An Indelicate Situation (The Weymouth Trilogy) (34 page)

The visit of Mr Berkeley and Mr Staveley to Mr Weld’s jewellery shop was so far a success the next day that not only was Mrs Wright positively identified as the vendor of the jewellery - ‘A loud, fat woman with an imperious manner and a hideous bright green spencer’ – but the items themselves were actually retrieved
and positively identified
, for
– as the gentlemen themselves had to admit –
they were
of such age and ugliness that nobody in their right mind in Weymouth would wish to give more than a tuppence for them.
Indeed, Mr Weld
had only bought them off the
awful
woman to get her out of his shop.
He had been obliged to give
her a couple of guineas
to persuade her out of his door.

The pins, however, were denied them.

‘No,’ said Mr Weld
, shaking his head firmly.
No pins had been offered to him, and even if they had been it was not the sort of item that he would usually take.

So, flushed with this at least partial success, Mr Berkeley and Mr Staveley then determined on making their way immediately to Grosvenor Place, there to suggest that Mrs William’s memory must be
so singularly lacking
that she had obviously completely forgotten both that she had sold the items in the first place and also that she had
omitted
to hand the profits to their rightful owner
as soon as
she had done so
.

Mrs William was clever enough to see the opportunity that the gentlemen provided to her, and to grasp
it with
open arms
.

‘Oh,’ she declared, when faced with t
he penda
nt and the ring and Mr B
erkeley’s admission that he had seen her with them in the shop. ‘Oh – it is
those
items, is it? Well,
indeed
. Do you know, Mr Staveley, I must say I had not
realised
that those were the items your mama had lost when she mentioned her jewellery. I know not quite
why
but I had thought of
diamonds
or
pearls
. These trinkets are scarcely to be called
jewellery
at all. I wonder I did not think of it at the time. I
...
.I must have
misunderstood
her, you know. I
would
swear
that she
had
wanted me to sell them for her – and with
all
the other things going on – well, the money for them must have slipped my
mind
completely
.’

Mr Staveley was kind enough to accept his cousin’s explanation
without demur. He quite understood, he told her. It was a mistake that anyone could have made
.

‘And what of the hairpins, Mrs Wright? Do you know what has happened to them?’

Here, for once
, the good lady felt on
totally
solid ground.

‘Well, as you
mention
them, Mr Berkeley – such an odd thing
– they have actually turned up this
very day
. The maid went into Miss Owens’ room only this morning to strip the bed – and there she found the hairpins secreted bet
ween the
sheet
s
.’

‘She found the hairpins in Miss Owens’ bed?’

‘Yes. I must admit it seems a little
strange
.’

‘But how ever would hairpins end up in someone’s bed?’

‘I have
no idea
, Mr Berkeley
. I have to say
, it does seem a little
singular
. I had thought that she must have hidden them there, though I wondered that she had not taken them with her
at the time
.’

Mr Staveley was s
uddenly hit with a novel idea
.

‘Could you ask Will to
come down
f
or a m
...
m
oment
, M
...
Mrs Wright?’ he asked her.

‘Will?’

‘Yes. There is so
...
something I should like to ask him.’

A little puzzled, but still grateful that her crimes had been let off with so
few recriminations
, Mrs Wright graciously agreed to ring the bell and ask for her older son to be brought before them. They awaited him,
silently and
a little nervously, in the drawing room. He appeared after a short del
ay, liquorice around his mouth -
this
presumably
having taken
the form of a bribe
to come down
-
in the company of one of the maids.

Luckily he recognised in Mr Staveley the person who had mended his model boat, and was more than usually inclined to
behave
.

‘Now Will,’ said Mr Staveley gently, kneeling down to talk to the lad. ‘Now, I want
you to listen to
a little secret
of m
...m
ine
. I want to tell you a secret and then I want
you
to
tell
me
whether it’s true or not. Will you do that
f
or m
...
me,
little breeches
?’

Will nodded gravely and stuck some more liquorice in his mouth.

‘Good lad. Now, do you rem
...
remem
...
remember M
...
Miss Owens, your governess? I think a cl
ever young lad like you will
remem
...
remember her, will you not?’

Will agreed that he did, indeed, remember Miss Owens. He had actually quite liked her.

‘Well, do you know, I
seem to think that a little lad rather like you used to try to tease her just a little b
...
bit. And a little lad like you, be
...
being  a clever little lad, was always
f
inding new ways of teasing her – would you not say, Will?’

Will agreed that a little lad like him might well try to tease a governess a little, though he would
certainly
not mean any real harm.

‘Well, and what b
...
better way for a clever young lad to tease his governess than to p
...
place things in her b
...
bed every now and
then
. Is that not the case, Will?
Might
a little lad like you
sometimes
try to tease his governess b
...
by placing things in her b
...
bed
occasionally?
’

Will agreed that a little lad like him might well place items in the
governess’
bed if ever he got the chance.

‘
Aha. Now we have it. So tell m
...
me, Will – tell
me what items a little lad like you could hide in the governess’ b
...
bed.’

And so Master Will explained it all to Mr Staveley – how Mrs Staveley, having gone into the guest room for something one evening, leaving her door ajar, had enabled Will to slip into her bedroom and borrow the first thin
gs that came to l
ight – those things being some pins that he had found on the table in front of him. And what better lark than to put them into Miss
Owens’ bed
?
What a screech she would give out when
they stuck into her
. Why, they might prick her anywhere. It would be so much fun. But it had been a couple of days before he had been able to slip into her room, and it had been
on
that very morning
that
Miss Owens had gone away and he had not been able to see the results of his latest prank after all. It was most disappointing. He had looked forward to hearing her scream.

Mr Staveley rose from his knees, well pleased with his little piece of detective work.
He ruffled Will’s hair
, found a farth
ing secreted behind his ear,
presented it to him, and sent
him
packing with the mai
d back to the nursery once more
.

And finally
it was Mr Berkeley’s turn.

‘Well, we appear to have sorted most things
out
quite amicably, Mrs Wright,’ he said suavely, giving her a somewhat insincere
little
smile. ‘There only remain the question
s
of
Miss Owens’ unpaid salary and
Mrs Staveley’s finances
to dea
l with and then
we
shall
leave you
entirely
at
your
ease
..
.’

Having sorted out their final questions to both gentlemen’s entire satisfaction – Mr Berkeley being given
an absolute promise
of
eight pounds
, being the eight months’ salary owed to Maggie,
whenever it could be retrieved,
and Mr Staveley being
given
immediate
possession of the
five pounds
that he had sent for his mama
and the two guineas
that Mrs Wright
had taken for the jewels
as well as the
promise
of
total control over his mama’s money –
though they would need to speak to
Mr Wright
for the details on
that
-
they the
n
felt it
quite
permissible to retire to the public bar at the Royal Hotel for a couple of celebratory
bevies
and some mutual congratulation
before going their separate ways home
.

‘But before I quite forget, Mr Staveley,’ said Andrew, as they made their way together up the Esplanade
towards the Royal
. ‘Mrs Berkeley and I were wondering whether you would do us the honour of joining us for the afternoon and thence dinner tomorrow? The state of the tide will be perfect for a little rock
-
pooling with the children. We generally get down to the cove once or twice a month
,
and despite its now being
well into
October it is
still
perfectly pleasant,
if one wraps up well
enough
. We are hoping that Miss Owens will join us, and perhaps entertain us for a little while on the pianoforte after
dinner
.
My sister and her husband will join us for the meal
.’

Mr Stavele
y had hardly required these
further inducements to visit Belvoir House.
He had not been relishing the thought of spending several more evenings in the house of his cousin and had already been planning to take his meals at one of the excellent hostelries that Weymouth had to offer, for the
fast
-
disappearing remainder
of his stay.

‘Then we shall take that as a firm arrangement, shall we?
We shall probably aim to reach the cove by about four o’clock.
That should allow us a good hour on the beach before we need to get back to the house. We will put
a
spare chamber at your disposal, if you would care to bring your evening things with you. You will need to be prepared to get a little wet and dirty during
our foray on the beach
, I’m afraid
!’

The possibility
of getting wet and dirty appear
ed
to put Mr Staveley off the idea
so little that
, well before four o’clock the next afternoon, he found himself in the company of three
small
children, their
two
parents
,
old
Sally
, George the footman
and
a
n ecstatic
Maggie, clambering down the hillside to a
rock
y little cove which was
dott
ed with enticing
p
oo
l
s and
crevic
es
. He had thought to bring some peace offerings with him in the form of a wooden doll for little Kate and some farm animals for Rob and Andy
– all expertly carved by himself
-
but, though
these were enthusiastically received, with some most polite
curtseys
and
beaming
thanks
and hugs
from the children, he very
soon ascertained that
the
y were t
otally
superfluous
to requirements
.
Used as he had been
to the greedy and noisy demands of his cousin’s five ch
ildren it was quite a surprise,
and certainly a pleasure
,
to come across three similar youngsters whose behaviour, if not quite perfect, was so well
-
mannered and
undemanding
as to leave him
quite
at a loss
.