Dead of Winter (46 page)

He assembled his papers and prepared to leave. Bennett regarded him sourly.

‘So your heart’s in the Highlands, is it?’

‘Sir … ?’ Sinclair looked up.

‘You’re off to Scotland, aren’t you? You always said you planned to retire there.’

‘So I did …’ Sinclair gnawed his lip. ‘But, do you know, I’ve had a change of heart. Scotland seems a long way off. There’s really nothing to draw me back there any more.’

‘Well, I’m glad to hear it.’ Sir Wilfred’s face brightened. ‘I’ll be retiring myself to our place in Hampshire. It would nice to think we might meet now and again to chew over old times. Are you planning to settle anywhere near there?’

‘Near enough.’ The chief inspector rose to his feet with a smile. ‘In Surrey, as it happens. A mere hop and a skip away. We’ll be practically neighbours.’

‘It’ll need some repairs, Angus. So long as the roof didn’t leak old Granny Meacham wasn’t bothered by anything else. And the bathroom will have to be rebuilt. But you can stay with us while the work’s being done.’

Arms folded, head cocked judiciously to one side, Helen Madden surveyed the slate-roofed cottage from the rickety garden gate. It was hanging only by a hinge, and her husband had opened it with care before the three of them went in.

‘What do you think?’

‘I think it’s lovely, my dear.’ Sinclair didn’t hesitate. ‘And I can’t thank you both enough for finding it for me.’

The chief inspector looked about him: to one side of the cottage was an apple orchard just coming into bud, on the other an open field dotted with the first wild flowers of spring. Behind them, on the path they had taken along the stream from the Maddens’ own house, he had seen daffodils clinging to the banks, and as he looked back now he spotted the blue blur of a kingfisher as it sped upstream.

‘You won’t be too cold? It loses the sun early in winter. When there is any sun.’

‘I shall build large fires and live like a badger in a burrow.’

‘You can always come over to us, you know. For a meal, or just to talk. It’s only ten minutes by the path.’

It had been Helen herself who had first broached the idea of him coming to join them in Highfield, and once made, the suggestion that he should spend his retirement close to his friends had seemed so logical, inevitable even, that the chief inspector wondered why he had ever thought otherwise.

‘You can’t possibly go traipsing off to Scotland,’ she had declared in her usual forthright manner two months earlier when he had been down on one of his weekend visits. ‘What on earth will you do there?’

The chief inspector had replied, tentatively, that he had been thinking of taking up fishing.

‘There are plenty of fish in England. The rivers teem with them. In fact, it would be wonderful if you got John interested. He needs a hobby. With George Burrows in charge, the farm almost runs itself. I can see you both setting off in the morning with rods over your shoulders. Do think about it. We’d love to have you here.’

Later, during a walk he had taken in the woods with Madden himself, he had learned from his old friend’s lips that he and his wife had had the idea for some time and only been waiting for the right moment to put it to him. Before the day was out he had made up his mind, and lying in bed that same evening, in the room he had slept in so often he had come to think of it as his own, he had felt the burden of his years – for so they sometimes seemed to him now – lift at a stroke.

‘Come along, Angus.’

Leaving Madden at the gate – he was still fiddling with the hinge – Helen took Sinclair’s arm and they walked up the short path together. Somewhat overgrown with weeds since the death of the previous owner, it was bordered by flowerbeds that only awaited new plantings and by a patch of unmown lawn on either side.

‘We had Bess Brigstock to stay last weekend – did John tell you? She’s become a real friend. I wish we hadn’t lost touch for all those years. Her wound set her back for a while and she gave up delivering the post at Liphook. But she’s the sort of person who can’t sit idle, particularly if she thinks she’s needed, and she’s talking of working for the Red Cross again. Now that the war’s over there’ll be a huge problem with refugees and displaced persons. It’s the sort of challenge Bess can’t resist.’

They had reached the front door of the cottage and they turned to look at the view.

‘And you won’t have heard either of the invasion we had three weeks ago.’

‘The invasion … ?’

‘John’s old friend Nelly Stover brought her grandchildren down for a week, and since I’d been wanting to have Billy and
his
family for some time I invited them too. We’d forgotten what it was like to have a houseful of small children, and really they behaved very well, at least until Lucy arrived. But she got them going. First she taught them all to play Up Jenkins, then the older ones Racing Demon, and before long there was pandemonium every evening. John and I loved it, but Nelly was most disapproving. For a while at least; until she softened up. She’s a wonderful character, tough as old boots, but then she’s had to be. I’m hoping we’ll see more of her.’

‘And what about Lucy?’ The chief inspector put the question to Madden, who had just joined them at the door. How much longer will she stay in the Wrens?’

‘About as long as it takes her to find a way to wriggle out, I should think.’ He chuckled. ‘She’s not cut out for military life, I fear. There’s far too much discipline. But I’ve warned her not to desert. We won’t harbour any fugitives here.’

Helen was listening with a smile.

‘We probably shouldn’t tell you this, but we finally discovered what she’s been up to in London all these months. It was a man, of course. I should have guessed.’

‘A man?’ The chief inspector was taken aback. He wasn’t sure how to react. ‘But isn’t she a little young … ?’

‘That’s exactly what John said.’ Helen had seen her husband’s scowl. ‘You men …’ She laughed. ‘But there’s no need to wring your hands, or reach for your shotguns. He was a perfectly respectable naval officer temporarily posted to the Admiralty and now he’s safely back at sea. It seems to have been more in the nature of an experiment, at least as far as Lucy was concerned, and anyway it’s over. She’s an adventurous spirit and there’s nothing I can do about that. Except applaud it, perhaps. The best thing was we talked, and that was lovely. It was like finding a new friend.’

She glanced at her watch.

‘Angus, dear, I have to dash. I’m going to leave you here with John. I’ve got surgery in half an hour. Here’s the frontdoor key.’ She put it in his hand. ‘Stay as long as you like. Have a good look round. You can walk back whenever you feel like it. We’ll meet at lunch, if not before.’

She paused on the point of going.

‘We’re so pleased you’ve decided to settle here.’ She touched his cheek with her hand. ‘Though of course things will have to change between us.’

‘I beg your pardon.’ Caught off balance by her remark, he had failed to catch the teasing note in her voice.

‘You’ll be my patient from now on, Angus. At least, I assume so. That’ll put an entirely new complexion on our relationship. For instance, I noticed you were hardly limping at all when we walked along here. Is your gout better?’

‘Not altogether.’ Sinclair frowned. The subject wasn’t one he liked aired. ‘It comes and goes.’

‘That’s usually the case. There are a number of remedies we can try. But in the meantime, prayer and fasting have been known to work wonders.’

‘I’m not sure I fancy either.’

She was already walking to the gate as he spoke, and she turned.

‘That’s what I was afraid of.’

Pausing to run her fingers through her hair, she shook her head in a gesture that reminded him, with a surge of pleasure, of the young woman he had first known twenty years before.

‘I can see already you’re going to be a difficult patient. I shall have to keep a close eye on you.’

With a wave to them she went off, and the two men watched as she walked down the stream, her fair hair bright in the sunlight, moving with a grace that was almost a girl’s.

Madden grunted. He turned to Sinclair.

‘Well? Shall we go inside, Angus?’

‘Why not?’

But the chief inspector dallied for a moment. Her last words had sounded a reassuring note and he wanted to dwell on them. There were many reasons for the choice he had made, but one in particular seemed to matter more than any other as he watched her figure disappear round a bend in the stream. He knew now that however long his life lasted, she would always be a part of it.