design she strongly recommended.
But when we emerged from the house, there was no cycle to be seen. ‘I left it just there,’ Helen said, looking about with a puzzled expression.
Then I saw Violet, crouched behind one of the tall urns that line the terrace. ‘What are you doing there, Violet?’ I asked. ‘Have you seen the lady’s cycle?’
‘Yes, Aunt ’Melia.’
‘Don’t cower,’ I said sharply. ‘Come out of there.’
‘You are frightening the child, Amelia,’ Helen said.
‘I? Frightening a child? How can you suppose –’
‘Let me speak to her.’ She advanced, holding out her hand and smiling. ‘You are Violet? Your aunt has told me what a good girl you are. Come and give me a kiss.’
Violet sidled forward, one finger in her mouth, her eyes rolling sideways to watch me. Anyone seeing her would have supposed I beat her daily. Helen stooped to take the child in a motherly embrace. ‘Tell me what has happened to my bicycle, little Violet,’ Helen cooed.
Violet pointed. ‘Ramses took it.’
From the door of the house to the gates of the park is a good quarter mile. The gravelled drive forms a circle before the terrace; because of plantings of trees and shrubbery, the far half of the circle and the straight stretch are hidden from sight. I now beheld, emerging from the enclosing trees, the bicycle. On the high seat perched Ramses. His legs were too short to touch the pedals except when they were at the topmost point of their circle, so he progressed in a series of rushes, wobbling erratically from one side of the drive to the other and prevented from falling – or so it seemed – by Percy, who was running alongside the machine.
Helen let out a gasp of outrage and concern, and as the ensemble came closer I realized that instead of helping to hold the cycle, Percy was, in fact, attempting to stop it. I was assisted in this deduction by his cries of ‘Stop, Cousin; indeed, you must not, you didn’t ask permission,’ and the like.
Ramses caught sight of me. His legs stopped moving, and at the same instant Percy snatched at the handlebars. The results were predictable. Cycle and rider fell to the ground with a grating crash. Percy saved himself from following them only by an agile twist of his body.
Helen ran towards the wreckage. Violet began to scream. As her cries of ‘Dead! Dead!’ rang morbidly through the welkin, I hastened to join Helen.
At first sight Ramses appeared to be inextricably entwined with the bicycle, but we finally managed to free him. His arms and face were scraped and bleeding and his new sailor suit was a total wreck. So was the bicycle.
Having ascertained that he was unharmed, I gave him a little shake. ‘Whatever possessed you to do such a thing, Ramses? In addition to being foolhardy and dangerous, it was also very wrong. The bicycle was not yours and you had no right to ride it without asking permission.’
‘Violet told me –’ Ramses began.
‘Ramses, Ramses.’ Helen shook her head sadly. ‘A little gentleman does not excuse his actions by blaming them on a young lady. You were under no compulsion to do as Violet asked.’
‘Excuse me, ma’am – Aunt Amelia,’ Percy said quietly. ‘Violet only said she would dearly love to see Ramses ride a bicycle; he was bragging a little about how well he could ride. I should have prevented him. I take full responsibility.’
Ramses turned and kicked his cousin on the shin. ‘I won’t have you take responsibility for me! Who the devil are you to take responsibility for me?’
Percy made no outcry, though his face twisted with pain and he made haste to back away from Ramses. The latter would have gone after him if I had not twisted my hand in his collar.
‘Ramses, stop it! I am bitterly ashamed of you. Your language, your attack on your cousin, your destruction of Miss McIntosh’s machine . . .’
Ramses stopped squirming. ‘I apologize to Miss McIntosh,’ he gasped, swabbing his bleeding face with his bloody sleeve. ‘I will repay her as soon as is possible. I presently possess