Page 77 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle (Ashmore Castle #2)

‘There are plenty of other pubs,’ Giles pointed out. ‘He might have gone down to the village.’

Sebastian spoke. ‘Is there bad blood between Speen and anyone else in the house, Moss?’

Moss swallowed. ‘There are always little frictions, sir, as is natural in a staff, but nothing serious.’

‘Not so as to make him want to quit?’

‘Oh, you’re thinking he’s hooked it?’ said Richard.

‘But I can’t see him being bested by any of our people.

He’s a crafty Londoner, the sort that always comes out on top.

I can imagine him leaving because he’s bored with country life, but if that was the case, why wouldn’t he give his notice in the normal way? ’

‘I beg your pardon, sir,’ Moss said ‘but we checked his room first thing, and there’s nothing missing, not more than he might be wearing or normally carrying.’

‘Well, then, the most likely thing is that he’s had an accident,’ said Giles. ‘Though since you don’t know where he was going, it’s hard to know where to look. But we had better search, in case he’s lying helpless in a ditch somewhere.’

Moss’s mind tweaked painfully at the word ‘ditch’, and he thought briefly of William.

He had been out at the same time, and come back with scratches and a bruise to the cheek.

Had they met? Could there have been a fight?

But as Mr Richard said, Speen was canny and hard, and in any fight would surely put William down with one hand tied behind his back.

In any contest, Moss would back Speen to come out on top, so where was he?

Besides, Corbie at the Dog had said he hadn’t seen William either.

Moss had asked, in the note he sent by the boy.

Giles made his decision. ‘The grooms and boys must search the estate. Those who can be mounted can start at the far boundaries and work back, those on foot starting here and working outwards. And when they reach the farms, they can ask the tenants to use their own men to help cover the ground.’

Richard cocked his head. ‘From the tone of your voice, you don’t think they’ll find him.’

‘I think if he was going to be found, he’d have been found already. All these tracks are well-used. And I can’t see a town-bred man like him venturing off the paths or into the woods. No, I think that for reasons of his own, he’s flown the coop.’

‘And not taken his clothes with him?’ said Richard.

Giles met Moss’s eyes, and a painful thought occurred to both. ‘Better find out what he has taken,’ said Giles. ‘But do it discreetly. No need to blacken a man’s name without evidence.’

‘I certainly would not do that, my lord,’ Moss said, shocked. Theft, in a house like this, was a horrible thing.

Moss was at the door when Sebastian had a thought. ‘Has Speen any family? Who is his next of kin?’

‘I have never heard him speak of any family, sir. But I will enquire of the other servants.’

Mr Cowley was delighted with Nina’s new friend. He had been acquainted with Lady Clemmie’s father, having met him a couple of times at Marlborough House. He thought her manners particularly gentle and ladylike, a model for any young female.

He had been away again, and had asked Nina to arrange a dinner party for his return, and was glad Nina had invited Lady Clemmie.

He was slightly less glad that she had invited Adam Denbigh, though he acknowledged the need for a single man to balance the numbers.

And Adam was lively company. The other guests were Sir Bradley and Lady Graham, Colonel and Mrs Cazenove, and Lord and Lady Kelgrove, so with the Wharfedales they were twelve at table – a nice, comfortable number, he thought, and not too much for Mrs Deering to manage.

The party went well. While Lady Wharfedale was animated and amusing, she did not stray onto any contentious subjects, and Lady Clemmie added a metropolitan dimension, having moved in wide circles through her diplomat father.

She behaved very prettily to Mr Cowling, and coaxed anecdotes about the King and his circle from him, so by the time the evening ended, he was in a mellow mood.

‘A happy evening,’ he said to Nina, as they went up to bed. ‘What was young Denbigh talking to you about so earnestly in the drawing-room over coffee?’

Adam had placed himself beside Nina as soon as she sat down, and had told her about a dreadful dinner party he had once attended, caricaturing the guests in such terms she had struggled to conceal her laughter, knowing her husband was watching her.

She had been forced, breathlessly, to make him change the subject. ‘It’s so unfair to make me laugh.’

‘Then I shall be very sedate and bore you with horticulture,’ he had said. ‘That’s safe enough, surely?’

‘Gardening, mostly,’ Nina said now. ‘When he inherits the title, he means to make a fine garden at Kibworth. He told me some of his plans.’

Cowling was unconvinced. ‘I don’t see that young rake having a turn for gardening.

He’s altogether too light, to my mind. I hope Lord Kibworth makes old bones, and keeps him out of the title till he’s grown up a bit.

But Lady Clementine, now, she’s a real lady, just the sort I should like you to have for a friend.

Nothing against Lady Wharfedale, mind, but she lacks . . .’

‘Gravitas?’ Nina offered.

‘That’s right. She never has a thought that’s not frivolous. Whereas Lady Clementine thinks seriously about things, you can see that.’

Nina agreed. ‘She wants to interest me in her causes.’

‘Well, she can’t but have a good influence on any young lady,’ said Mr Cowling approvingly.

They had reached her bedroom door. He looked down at her with love, and briefly stroked her cheek with his big, hard hand.

‘I won’t say goodnight yet,’ he murmured, and she knew from that that he meant to visit her in bed.

He did, and she did her best to make him welcome, but it was another failure. She wished with all her heart that he could succeed, because he was a good man and she was fond of him, but there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it.

The search of the estate uncovered no trace of Speen, and no one claimed to have seen him either.

‘I can’t waste any more manpower on it,’ Giles said to Richard. ‘The man’s obviously absconded, and the why and the how of it are of no concern. If he comes back while I’m away, you can deal with it as you see fit. What will you do for a valet?’

‘Oh, I don’t really need one. Old Crooks can look after me as well as Uncle Sebastian while I’m here. And one of Aunt Caroline’s fellows when I’m in London. I’m not a dandy, like you, Giles – I don’t need a dedicated wardrobe-master.’

‘Ha ha,’ said Giles stonily. ‘Where did you learn such wit?’

‘You’re really going, then?’ Richard asked seriously.

Giles resisted the tacit demand to explain himself. ‘I really am. And you, little brother, will take care of everything while I’m gone. I have absolute faith in you.’

‘Then I suspect your judgement in more ways than one,’ said Richard. ‘But do I have full powers? Or am I simply stopping the house from burning down?’

‘Why? Are there things you want to do?’

‘There may be. Who knows what might come up? A business opportunity that needs to be acted on? Our friend Cowling says a man must be nimble to seize the advantage, but if I had to wait for a message to get all the way to darkest Africa and back . . .’

‘You have full powers,’ Giles said. ‘I trust Markham to keep you on the straight and narrow.’

‘What you mean is that you don’t care,’ Richard said, with a hint of criticism. ‘If I did destroy everything, I suspect you would merely shrug, and feel a guilty relief. I know where your heart is, brother mine, and it’s not here.’

Giles looked bleak. ‘I wish I didn’t have a heart,’ he said. ‘Life would be so much easier if one weren’t torn two ways. I wish I had no feelings at all, like you.’

‘Is that what you think of me?’ Richard said. ‘I am lucky, am I not, to care for nobody? No wife and child to tie me down – not that yours are tying you.’

Giles turned away abruptly. ‘You’d better have Speen’s chattels packed away, in case some relative turns up and asks for them.’ And he left the room.

William was smoking in the backyard, when Hook sidled out to lounge beside him. William gave him a nervous sidelong look, like a sheep that’s spotted something moving in the bracken.

‘So, William, I see your black eye’s nearly gone. And that scratch on your face. How did you get ’em, by the way?’ Hook asked insinuatingly.

‘I told Mr Moss—’ William began.

‘Oh, I know what you told him. But it doesn’t cut the ice with me. I been in enough fights to know the signs. You went after Speen, didn’t you? Question is, did you find him? Or, more to the point, how did you leave him?’

‘I don’t have to answer your questions,’ William said. ‘Mind your own business.’

‘Oh, William, don’t make an enemy of me,’ Hook said silkily. ‘You might need all the friends you can get. What if the police take an interest?’

‘I got nothing to say to the police. I wasn’t in no fight. And I never saw Speen.’

‘You went off after him, hot-footed, when I told you the truth about him and Tabby. Doesn’t look good, does it, him going missing right after that, and you turning up with a busted face? And how is the lovely Tabby, by the way?’

‘Don’t know. Her and me is broken up,’ William said sullenly.

‘That’s terrible. The poor girl, left to bring your child into the world all alone.’

William turned, his fists bunching. ‘You leave me alone, you devil, or I’ll—’

‘You’ll what? You’ll kill me, like you did Speen? Where did you hide the body, then, Billy boy?’

William threw down his cigarette and stalked into the house.

Hook picked it up, examined the end, and put it between his lips, leaning against the wall with one foot up behind him.

Of course he didn’t really think William had fought Speen – if he had, he’d have come off a lot worse, and it would have been Speen who came back and William who went missing.

Hook would back Speen every time to knock William down without a finger being laid on him.

William had had a scrap with someone , all right, but it wasn’t Speen.

But it was fun to tease William, the little twerp.

And – his mind started to work – maybe there was profit to be made out of the situation.

Naturally, all the servants had quickly learned that Mr Moss was checking to see if Speen had stolen anything.

It was meant to be a secret, but there were no secrets in a house like this.

Now, with Speen missing, it was a good opportunity to lay a lot of sins at his door.

He must see what he might safely lay hands on, anything he could dispose of easily and safely.

And it might be fun to drop an anonymous line to the village constable about William (who had he been fighting with, anyway?)

As to what had happened to Speen, Hook reckoned he had just run for it, probably because something he was up to had been found out, or was about to be.

He wouldn’t be surprised if Speen hadn’t had a lot of irons in the fire all around the village.

As for leaving his kit behind, there wasn’t anything of worth there – Hook had checked.

No doubt he kept anything worth having hidden somewhere, and had made sure to take it with him.

They wouldn’t see Speen again, Hook was sure of that.

And he didn’t care, either. Good riddance to bad rubbish, was his view.