Heirs of the Body (21 page)

“I brought some hankies,” said Daisy, putting back the cane as nearly as possible in the exact position she had found it. “Here. And Derek, put on this pullover. It won’t get in your way like the blanket. Socks. Alec, may I put socks on Ben’s feet while you check his head?”

Alec shifted a bit to let her get at the small, brown pink-soled feet. The socks were much too big, of course. He wouldn’t be able to walk in them, but the important thing was to warm the boy quickly.

“You’ve got quite a gash there, but it’s already just about stopped bleeding. I don’t think it’ll need stitches. Derek, would you go and soak this handkerchief in cold water, please. Don’t wring it out. Sodden, not dripping too much.”

“Yes, sir.” Derek set out at a run, nearly tripped on the overlarge socks, impatiently tore them from his feet, and sped onward.

Daisy glanced up at the trap door. It was open, a square of darkness. No signs of destruction—fire, smoke, ashes—wafted through. She could fetch the boys’ own clothes in a minute.

“I suppose you hit it on the railing.” Alec turned the torch on the curlicued banisters. The fractured beam paused for a long moment on the piece of bamboo on the floor beyond, then moved on. “Yes, here. Quite near the bottom.”

“I didn’t slip. It felt as if my ankle caught on something.”

Derek raced back, panting, clutching a soggy hankie.

“Give it to your aunt. There’s electric light up there? Can you manage to turn it on without taking the torch?”

“Yes, of course.” He stepped past Ben and tramped up, clutching the rail on both sides.

A moment later, light flooded down through the trap. Gently, Daisy set about cleaning up the wound on Ben’s head.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry. Try to keep still, darling.”

Meanwhile Alec directed the torch at the floor on the far side of the stair. “Ah.”

Though Daisy couldn’t see what he was looking at, she could guess. “Don’t make cryptic Tom noises,” she said. “Ah” was the favourite monosyllable of his sergeant, Tom Tring, who managed to infuse it with a wide variety of meanings. “Is it what I think it is?”

Alec laughed. “Who’s being cryptic now? Hold on a tick.” He examined the iron coils of the banisters a few steps up. “Yes, it looks as if … Hmm.”

Derek, coming back down in his own socks with a pair for Ben, said, “That’s Uncle Edgar’s butterfly net! We didn’t take it, Uncle Alec,” he added defensively. “Even if we had we wouldn’t be so stupid as to leave it on the stairs.”

Ben jerked his head round to see what they were talking about. “Ouch! Is that what I fell over?”

“Must be,” said Derek. “How on earth did it get there?”

Alec caught Daisy’s eye. “Someone must have thought it was yours and put it there for you. Perhaps it was leaning, and fell over across the step.”

Daisy didn’t venture to mention that absolutely no one in the household could possibly have thought the butterfly net belonged to anyone other than his lordship.

Instead, she said, “Do you two want to find somewhere else to spend the rest of the night? Or are you all right with going back to your own beds?”

Ben looked up at Derek, who assured him, “Everything looks fine. No damage.”

“I don’t mind, then.”

“I’d better put a dressing on your head first. Derek, do you know where the first-aid kit is kept?”

“No, Aunt Daisy.”

Daisy sighed. “I’ll fetch it myself. Go on up to bed, but don’t lie down till I’ve bandaged you, Ben.”

She was halfway along the corridor when Belinda and Frank Crowley came round the corner from the landing. Bel ran towards her.

“Mummy, has something happened? I couldn’t go to sleep after that big thunder crash, and I started worrying about the boys, because lightning strikes the highest place, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, darling. The lightning conductor was the highest point. It gave them a shock—a surprise, I mean—and Ben had a bit of a tumble, but no worse than yours this afternoon.”

“He’s all right?” Frank asked.

“Yes,” Daisy said patiently, hoping the rest of the household wasn’t going to appear with the same questions on their lips. Geraldine, her housekeeper, a housemaid, Frank as Ben’s guardian—No one else had any reason to know where the boys slept. No
good
reason. “I’m just going to get a dressing for Ben’s head. Daddy’s with him and Derek. Go back to bed, darling, and don’t worry.”

Frank grinned. “I’ll take that advice as meant for me, too. Thanks for taking care of him.”

She went down to the second floor with them. They headed for their beds and Daisy continued down to the housekeeper’s room, where the first-aid box had been kept in the same cupboard since time immemorial. Lint, Germolene ointment to keep it from sticking and to kill germs, and a bandage; sticking plaster might come in handy. She had a vague feeling that aspirin was not a good idea after a concussion, however slight. Oh, and the famous bruise ointment, if any was left after the heavy use it had undergone recently. Too many accidents.…

A branch, some kind of reflector, the butterfly net—It was fortunate that Edgar wasn’t the irascible sort. He wasn’t at all likely to blame the boys for breaking his net. He was more likely to blame himself because it was responsible for Ben’s injury.

When she plodded up the circular stairs, she was careful not to brush against the banisters or touch the rail more than was absolutely necessary to keep her balance. For one thing, she didn’t want blood on her dressing gown. For another, she wasn’t sure whether Alec would be interested in looking for the fingerprints of whoever had set the trap, though it was probably too late by now anyway.

It must have been a trap. The odd thing, one of the odd things … But she’d consider that later.

She could hear voices—Alec’s, and Ben’s distinctive lilt—but not what they were saying, the floor effectively blurring their words until her head emerged through the trapdoor.

The boys were both in bed, Ben sitting up, Derek already nearly asleep. Alec sat in a chair where he could watch Ben.

“No signs of trouble so far,” Alec assured her.

“Thank goodness.” Daisy neatly bandaged Ben’s head, about the limit of her nursing ability. He looked as if he were wearing a turban. “Do you feel sleepy?”

“Not very.”

“Hop out of bed and stand up for just a minute, Ben,” said Alec. “Do you feel at all dizzy?”

“No, sir.”

“Roll your head a bit. All right? It looks as if you’ve been lucky. Back into bed and try to sleep. Don’t be alarmed if one of us comes and wakes you up in a couple of hours just to check.”

Daisy tucked him in and dropped a kiss on what was visible of his forehead below the bandage. “Sleep well, Ben.”

“Good night, Aunt Daisy, Uncle Alec. Thank you.”

Despite his words, when Daisy glanced back before turning off the light and following Alec down the stairs, he was fast asleep.

“One of us…?” she said, joining him in the corridor.

“I’ll set the alarm clock and you—”

“Oh no, you’ve much more idea of what symptoms you’re looking for. Alec, the net on the stairs, and everything else that’s happened—I don’t understand it. What on earth do you think is going on?”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Daisy yawned. “You agree that it’s strange.”

“In the morning,” he said firmly. “I need to sleep on it.”

In spite of distant rumblings of thunder, he slept on it so soundly that the alarm clock didn’t rouse him and it was Daisy who went to check on Ben. He was less difficult to wake. He seemed perfectly normal to Daisy, but when she returned to her own bed she reset the alarm for another two hours, just in case.

By then the sun was rising. The sky was as clear as if the storm had been a dream. When Daisy looked out of the window, a faint mist hazed the grass but everything higher was fresh and bright, leaves washed clean by the downpour, and lingering raindrops sparkling.

As Alec again slept through the alarm’s bell, Daisy decided it wouldn’t hurt to put him under an obligation by letting him sleep. If he was reluctant to discuss his theories with her, she’d be able to point out that he owed her.

When she reached the turret, the boys were already getting up, although it was not yet six o’clock.

“It’s such a ripping day,” Derek explained. “We can sleep in some day when it’s raining. We’re going to the river.”

“
To
, not
on
,” said Daisy. “It’ll be in full spate after the rain.”

“That’s half the fun,” he protested.

“Not the boat. And not swimming, either.”

“Oh, all right.”

“Did you go out in the boat yesterday?”

“Yes,” Ben chimed in enthusiastically. “They let me have a go at rowing.”

So the boat hadn’t been sabotaged. Or at least not effectively. Daisy would make sure Edgar had it examined thoroughly before it was used again.

“On the backwater?” Derek bargained.

“Also out of bounds. The storm will have swelled the stream, as well.” She interpreted with ease the look Derek and Ben exchanged. “If you must. As long as you stay upstream, in the woods or farther.”

“Thanks, Aunt Daisy!”

“But let me look at Ben’s head first.”

Since she stood on the steps protruding into the room from the waist up, Ben came and knelt in front of her. “I feel fine. It hardly hurts at all, only when I touch it. Can I take the bandage off? It looks silly.”

“Let me have a look.” She undid the safety pin and unwrapped the bandage. The wound had stopped bleeding and was not inflamed, though there was some swelling around it.

“Sorry, Ben, it still needs something to keep it clean and protect against bumps. I could try to make it less obtrusive, but if I use sticking plaster, it’s going to hurt like the dickens when it comes off.”

“And pull out your hair,” Derek added. “I’d keep the bandage if I were you. We can pretend you’re a wounded soldier or something.”

Daisy had left supplies in the turret, so Ben’s turban was soon restored.

“There. Do try not to bump it!”

“Aunt Daisy, if you’re going back to your room, could you possibly stop at Bel’s and tell her we’ll meet her in the kitchen in five minutes?”

“I’m glad you’re including Belinda in your plans.”

“Oh, she’s not a bad sort, for a girl.”

Daisy couldn’t reach to box his ears for the last part of that remark. She let it pass. “Don’t leave a mess in the kitchen.”

“We won’t,” they promised in chorus.

“And don’t expect Bel to clear it up because she’s a girl.”

She went to give Belinda their message. Bel was already awake. “Five minutes!” She scrambled out of bed. “Is Ben all right, Mummy?”

“I think so, but keep an eye on him for me. And stop the boys from doing anything too harebrained if you can.”

Alec woke up when Daisy slipped back into bed beside him. She interpreted his grunt as an enquiry as to Ben’s well-being.

“He seems to have been lucky. I’ve said they can go out, Bel and the boys.”

“Out?” he mumbled.

“On one of their expeditions. No boating.”

“An expedition?” Alec was now thoroughly awake. “At this time in the morning?”

“They’re young, and the sun is shining.” In spite of which she was quite chilled after her expedition to the turret. She snuggled up to him.

Quite some time later, Alec said, “No boating?”

“Because the river will be dangerous. If it rained heavily here, you can bet it bucketed down in the hills where the Severn rises. But also, I’m awfully afraid the boat may have been sabotaged. I don’t want them going out in it until it’s been thoroughly checked. Tell me that’s nonsense.”

“It’s a reasonable precaution. Even though I can’t work out what’s going on, nor who’s responsible, I’m pretty sure there is something going on.”

“It must be Raymond! Or is it just the thunder that makes me suspect him?”

“The thunder?” Alec asked, astonished.

“I’m not serious. It’s ridiculous. Just because there was thunder when I came to Fairacres to meet him the first time, and then again last night.… It gives me a sort of uneasy feeling. Superstition, I suppose. Nonsense, of course, but when nothing makes sense … Raymond
is
the most likely. Vincent was attacked.”

“He has a vague impression that he may have been attacked.”

“Ben twice,” Daisy continued.

“I’ve come up with a sort of motive for Frank, though.”

“A motive for wanting his stepson out of the way? It’s not as if Frank can possibly inherit.”

“I said ‘sort of.’ Assuming he hopes to get his hands on some of the loot, a younger child, Ben’s brother, would be more pliable, more easily persuaded, or cheated.”

“Not with Tommy looking out for him. Besides, though it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Frank Crowley is out to feather his nest, I don’t believe for a moment that he’d harm Ben.”

“You’ve probably seen more of the two of them together,” Alec conceded. “It’s worth bearing in mind, though.”

“So after sleeping on it, you believe there’s a plot to do with the inheritance? Although it could well have been Derek who fell? And although the fall was not very likely to be fatal?”

“I don’t know what to believe. What I do know is that I can’t guard all of Edgar’s blasted heirs. If one of them is killed at Fairacres and I’ve done nothing to prevent it, I’m going to be well and truly persona non grata at the Yard, with the county police, and at Fairacres, not to mention your mother.”

“No, please don’t.” Daisy shuddered. “Clearly you need to be seen to be doing something. What?”

“First, I’m going to have a chat with the chief constable.”

“Is it still Sir Nigel?”

“Colonel Sir Nigel Wookleigh himself. Or was, last time I had occasion to lend a hand in Worcestershire.”

“He was very cooperative that time when—”

“Don’t remind me! All the same, that’s why I’m going to tackle him first.”

“You’re going to ask him to send in bobbies to watch everyone? That wouldn’t go down very well.”

“Great Scott, no! The most I can do is advise him that we may have trouble on our hands and ask for prior permission to request aid from the Yard if necessary. What I’d really like is to get Tom and Ernie down here, but the AC would never go for it without far more evidence of wrongdoing than I’ve got. I wouldn’t myself, if I wasn’t in the middle of the situation. All it amounts to as yet is a broken butterfly net. Dammit!” He flung back the covers and swung his feet to the floor. “I should have secured it last night. Was it still there this morning?”