Outside, he could still somehow smell the light flower perfume that Rose wore and he swore so loudly that a lady walking her dog stared at him in outrage.
♦
Two days later, Brum, the butler, brought in the morning post as usual on a small silver tray and placed it at the earl’s elbow as his lordship was eating breakfast.
Rose looked at the little pile of letters. Had she been a man and not a girl, she thought angrily, any letters addressed to her would have been given to her unopened. Not that there was really anything personal addressed to her, but she lived in hope that perhaps Harry might write to let her know how the case was progressing.
The earl put down his knife and fork and riffled through the letters. Then he rang the bell. “Give these to Mr. Jarvis,” he said to Brum. “Nothing of interest here.”
“There is one letter addressed to Lady Rose,” said Brum.
“Is there? I didn’t notice. Let me have it.”
“I really think I am capable of reading it myself,” said Rose.
Her father paid no attention. He lifted up a letter and stared at it. Then he held out his hand and Brum handed him a letter opener from the tray.
“Harrumph, let me see. Good Gad!”
“What is it?” asked Lady Polly.
“Give me that letter, Pa!” shouted Rose.
“You go to your room, miss. You, too, Levine, and get Cathcart!”
“What can it be?” asked Rose, as she and Daisy sat in Rose’s private sitting-room.
“Maybe one of your admirers sent an over-warm letter and Lord Hadfield’s getting the captain to frighten him off.”
Daisy stood up and walked to the mirror. Rose had presented her companion with a morning gown of white lace decorated with little red roses. Daisy admired her reflection in the glass and then wondered if she would ever have a chance to show it off to Becket.
She had an idea. “Maybe the captain will bring Becket with him and Becket will wait in the hall. I could nip down and see if he knows what’s going on.”
“Good idea. But you know what Pa is like. The captain will have simply been summoned without any explanation being given.”
“I’ll watch from the window and see if I can see them arriving.”
Rose fidgeted while Daisy looked down from the window. At last, after what seemed like an age, she saw the captain’s car stop outside, with Becket at the wheel.
“They’re here!” cried Daisy. “Won’t be long.”
Daisy waited outside on the landing until she heard the captain being ushered into the breakfast room and then ran lightly down the stairs.
Becket was standing in the hall.
“Why, Daisy!” he exclaimed. “You do look like such a fine lady.”
“Pretty, isn’t it?” said Daisy, smoothing down her gown with complacent fingers. “What’s going on?”
“At first the captain refused,” said Becket in a low voice, “because he’s busy and he doesn’t like the way Lord Hadfield expects him to drop everything and come running. So the secretary, Mr. Jarvis, he phones back and says that Lady Rose has received a death threat.”
“Oh, my stars and garters!” said Daisy. “This is bad. Rose has had a bad shock. She looks as cool as anything but I heard her crying during the night. I hope they don’t decide to ship her off to India after all!”
“The story’s been in all the papers. Probably some nutter.”
♦
“Probably a madman,” Harry was saying. “I’ll take this round to Scotland Yard. Kerridge will want to see if he can get any fingerprints off the letter. I mean, it must be from someone deranged.” He studied the letter again. It consisted of letters cut out from magazines and the message read, “Dear Lady Rose, Keep your mouth shut about what Dolly told you or you’ll be next. A Well-Wisher.”
“I mean,” Harry went on, “any sane person would assume that Lady Rose had already told Scotland Yard everything she knew.”
Matthew Jarvis, standing behind the earl’s chair, gave a slight cough. “If I may be so bold, my lord…”
“Go on. What is it?”
“There was an article in the Daily Mail yesterday which speculated that Lady Rose probably knew the dark secret of what had caused Miss Tremaine to say she was running away but was keeping quiet out of loyalty to her friend.”
“Rubbish,” said Harry. “Lady Rose barely knew the girl.”
“How did the papers find out that my daughter was even involved?” raged the earl.
“I’m sure they have some pet policeman at Scotland Yard in their pay, not to mention the bribes they give to servants.”
“A reporter tried to bribe me,” said Brum. “But I sent him off with a flea in his ear, my lord. I told him I was due for a raise in salary anyway.”
“Are you?” asked the earl, bewildered.
Harry looked briefly amused. “I think Brum means that he is now.”
The earl twisted round and goggled at his butler. “Are you trying to blackmail me?”
The butler raised his gloved hands in horror. “I would not dream of it, my lord. But your lordship did promise me a raise in salary after a number of years.”
“Did I? Oh, well, see to it Mr. Jarvis.”
“My lord…” began Brum.
“What now?”
“If I may speak, my lord. It concerns Lady Rose and her dark secret.”
“She doesn’t have a dark secret!” howled the earl. “Oh, what is it?”
“The Morning Bugle has picked up on the Daily Mail’s story and has a large feature on Lady Rose about her involvement in previous murders and the fact that her fiancé is the captain here. They have published a photograph of Lady Rose taken a year ago at a garden party in which she looks sad. They say she must break the bounds of loyalty and tell the police what she knows. I did not wish to distress you, but several newspapers were on the doorstep yesterday.”
Harry eyed Brum’s impassive face and was suddenly sure that the butler had taken money from the reporters and had supplied them with fantasies about Rose in return.
“This is serious,” said Harry. “I should have read the popular papers instead of the Times. I am afraid Lady Rose will need to be kept indoors until we are sure she is safe.”
Rose was summoned. She turned slightly pale when she realized Harry was taking the threat seriously. Daisy had just told her about the letter.
“It may be just some crank,” said Harry soothingly, “but it is as well to be safe.”
♦
Rose and Daisy were kept indoors. Rose had books to read to pass the time but Daisy felt she would die of boredom and repeatedly said she could not understand why the ban on going out of doors applied to her as well.
One bright sunny day after they had been kept in for almost two weeks, even Rose began to feel she could not bear this form of genteel imprisonment any more.
She stood by the window looking down at the square. “If only we could go outside for a little walk,” she mourned.
“We could try,” said Daisy eagerly. “Lord and Lady Hadfield have gone down to Stacey Court for the weekend.”
“They might have told me. Why go into the country?”
“Some boundary dispute.”
“I do think my parents are a trifle odd. They might have said something to me at dinner last night.”
“Maybe they didn’t want to tell you in case you thought it a good opportunity to get out of the house.”
“Brum will stop us going. And what about Turner?” Turner was Lady Rose’s recently hired lady’s maid.
“I’ll tell them you have a headache and want to be left alone,” said Daisy eagerly. “Then we can wait until they are taking their luncheon and slip out. With my lord and lady being away, they’ll be careless about guarding us. They’ll be sitting down for luncheon any minute now. You wait here and I’ll tell Turner to join the others for luncheon as she will not be needed for the rest of the day.”