Dandy Gilver and a Deadly Measure of Brimstone (36 page)

‘Mary, Mary,’ one of them was saying. ‘Oh, how beautiful you look. See how her hair shines and see the cross around her neck!’

‘I’ll bet,’ Alec muttered.

‘I see her,’ said another. ‘And Lizzie and Peggy too.’

‘Ahhhhhh,’ said Loveday Merrick. There was instant silence. ‘Davey Riley. And Josephine Riley too. How wonderful to meet you both at last. And who is that with you? Mrs Ritchie! Welcome, dear lady.’

‘It’s the last three with no names,’ someone said. ‘Oh Loveday, you are wonderful. Mr and Mrs Riley and Mrs Ritchie, we welcome your spirits and offer ourselves to serve you.’

‘There they are!’ said Mrs Molyneaux. ‘Oh, there they are, holding hands. Oh welcome, welcome, dear friends.’

‘You’re very quiet,’ said Mr Merrick, suddenly turning and directing his gaze to a woman and man at the right side of the clearing. They had not joined in the greeting. I could see them – it was lighter than ever – shuffle their feet and look at the ground.

‘I haven’t heard a thing, Mr Merrick,’ said the female half of the pair. ‘I haven’t been chosen.’

‘Me neither,’ said the man. ‘I’ve not pleased the spirits tonight.’

‘Mrs Riley has a message for her grandchild,’ came a cry from opposite. Mr Merrick swung round.

‘Ah, well done,’ he said. ‘You are a true and faithful servant …?’

‘Anne Tasker,’ said the woman, sounding thrilled.

‘And what is the message, Anne Tasker?’ he said. Then he turned our way, looking past us towards the Hydro. ‘What …?’

‘That light’s beginning to get quite—’ Alec said. He turned and at the same moment so did I and together, in the warm glow of the sky to the west of us, we saw a tiny orange fleck rise up from behind the trees of the Hydro grounds and wisp off into the dark. A second later, before we could move, footsteps came pounding back into the clearing. It was Grant.

‘Fire,’ she shouted, rushing back into the middle of the clearing and pointing. ‘There’s a fire! Look behind yourselves! Can’t you see?’

‘It’s the Hydro!’ I shouted, standing up and scrambling through the trees for a better view, all thoughts of secrecy gone. Alec was at my side and I could hear footsteps as some of the mediums came behind us. Ahead, glowing between the tree trunks, the light grew brighter and now we could smell it too, the sweet pleasant smell of smoke on a chilly night. I plunged onward and at last could feel the slope steepening under my feet. I crashed on, down another few feet, through the brambles, snagged my coat on a branch, struggled and then shrugged out of it. Alec caught my arm.

‘You’ll break your neck, Dan,’ he said. ‘Let’s go back and come round by the path. There will be others there already. Listen!’ Now we could hear faint shouts and then a sudden scream.

‘Hugh is in there,’ I said. Still he hesitated. ‘And Dorothea.’ I did not wait to see how he might react, but just turned away and went back to breaking through the undergrowth with my arm in front of my face against the thorns.

‘Let me through, my dear lady,’ came the booming voice of Loveday Merrick. He was right behind me. ‘Let me through. I have a cane.’

He pushed past me and began whacking a path through the bracken and brambles. I was at his heels. Someone bumped into me from behind and fell heavily. I did not even turn to see who it might be.

The flames were growing; I was sure of it. It was not just that we were getting closer. And I could hear the fire itself now, over the sound of shouts and screams. A roaring and rushing and then a great creak and crash and the sky was filled with a shower of sparks. The roof was falling.

Then all at once we were down out of the woods, Merrick, Alec, Grant, the gooseberry girl and I, and the garden wall of the Hydro was before us. We raced along the dark lane and in at the back gate to the servants’ area and stable yard. The place looked fine from here, locked up for the night, dark and quiet, but suddenly there was a squeak and a groan and then one of the windows by the back door blew out and shattered over the cobbles of the yard. Grant shrieked and pulled me back. Merrick had opened the gate to the lawns and we all rushed through, blundering in the dark under the cedars, heading for the light ahead of us, and when we got there we could see that it was the fire reflected on the pale clothes and white faces of the crowd who stood helpless, watching, on the lawns.

Every window on the west side was alive with leaping flames and the slivers of glass on the ground reflected the light and sparkled like rubies. I caught the arm of a woman in dressing gown and bedroom slippers.

‘Is everyone out?’ I said. ‘Is everyone safe?’

But she was too shocked to speak to me. Her lip trembled and she shook her head, turning back to look at the blaze. I began frantically darting through the crowd, calling Hugh’s name. At the other end of the house a Dennis engine was parked on the grass and I could see the gleaming helmets and the glittering buckles and buttons of the firemen as they scurried around with their ladders and hoses. One hose was spouting water already, straight into one of the dining-room windows, but it only served to increase the smoke while doing nothing to lessen the force of the flames. I turned away and kept calling. I was beginning to whimper when I heard someone answer me. I wheeled round. Alec and he were walking calmly towards me.

‘Good heavens, Dandy,’ Hugh said. ‘Yes, yes, I’m fine. I was playing cards and heard the alarm. I strolled out of the nearest door and didn’t even have to hurry. There, there, my dear. Now please, pull yourself together, or you’ll upset the servants.’

What he really meant was that I would delight the servants and the other guests and be one of the highlights of the evening which everyone told and retold if I did not stop clutching him and weeping.

‘But you’re filthy with soot,’ I said. ‘How did that happen if you strolled out?’

‘Naturally when one found out it wasn’t a drill one went back in to help the women,’ said Hugh. ‘Now, I’m off to get the car if I can.’ He gave me a tight smile and left. I stared after him.

‘Don’t believe a word of it,’ Alec said. ‘I heard him bellowing
your
name. That’s how I found him.’

‘He went back in?’ I said and I knew that my voice shook as I spoke. Alec rolled his eyes. ‘Well, next time he lectures me about taking on dangerous cases when I have sons to think of I shall take great pleasure in reminding him. Is everyone out?’

‘They seem to be,’ Alec said.

‘Mr Osborne!’ It was Dorothea Laidlaw, white and shaking, standing like a ghost at our side. She had eyes only for Alec, not so much as a nod to me.

‘My dear Dr Laidlaw,’ Alec said. He took off his coat and put it around her shoulders.

‘I can’t believe this is happening,’ she said. ‘Everything my father … his whole life. And all of my work.’ She turned and blundered off. She did not console any of the huddled groups of guests in their dressing gowns who stood around hugging one another and watching in helpless horror as another enormous section of the roof fell in with a sigh and a cascade of embers. She did not look twice at the groups of bright young things shivering in their beaded dresses or the young bloods who ignored them and stood smoking, watching the Hydro burn.

‘Drat,’ said Alec. ‘She’s gone off with my pipe in the pocket.’

Slowly, the scene was changing. Some young men from the casino crowd were setting benches together in the quiet dimness just beyond the heat of the flames and I saw Regina and Mrs Cronin help an elderly lady over to one and lie her down with a blanket under her head and a robe to cover her. Another of the maids was ripping towels into strips and dipping them in the fountain, then passing them out to be laid on people’s blistering faces for relief. Before long, I was sure someone would find a way to make tea and the world would begin to turn on its axis again. I was just beginning to calculate how many we could fit into Hugh’s Rolls-Royce and how many we could give comfortable lodgings to at Auchenlea, when I felt someone seize my arm.

‘The doctor’s in the mud bath room.’ It was Loveday Merrick. His great, handsome face was drawn up in horror and his sonorous voice was cracking. ‘Someone saw. Someone just told me!’

‘Alec,’ I cried. ‘Dr Laidlaw’s gone back in. To the mud room!’

‘Damn it, Dandy,’ he said, rushing up. ‘We should have known she’d do something like this. I’ll tell the firemen. Perhaps they can get to her.’

But I was furiously thinking. The whole of the Turkish and Russian baths was made of marble and the corridor which led to it was stone.

‘Come with me,’ I said, grabbing his arm and leading him to the garden door where the mud bath had been brought outside.

‘Madam,’ said Grant. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Dr Laidlaw went back in,’ I said.

‘I know,’ said Grant. ‘I saw her.’ She pointed to the gap in the wall which led to the servants’ yard and the garden door. ‘I was just …’ She held out her hand to show me the dripping wet handkerchief she held there. I snatched it up and tied it over my face.

‘I’ll do it,’ I said. ‘I know where she’s gone. Tell Mrs Cronin and Regina to have wet towels ready.’ Then, before I could change my mind, I dashed to where the garden door stood open, with Alec behind me.

‘Sorry there’s only one hanky,’ I said as we darted inside. I turned the corner from the offshoot to the passageway proper and sprinted for the stairs.

‘Not too bad in here, anyway,’ Alec said.

There was a faintly acrid smell in the air and I thought I could see a light haze of drifting smoke, but it wasn’t until we got to the top of the stairs that my eyes began smarting and I heard Alec start to cough, but we were heading away from where the smoke was thickest and with a great rush of thankfulness I saw that the door to the Turkish and Russian was closed. I tested the handle – not hot – wrenched it open and hustled myself and Alec through. In here the air was clear and all was as ever. It was warm, but not any warmer than when the baths were open. I took Alec’s hand and pulled him along the cubicle corridor, through the resting room, up the side of the plunging pool and through the round room where the spray baths were. The mud room door was closed and I prayed that she had not locked it behind her.

Alec grabbed the handle and pulled it open and I did not have time to think what he meant by his yelp of pain before we were in the room, choking on smoke and looking up through the hole in the ceiling at the flames raging and crackling above us.

‘Dr Laidlaw,’ I shouted, retching at the smoke.

‘Help me!’ came a man’s voice. I stumbled forward, came up hard against the solid wooden side of the mud bath and screamed to see Dr Ramsay’s head, shining with sweat and twisted with terror.

‘Help me!’ he screamed again. Alec was struggling with the fastening and when the top trapdoor burst open he hauled the doctor out by his armpits then together we dragged him clear.

‘Thank God it’s empty,’ Alec said, grimly, ‘or we’d never have shifted him.’

The doctor was dressed, dinner jacket and black tie, and his patent shoes scraped on the tiles as we lugged him outside and closed the door. Back in the marble spray-bath room everything had changed, even in the moments we had been away. The walls were running with condensation as the temperature rose and the plaster ceiling was bulging and darkening even as we looked at it. We dragged the doctor into the plunge pool room, but things were worse there. A brown bloom was spreading over the ceiling and a few wisps of black smoke were beginning to curl away from the surface of the plaster. Suddenly, at the far end, the door to the corridor blew open and we could hear the fire crackling and roaring beyond it.

‘Oh God,’ Alec said. Dr Ramsay was unconscious, hanging from our shoulders, slack and helpless.

I looked around desperately. There was no other way out. Just the solid marble walls and the long empty pool of cold water. A thought struck me and I dropped down and stuck my hand into the water. It really was still cold.

‘Quick!’ I said. ‘Into the pool.’ We dragged the doctor over and let him drop into the water. He came up spluttering and choking but wide awake again. I stepped up on the edge and jumped in beside him, feeling the same sharp slap and then the ache of the cold. I put my arm across Dr Ramsay’s back and held him up. ‘Come on, Alec,’ I said. ‘Jump in!’

‘I need to see if she’s there,’ he said and ran back towards the mud room. As I watched, a long thin section of plaster with a burning beam behind it arched gently down and closed off my view of him with a sheet of flames.

‘Now, Dr Ramsay,’ I said. ‘When the ceiling goes, take a big breath and go under. Stay under as long as you can. Do you understand me? Alec!’ I shouted over my shoulder. ‘Alec, hurry!’

‘He left me there to die,’ said Dr Ramsay. I was watching the ceiling. The edge of the hole where the long thin strip had collapsed was licking and curling with tongues of flame and the brown bloom above us was darkening to black and blistering all over. ‘I thought it was one of his jokes. I actually climbed in and let him close the thing!’

‘Well, you’re out now,’ I said, wishing he would shut up and let me listen for Alec.

‘It started as a tease! He’s such a joker himself. I was only teasing.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘Alec!’ I turned back to the doctor. ‘Get ready to breathe in and duck. It wasn’t seemly behaviour for a professional man, though, was it, Dr Ramsay?’ For I had worked it out as soon as I saw him there. The gentleman who wrote to say a woman died of fright at the Moffat Hydro. It was Dr Ramsay. ‘You thought if he had the nerve to dream up a story like that he deserved a bit of ribbing, eh?’ I said. ‘So you wrote to the magazine. And then when the mediums began to arrive you went to the library, didn’t you, and asked what ghosts you could tell tales of in Moffat and have them believed. You let some of Tot’s friends in on the joke, didn’t you? And persuaded them to spread your stories for you.’

‘It was only a tease,’ he said again. ‘And he was ready to kill me!’

‘I think, my dear doctor,’ I said, ‘that he was going to kill you because the story of Mrs Addie was crumbling and he didn’t want you to tell the police that he … what shall we say? … bribed you to sign the certificate?’