The Fairbairn Girls (12 page)

‘Left ’ome, M’Lord. His wardrobe was all open and it looked like ’e’s taken some things with him.’

Lord Rothbury stood stock still for a moment, then without another word he strode off across the hall to his study. A moment later he opened the bottom left-hand drawer of his vast mahogany desk. It took just another few seconds for his worst fears to be realized. Freddie’s passport was missing.

‘Dear God!’ Lord Rothbury groaned. ‘I always feared Freddie was a wild card but not in a million years did I think he’d do a thing like this!’

‘You
can’t
tell the police, William!’ Margaret Rothbury pleaded.

‘How the hell can we keep it a secret?’ he raged. ‘Everyone on the estate will know by tomorrow morning about the death of Hamish, the stolen jewellery, the bloodstained clothes and then Freddie’s disappearance; how can we possibly keep it a secret?’

‘How could he have done this to us?’ She’d aged ten years in the last few hours as she tried to take in the appalling tragedy that had enveloped her family.

Sleep was impossible. At three o’clock in the morning she and her husband lay close together in their vast bed and yet a million miles apart in other ways. She could see no plausible way out of this appalling mess and yet reporting what had happened to the police seemed to be an unforgivable option.

‘The sins of the fathers . . .’ the Earl quoted as if he was talking to himself.

‘Your father didn’t commit any sins, William.’

‘No, he didn’t. He was a good man.’

‘Well then, who?’

He didn’t answer but pretended to have fallen asleep
.

Lochlee Castle stood defiantly against the tsunami of scandal that engulfed it and the Fairbairn family in the ensuing months. Freddie had not been traced and it was reluctantly assumed he’d fled the country, although every shipping line had been on the alert to look out for him. One of the photographs taken of Freddie standing with the rest of the family in the garden at the time of Laura’s engagement had been circulated to all the newspapers. The report that the ‘young Viscount Fairbairn is being hunted by the police in connection with the murder of a stable boy at his Family Seat’ made sordid reading in the downmarket newspapers, accompanied by further reports that he’d also stolen the family jewels.

For the first time in five hundred illustrious years shame was being heaped on their heads, besmirching their reputation for ever. From the moment Freddie’s bloodstained clothes were found abandoned in his room, it was obvious to everyone that he’d killed Hamish, then stolen the jewellery and scarpered. After the initial shock the whole family had reluctantly come round to accepting Freddie’s guilt. Even his mother.

As howling winds swept across the now-frozen grouse moors the atmosphere inside the castle was no warmer. Lady Rothbury had retired to her own quarters since the disappearance of Freddie, refusing to join the rest of the family for meals and sitting by the fire in a deeply distressed state of mind.

Meanwhile, her husband’s depression took the form of being angry one moment and wallowing in guilt the next, although he refused to admit it. He talked more than ever about the family being doomed and how he only expected the worst.

‘I know it’s to do with the fight we overheard him having with someone,’ Lizzie insisted. ‘I tried to get it out of him but he refused to talk about it. If only we could find out who it was we might be able to get to the bottom of things.’

Alice, Flora and Catriona were saved from the gloom and constant sense of anxiety that pervaded the castle because they were all under six years old and looked after entirely by Nanny and her two nursery maids. Their only contact with their mother was when they were taken to her private sitting room after tea every day. Lady Rothbury found it hard to play with them and usually resorted to reading them a story before Nanny collected them again to get ready for bed.

Henry was also rather withdrawn and even his kindly tutor was unable to get much out of him.

‘Did you have the faintest inkling that Freddie was going to do a runner?’ Mr Stuart asked one day, knowing that Henry had told the police he neither knew nor had suspected anything.

Henry shrugged and averted his gaze. ‘We weren’t that close,’ he replied vaguely.

‘You must miss him, surely?’

‘Not really. He was always putting me down.’

Mr Stuart remembered very well how Freddie, whom he had never liked, would taunt Henry about being ‘bookish’ and told everyone Henry was ‘soft’ because he didn’t particularly enjoy ‘the slaughter on the moors’, as he described the shooting season.

Secretly, Mr Stuart shared the view of all those who worked at Lochlee that Freddie would never come back. To him personally it was a case of good riddance.

The five older sisters now depended even more on each other and spent most of their time together endlessly talking about the tragedy.

‘I wonder where Freddie is now?’ Laura surmised as they sat huddled around the library fireplace one evening.

‘Perhaps he stowed away on a ship,’ Diana said.

Beattie frowned, thinking. After a moment she declared triumphantly, ‘I’ve just remembered something. I read in a newspaper about a new ship owned by the Nourse Line called
Clyde
. It was launched from the Clyde Side near Glasgow earlier in the year. I think it was in July. He could have got away on that! He ran away at the beginning of July, didn’t he? I bet he used a bit of jewellery as a bribe to get on board. A member of the crew might have agreed to let Freddie be a stowaway, and if the jewellery was sold in a foreign country who would know?’

‘Isn’t that a bit too convenient?’ Georgie asked critically. ‘It’s more likely Freddie disappeared down to London, sold the jewellery there and then caught a ship from Southampton, perhaps to America?’

‘I have a feeling they’ll never catch up with him no matter where he is,’ Lizzie spoke seriously, ‘and I don’t think any of us want him caught, including Mama and Papa. He can never come back now. Not after killing Hamish.’

‘If he did return, would he really be hung at the gallows?’ Diana asked in a horrified voice.

Beattie shuddered. ‘Of course he would.’ She gave a loud sigh. ‘How could he have done it? Why did he want to hurt Hamish in the first place?’

Laura looked at her sister and her eyes had a haunted expression. ‘Knowing Freddie, if he didn’t get his own way there was always trouble. We’ll never know what happened between them but whatever it was, Hamish paid with his life and I can never forgive Freddie for that.’

Diana said hopefully, ‘Perhaps Freddie was acting in self-defence?’

‘I doubt it.’ Lizzie’s voice was as brittle as an autumn leaf. ‘I heard Papa say the same as what you told us, Di – that Hamish had died from an unmitigated beating with a horse whip and several heavy kicks to the head.’

‘Don’t!’ Diana begged.

‘It’s a tragic waste,’ Georgie agreed. ‘Freddie had everything he could ever have wanted and he’s thrown it all away.’

‘Maybe if they do catch him,’ Lizzie suggested, ‘he’ll say it was a case of mistaken identity, but he panicked and fled the country because he was scared of being accused.’

‘I doubt if even the best barrister would try and take that line,’ Laura protested. ‘I believe they had a fight and Freddie lost his temper. I also think he’d secretly watched Mama take the key to her jewellery chest from behind the sliding panel in her room. Otherwise how did he know where it was hidden? I’m afraid he’s as guilty as hell and I don’t think a jury would find otherwise.’

‘What went so wrong?’ Lizzie asked. ‘I remember when he was born. I was four at the time but I distinctly recall Papa thanking God he’d had a son at last. I was quite put out at the time. I thought, what’s so special about having a boy? But he was such a sweet baby I wouldn’t have imagined in a hundred years that he’d turn out like this.’

‘I remember feeling the same when Henry was born,’ Georgie admitted. ‘Now Papa has only got one son.’

‘Freddie’s still Papa’s heir, though, isn’t he?’

The others nodded. ‘If Freddie doesn’t reappear in the next seven years he’ll be legally declared dead. Then Henry can inherit everything.’

‘Except the family jewels.’ Lizzie sounded bitter. She’d always hoped to wear one of the diamond tiaras when she got married.

‘I’d like Henry to inherit,’ Laura admitted.

‘I think we all would, including Mama and Papa,’ Lizzie agreed quietly. The others said nothing. The enormity of what had happened had cast a blight over the whole family.

It had started again, but this time the nightmare was worse. It had escalated so quickly and unpleasantly that Laura had not had the time to give the staff a few days off as she usually did when the rampaging began. More importantly, Caroline was still up in the nursery with Nanny and the last thing she wanted was for her child to witness the horror . . .

Still in her
peignoir
because the disturbance had started at dawn, Laura rushed down to the hall where they’d recently installed a new and marvellous invention – the telephone. Unaccustomed to using it, she gingerly took the earpiece off its hook before leaning towards the mouthpiece, which was screwed to the wall.

‘Can I help you?’ she heard an operator enquire.

Laura rapidly told them in a low voice so she wouldn’t be overheard the telephone number of Diana’s house, which was some thirty miles away. All the while she was watching the door to the study where thumps and bumps and blaspheming growls could be heard. Fearful that the door would suddenly burst open she gripped the earpiece tightly and prayed the operator would connect her quickly.

Then she heard the butler’s voice. ‘Lord Kelso’s residence.’

‘I’d like to speak to Lady Diana Kelso, please. It’s rather urgent. This is Lady Laura Leighton-Harvey speaking.’

A few minutes later she heard Diana’s still-girlish tones. ‘Is that you, Laura, darling?’

‘Di, I’ve got to be quick. I’ll tell you later but I can’t talk now. Listen, if Nanny brings Caroline over to your place could you put them up for a few days?’ Laura’s voice shook and she kept looking nervously at the closed study door across the hall where the noise was increasing.

‘Are you ill?’ Diana queried in alarm.

‘No, but things are rather difficult here at the moment. I don’t want Caroline to be in the midst of it.’

Diana sighed. ‘Oh, Laura! Is Neil at it again? I thought he’d been all right since you got that nice tutor for him?’

‘Neil’s fine. This is something different.’

‘Poor you! Staff can be a real problem, can’t they? Of course she can come and stay. It’s no problem and Nicolas and Louise would love to have her as a playmate. Tell Nanny to bring play clothes for the garden. We’ve just had a climbing frame made for the children and they adore it.’

‘Thank you, Di. I’m really grateful.’

‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ Diana asked in concern. ‘You sound really rather desperate.’

‘I’ll tell you later. I’ve got to go now.’ Laura hurriedly hung the receiver back on its brass hook and then fled as she heard the handle of the study door being opened. There was not a moment to be lost. Running up the two flights of stairs to the night nursery, she spoke to Nanny who was giving Caroline her breakfast.

‘Muzzie!’ the child said in delight, clapping her hands together.

‘Hello, my darling.’ Laura planted a kiss on her child’s head then turned to Nanny, who was already familiar with the ‘problem’, as Lady Laura so euphemistically called it. She’d begun to hope there would be no more ‘problems’ in the household, for everything had been fine for over two years now, but obviously the devil had struck again. The only thing she didn’t understand was Lady Laura’s refusal to admit to her family what she had to endure from time to time. It was no secret among the servants, although they were sworn to secrecy. Was it pride that prevented Lady Laura telling her family that something was seriously wrong?

Laura now spoke quickly without making eye contact. ‘My sister, Lady Diana, has invited you and Caroline to stay with them for a few days at Cranley Court, so I’m getting Gordon to drive you both over right away. She said to pack play clothes for Caroline. Is that all right, Nanny?’

‘Yes, M’Lady. That will be very nice.’ Nanny had never been in a motor and, although it was a chunky-looking thing called a Stanley, she rather fancied the new chauffeur so perked up at the thought of the journey.

Laura then went down the back stairs where she found Hobbs in the silver pantry. She took a deep breath and spoke bluntly. ‘The problem has started again. Lock up all the drink, please.’

‘I’ll see to it right away, M’Lady.’ He took pains to avoid making eye contact.

‘I’d also like you to tell Gordon to bring the motor round to take Nanny and Caroline to stay with Lady Kelso,’ she added.

‘Very well, M’Lady.’

At that moment they heard the study door burst open and a voice shrieked, ‘Hobbs? Where the devil are you?’

Laura swiftly climbed the back stairs again to return to her bedroom, knowing Hobbs wouldn’t respond. He knew better. All the staff knew better. They’d all slip away from the house in an hour or so and not return until the crisis was over. Only Hobbs would remain to fulfil his duties and stand guard if necessary.

This was the moment when she felt the most alone. Her sisters had begged her not to marry Walter, saying she knew nothing about him, and they accused her of rushing into marriage because she was twenty-nine and this might be her last chance.

If only she’d heeded their caution. If only she’d waited a bit longer as they’d advised. Instead she’d seen the other side of his Jekyll and Hyde character as it lurched from a charming, loving and compassionate man into a raging alcoholic who ended up in hospital every time. Laura had even learned that in the past he’d been detained more than once in an asylum whilst suffering from delirium tremens.

Looking back, Laura remembered how Priscilla Leighton-Harvey had looked very strained at times when she’d come to have a dress fitted and had remarked that her husband was ‘away on business again’ so had been unable to escort her to some social functions. Only later, after they were married, did Laura realize that Walter had never been in business in his life. Yet she still couldn’t let her sisters know the private hell she suffered from time to time. They had all made such happy marriages to such successful men, and being the second eldest she felt she and Lizzie had to be good examples to the younger sisters of what a loyal and loving wife should be.