decent at all. It’s blackmail, pure and simple.’
‘Well, how completely bloody horrid of her,’ said Daisy, comical in her indignation. ‘After all we’ve done for them!’
‘Such as?’
‘Well, all right, putting up with them mostly. But remember how we took Cara off their hands that winter to let Mrs and the Ice Princess go gallivanting? Wheeled her about for months.’ What I love about Daisy is her lack of guile.
‘As I remember it, darling, you spent most of that winter gallivanting yourself. Didn’t you swan off to New York for weeks on end and leave poor Cara here with Nanny?’
‘It was just after the war, Dan, and I hadn’t seen Mummy for five years – hardly gallivanting. And I brought you back some lovely things, didn’t I? Anyway, Silas was here. He taught Cara to shoot.’
‘And Mrs Duffy has never forgiven you for that,’ I reminded her. ‘She was still scowling when Cara took a gun last Boxing Day, do you remember?’
‘You don’t think . . .’ said Daisy. ‘That couldn’t be why she’s got a down on us, could it? Something as silly as that?’
‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘Even Lena wouldn’t threaten you with ruin because one of her daughters has learned an unladylike sport. She isn’t as mad as all that. Unless you get her on to the diamonds, that is – you want to hear her on them! Gives me the creeps. But otherwise, no. Leave the detecting to me.’
‘Darling Dan,’ said Daisy, giving me a squeeze. ‘I must go now and deliver croquet lessons for beginners until tea.’
‘I’m going to walk around down here a bit more, out of harm’s way, and plan my next move,’ I said. ‘Also there’s something tickling at me that I can’t put my finger on.’
‘Absolutely,’ said Daisy. ‘I’ll say it again, Dandy. You’re a marvel. You only spoke to her for half a minute and the whole thing’s out in the open.’ She beamed at me, while I tried to look modest, then she swept off towards the lawn leaving me to carry on down the drive towards McSween on his ladder.
‘I’ll lift they dog-ends for you on my road back,’ he called out by way of a greeting, glaring up the drive towards where Daisy and I had stubbed out our cigarettes on his precious gravel. I murmured a stream of thanks and apologies – he really is the most fearful bully – and walked on past him.
Leaving the drive just before it crossed the bridge I followed the edge of the river towards the start of the woods. The men were fishing miles away to the other side of the park out on the open bank and I felt sure that I should find solitude enough here for whatever it was to percolate to the top of my mind and turn itself into a thought.
First, though, to sort through what had happened. Mrs Duffy had used me as a go-between, relying no doubt on my celebrated callowness – hah! If she only knew – to be sure that I should pass the message straight to Daisy, as indeed I had. She might not appreciate the full enormity of what she was asking. Brought up to be unworldly as girls were in her time, and I supposed in mine, she might not see that what she called the correction of an irregularity was in fact an act of criminal fraud. On the other hand she might know exactly what was at stake for Silas but be sure that she had the means to ruin him anyway and so he had nothing to lose.
There it was again. It was not the sick feeling I had had right at the start; that was still with me, lumpen and disquieting somewhere deep inside, although it had receded a little over the day. Action seemed to dispel it, funnily enough, which was odd if it was a premonition of doom. Unless, of course, it was a premonition of some doom that my actions might avert. That made sense but was such a terrifying thought, that I refused to entertain it. Besides – I shook myself – that was not it. There was something else, something entirely different, like a hair across one’s face that one can neither locate nor ignore. It
‘Well, how completely bloody horrid of her,’ said Daisy, comical in her indignation. ‘After all we’ve done for them!’
‘Such as?’
‘Well, all right, putting up with them mostly. But remember how we took Cara off their hands that winter to let Mrs and the Ice Princess go gallivanting? Wheeled her about for months.’ What I love about Daisy is her lack of guile.
‘As I remember it, darling, you spent most of that winter gallivanting yourself. Didn’t you swan off to New York for weeks on end and leave poor Cara here with Nanny?’
‘It was just after the war, Dan, and I hadn’t seen Mummy for five years – hardly gallivanting. And I brought you back some lovely things, didn’t I? Anyway, Silas was here. He taught Cara to shoot.’
‘And Mrs Duffy has never forgiven you for that,’ I reminded her. ‘She was still scowling when Cara took a gun last Boxing Day, do you remember?’
‘You don’t think . . .’ said Daisy. ‘That couldn’t be why she’s got a down on us, could it? Something as silly as that?’
‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘Even Lena wouldn’t threaten you with ruin because one of her daughters has learned an unladylike sport. She isn’t as mad as all that. Unless you get her on to the diamonds, that is – you want to hear her on them! Gives me the creeps. But otherwise, no. Leave the detecting to me.’
‘Darling Dan,’ said Daisy, giving me a squeeze. ‘I must go now and deliver croquet lessons for beginners until tea.’
‘I’m going to walk around down here a bit more, out of harm’s way, and plan my next move,’ I said. ‘Also there’s something tickling at me that I can’t put my finger on.’
‘Absolutely,’ said Daisy. ‘I’ll say it again, Dandy. You’re a marvel. You only spoke to her for half a minute and the whole thing’s out in the open.’ She beamed at me, while I tried to look modest, then she swept off towards the lawn leaving me to carry on down the drive towards McSween on his ladder.
‘I’ll lift they dog-ends for you on my road back,’ he called out by way of a greeting, glaring up the drive towards where Daisy and I had stubbed out our cigarettes on his precious gravel. I murmured a stream of thanks and apologies – he really is the most fearful bully – and walked on past him.
Leaving the drive just before it crossed the bridge I followed the edge of the river towards the start of the woods. The men were fishing miles away to the other side of the park out on the open bank and I felt sure that I should find solitude enough here for whatever it was to percolate to the top of my mind and turn itself into a thought.
First, though, to sort through what had happened. Mrs Duffy had used me as a go-between, relying no doubt on my celebrated callowness – hah! If she only knew – to be sure that I should pass the message straight to Daisy, as indeed I had. She might not appreciate the full enormity of what she was asking. Brought up to be unworldly as girls were in her time, and I supposed in mine, she might not see that what she called the correction of an irregularity was in fact an act of criminal fraud. On the other hand she might know exactly what was at stake for Silas but be sure that she had the means to ruin him anyway and so he had nothing to lose.
There it was again. It was not the sick feeling I had had right at the start; that was still with me, lumpen and disquieting somewhere deep inside, although it had receded a little over the day. Action seemed to dispel it, funnily enough, which was odd if it was a premonition of doom. Unless, of course, it was a premonition of some doom that my actions might avert. That made sense but was such a terrifying thought, that I refused to entertain it. Besides – I shook myself – that was not it. There was something else, something entirely different, like a hair across one’s face that one can neither locate nor ignore. It
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