The Unknown Ajax

Chapter 21

“Well, upon my word!” cried Anthea, as though she could no longer restrain herself. “Mr. Ottershaw, are you indeed mad, or merely determined to insult us! I never heard of anything so outrageous in my life! Who are you to throw orders about in this house? Pray how many people have been fired on tonight?”

Uncertainty, chagrin, the intangible feeling that he was being fooled to the top of his bent, were making the Lieutenant lose his temper. He snapped back accusingly: “Only one, Miss Darracott!”

She stared at him, her eyes blazing. “Only—Why, you—you impertinent idiot! Do you know what you are saying? Do you seriously imagine that I—my grandfather—my cousins—all of us, in fact: every member of the household!—are engaged in the smuggling trade?”

“No! But that you are engaged in protecting Mr. Richmond Darracott, yes!”he said recklessly.

“Don’t be so daft, Ottershaw!” said Hugo quietly.

Anthea paid no heed, but gave a scornful, angry laugh, and said: “Well, I hope you know how my brother has contrived to become a smuggler without anyone’s being the wiser, for I can assure you I don’t! When I think of the way every single soul at Darracott Place fusses and cossets him—Oh, what is the use of talking to you? You are out of your senses!” She swung round towards Lord Darracott, demanding impetuously: “Grandpapa, how much more of this do you mean to endure?”

“Let him go his length, my girl!” he replied. “The farther the better! Do you think I mean to stop him tieing the noose round his own neck? I don’t, pea-goose!”

Sergeant Hoole stepped forward, laying a hand on the Lieutenant’s arm. “Sir!” he uttered imploringly. “Begging your pardon, but—”

Ottershaw shook him off. He had gone too far to draw back, and the voice within his brain that urged him not to let these Darracotts outjockey him was growing every second more insistent. Rather pale, but with his jaw out-thrust, he said: “If Mr. Richmond Darracott is unhurt, why should he hesitate to remove his coat, so that I may be convinced by the evidence of my own eyes that it is so?”

Hugo, who had bent over Claud, adjusting the sling that supported his left arm, straightened himself, saying: “Oh, for God’s sake, take your coat off, Richmond, and your waistcoat too! Let’s be done with this business!”

Richmond might be pale, but his eyes, tremendously alive, gave the lie to the drawn look on his face, not a trace of fear in them. He gave a gleeful chuckle, and pointed a derisive finger at the Major. “Who said I couldn’t bamboozle the Exciseman? Who said he was too fly to the time of day to be hoaxed by a silly schoolboy? I’ve done it! Vincent, do you know what Hugo—”

“I’m going to say something more, when you’re sober enough to attend to me,” said Hugo, somewhat grimly. “Happen you won’t find that so amusing! In the meantime, we’ve had more than enough of your hoax, so take your coat off, and let me have no argument about it!”

Richmond’s laughter was quenched. He looked resentfully at his large cousin, saying sulkily: “I don’t know why I need do as you say. I don’t care for what you think. Nothing to do with you!”

“Help him off with it, Vincent!” said Hugo curtly.

At this point Claud, who had opened his eyes some few minutes previously, demanded, in bewildered accents: “What the devil does that fellow want with Richmond’s coat? Dash it, he is mad!”

“Don’t fatch!” said Hugo. “He thinks it’s Richmond that was shot, and not you at all, so the easiest way to prove him wrong—”

“Thinks—thinks I wasn’t shot?” gasped Claud, galvanized into struggling up on to his right elbow. “Oh, so that’s what you think, is it, you murderous lunatic? Then let me tell you—”

“You young fool, keep still! Claud—!” exclaimed Hugo, taking two hasty strides to the head of the sofa, as Claud, with every sign of one exerting a superhuman effort, dragged himself up from the cushions, panting, and making unavailing attempts to speak. “Nay then, lad! Gently now!” he begged, his arms round Claud. “You’ll do yourself an injury, you silly lad! You mustn’t—”

“Don’t you talk to me!” raged Claud, between laboured breaths. “If you think—Ow—!”

The anguish throbbing in this sharp cry was so real that even Vincent was startled, while Anthea could almost have exclaimed Bravo! Ottershaw, who had been paying no heed to him, but keeping his eyes fixed on Richmond, just about to let Vincent pull off his coat, turned involuntarily.

“Hugo, you—you—!”

“Nay, lad, it’s your own fault!” protested Hugo. “Stop wriggling about like—”

“You put your great, clumsy hand right on—Oh—ah—ugh—!” moaned Claud, reduced again to extremis.

“Brandy, Polyphant!” Hugo said, his anxious gaze on Claud’s face. He shifted him slightly, and stretched out an imperative hand. “Or the salts! Anything, only give it to me quickly!”

A tiny, perfectly spontaneous shriek escaped Anthea.

“Hugo—! Your hand!”she stammered, her dilating eyes riveted to it.

“Good God!” ejaculated Vincent involuntarily.

Hugo looked round, surprised at Anthea, and then at his own bloodstained palm. “Oh, my God!” he uttered, swiftly glancing down at Claud’s back, which only he was in a position to see.

“Sir—!” exclaimed Polyphant reproachfully, and darted forward to snatch up some lint from the pile on the floor. “No, no, let me, sir! I beg pardon, but pray don’t—Just hold him, if you please! Oh, dear, oh, dear!

Miss Anthea, the longest strip of linen you can find—or knot two together—anything! Don’t move, Mr. Claud! I implore you, sir, don’t move!”

Since no one in the room had seen the Major pick up several of the blood-soaked swabs from the bowl still standing on the chair beside the sofa, and close his hand on them, it was hardly surprising that the sight of his horridly reddened palm should have come as a shock to the rest of his family. Had Lieutenant Ottershaw not been far too much shocked himself to think of studying the expressions on the faces of his companions, one glance must have satisfied him that the Darracotts were honestly horrified.

Anthea was the first to recover her wits, and to rush to the sofa, scolding distractedly; Vincent was swift to follow suit. Both blamed Hugo for having handled the drooping Claud with abominable clumsiness; my lord joined in, directing his menaces, however, towards Lieutenant Ottershaw, for being the real cause of this fresh disaster; and the Sergeant, prompted by real dismay, and a very lively dread of the consequences, seized the opportunity provided by all this commotion to represent to Ottershaw, with all the eloquence at his command, that any more attempts to exacerbate the Darracotts would only bring them both to ruin.

It was at this moment that Lady Aurelia entered the room, and, halting on the threshold, demanded, in a voice which, without being raised to any vulgar pitch, easily penetrated the hubbub: “What, may I ask, is the meaning of this extraordinary scene?”

Such was the effect of her commanding eye, and air of supreme assurance, that Lieutenant Ottershaw found himself to his subsequent fury, adding his voice to those of Anthea and Vincent, in an attempt to present her ladyship with the explanation she desired.

She seemed to grasp the gist of what was told her with all the rapidity of a powerful intelligence; and, considerably before the various accounts had been brought to their conclusions, paralysed the company by uttering, in icy yet ominous accents: “Be silent, if you please! I have heard enough!”

She then swept forward to the sofa, Anthea, Vincent, and the Major giving way instinctively before her, and bent over Claud, feeling his brow, and his wrist. Magnificently ignoring everyone else, she exchanged a few words with Polyphant, who had remained devoutly at the head of the sofa; and, upon Claud’s venturing to open his eyes sufficiently to cast a doubtful, slightly nervous glance up at her, said with calm kindness: “You will keep perfectly still, my son: do you understand me? You have no need to trouble yourself about anything, for Mama is here, and will make you better directly.”

She then turned, and looked round the room, with all the lofty contempt natural to the descendant of eleven Earls, all of whom, if not otherwise distinguished, had been remarkable for the high-handed and very successful way with which they had dealt with inferior persons, and overridden all opposition to their domestic decrees. No one saw these august personages range themselves at Lady Aurelia’s back, but (as her appreciative elder son afterwards asserted) no one could doubt that they had all of them hurried to the support of so worthy a daughter.

“I do not know,” she stated, in a tone of dispassionate censure, “why I have been obliged to come downstairs to discover for myself the precise nature of Claud’s injury, but I do not attempt to conceal from you that I am excessively displeased. Your conduct, Vincent, I consider particularly reprehensible, for it was on the understanding that you would instantly apprise me of it, if you found your brother’s injury to be of a serious character, that I allowed myself to be persuaded to remain upstairs. Neither you nor Anthea, whom I must deem to have been gravely at fault, are so stupid as to have supposed that the accident was of a trifling nature. I shall say no more to you, Hugo, than that I trust you will in future refrain from making well-meaning but foolish attempts to conceal from some other female in my position the very dangerous state in which one of her children may be lying. Pray do not answer me! I have neither the time nor the desire to listen to excuses or apologies. You will all of you, with the exception of Polyphant, be so good as to leave this room immediately. Vincent, since I apprehend that Richmond is disgracefully inebriated, you will please assist him to his bed-chamber. I do not presume to dictate to you, my lord, but since there is nothing for you to do here I am persuaded you will be very much more comfortable in your library.” Her eyes next fell on Lieutenant Ottershaw, and after considering him for a moment or two in a way that made the Sergeant feel profoundly thankful that her gaze had swept past him, said, without the slightest change of intonation: “You, I believe, are the author of this outrage. I collect that you are in the service of the Board of Customs, I shall be obliged to you if you will furnish me with your name, and style.”

The Lieutenant’s colour was considerably heightened, but he replied with commendable readiness: “My name is Ottershaw, ma’am—Thomas Ottershaw, and I am a Riding-officer of the Customs’ Land-Guard. Allow me to assure your ladyship that, while I do not seek to disclaim responsibility for whatever injury Mr. Darracott has suffered, my explicit order was that no shot was to be fired, other than a warning shot over the head of any person failing to obey a summons to halt in the King’s name. I regret very much that an accident should have occurred, but I must take leave to inform your ladyship of the circumstance which led—”

“Pray say no more!” she interrupted. “I am neither deaf nor slow of understanding, and since I was present when you made known to his lordship the precise nature of your errand any further explanation would be superfluous. Let me make it plain to you that whatever may be my opinion of the accusation you than made, I am not concerned with my nephew’s affairs, but with the attack upon my son. I have nothing further to add, except that I shall immediately lay the matter before my husband. No doubt he will know what action to take. As a mere female, I cannot consider myself competent to deal with such an affair. I will not detain you any longer. If you have anything further to do in this house, pray desire Major Darracott to conduct you to some other room!”

With these measured words, she turned to Polyphant, and began to question him on the exact nature of Claud’s injury, wholly ignoring her stunned audience.

The Major, a phlegmatic man, was the first to recover from the shattering effect of this encounter with a mere female, and he acted with great promptitude and good sense, saying meekly: “Yes, ma’am! I will do so immediately,” and thrusting the Lieutenant out of the room. Sergeant Hoole, holding the door for them, needed no urging to follow, the manner of his exit suggesting that only a rigid adherence to discipline restrained him from preceding his superiors.

No one moved or spoke for several moments, the actors in the conspiracy remaining as though frozen, nearly all of them looking towards the door, intently listening. Then Lord Darracott sank into a chair beside the fire, and with shaking hands grasped its arms, his countenance grey, and his eyes staring straight before him, fixed and sightless. Lady Aurelia glanced at him, and then away from him, as though averting her gaze from some indecent spectacle. As Claud sat up, saying: “Well, thank the lord that’s over!” she lifted a warning finger, and said: “Do not abandon your position until we are assured that those men have departed! Since you have all of you chosen to pursue a line of conduct as criminal as it is grossly improper, I must beg you to maintain the imposture!”

Claud sank back obediently, but said: “Dash it, Mama, if you think we chose—! Besides, I should like to know what you were doing! Well, what I mean is—”

“I know exactly what you mean, Claud. Pray do not imagine that my participation in this disgraceful affair in any way alters my sentiments!” said her ladyship severely.

“You are quite superb, Mama,” said Vincent. “May I make you my heartfelt compliments on a performance that will ever command my admiration? Your entrance I can only describe as a clincher.”

“I have the greatest objection to cant terms,” responded her ladyship. “I trust I may have expedited the departure of the Preventive officer, but I must suppose, from what I have seen of your powers of what I can only call deception, that you would have done very well without my intervention.”

“Hugo did it,” Anthea said, with a wavering smile. “It was all Hugo. We didn’t know what to do. Even Vincent didn’t. We just—did what Hugo told us.” She dashed a hand across her eyes, adding: “It was the pageant of Ajax! Not that I mean the others weren’t wonderful too, particularly Claud! Claud, that shriek you gave almost persuaded me to believe you had suffered a spasm of anguish!”

“Oh, it did, did it?” said Claud bitterly. “I should rather think it might! Hugo jabbed a pin into me!” He eyed his relatives with disfavour. “Yes, I daresay you think it’s devilish funny, but when I see Hugo next—Well, dash it, I knew what he wanted me to do, because he told me, when he pretended to be arranging this damned sling, and there was no need to stick pins into me! When I think of the things I’ve had to do this night, let alone being smeared all over with young Richmond’s blood—Yes, and how much longer have I got to lie here, swaddled up in bandages which are dashed uncomfortable, besides—”

“You have my sympathy, brother, but Mama is, as usual, right. It will not do for any of us to be caught off our guard. I have no real apprehension—the hideous experiences of the past hour have taught me that our cousin’s bovine countenance is, to say the least of it, misleading—but we will take no eleventh-hour risks. I wonder what glib lies he is telling that unfortunate Exciseman now?”

“It is a very distressing reflection that any gentleman of birth—and particularly one whose military rank is distinguished—should have been obliged to lend himself to so disreputable a business,” pronounced her ladyship, with undiminished severity. “It is, however, to his credit that he appears at least to know what is his duty to his Family, and although I am far from approving of his conduct I cannot deny that I regard his arrival at Darracott Place as the greatest piece of good fortune that has befallen the Family for very many years. As to whether the Family is deserving of its good fortune—that is a subject upon which I prefer to remain silent!”

This measured speech not unnaturally reduced its auditors to speechless discomfort; and when Hugo presently came back into the room, he found his actors so apparently petrified into the positions in which he had left them that he grinned, and said: “Eh, you look just like a set of waxworks!”

“Not waxworks, coz: puppets!” retorted Vincent. “What unnatural antics must we next perform?”

“Hugo, have they gone?” Anthea asked anxiously.

“Oh, yes, they’ve gone, lass!” He smiled cordially upon Lady Aurelia. “Thanks to you, ma’am! I’m reet grateful to you. Nay, till you came in there was no deciding which was the best actor amongst the lot of you! Myself, I couldn’t make up my mind between Claud and Richmond, but, eh, when you took command, there was—”

“Yes, dear cousin,” interrupted Anthea firmly, “we are well aware that everyone, except you, acted to admiration, but what we are desirous of knowing is how you contrived to rid us of Ottershaw.”

“Oh, there was no difficulty about that, lass, once her ladyship’s guns had broken the square!” he assured her. “You might say that I’d nothing to do but to harass the retreat.”

“I might, but it is very unlikely that I shall,” she retorted. “Hugo, are we safe?”

“Nay, love, don’t look so fatched! We shall be safe enough, once we’ve tied up a few knots, which we’ll do easily, never fear!” he assured her.

“Did you succeed in convincing that damned, obstinate tide-watcher!” demanded Vincent.

“Nay, I’m not one to level at the moon. Happen he’ll suspect to the end of his days that he was made a Maygame of, poor lad! But what with her ladyship setting him in a quake, and me telling him that you’d so much influence, ma’am, that if he’d caught our Richmond redhanded you’d have seen to it the whole business was hushed-up, he didn’t know which way to turn. He’s no turn-tail, but he knew well he’d exceeded his commission, and when he saw I knew it too, there was naught he could do but retire—the position being untenable, as you might say! I don’t know much about Preventive work, but I do know that unless they find a smuggler in actual possession of run goods the Preventives are pretty well hamstrung—even when they’ve been nose-led after a decoy-train of rascals rigged out in smocks to deceive them, and leading a string of ponies carrying nothing more than loads of faggots. They know full well they’ve been bamboozled, but it’s no crime to carry faggots across the country in the middle of the night, so the poor devils have naught to do but own themselves gapped. Well, it was plain enough that, whatever Ottershaw had seen, he hadn’t seen our Richmond in possession of anything other than a load of devilry. All he was doing tonight was trying to catch the lad, or at any road to discover how he was contriving to flit in and out of the Dower House, no matter how strong a guard was set on it. He’d no more intention of executing that warrant than he had of getting the lad shot. Once that had happened, he may have felt there was naught to do but go through stitch with the business, or he may have gambled on the chance that if he found the lad here, wounded, he could scare him into making a confession. If he couldn’t do that, he knew he’d be taken at fault, so you can’t but allow he’s got plenty of courage. I must say, it went to my heart to cheat him, poor lad! However, a back-cast won’t harm him, for he didn’t handle the business well, and happen he’ll do better in future.” His rueful grin dawned. “It was a reet shame,” he confessed. “I gave him a dressing, just as I would any skelterbrained subaltern that had plunged stickle-butt into trouble all because he was too pot-sure, and that took the last bit of fight out of him. So I told him when he was fairly down that I knew it was our Richmond’s mischief that had led him into the hobble, and I’d do my best to bring him safely home, and no one the wiser as long as he kept his tongue between his teeth. So we’ll hope that’s buttoned the thing up, which there’s no reason to think it won’t—once he knows that young scamp’s not here any longer to plague the life out of him.”

There was a tiny pause, several pairs of eyes instinctively turning towards Lord Darracott. He gave no sign of having heard what Hugo had said, still sitting immobile, and staring straight ahead. Anthea glanced from him to Richmond, no longer tense, but sitting rather limply, his right elbow on the table, and his brow dropped on to his hand; her eyes travelled to Vincent, reading the look of strain on his face; and suddenly she began to laugh rather tremulously, realizing that the only one whose nerves were not in some way or other disordered from the ordeal they had passed through was the one on whom the success of an enterprise fraught with peril had depended, and thinking how ridiculous it was that he should rejoin his shattered accomplices as placidly as though he had done nothing more than escort two harmless morning-callers to the door. She saw that he was looking at her in mild surprise, and said: “Oh, Hugo, Hugo! I don’t know what to say to you!”

“Well, we’ve no time to waste on any more talk now, love, so happen that’s just as well,” he replied matter-of-factly. “We must dispose of Richmond’s clothes, and clear up all this mess. Nay, then, Polyphant! don’t stand gauping! There’s work to be done!”

Polyphant, who had indeed been standing staring at him, gave a start, and recalled his scattered wits. “Yes, sir—to be sure! I fear I was indulging in reflection—I will remove the bowls first, and then Mr. Claud will be comfortable again!”

“You’ll find the swabs I squeezed in my hand behind the sofa cushions,” Hugo warned him. “Vincent, will you see all these clothes disposed of? I’ve been trying to decide what had best be done with Richmond, and it seems to me that we’ll have to put him to bed in Claud’s room, for that wound of his must be attended to, and since it’s Claud who’s supposed to be the wounded one we mustn’t have any bloodstains anywhere but on his sheets. Now, there’s no need to start shuddering, lad! I’m not asking you to sleep on them!”

“No, and it wouldn’t be any use if you did ask me to!” Claud informed him, pausing in his struggles to unwind the bandages from round his slim person. “Dashed if I ever met such a fellow as you are!”

“How seldom it is that I find myself in accord with you, brother!” remarked Vincent. He looked at Hugo, and said, with a wry smile: “You irritate me intensely, you know. I have little doubt that you always will, but if ever I should get into a tight corner I do hope to God you will be at hand to pull me out of it, coz!”

“Never mind throwing the hammer at me!” replied Hugo, unmoved by this tribute, “if you want to throw it at anyone, throw it at Claud, because he’s the one who saved our groats!” His eyes were on Richmond, and he went to him, saying: “I think I’ll carry you up to bed, lad, before I do aught else.”

Richmond lifted his head with an effort. The fire had gone out of his eyes, and with the passing of danger the spirit that had upheld him so indomitably had sunk, allowing his physical weakness at last to overcome him. He managed to smile, and to say, in the thread of a voice: “A close-run thing ...! Thank you—so very grateful—so sorry, Hugo—Grandpapa ...”

Hugo caught him, as he collapsed, and lifted him up in his arms. “Eh, poor lad, I ought to have got him to bed sooner, instead of standing there chattering!” he said remorsefully. “Anthea, run upstairs to see if the coast is clear, will you, love?” He looked at Lady Aurelia. “I take it you warned his mother, ma’am?”

“Certainly,” she replied. “She was cast into very natural affliction, and dared not come down to this room for fear that her agitation might overcome her, and so betray you all, but I left her in Mrs. Flitwick’s care, and have no doubt that she will be more composed by now.”

“I’m very much obliged to you, ma’am,” he said. “Breaking it to her was the thing I dreaded most.”

“An unpleasant task,” she agreed. “I am happy to have been able to relieve you of it, for, however little I may approve of your conduct this evening I must own myself to be deeply grateful to you for all that you have done, and, I may add, very conscious of the magnanimity you have shown.”

“Nay—!” begged the Major, reddening.

She said graciously: “You have no need to blush, my dear Hugo. I do not mean to flatter you, and will only say that I have from the beginning of our acquaintance believed you to be a most estimable young man. I have little doubt that when you have overcome your tendency to levity you will do very well at Darracott Place.”

Fortunately, since Hugo was showing signs of acute embarrassment, Anthea had by this time come back into the room, to report that it was safe to carry Richmond upstairs. Lord Darracott rose stiffly from the chair into which he had sunk, and looked at Hugo, saying, as though the words were forced from him: “I am obliged to you, Hugo.”

“There’s no need for that, sir,” Hugo replied cheerfully. “The young scamp’s as near to being my brother-in-law as makes no odds—though happen I’d have better not to have said that, because, now I come to think of it, you’ve not accepted my offer yet, have you, love?”

“More levity?” she murmured.

He grinned. “You’re reet: I’m past praying for! Come, now, lead the way, lass!” He saw that Lord Darracott was looking at Richmond’s white, unconscious face, and paused for a moment, and said gently: “He’s got spunk, you know, sir.”

His lordship’s grim mouth twisted. “Yes,” he said, turning away. “He was always—full of pluck. Take him up to his mother!”

It was some considerable time later that Hugo came downstairs again. Claud had retired to bed, but Lord Darracott and Vincent were still up, seated in the library. As Hugo came into the room, Vincent looked up with a flickering smile. “Well? How is that abominable brat?”

“Oh, he’s nicely!” Hugo replied. “He won’t be very comfortable till he’s had the bullet dug out of him—and that’s something he won’t enjoy, think on—but it would take more than one bullet to daunt him! I won’t deny that he’s caused a deal of trouble—eh, if ever a lad wanted a good skelping—! But I can’t but like young devils as full of gaiety as he is.”

“Yes, excellent bottom,” Vincent agreed, getting up, and walking across the room to a side-table. “I owe you an apology, Ajax: you warned me, and I paid no heed. I’m sorry. Had I attended to you, I might have averted the singularly nerve-racking events we have survived this night, thanks, I admit,—and you have no notion how much it costs me to do so!—to your unsuspected genius for—er—diddling the dupes! Accept my compliments, and allow me to offer you some brandy! Unless the very word has, for reasons which I need not, I feel, explain to you, become repulsive to you, I am persuaded you must stand in urgent need of it.”

Hugo grinned, as he took the glass Vincent was holding out to him, but said quite seriously: “Well, it nattered me at the time that you wouldn’t heed me, but I’m not so sure now that it would have made any difference if you had. The best thing about this business is that, while that cargo was hidden in this passage of ours, it didn’t matter to Richmond how close the hounds were: it was his doing that they were stored there, and nothing anyone could have said would have turned him from what he saw to be his duty. You heard him, Vincent: he said he couldn’t leave his men in the lurch, because it was his scheme, and he was in command. Never mind the rest!—that’s the stuff out of which a damned good officer is made!” He looked down at his grandfather. “You don’t like roundaboutation, sir, and nor do I. I told Ottershaw that Richmond had won your consent to his joining, and I’m looking to you to make my word good. Will you let me purchase a cornetcy for him?”

There was a long silence. Vincent broke it. “You have no choice, sir.”

“Do as you will!” his lordship said harshly. “That any grandson of mine could—and, of you all, Richmond!—”

“It’s no wish to mine to fratch with you over what’s done, and can’t be mended,” interrupted Hugo, “but ask yourself, sir, whose fault it was that a lad of his cut, crazy with disappointment, and hearing nothing but praise of smuggling all his life, was brought to this pass?”

“I have said you may do as you will! I am not answerable to you for Richmond’s upbringing!”

“Not to me, but to him, sir.”

Lord Darracott threw him a strange glance, and lowered his eyes again. After a slight pause, Vincent said: “And so, coz?”

“If it’s left to me, I’d like to see the boy in the Seventh Hussars. I’ve several good friends in the regiment, who’ll need no urging to keep an eye on a lad who bears my name.”

“That, cousin,” murmured Vincent, “is the most un-kindest cut of all! Proceed!”

“Nay, I didn’t mean it so! For the rest, we’ve settled it between us—my aunts and I—that it will be best to get the lad away from here, and Claud too, at first light, before the servants are up and about. It will be easily done, and accounted for: your mother wants her own doctor to deal with Claud, and Richmond goes to help her with him on the journey. John Joseph will drive them to Tonbridge in her ladyship’s own carriage, and see to the hiring of a post-chaise there to carry them on to London. I’ve promised my Aunt Elvira I’ll take her to London myself as soon as I get back from the north, but it won’t do for her to join Richmond too soon, for we don’t want to set tongues wagging.”

“Have you induced her to let him go without her? Good God!”

“She’ll do nothing to hinder us from doing what’s best for him, little though she may like it. She knows your mother will take good care of him, too.”

“Your staff work is admirable, coz. Why, by the way, does Richmond go to succour Claud while I remain here?”

“No one will wonder at that, lad! Claud’s in no state for fratching!”

“Touché!”Vincent acknowledged, throwing up a hand. “You don’t feel that I ought to drive myself to town in the wake of the chaise, as—er—rearguard?”

“I don’t,” replied Hugo. “You and I, lad, have got work to do here! Something must be done about that secret passage. If we can do no more, between the pair of us, than block it, as it was when Richmond first saw it, we’ll do that.”

“What an enchanting prospect!” said Vincent faintly. “How right you are—damn you!”

Hugo chuckled, but addressed his grandfather. “There’s one thing more, sir. That young good-like naught of yours won’t rest until he’s seen you. He knows well the blow he’s dealt you. He bade me tell you so.”

Lord Darracott rose from his chair. “I’ll go to him,” he said curtly.

Hugo moved to the door, to open it for him. His lordship paused for a moment before he went out, passing a hand across his brow. “I suppose you will do what’s necessary. There will be many things—his boat, his horses—I’m too tired tonight, but I’ll discuss it with you tomorrow. Goodnight!”

“Goodnight, sir,” Hugo replied. He shut the door, and came back into the room. “Happen I’d best do something to put him in a passion tomorrow,” he said thoughtfully. “It won’t do to let him fall into a lethargy.”

“You will, cousin, you will!” Vincent said, with his mocking smile. “I own, however, that I shall greet the familiar storm-signs with positive relief.”

Ten minutes later, Anthea was saying much the same thing. “I never thought I could be sorry for Grandpapa,” she told her cousins, “but I am, and, what’s more, I had rather by far have him cross than stunned!”

“Have no fear!” said Vincent. “Ajax is already considering how best to enrage him.”

She smiled, but said: “Well, anything would be preferable to having him so quiet and crushed. He didn’t utter one word of reproach to Richmond. But what almost sank me to the floor was his saying to Mama that she had much to forgive him! It was precisely what she had been saying to me, except that she said she never would forgive him, so you may imagine my astonishment when she burst into tears on his chest! As a matter of fact I nearly burst into tears myself.”

“Dear me, what a lachrymose scene!” remarked Vincent. “I shall go to bed to fortify myself for the inevitable reaction—not to mention the exhausting labours I shall no doubt be expected to undertake in that accursed passage. To think how much I once wanted to discover it, and how much I wish now that it never had been discovered!” He went to the door, and opened it, looking back to say: “My dislike of you is rapidly growing, Ajax: I shouldn’t make the smallest attempt to drag you back from that cliff-edge!”

“What cliff-edge?” enquired Anthea, as Vincent left the room.

“Just a joke, lass. Eh, you look tired out!”

“I am tired out, but I couldn’t go to bed without coming to thank you, Hugo. I—oh, Hugo, I can’t believe yet that it wasn’t a nightmare!” she said, walking straight into his arms, and hugging as much of him as she could.

He received her with great willingness, enfolding her in a large and comforting embrace, “Well, that’s all it was, think on,” he said. “Now, don’t you start on cry, lass!”

“I won’t,” she promised. She took his face between her hands, smiling up at him, and saying: “Noble Ajax, you are as strong, as valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle, and altogether more tractable!”

“Nay then, love!” expostulated the Major. “Don’t be so daft!”