I took it from her and put it carefully in a drawer. I was not sure what I was going to do now. I had made a discovery so startling that it numbed me.
I could not think what it meant.
"It's funny you should want it now," began Eugenie.
"It's getting late," I said. "I think we ought to go to sleep."
She lay back and closed her eyes. "Good night, Miss Grant."
"Good night, Eugenie."
I was saying to myself, Fiona's husband was Lydia's husband. Lydia died skiing and he is teaching Fiona to ski. I was sure now that someone was trying to poison Eugenie, and that someone must be Elsa who was deeply involved in this macabre affair.
I must act quickly. But how?
The Meeting in the Mountains
I did not sleep at all that night, and the first thing in the morning I went to see Daisy. I had decided that I must lay the whole matter before her and I began by my account of my meeting with the stranger in the forest. She listened in silence.
Then she said: "I think that you and I should go immediately to the Hall and tell Sir Jason this fantastic story. It seems that Eugenie may be in danger."
I agreed and felt considerably better than I had during the night.
Early as it was, we rode over to the Hall. Sir Jason was out riding, which he apparently did before breakfast, and when he returned was astonished to see us.
Miss Hetherington said: "You had better tell the story, Cordelia, just as you told it to me."
So I did.
"It seems clear," said Daisy, "that this maid of ours is connected in some way with the man who makes a practice of meeting girls in the forest and presumably sweeping them off their feet."
"Clear enough," said Jason. "It is obvious that he intended the same fate for you, Cordelia."
"I think I know now why he disappeared so suddenly. It was when he learned that my aunt was selling up the Manor. He then went to Lydia and now Fiona. Is there any reason why there should be this attack on Eugenie?"
"I can think of one," said Jason. "Fiona inherits the entire fortune which was left to the girls if her sister dies."
"So Elsa is trying to dispose of Eugenie. How diabolical!"
"It will be Fiona's turn next."
"The man is a mass murderer!" said Daisy turning pale.
"I believe that is what is emerging," I said. "His accomplice works at fashionable schools where wealthy young ladies will be. She selects the most desirable, tells them of legends and gets them to a spot where the man can emerge, sets out to charm and decide who shall be his next victim. Lydia had a small fortune. She died on the ski slopes. Do you realize he is teaching Fiona to ski?"
"My God!" said Jason. "We've got to find her."
"How?" I asked. And we were all silent.
"He told me that he lived in a place in Suffolk," I said. "I went to this place and discovered that a family named Dowling had lived there. There was a son and a daughter and this man might have been the son. He told me his name was Compton, but the Comptons had been dead for twenty years. I imagine he gave me the name at random, but the fact that he chose that name and place shows he must have had a connection with it at some time. I think we ought to find out more about that family. In the meantime what are we going to do?"
"We've got to find Fiona," repeated Jason.
"You went looking for her without success. There is one thing that occurs to me. Fiona appears to be safe while Eugenie lives. He wants the whole of the fortune ... not merely hall'. That is Fiona's safeguard."
"I think Eugenie should be taken away," said Daisy.
"I agree," I said. "Elsa ... if it is Elsa ... has tried to poison her. I can see it now. She was trying to do it gradually so that when the final dose was administered it would appear that Eugenie had had a more virulent attack than those from which she had been suffering. Perhaps the dose taken by Charlotte was meant to be the final one. Charlotte has been very ill and it may well be that Eugenie, weakened as she was, would have succumbed."
"It would be incredible if there was not so much evidence to make it plausible," said Jason. "We've got to act promptly."
"I wish I knew how," I said.
"Let's think. Let's try to see all the implications.
That man has Fiona. He has married her. We don't know in what name. We don't know where his is." "He was Mark Chessingham for Lydia Markham." "He wouldn't use the same name again."
"No. Eugenie says he was Carl Someone. She had never heard his surname."
"What are we going to do, go raging round Europe again looking for a man named Carl with a wife named Fiona? Not very helpful, I'm afraid. I think we have to go to the police. This man has to be found quickly."
"There is something that has occurred to me," I said.
They looked at me expectantly. "Yes," I said slowly, "Mrs. Baddicombe has her uses. I thought she was a silly old scandalmonger but I'm feeling quite fond of her just now. Elsa writes letters to someone abroad ... She writes fairly regularly. He isn't always in the same place because Elsa has to ask Mrs. Baddicombe the price of stamps, so our postmistress knows that she has been writing to Switzerland, France, Germany and Austria. She also knows the gender of the recipient of these letters. A man. Now if Elsa is writing letters to her accomplice, and I assume that that is who it is, it must be very likely that he is writing back to her."
"I see," said Daisy, looking at me with approval.
"If we could get hold of one of those letters it will tell us something."
"It should be fairly easy to do that," said Daisy. "As you know one of the men from the stables goes and collects the mail every day because it's too far for the postman to come right out here. He usually leaves it with one of the maids. I can give instructions that he brings it straight to me."
"I daresay Elsa is on the lookout for the return of the man with the post."
"That can easily be dealt with," said Daisy. "I will vary the man's time of calling so that she suspects nothing. What do you think?" She was looking at Jason.
He said: "Yes, do that. But we can't wait for posts. I shall go to London today and in the meantime I think Eugenie should come to the Hall."
"We should have to have a good excuse for her doing so and a plausible tale to give the girls," said Daisy.
"We could say that you have special guests you want her to meet and that she is breaking up a week or so before the rest of the school," I added.
"We'll manage something," said Daisy. "What about Charlotte? I'm a little uneasy about her."
"Let her be moved to the Hall. She is fit to travel now and she can keep Eugenie company. I think we shall have to explain to the girls ... I mean Charlotte and Eugenie."
Daisy looked at me. "You know them well."
"I am not sure of that. But in Eugenie's present mood I think I might be able to talk to her. As for Charlotte, she is too weak to argue. We could say we are taking them for a drive, get them to the Hall, and tell them they are to stay there."
"I'll leave that to you, Cordelia," said Daisy, dismissing the matter with that air of breezy finality which she used when assigning difficult tasks to her employees.
"Bring her, over this morning then," said Jason. "I'm going to make arrangements to go to London to put something in motion. There is so little to go on."
"I pin my faith on a letter," I said. "I think there must be a fairly frequent correspondence."
I went up to my room. Charlotte was sitting in a chair looking pale and listless. I asked how she was and she said she was feeling tired of being in her room all day.
"Would you like to go for a drive?" I asked. She brightened and said she would.
"Then I'll get Eugenie to come along with us." So far so good. I felt a great deal better now I was taking some action.
Eugenie was delighted to miss lessons and take a ride with Charlotte.
"Where are we going?" asked Eugenie.
"We're going to the Hall."
"To see Uncle Jason?"
"I don't know whether he's there."
"He was yesterday," said Eugenie.
"We'll see," I replied.
When we arrived at the Hall I went in with the two girls. Charlotte was clearly exhausted and I asked one of the servants to take us to a room which had been prepared for her.
"Am I going to lie down?" she asked.
"You feel like it, don't you?"
"Just for a little while."
"You can lie down, and Eugenie and I will sit with you. I want to tell you both something."
When she was lying down, I opened the connecting door between that and the next room which was also a bedroom.
I said: "Now I want you to listen to me carefully. You're going to stay here for a while."
"Stay here?" cried Eugenie. "What about school?"
"Well, you have both been very ill... mysteriously. We thought it would be better if you stayed here until break-up. Then I don't know what Charlotte's plans are but you'd be coming here in any case, Eugenie."
"What will Miss Hetherington say?"
"She knows. In fact it is her ides and mine and your uncle's. We want you to stay here because there may be something at school which is not good for you."
They were silent, looking at each other, and I could see that neither of them was displeased to have the term cut short.
"I know what it is," said Eugenie. "It's drains."
"Drains?"
"Yes, they make you ill sometimes. I was ill and so was Charlotte and they think we ought to get away. It's something in our room, I expect. Below the window."
I thought that was an easy way out as I did not want to tell them that we feared an attempt was being made on Eugenie's life.
"Well, you'll have a good time here together, and, Eugenie, you'll look after Charlotte won't you? You'll fend plenty to do."
They looked at each other and laughed.
"What about Romeo and Juliet?" asked Charlotte. "Alas poor Romeo," said Eugenie. "You were quite good, Charlotte. I could never get my lines right. Who'll take our places?"
"I think it is being eliminated," I said. "They'll just have to do with The Merchant of Venice." Charlotte looked regretful.
"You wouldn't be well enough," I said. "Think how you would have hated to see someone else do it."
Realizing that, Charlotte could accept the decision. If Romeo was not Charlotte Mackay, then no one else should be.
I said: "I shall go back now. Your uncle will be here in a day or so, I believe, Eugenie."
I left them and went back to school. When I told Daisy what had happened she was at first outraged by any question of the drains at her school being imperfect; but she soon recovered from that and realized that it was better than telling them the truth.
She said: "I feel very uneasy about that girl Elsa."
"Yes, but I think it is imperative that she does not know we suspect anything. She need not fend out for some little time that Eugenie and Charlotte have gone."
"And when she does?"
"I think she may begin to wonder. We must be very watchful of her."
"I should like to put her in custody right away."
"On what evidence? It is mostly supposition. We must have proof. Let us hope we get that soon. In the meantime let us keep watch on Elsa."