“Peggy?”
“Warder,” he said. “Don’t you think she’s the sweetest, most adorable creature you’ve ever seen?”
“Don’t you have the orders of service folded yet?” Warder said, coming up. “Lady Schrapnell wants them for the ushers.”
“Where is she?” I asked her.
“The Mercers’ Chapel,” Warder said, and I made my escape.
But Lady Schrapnell wasn’t in the Mercers’ Chapel or the baptistry, and there were signs of activity near the west door. I was going to have to return the bishop’s bird stump myself.
I carried it across to the Smiths’ Chapel, thinking, now the wrought-iron stand will have disappeared, but it was there, right where it was supposed to be, in front of the parclose screen. I set the bishop’s bird stump carefully on it.
Flowers. It needed flowers. I went back up to the pulpit and the woman in the green apron. “The vase in front of the parclose screen of the Smiths’ Chapel needs flowers in it,” I said. “Yellow chrysanthemums.”
“Yellow chrysanthemums!” she said, snatching up a handheld and looking at it in alarm. “Did Lady Schrapnell send you? The order didn’t say anything about yellow chrysanthemums.”
“It’s a last-minute addition,” I said. “You haven’t seen Lady Schrapnell, have you?”
“Girdlers’ Chapel,” she said, jamming gladiolas in the pulpit vase. “Chrysanthemums! Where am I supposed to get yellow chrysanthemums?”
I started down the transept aisle. It was jammed with choirboys and people in academic dress. “All right!” a young man the spitting image of the Reverend Mr. Arbitage said. “Here’s the order of procession. First, the censer, followed by the choir. Then the members of the history faculty, by college. Mr. Ransome, where is your robe? The instructions clearly said full academic regalia.”
I sidled back along one of the pews to the north aisle and started up the nave. And saw Mr. Dunworthy.
He was at the entrance to the Girdlers’ Chapel, standing against one of the arches and holding onto it for support. He was holding a sheet of paper, and as I watched, it fluttered from his hand onto the floor.
“What is it?” I said, hurrying up to him. “Are you all right?”
I put my arm round him. “Come here,” I said, leading him to the nearest pew. “Sit down.” I retrieved the piece of paper and sat down next to him. “What is it?”
He smiled a little wanly at me. “I was just looking at the children’s cross,” he said, pointing to where it hung in the Girdlers’ Chapel. “And realizing what it means. We were so busy trying to solve the incongruity and pull Carruthers out and work with Finch, it never hit me till now what we’ve discovered.”
He reached for the sheet of paper I had picked up. “I have been making a list,” he said.
I looked at the sheet of paper in my hand. “The library at Lisbon,” it read. “The Los Angeles Public Library. Carlyle’s The French Revolution. The library at Alexandria.”
I looked at him.
“All destroyed by fire,” he said. “A maid burnt the only copy of Carlyle’s The French Revolution by mistake.” He took the paper from me. “This is what I was able to think of in just a few minutes.”
He folded up the list. “St. Paul’s Cathedral was vaporized by a pinpoint bomb,” he said. “All of it. The painting of The Light of the World, Nelson’s tomb, the statue of John Donne. To think that they might—”
The curate came up. “Mr. Dunworthy,” he said. “You are supposed to be in line.”
“Have you seen Lady Schrapnell?” I asked the curate.
“She was in the Drapers’ Chapel a moment ago,” he said. “Mr. Dunworthy, are you ready?”
“Yes,” Mr. Dunworthy said. He took off his mortarboard, tucked the list inside, and put it back on again. “I am ready for anything.”
I headed up the nave to the Drapers’ Chapel. The transept aisle was full of milling dons, and Warder was in the choir, trying to line up the choirboys. “No, no, no!” she was shouting. “Don’t sit down! You’ll wrinkle your surplices. I’ve just ironed them. And line up. I don’t have all day!”
I edged past her and over to the Drapers’ Chapel. Verity was there, standing in front of the stained-glass window, her beautiful head bent over a sheet of paper.
“What’s that?” I asked, going over to her. “The order of service?”
“No,” she said. “It’s a letter. Remember how, after we found Maud’s letter, I suggested to the forensics expert that she see if any letters Tossie might have sent to other people existed?” She held it up. “She found one.”
“You’re joking,” I said. “And I suppose it’s got Baine’s name in it.”
“No, Tossie’s still calling him her ‘beloved husband.’ And she signs it ‘Toots.’ But there are some very interesting things in it,” she said, sitting down in one of the carved pews. “Listen to this: ‘My darling Terence-’ ”
“Terence?” I said. “What on earth’s she doing writing to Terence?”
“He wrote to her,” she said. “That letter’s lost. This is Tossie’s reply.”
“Terence wrote her?”
“Yes,” Verity said. “Listen: ‘My darling Terence, Words cannot properly express how happy your letter of the third made me.’ ‘Happy’ is underlined. ‘I had given up all hope of ever hearing of my precious Princess Arjumand in this world!!’ ‘World’—”
“Is underlined,” I said.
“And there are two exclamation points,” Verity said. She read on: “ ‘We were already far out to sea when I discovered her missing. My beloved husband did everything in his power to convince the captain to return to port at once, but he cruelly refused, and I thought I would never see my dearum precious Juju again in this life or know of her Fate.’ ”
“Pretty much the whole thing’s underlined,” Verity said, “and Fate is capitalized.” She read, “ ‘You cannot imagine my joy when I received your letter. It was my great fear that she had perished in the briny deep, and now to hear that she is not only alive but with you!’ ”
“What?” I said.
“The entire thing’s underlined from here on out,” Verity said. “ ‘To think of my delicate darling travelling all the way from Plymouth to Kent when Muchings End would have been much closer! But perhaps it is for the best. Mama has written that Papa recently acquired a new golden veiltail ryunkin. And I know that you will give her a good home.
“ ‘Thank you for your kind offer to send Princess Arjumand to me in the care of Dawson, but my beloved husband and I agree that, given her dislike of water, it is best that she remain in your care. I know that you and your bride Maud will love and cherish her as I have. Mama wrote me of your marriage. Though it seems to me to have been a bit hasty, and I sincerely hope that it was not done on the rebound, I am gladder than I can say that you have been able to forget me, and it is my fervent hope that you will be as happy as I and my beloved husband are! Kiss Princess Arjumand and stroke her dear sweet fur for me, and tell her that her muvver finks of her dearum dearums darling evewy day. Gratefully, Toots Callahan.’ ”
“Poor Cyril,” I said.
“Nonsense,” Verity said. “They were made for each other.”
“So are we,” I said.
She ducked her head.
“So, how’s about it, Harriet?” I said. “We make a jolly good detectin’ team, eh what? What say we make the partnership permanent?”
“No!” Warder shouted. “I told you not to sit down. Look at those wrinkles! Those surplices are linen!”