Loving, Living, Party Going (19 page)

'Look sharp,' he brought out as if she had been kissing him. 'That must be Mrs Tancy,' he said and turned to go. 'Holy smoke,' he added, 'but I can't answer the door dressed as I am.' While Raunce hastened out she went on her knees it might be to make believe she was only in the room to do the fire.

His training probably induced Charley to close the door soft after him and it was not until he had reached his quarters, when he was out of earshot, that he began to yell for Bert. So nobody saw this car drive up but Edith. She noted in it not the lady above referred to but a stranger, a man, a grey homburg hat.

His boy came running in a green baize apron. At that moment the bell rang. 'The front door,' Raunce said as the indicator chocked, 'I'm wrongly dressed. Put 'er in the Red Library an' don't leave till I come or something might go missing. Not like that,' he almost shouted as Albert made off tied in green, 'let's 'ave that down,' he
cried as he twitched at the bow it was knotted with, 'an' where's your jacket?' Raunce got the lad away at last discreetly clad, calling out to him, 'I won't be a minute while I dress.'

So it was Albert received Michael Mathewson at the entrance, who took this man's business card when he asked for Mrs Tennant. The lad held it upsidedown. In consequence he could not read the name or the line in Irish below, underneath which came a translation between brackets which went, 'Irish Regina Assurance.' There was finally a Dublin address in the right-hand corner.

'This way please,' Albert said the way he had been taught. He led the man over the chequered marble floor. Mike Mathewson followed fat and short and bald with blue spats.

'That's to say they're not here,' the boy piped over his shoulder.

'It'th O.K. thon,' Mike lisped.

So it was Albert showed him in where Edith was still on her knees after a proposal of marriage, as if tidying. As Mathewson passed Albert probably remembered twice for he sang out again. 'This way please.'

'Thankth thon,' the man replied. Edith turned away from them and began a fit of giggling.

'Nithe plathe you've got,' he remarked bright in her direction. Albert closed the door gently, stood so it seemed unobserved and ill at ease. He licked a palm of his hand then smarmed his yellow hair.

'The familieth away?' Mr Mathewson enquired picking up the paper-knife with the agate handle.

'Yes sir,' Edith made answer She looked for a second time full at him seriously with her raving beauty.

'That'th all right girlie,' he brought out and goggled a trifle. Then he put that paper-knife down. He came near.

'I'll do thomething for you,' he announced soft, 'I'll put you in the way to make a fool out of Mike. That'th me. There'th my bithneth card he holdth. It'th thith way. We'll maybe have a little bet on thith. I'll wager thixpenth you can never gueth my bithneth.'

On this she rose to her feet, back to the fire. Her eyes were large as she smoothed her dress. He turned round as though to give her time.

'You're in on thith thon,' he called urgent, soft, but the lad made no move.

'It's Mr Raunce you want,' she interrupted.

'That'th all right,' he answered, 'I'm not thelling anything. I gave up thelling when trade got thlack. I'm an enquiry agent,' he brought out sharp, turning to her close.

'What?' she muttered and began to blush.

'Yeth that'th a thurprithe ain't it,' he went on seemingly delighted.

'Now you'd never have guethed ith'nt that right without you'd theen my bithneth card. Mike Mathewthonth the name. Jutht had a tooth out that'th why I thpeak like thith,' he excused then laid a hand genteel across his mouth. He took it away at once to finger the spotted tie. He was now very near indeed. He smelled of acid of violets.

'I come down when they claim a loss,' he brought out sharp, not lisping.

'Oh,' she said faint.

'I reprethent the Inthuranth Company,' he explained again.

At this precise moment out by the dovecote little Albert was with Mrs Jack's little girls. He knelt down while Miss Evelyn and Miss Moira stood dappled by leaf sunshine. The lad himself was shaded by that pierced tower of Pisa inside which a hundred ruby eyes were round.

'You're not ever goin' to bury it Bert?' Miss Evelyn enquired.

'Naw,' he replied picking up half an empty eggshell.

The sisters squatted. Opening his fist he displayed the ring, a small blaze of blue. He scooped it into that eggshell which he then placed with the unbroken end upwards, a pale bell over the jewel, under a tuft of sharp grass.

'You won't leave that out in the open?' Miss Moira asked.

'It's on account of them birds pinch rings,' he answered. 'If Mr Raunce come to find'm then we don't know a thing, the pigeons took'm see.'

'But doves don't steal rings Albert, you mean jackdaws.'

'Don't be so soft,' he said. 'Everyone knows doves will,' he ended.

'You'll lose it,' Miss Evelyn announced wondering.

'Rings don't walk,' he said, 'an' this shell's so them birds won't rout'm out,' he explained. 'They'd never think to turn an egg that's broken.'

'Well you are clever,' Miss Moira told him and meant it.

'I'm smart don't fear,' he said, 'only I didn't ought to let you girls
in on this. You'd never keep a secret. So you'll 'ave to take a oath see.'

'An oath?'

'That's right. You're to swear you won't never tell. It'll be special. This is 'ow it goes. While I break a cock's egg over your mouth you say, "My lips is sealed may I drop dead."'

'Cock's eggs?'

'Peacock's softy. I'll fetch me a couple.' As he ran off to that door he had seen Raunce come out of an another occasion he called back as he stumbled with urgency, 'Don't you stir from where you be.' He had picked up countrified expressions when he was evacuated.

'Well it's wicked I know,' Miss Moira said with satisfaction.

'How will you swear so the egg doesn't get in your mouth?' Miss Evelyn asked.

But they waited. In almost no time the lad was back. Then one of the girls objected. She said she wasn't going to stand for having that filthy sticky stuff on her face. The other wanted to know who she considered she was to think she couldn't, when Edith had hundreds of these eggs put away in waterglass against the time she might want them for her skin. And little Albert heard. And then made them both go through with it. They seemed delighted.

Meantime the assessor had been asking questions. Edith did not know so she said. Or she could not tell for certain she was sure. Mike Mathewson was getting nowhere. Albert kept silence. Then Raunce at last arrived, in his dark suit and without the bandage. He came quiet and Mike Mathewson did not hear him. He had to clear his throat to make this man turn round.

'Yes sir?' Charley asked.

'That'th all right my man,' Mike answered. 'Making a few en-quirieth that'th all.'

It might have been Raunce thought Edith looked upset. Not moving from the door he took a line.

'I'm sure Mrs Tennant would not wish for questions asked,' he said.

'Precithely why I wath thent,' Mr Mathewson replied, a green high light following out his nose.

'I'm afraid we can't have this,' Charley said firm. 'Mrs Tennant would never allow it.'

'Is it so?' Mike said grim, not lisping.

'I will have to ask you to leave that's all,' Charley went on and did not call him sir.

'But I have been thent.'

'Who by?'

Then Edith must have forgot herself. She interrupted.

'It's about the ring,' she said in a small voice.

'What ring?' Raunce wanted to know without a sign of any kind.

'Let'th thee,' Mike suggested. 'When Mr Tennant wath alive you uthed to be hith man I take it.'

'No I was not.'

'And you never heard of a ring being gone?' Mike asked in menacing fashion.

' 'Ow d'you mean?' Raunce enquired in a less educated voice.

That'th thtrange,' Mathewson said almost genial, 'nobody theemth to know nothing.'

'What's strange about that?' Charley asked and began to squint. 'Come on you tell me. Who might you be for a start?'

'You're the butler?'

'What's that got to do with you? It's you we're talkin' about. Who're you?'

Edith broke in again.

'He's come about the insurance,' she explained and appealed.

'Nobody asked you,' her Charley said sharp but with a soft glance in her direction. 'You don't know nothing,' he added.

'Know nothing?' Mr Mathewson echoed. 'Mark what I'm thaying now. I never inthinuated thith young lady knew anything.' He spoke gently as if to ingratiate.

'In – what?' Charley asked.

'Inferred,' Mike Mathewson explained and now he spoke sharp. 'Don't try and be thmart with me. You'll find it don't work.'

'I wouldn't know what you're referrin' to,' Raunce said a bit daunted.

'The ring,' the assessor replied soft. 'The thapphire cluthter my company inthured on.'

'Is Mrs Tennant acquainted with you?' Raunce asked.

'She called us in,' the man said very sharp, again without lisping. 'Now is that sufficient?'

'She called you in?' Raunce echoed.

'You do know about the ring then?'

'Know about it? I've 'eard Mrs Tennant mislaid one.'

'Then why tell me jutht now you never did,' Mike asked him very quiet.

Raunce began to bluster. 'Me?' he cried, 'me tell you that? I never made any such statement and this girl and my lad here's my witnesses. What I very likely said was I didn't know your business an' I say I don't know it now any more than I did at the start. There you are.' He glanced as though for support at Edith. She was gazing at the seat of the armchair. She seemed distracted.

'Will you anthwer a fair quethtion?' Mr Mathewson began again. 'That'th above board ain't it?' he said almost friendly.

'Reply to a question? Well I don't know before you ask me do I?' Raunce replied.

'Then you won't anthwer?'

'I never said that. What are you tryin'? To trap someone?'

'Who mentioned a trap? I'm here to trathe a ring.'

'What's that got to do with me?' Raunce enquired.

'I don't know yet,' Mike replied gentle.

'Well get this then. I don't know nothin' an' I'm not sayin' nothin' without Mrs Tennant gives permission. So now have you got that straight?'

They stared at each other. Edith went down on her knees again. She began to polish the bright steel fire irons with a leather. Catching Charley's eye behind Mike's back she shook her head urgent at him. Albert stood as though transfixed.

'Mithith Tennant thent for me to come over before she got back,' Mr Mathewson began again. This time he appeared to speak to Albert.

'Mrs Tennant's comin' back?' Raunce cried.

'Tho I'm led to underthtand.'

'Then thank God for that,' Raunce said relieved. 'She can clear a whole lot up Mrs Tennant can. But if she don't all I'll say is she can have my notice. Arriving down 'ere to bully the girls, then treatin' me like I was a criminal.'

'Lithten,' Mike began again as if tired. 'A ring'th been mithed. A very valuable thapphire cluthter. My company'th been called on to dithburthe. I've come down to invethtigate. I've driven a hundred mileth. Now do you underthtand?'

'O.K.,' Raunce answered. 'And now you can tell me something. What's all this to do with me?'

'I'm asking you that's all,' the assessor said with sudden venom.

Again they stood and stared at one another. Then Raunce's Albert spoke.

'I got it,' he confessed.

'You what?' Raunce shouted. Edith jumped to her feet. Raunce swallowed three times and began an, 'I tell you,' when Mike Mathewson brought him up sharp, fairly hissing.

'I've had about enough d'you hear me? Now then my lad we're getting placeth. You got it?'

Albert was trembling but he stood his ground.

'Come on then,' Mike continued. 'Nothing to be afraid of. Where've you got what?'

The boy was silent in a palsy. There was a sort of lull. Edith went over and knelt by him, arms by her sides, as though he was very small and was to tie the scarf over her eyes. Until she turned on the assessor, blushing dark.

'He got an idea he meant an' who may you be to come scarin' honest folk that earn a living?' She spoke loud. 'You get off h'out, there's the best place for you. We don't want none of your sort here, frightenin' his wits out of the lad. How should we care about her old ring? If I was a man I'd show him off the premises,' she said panting to Raunce.

'That's an idea,' this man replied. He began to move slowly over to the assessor who started to say, 'What idea did the young chap have?' Only to break off with a 'now then,' as he moved backwards to the open french windows away from Charley.

'Plantin' words into people's mouths like it was evidence,' Raunce almost chanted as he advanced. 'When a lad says he got an idea makin' out he got the ring.'

'Well what wath the idea?'

'It's a disgrace that's all,' Charley said, now very close. 'You go on off see?'

'All right I'm on my way,' Mr Mathewson announced. Then he had the last word. 'But get this. We're not paying,' he said and went.

'Wait till 'e's gone,' Raunce warned the others.

And Mike Mathewson drove off quick.

As soon as the car had cleared the ha-ha Raunce rounded on Albert. He was shouting in passion, dead white with a wild squint.

'So you got it,' he yelled, 'you got what? I got it,' he shrieked in falsetto. 'And you can have at that. 'Ere you are then 'and over.' He came at Albert who seemed paralysed. 'Where is it then?' he cried like an epileptic as he shook him 'Where is it?' Albert's head swung back and forth, his yellow shock of hair flopping But the lad kept silent.

'That's enough Charley,' Edith said. 'He's never had it.'

'But 'e might 'ave,' Raunce answered desisting. His rages never lasted. ' 'E's capable of anything that lad is. Why there was none spoke to 'im. I don't suppose there was one of us in this room remembered 'is presence. An' then what must 'e go an' do. Why bless my soul if 'e doesn't feel the need to sing out 'e's got the miserable object Holy Moses,' Charley ended, apparently in better humour. 'But that was smart of you love to think that one up. It was you had the idea all right. Now don't start snivellin',' he said to Albert who began to cry in the painful way boys do when they are too old for tears.