Dance to Your Daddy

'It was as though she was getting an awful fright when I told her you were coming,' explained Laura's mother, 'and this morning, when I went up to wake her, as she wasna down to her breakfast, I found her gone, and her wee kist with her.'

'Oh, if she's taken her suitcase, she must have intended to hop it for good,' said Laura. 'I suppose you've sent the bloodhounds after her?'

'Och, she'll not have gone far,' said Mrs Menzies. 'Your father and the lads are away to Spean Bridge. That's where she'll likely make for. She could get a lift from there to Fort William, or maybe even as far as Glasgow, although I dinna care to think of a young lassie stopping a stranger, with so many droch weans about the place.'

'Yes, and from Glasgow,' said Laura, 'she'd go to Carlisle, I don't mind betting. Anyway, I wouldn't worry about her safety. She's well able to take care of herself, if you ask me.'

'An interesting side-light on her abilities,' said Dame Beatrice, 'and an opinion with which I find myself in tentative but increasing agreement.'

'Well, I vote we make for Carlisle and wait for her to turn up. She'd hardly know of anywhere to go except the hotel there, where she lived with old Felix Napoleon,' said Laura. 'She told me quite a bit about it while we were together. Oh, I'll bet she's in Carlisle all right.'

'Your idea has much to recommend it. We can safely leave the search at this end to your father and his helpers,' said Dame Beatrice.

'Aye, you can that,' agreed Mrs Menzies. 'But I dinna ken why the thought of you, Dame Beatrice, should have given the caileag a fright.'

'No, I can't either,' said Laura. 'But she isn't such a "caileag," you know. She's nearly twenty-five. I say, mother, you won't call the police in, will you, if she doesn't turn up? I mean...'

'Is it the police!' exclaimed Mrs Menzies, with as much horror as if she had been born in the west of Ireland. 'Indeed I will not, then! My Cruachan! The police! Whatever next!'

'Oh, that's all right, then. Well, we'd better stay the night here, and tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.'

There was no very direct route to Carlisle. George, who wanted to avoid Glasgow, drove to Fort William (Laura and Dame Beatrice looking out for Rosamund the while), and then made for Stirling by way of Lochearnhead and Callander. From Stirling the road went through Airdrie and Lanark to Beattock, and thence to Lockerbie and Carlisle. The journey was one of more than two hundred miles, but they made it, with a stop for lunch at Stirling, in very good time.

Enquiry at the reception desk failed to produce any information. If Rosamund had booked in at the hotel, she had not done so under the name of Lestrange. Laura, who had undertaken the enquiries, pursued them.

'This girl lived here for some years-anyway, up to 1966-with an old gentleman named Felix Lestrange. She is his granddaughter.'

'Oh, I wouldn't know,' said the receptionist. 'I wasn't here then.'

'Can you find rooms for us for one night? Two singles?'

As she signed the register, Laura looked down the list of names and addresses, but there was none which indicated that Rosamund had made an entry in the book. She was given keys and the suitcases were taken upstairs. She saw Dame Beatrice settled, and then went out to the hotel parking yard to find George. He was seated in the car.

'Had something to eat, George?'

'Yes, thank you, madam.'

'We're staying the night. Can you fix yourself up, as usual?'

'Certainly, madam. I have bespoke a room on the off-chance already, as I guessed you wouldn't be proceeding any further today. May I ask if there's any news of the young lady, madam?'

'No, George, I'm afraid there isn't. I would have betted any money that she'd come to this hotel, but, so far, there isn't a sign of her.'

'What time will you be requiring the car in the morning, madam?'

'I'm not sure. I haven't asked. Better be ready to start off at ten, anyway. I don't know what the plans are, but I should imagine we'll go straight home from here, unless we hear something about Miss Lestrange.'

Dame Beatrice was in the hotel lounge when Laura returned.

'I have spoken to the hotel manager,' she said. 'He, of course, knows Rosamund quite well. It is certain that she is not here.'

'What do we do next?'

'I have engaged our rooms for the next two nights. It is possible, if Rosamund is reduced to asking for lifts on the road, that she is still bound for Carlisle, but has not yet arrived. Your dear mother has the name of this hotel, and will send me a telegram if Rosamund returns to Moy.'

'You think of everything,' said Laura, tongue in cheek. She was not surprised, however, when, at lunch-time on the following day, Rosamund walked into the dining-room under the solicitous escort of the head waiter and was given a corner table with her back to the rest of the room.

'Looks a bit the worse for wear,' commented Laura, regarding the drooping shoulders and the general air of limpness which Rosamund displayed. 'She'll have a nasty shock when she finds us here, I shouldn't wonder.'

They administered this shock some half-an-hour later. Outside the dining-room swing doors was a small ante-room which, in its turn, opened into the cocktail bar. In this ante-room Dame Beatrice took up her position, bidding Laura to leave her there alone. Laura sought the lounge, found a seat by the fire and a magazine, lit a cigarette and waited upon events.

She had discarded her second magazine and was looking through the pile for a third, when the two came in.

'Well, here we are,' said Dame Beatrice, smiling like a replete python. 'I have asked for coffee, and now we can have a cosy little chat.'

'Hullo, Rosamund,' said Laura, without enthusiasm. 'Where did you spring from? We left you in Scotland with my people. How come that you're here?'

'Oh, I was homesick, and I have to see my lawyers,' said the girl. She was looking strained and tired. 'Please don't pester me. I'm ill.'

'Rosamund walked from Moy to Spean Bridge, and from there obtained a lift to Inverness,' said Dame Beatrice. 'From Inverness she got a train to Edinburgh, but there her money ran out, so she has alternately walked and thumbed lifts from there.'

'I threw away my suitcase,' said Rosamund. 'I got a lift as far as Peebles, and then I began to walk, and the suitcase was just simply too heavy. At last I got to Galashiels and a lorry-driver took me the rest of the way.'

'Well, I should say you'd been pretty lucky,' said Laura.

'My feet are blistered, and I've lost my luggage, and I haven't any money,' said Rosamund. 'I don't know whether you call that being pretty lucky.'

'All's well that ends well,' said Laura, 'but I do think you might have let my people know you intended to sling your hook. They've been somewhat worried about you.'

'Yes, I know. I'm sorry about that. Your mother has been very kind to me. But I was afraid she wouldn't let me go, if I told her I wanted to leave.'

'Good heavens, of course she'd have let you go! You're a free agent, aren't you?'

'For the past year I haven't thought so.'

'Ah,' said Dame Beatrice, 'here comes the coffee. Speaking of the past year, my dear Rosamund, you will like to know what has happened to Romilly. He has been arrested and has been brought before the Bench and remanded in custody for a fortnight. After that, he will again appear in court, when it will be decided whether or not he is to be sent for trial.'