‘Well,’ said Marius, ‘that is all very well, but, for my own part, I feel I must make a gesture. It is most remiss of your aunt to absent herself for a whole week of our stay when, in the first place, we should never have come had it not been for her letter. She asked us to come, and now she deserts us in this extraordinary way.’
‘A bit of a score for Boobie if we slink back with that sort of tale,’ said Sebastian. ‘Anyway, you won’t take any steps until Wednesday, will you?’
‘Not unless I decide to hire a boat privately at no doubt an extortionate charge. No, we shall be here until the Wednesday passengers are landed. If your aunt is not among them, we return by that or by Thursday’s vessel. I trust that you will have explored the rest of the island by then.’
‘And if we haven’t?’
‘Time to think of that when the time comes, my boy.’
‘If Aunt Eliza is not on the Wednesday boat, I should imagine you’ll begin to feel a bit worried about her, Father, won’t you?’ said Margaret.
‘Worried?’ said Marius, as though the idea was a strange one. ‘Why should I be worried? She surely will return by the Wednesday boat. If not, there will be a letter. If neither, then I think we shall be fully justified in returning home, booking or no booking. Besides,’ he added, ‘if your aunt had been taken ill or had met with an accident, Miss Crimp would most certainly have been informed by now. Worried?’ He examined the thought and then dismissed it. ‘Oh, nonsense! There is nothing to worry about.’
‘She may have repented of her offer of the olive branch,’ said Sebastian, ‘and be depending on you to do as you have threatened. It seems she’s only got to lie low long enough if she wants to send us packing.’
‘There is no reason to suppose that she has changed her mind, my boy. If she had, she would have written to me long ago. However, we will allow Wednesday to decide the issue for us.’
‘One thing we could find out, if you like, Father,’ said Sebastian. ‘When we were over at the farm on Friday the farmer and his wife weren’t there. Ransome told us that Miss Crimp had sent them over to the mainland to remind Aunt Eliza about the army of bird-watchers and tell her to get back on yesterday’s boat, whatever happened.’
‘Oh, really? They do not seem to have carried out their commission, then.’
‘Would you care to have us go over to the farm and question them, Father?’ asked Margaret.
‘Good heavens, no! As I said before, if your aunt had met with any mishap, we should have been informed by now.’
‘I wonder how long she usually stays away on these jaunts?’ said Sebastian.
An enquiry at the desk elucidated this point.
‘A week and a half at the most, and I only remember that happening once before,’ Miss Crimp replied. ‘On that occasion she had to go to London to see her solicitors and took the opportunity of doing some personal shopping and going to a theatre and so forth. But at that time the hotel was very quiet and she knew that I could cope. This is rather different. Of course I suppose I can hold the fort if I must, but I still think she is being most selfish and inconsiderate. She should have been back long before this.’
For the first time Marius looked concerned as well as indignant.
‘I suppose nothing can have happened to her?’ he said doubtfully.
‘We should have been notified. She had documents in her handbag which would prove her identity if she had met with an accident. Of course she did not want the trouble of accommodating all these naturalists, any more than I did, but she said it would have been foolish to turn away their money. And now she goes off like this and leaves me to manage. I think it is too bad of her!’
‘We heard the hotel was in debt,’ murmured Sebastian, who had accompanied his father to the desk. Miss Crimp caught the murmured words.
‘In debt?’ she said, indignantly. ‘Who has been spreading lies of that sort? The hotel is flourishing.’
‘Well, last night’s fish wasn’t,’ said Sebastian coolly. ‘It hadn’t flourished for quite some considerable time.’
This statement had the most extraordinary effect on Miss Crimp. Her pale eyes widened and she opened and closed her mouth as though she herself was one of the fish in question.
‘You must complain to the head-waiter,’ she said, recovering.
‘I did, and received two very tired pilchards in exchange.’
‘I was saying,’ said Miss Crimp, ignoring Sebastian and again addressing his father, ‘that, if anything had happened to Eliza, I should have heard.’
‘What report did you receive from the people at the farm?’
‘What people at what farm?’
‘I understood that you had asked them to cross to the mainland last Friday and tell Eliza to hurry back.’
‘Oh, that? You have the facts slightly distorted, Mr Lovelaine. Mr Cranby and his wife were going over to do some ordering for themselves and, as usual, they very kindly sent to ask whether I had any commissions I wished executed. I mentioned Eliza and they promised to look out for her on the quay on their return journey, that is all.’
‘I see. Well, if I may repeat my question, what report did you receive from them?’
‘None. I assume they did not run into Eliza.’
‘We were told they had been briefed by you to find my aunt and ask her to return at once,’ said Sebastian.
‘That is absurd. Eliza is the senior partner. I do not give orders as to what she is or is not to do.’
‘From what I remember of my sister,’ said Marius, with a slight smile, ‘I doubt whether it would be of much use if you did.’ His expression altered. ‘I shall be glad to see her for several reasons,’ he added, ‘not least to find out why my booking, which was completely arranged for by letter, does not appear in your records.’
Miss Crimp snorted and turned away from him.
‘I don’t like that woman,’ said Sebastian to his father, as they walked back to the lounge. ‘What are you going to do with yourself today, Father?’
‘I think,’ said Marius, ‘that I shall give myself the pleasure of calling upon Dame Beatrice at Puffins.’
‘Will she welcome visitors, Father?’ asked Margaret.
‘I can but send in my card, my dear. How do the two of you propose to occupy your time?’
‘Oh, we have a good deal of the island to explore yet. We’ve done the east side pretty throughly, but we don’t know so much about the west cliffs or the southern end, west of the landing stage,’ replied Sebastian.
‘I see. Er… I don’t propose to dictate your movements in any way, of course, but I do not think you should become too friendly with Ransome Lovelaine.’
‘Oh, why not, Father? He’s a very nice man,’ said Margaret, ‘and you surely can’t hold his parentage against him?’
‘I hold nothing against him, my dear, and I am sure he is an estimable fellow. However, too close an acquaintanceship with him at this juncture might prove an embarrassment later on.’
‘Oh, but why?’ asked Sebastian. ‘I mean, let’s face it, Father. The object of our coming here, as I understood it, was to ingratiate ourselves with Aunt Eliza in the hope of benefits to come. Well, I must say it now appears to me that there won’t be any benefits so far as our family is concerned. Ransome and his father are the people on the spot and are quite evidently in favour with Aunt Eliza. Then there is Miss Crimp, a shareholder in the hotel. Ransome is a thoroughly decent fellow and we should like to pursue the acquaintanceship with no strings attached to it. We have nothing either to gain or to lose where Aunt Eliza is concerned, as I see it, and it would seem very odd if we dropped Ransome without any apparent reason, after he has shown himself so friendly.’