‘I was ten and at my prep school,’ I said. ‘I had a woman teacher and she did not beat us for our misdemeanours, but caused us to learn poetry by heart. If we failed to come up to scratch, we were sent to the headmaster as stubborn recusants and he did beat us, so, of course, we learnt the stuff, however hard a grind it turned out to be.’
‘I see. Have you discussed this dream with your fiancée?’
‘No. I’ve told my business partner about it.’
‘So he is your good friend as well as your business partner. What had he to say?’
‘Well, rather strangely he said that the dream was not really about Todd. He said I was substituting Todd for someone else.’
‘I am sure he was right. In fact, I think you are substituting Todd for two other people. If you will not take my supposition amiss, I think one of them is your fiancée.’
‘Hera? Oh, no, I assure you!’
‘I am glad to hear that.’ She did not look very glad. In fact, those brilliant black eyes summed me up very shrewdly indeed and it was not difficult to imagine what she was thinking. She was right, too, although I was not prepared to admit it. I did find being engaged to Hera something of an onus at times. Her character was so much firmer than my own that I was often at a disadvantage when we discussed anything or argued about it. But Dame Beatrice had more to say. ‘What ought you to have told me about Mr Carbridge when last you were here?’
So I told her what had happened at Crianlarich. She nodded solemnly and then suddenly cackled.
‘You would have preferred to punch Mr Todd, I suppose, but, to employ a phrase much used by Laura, he is above your weight, a taller and a more robust man than yourself.’
‘I wasn’t going to let Hera see me take a hiding.’
‘Very wise. A jousting knight must win or retire from the lists.’
‘Besides, although I somewhat distrust Todd, he doesn’t irritate me in the way Carbridge did.’
‘Well, Mr Melrose, we will take it that you are suffering from suppressed hysteria due to your recent disquieting experiences. With your collaboration, I shall place you under light hypnosis and then I shall talk to you. You may answer me if you wish, but you will remember nothing of what we say, and the dream you have described will not recur. However, as I read the evidence, I do not think that at present you are very anxious to be married.’
‘Well, I am and I’m not,’ I said truthfully.
‘Elucidate.’
‘Well, I’m very fond of Hera and I admire her very much, but when we announced our engagement to my business partner, Hera added that she wanted to come into the firm. She has some capital and I was willing to consider the idea, although I was not too keen on it, but Sandy was not at all in agreement, so that damped me down a bit. The last thing I want is any kind of a break with him.’
‘Your business needs an infusion of money?’
‘Well, I suppose most businesses do, but I don’t much want Hera to go out to work after we’re married. I pointed out to her that it would be jollier to find her all nice and domesticated at home when I got back each evening.’
‘A typical male reaction, of course, selfish, possessive, hidebound and utterly understandable. I wonder whether she expected to be a sleeping partner or an active partner in your business?’
‘Well, that’s where Sandy and I are not in agreement. I say she would only be a sleeping partner drawing her small share of the profits and staying out of the office. I say that she will take no part in making decisions or even meeting any of our authors. They show up from time to time and take us out to lunch or we take them out to lunch — that kind of thing. Sometimes they come to raise hell about their contracts and try to sick us on to get to grips with their publishers, but it’s all in the day’s work and I don’t intend Hera to be a part of it.’
‘How does your partner see her role, then?’
‘Sandy says women are never satisfied unless they’ve got a finger in the pie. I’m bound to admit that in Hera’s case he may be right.’
‘Difficult for you. Shall we proceed?’
So I suffered her to put me under what she called ‘light hypnosis’ and all that I remembered afterwards was the sound of her beautiful voice reciting poems from Peacock Pie before I came under the influence. What magic formula she used, once she had me under control, I have no idea. When I came to, we had tea, at which we were joined by Laura, and I drove back to London feeling calm and refreshed. I slept that night, and for many nights, without, so far as I can remember, dreaming at all. It was only after waking in the mornings that I wondered what I had told Dame Beatrice.
‘So you didn’t talk about the bodies,’ said Sandy.
‘I have no recollection of what we talked about. If the body on Rannoch Moor had been a figment of my imagination, I might still be worried, but what I found was a real man. I mistook him for Carbridge, that’s all. I had given my head quite a bash, you know. There was only one thing about the interview which worried me a little. Well, not worried me exactly, but made me feel a bit of a fool.’
‘Dame Beatrice’s diagnosis about hysteria, I suppose.’
‘Yes. Previously I had connected hysteria only with nervous females.’
‘What about shell-shock? If she had used that word to describe your condition, you wouldn’t have minded. Now I’ll tell you something else. You’ve been under stress for some time. I noticed it before you ever went on that Scottish jaunt, and now these two encounters of yours with murdered men have triggered off something which has been dormant for months. Why didn’t you tell Dame Beatrice what is really worrying you? — or you could tell me. We’re both safe enough as the repositories of guilty secrets.’
‘But I haven’t got any guilty secrets, dammit! All the same, I’m not too sure now that I ought to have agreed to hypnosis. I mean, it makes one so vulnerable.’
‘Think nothing of it. She would never make any capital of anything she learned that way; no doctor would. The point is — has her treatment worked?’
‘Like a charm, so far.’
‘Well, then, what are you worried about?’
‘I’ll tell you. Now that Bull has been cleared —’
‘Oh, but he hasn’t, you know. I thought the head beak made that abundantly clear. Bull has been put back into circulation, but only while Bingley gets more evidence. If what you tell me about Bingley is a correct assessment, he’s not the man to let go while he’s got his teeth into a suspect. You know that, as well as I do. You’ve said as much.’
‘There’s something Bingley doesn’t know, unless somebody has tipped him off. I’ve been waiting and dreading the day when it comes out that I had a row with Carbridge at Crianlarich.’
‘Well, you told me you had one with Todd, and he’s still alive.’
‘Yes.’
‘Could anybody else in the party have known about the quarrels?’
‘Not unless Carbridge himself had talked. Unfortunately, he was the sort of gregarious babbler who very easily might have done. Oh, I suppose Perth knew — and possibly the Minches.’
‘If anybody knew and had blabbed to Bingley, you would have heard about it long before this, but no wonder you’ve been worried. No wonder, either, that it was Carbridge you thought you had found on Rannoch Moor. I understand everything now. Let’s talk about something else. I’ve got my problems too, you know. This business of you and Hera. She’s been on to me again about joining the firm and having a partnership. I still don’t like the idea, Comrie. I don’t want any takeover bids and Hera is a very determined woman.’
‘She won’t kick in enough capital to make her anything but a very junior partner. We could do with a bit more money, couldn’t we?’
‘Well, yes, but in this case I’m sure the interest we should have to pay in the form of her making a takeover bid would be too high. Would you mind very much if I turned her offer down very determinedly indeed? We’ve stalled, up to the present, but I’m willing to bear the brunt of telling her firmly that there’s nothing doing. I quite see that it would be very embarrassing for you if you had to slip her the news.’