Page 65 of The Fortunes of Ashmore Castle

‘What were they saying?’ Daisy asked, inevitably.

‘None of your business,’ Rose snapped.

‘I never heered anyway,’ Eddie said. ‘Only she looked upset.’

‘There’ll be no more discussion of this subject,’ Afton decreed firmly. But his eyes met Mrs Webster’s with a question and a doubt. To go out – with a bag – before dinner – on what was not her day off – smacked of trouble.

After dinner, Mrs Webster told Rose to go and check in Dory’s room. She climbed to the top of the house, and reported back quietly to the housekeeper that the room was empty of Dory’s few things. It looked as though she had left for good – without a word, without notice, without a reference.

Mrs Webster’s lips tightened in vexation. It was not only the inconvenience of losing Dory’s services, but the example it set to the other maids. People did not just quit their work on the instant, without due process.

‘She was owed wages,’ she said to Rose.

‘P’r’aps she’ll come back for them,’ Rose said. She thought of the time she had found Dory in the small drawing-room listening to Mr Sebastian playing the piano. ‘I wonder—’ she began.

‘Don’t,’ said Mrs Webster sharply, divining her thought. Their eyes met. ‘Nothing good can come of that.’

Crooks, the old gossip, told Sebastian when he went up to dress him for dinner. Sebastian managed to control his features until Crooks bumbled out of the room. Then he sat down abruptly and put his face into his hands.

Truman Smith had no conversation, so Nina had time on the journey to think. Was going alone to London the right choice? Perhaps it would have been better to wait until Mr Cowling was ready to go up. At least she would have had his company in the evening. Instead, there would be an empty house in Berkeley Square and emptiness behind her where no dog pattered. She had remembered now that her aunt would not be at home: she had gone to an Easter retreat in Oxford to discuss Byzantine religious art.

But the die was cast. Truman saw her to the door of the house. She invited him in for refreshment but he declined coolly, saying he must go straight back. She felt snubbed, and miserably alone.

Mrs Banks, the housekeeper, was hovering in the hall. ‘Has my maid come?’ Nina asked.

‘Yes, madam. She’s in your room, unpacking.’

‘Very well. I’ll go up.’

Mrs Banks stayed her. ‘Oh, madam, you have a visitor. Mr Blake is here. I showed him into the drawing-room.’ She looked uncertain. ‘He insisted on waiting, madam. I hope I did right.’

‘Quite right,’ Nina said, and ran up the stairs with a lifting heart.

He came out on to the landing to meet her. ‘Nice surprise?’

‘Oh, Decius!’

‘I made your poor housekeeper admit me. She kept saying she didn’t know when you’d arrive, but I knew which train you were on.’

‘How?’

‘A telegram this morning. I’m ordered to place myself at your disposal.’ His expression changed. ‘I’m so sorry about Trump. Poor little chap. Do you want to tell me about it?’ She shook her head. He drew her hand through his arm and turned towards the drawing-room. ‘Then we’ll talk about other things. Tea will be up at any moment. I took the liberty of ordering it to be brought as soon as you arrived. It’s early, but I thought you’d want it.’

‘Poor Mrs Banks,’ Nina said.

‘She knows I’m Mr Cowling’s proxy. I don’t think it fractured her loyalty too badly.’

‘Well, I’m very glad to see you,’ Nina said. ‘I’d got to the point of dreading being here alone.’

‘Truman wouldn’t even come in for tea?’ He shook his head in wonder. ‘He’s a cold fish. Good at his job, so Mr Cowling tells me, but no time for the human dimension. With that classical Greek profile and the icy blue eyes, he puts me in mind of—’

‘St John Rivers?’ Nina finished for him.

‘I was just going to say that!’

There was a fire lit in the drawing-room, but it hadn’t been going for long, and the room smelt cold, unused.

‘Aren’t I taking you away from your work?’ Nina asked. ‘How is Mr Tullamore doing?’