I asked, guessing at the probable reply, ‘And what was his reasoning behind this refusal?’
‘He told me it was infra dig for a woman of my - ’ Again she blushed, ‘ - class, even a foreigner!’
Holmes asked, ‘Was there any particular Hall you wished to attend?’
‘Why should you want to know that, Mr. Holmes?’ our hostess cried, astonished.
My friend could not restrain a chuckle at her confusion. ‘I am always glad of details,’ he remarked, ‘whether they seem to be relevant or not.’ He waved a hand in my direction. ‘You have a fellow enthusiast in my friend Dr. Watson. He does the rounds of all the music halls.’
‘The Tivoli,’ came her answer.
‘And this was when precisely?’ Holmes asked.
‘Why, it must now be two years ago.’
‘Early April?’
‘Yes.’
Holmes nodded. ‘Please continue.’
‘To make myself - ’ again she blushed in a most attractive way, ‘ - visible against all the competition, I was told to bind my hair up to show the nape of the neck, the veil should press on my face, liquid red on the lips. I exchanged the tall hat for an exotic turban tied tightly to avoid snagging on a passing branch if the pace got hectic. When my outfit was complete I hired a trap and set off for a hunting box on the Bowden Road with Mr. Penderel, himself an accomplished rider to hounds. They introduced me to Mr. Fernie. And thus the Season began for me.’
‘And that’s where you met and married Captain Barrington?’ I summed up.
She inclined her head.
‘If I may put this as delicately as possible, has a search been made in police stations and morgues for a body resembling his?’
It was I who asked this question.
Again she inclined her head. ‘All yesterday,’ she replied. A small tear ran down her face. We rose to our feet.
‘One last thing,’ I said. ‘Barrington is not an unusual name. There are to my knowledge half a dozen Captain Barringtons in England. In which regiment did he serve?’
‘The Connaught Rangers.’
With only the greatest difficulty I prevented my jaw from dropping. I stared at her sorrowing face.
‘The Connaught Rangers!’ I exclaimed. ‘But - ’
Holmes’s arm jerked sharply across my face. ‘Watson, I think we have enquired enough for the moment. For our hostess’s sake we must hasten this interview to an end.’
He turned to her with a slight bow. ‘Madam, I assure you we shall do our very best to discover the whereabouts of your husband.’
She rose from her chair with a little of the anxiety seeping from her face. My companion continued, ‘We shall take the wedding photograph with us, as you suggest. There is just one small favour I must ask of you.’
‘A favour? Whatever you wish.’
‘My good friend here made a small wager during our journey to your shores. I swore the Great British statesman William Ewart Gladstone was born in 1810. Watson had the temerity to insist it was 1809. I wonder if I may look quickly in your Kelly’s Handbook to settle which of us owes the other five guineas?’
Our hostess handed him the Kelly’s. Shaking his head ruefully he looked across and me and said, ‘Watson, you lucky devil. You are right. He was born in 1809.’
We moved towards the door. As we reached it, our hostess said, ‘My heart is lightened already since I have confided my trouble to you.’
Holmes turned once more as though to bow us out. Instead he asked, ‘Mrs. Barrington, in the unavoidable absence of your father, who performed his role at the wedding?’
‘Luckily, even at such short notice, an officer in the 3rd battalion of the Coldstream Guards offered to give me away.’
‘His name?’
‘Lieutenant-Colonel James Grant.’
We waited outside the villa while a servant went to summon our vehicle. I seized my comrade by the arm. In an urgent whisper I said, ‘Holmes, what in heaven’s name is going on? The man she says she married - Captain Barrington of the Connaught Rangers - died in a hunting accident nearly four years ago. As to the man chosen to stand in her father’s place, it was announced in the Military Gazette that James Grant of the Coldstream Guards was the first British officer to die at the Battle of Kraaipand.’
Holmes looked grim. ‘I think we can say she underwent a rather unusual ceremony. There cannot be that many weddings - even among Bulgarians - where a bride is given away to a dead man - by a dead man.’
His brow furrowed. He went on, ‘A great deal of thread is piling up but I can’t get the end of it into my hand. Tell me, we were offered cigarettes but why nothing from the tantalus containing brandy and whisky?’
‘Holmes,’ I replied, ‘you are mistaken. Our hostess could not have offered us brandy or whisky from a tantalus. There was no such decanter present.’
‘What of gins, vermouths and kirsches in crystal ewers?’
Again I shook my head. ‘I saw only liquorice and almond emulsion. And what looked like the crimson of grenadine and garnett bitters.’
‘No long-necked carafes of the mysterious and sinful drinks beloved of the Officers’ Mess? Judging by the stains on your Mess Dress jacket, Army captains tend to the riotous.’
‘My dear Holmes,’ I retorted hotly, ‘I purchased that Mess Dress from the estate of the great explorer Arthur Conolly of the 1st Bengal Light Cavalry. Those stains you refer to so disparagingly are from the finest champagne!’
‘You make my point, Watson. But please answer my question, you saw no Devil’s brew of any sort?’
‘A milky Advokaats, nothing more. What are you making of this, Holmes?’ I pursued.
‘Just as the presence of a kennel presupposes that of a dog, so the presence of a tantalus would indicate a steady supply of Regimental comrades, and by contrast its lack would - ’
He looked at me pensively. What did you make of her interest in the music hall?’
‘What of it?’ I asked, surprised. ‘She isn’t English. She might not know the Hall is nowhere for a lady to go - .’
‘I find it hard to believe that she would be so interested. Such sheet music as could make it to Sofia would hardly have entranced her - ribaldry about drink, debt, adversity, lodgers, overdue rent and bailiffs, mothers-in-law, hen-pecked husbands, unfaithful wives.’
The carriage drew up. As I clambered in, I asked, ‘What was all this nonsense about a bet on Gladstone’s date of birth?’
‘A ruse to get my hands on the Kelly’s Handbook. I wanted to know which edition her father consulted.’
‘Which was?’
‘It was published in 1895.’
‘Ah! Therefore - ’
‘ - by consulting the 1895 edition she and her father would reasonably have expected Barrington to be alive.’
‘So too the man she says gave her away.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Then how do you explain her marriage?’
‘Perhaps she married a charlatan. Heaven knows the fast set also turns out in numbers at Market Harborough - a hundred predatory males and females on the make.’