Dance to Your Daddy

CHAPTER SEVEN

SWORD DANCE-KIRKBY MALZEARD

'Creaking my shoes on the plain masonry,

Till honour be bought up, and no sword worn

But one to dance with.'

The Taming of the Shrew.

(1)

'My first duty, as I see it,' said Dame Beatrice, 'is to return home to be with Rosamund. If, as you say, the police wish to question everyone who was staying at Galliard Hall at the time (so far as this is known) of Hubert's death, then my place is with the child.'

'But you'll come back?' urged Romilly. 'I need you here. I am not accustomed to have dealings with the police.'

'I hope to come back, in due course. Meanwhile, there is always your lawyer if you need advice. I assume you have already made contact with him.'

'Well, no, but I suppose I had better do so. The police seem to think it odd that Judith and I should have chanced upon the spot where the body was lying. I was compelled to protect myself by explaining what had taken us there.'

'I see that Rosamund undoubtedly will need me to safeguard her interests when the police call at my house.'

'I wish you were staying here, at least for today and tomorrow. I quite anticipated that you would be on hand when the police pay us their next visit. It may even be this afternoon. If not, it is certain to be tomorrow. Could you not stay to dinner and spend the night here? It will be no trouble to Judith to provide a bed for Mrs Gavin.'

'She can have Tancred's room,' said Judith at once. 'The maids have put it to rights.'

'It is very kind of you, but I feel we must get back to Rosamund. I take it that you have given the police my address.'

'We had no choice. We had to account for the whereabouts of all of you. I could be certain of where you and Trilby would be, and equally so in the case of Humphrey and Binnie, but I could give no exact address for Tancred, for, beyond mentioning that he was staying in Shaftesbury, he added no details, and the address to which I wrote when I invited him was a London one. However, they have their way of tracking people down.'

Amabel came out to the car when the visitors had taken their leave. She said, when the window was let down, 'Please, Dame Beatrice, mum, could I speak to you? It's the police, mum. Voilert and Oi, us don't fancy stoppen in a place where the police keeps comen.'

'No, mum,' said Violet, who had followed her out.

'Keep coming? Why, how many times have they called?'

'Twoice a'ready, and comen again tonoight or tomorrow, so Mester warned us. Fritten us, they do.'

'There is no need for you to feel frightened. You certainly cannot leave in the middle of their enquiries. They might think that you had something to hide. In any case, I am quite sure they wouldn't allow you to go.'

'But us don't know nothen about what happened to the poor gentleman, mum, and what us don't know us can't say, can us now?'

'Do you think Amabel was telling the whole truth?' asked Laura, as the car approached the great gates.

'I am convinced she was not. I saw, as you did, her sister's tug on her apron. There is something they both know, and it is the knowledge which frightens them, not the police as such.'

'You didn't try to get it out of them, I noticed.'

'At such an early stage I doubt whether it would have been worth the effort. Besides, I do not think they would have answered a direct question. There are other means to the same end.'

'Have you any idea what it is they know?'

'I have as many theories as there were guests, servants and residents at Galliard Hall last week. The most likely one, so far as I can see at present (which, I may add, is almost no distance at all), is something to do with the non-appearance of Hubert and Willoughby at Galliard Hall at the time for which they were invited.'

'But that might be fearfully important!'

'It might. Time will show. Meanwhile, I shall be very glad indeed to get back to Rosamund.'

They were met at the front door by Celestine, who was quivering with righteous wrath.

'Figure to yourself, madame, the police have come here!'

'Oh, yes? I will see them as soon as I have removed my outdoor things.'

'But they are no longer here, madame. I sent them away. "Never," I said, "do I admit intruders when madame and Madame Gavin are both out of the house. How do I ascertain," I asked them, "that you are not thieves and assassins?" They show me little cards. I pouf at their little cards. "Forgeries," I say. "If not, madame will know, when she comes in. I have heard," I say, "of warrants to search. Have you such warrants?" They say there will be no search, but only a few little questions to the jeune fille madame brings home with her. "There is also a little baby in the house," I tell them. "Shall I have a little baby wake up parmi le bruit de pas, le bruit de pas, comme les chevaux de charrette, made by your big, ugly boots? Non," I say, "but certainly not, messieurs."'

'You'll get us all arrested one of these days,' said Laura.

'You did rightly, Celestine,' said Dame Beatrice. 'The jeune fille I brought with me is in a highly nervous state and in no condition to stand up to police questioning when I am not here.'

'There has been, as usual, an assassination, then,' said Celestine, in a resigned tone, 'and madame will once more be toiling to assist the police to arrest a monster.'

Laura followed Dame Beatrice into the library where they had left Rosamund on their departure for Galliard Hall. The girl was reading, but put down the book as they entered and rose to her feet. Her anxious eyes questioned them. Dame Beatrice said:

'Tancred is quite well, so far as we know. Have you ever met Hubert Lestrange, a clergyman? He was to have joined the houseparty, but did not turn up. We now know why.'

'He is dead?' asked Rosamund.

'Yes. By what means we do not know yet, but the police have had to be told.'

'He was killed, then.'

'The police seem to think so. They want to talk to those persons who were at Galliard Hall last week.'

'And I am one of them.'

'So am I. So are a number of other people.'

'Will the police come here, or shall you and I need to go back there?'

'They will come here.'

'I shall have nothing to tell them.'

'That, most likely, will be my case, too, so there is nothing for us to worry about, thank goodness.'

'I should never worry if you were with me.'

'Good. By the way, it is essential to be quite frank with them.'

Rosamund looked scared.

'But I can be nothing else,' she insisted. 'I don't know anything about Hubert Lestrange at all. I had no idea he was dead.'

'They will ask you to account for your movements, and so forth.'

'Suppose I can't remember?'

'Tell them so.'

'But they'll bully me into trying to remember, won't they? Romilly was always bullying me and shouting at me and losing his temper.'

'The police will not behave like that, I promise you. But don't attempt to conceal anything from them, even if it is embarrassing or painful for you to admit some things which you may wish to keep to yourself. We all have our weak points and it is useless to attempt to disguise or hide them.'

Rosamund looked at the keen, black eyes and the quirky, beaky little mouth and then dropped her own eyes and said quietly:

'You are thinking of something in particular.'

'Yes,' agreed Dame Beatrice, 'I am. As I suppose you know, Hubert's body was found on Dancing Ledge.' She saw the girl flinch. 'Yes,' she went on, 'Romilly will have told the police that he saw you drown the cat and the monkey somewhere along that stretch of coast, and throw the large doll into the sea.'