The earl sank down into a battered leather armchair. ‘This is a shock. I must say I admire your cheek. Won’t do, you know. You’re a tradesman.’
‘I am of good family, as you know,’ said Harry, ‘and I can now afford to keep your daughter in style.’
‘But you are one of society’s misfits!’
‘As is your daughter. My lord, think calmly about my proposal. Can you envisage your daughter married to a conventional man? Lady Rose would quickly become bored and go looking for trouble.’
The earl took out a large handkerchief and mopped his brow. ‘This is so sudden,’ he said like the heroine of a romance. ‘I don’t know what my wife’s going to say to all this.’
‘Why don’t we ask her?’
‘Follow me. But she’ll say the same thing.’
Harry followed the earl to the morning-room. Lady Polly was sitting reading her husband’s newspaper at a table strewn with the remains of a hearty breakfast.
‘That’s mine!’ said the earl, snatching the paper from her. ‘You know I don’t like anyone reading it until I’ve finished with it. You’ve crumpled it.’ He turned to an attendant footman. ‘Take this away and iron it again.’ Newspapers were always ironed so that nasty black ink should not sully aristocratic fingers.
‘Captain Cathcart,’ said Lady Polly. ‘Have you breakfasted?’
‘Thank you, yes.’
‘Coffee? Tea?’
‘Coffee, if you please.’
Another liveried footman went to the sideboard to get Harry’s coffee. When it was placed in front of him, the earl said to the footman, ‘Take yourself off and stand outside the door and make sure no one comes in. Got private business.’
Lady Polly looked at her husband in amazement. When the servant had left, she asked, ‘What is going on? Not more skulduggery, I hope.’
‘Worse than that,’ said her husband. ‘Cathcart here wants to marry Rose.’
‘Well, the simple answer is no,’ said Lady Polly placidly. ‘You should have known better, Captain. A man in your position can hardly hope to be allowed to marry an heiress.’
‘Then what will happen to Lady Rose?’ asked Harry.
‘We are sending her to India.’
‘Is that such a good idea? What if there is another mutiny? What if she meets some adventurer who is only after her money?’
‘Rose will be staying with a very good friend of mine who will look out for her,’ said Lady Polly.
‘A Mrs Hulbert, I believe?’
‘Yes, how did you know that?’ Lady Polly’s eyes narrowed. ‘Have you been seeing my daughter behind my back? Oh, dear God, do you
‘Nothing like that. Servants will gossip, you know.’
‘No, I wouldn’t know that, young man. Only very low people listen to servants’ gossip.’
‘This Mrs Hulbert has daughters of her own, has she not?’
‘Yes, two. Bertha and Caroline.’
‘I assume they didn’t take at the season?’
‘No, that’s why they’re going.’
‘My lady, as I have heard,’ said Harry, who had done his homework, ‘the Hulbert daughters are singularly plain and of a somewhat sharp-natured temperament. You are foisting onto Mrs Hulbert a beautiful girl. Lady Rose will have a horrible time. Mrs Hulbert will make no push to have Lady Rose settled until she has seen her own daughters safely engaged. She may even keep Lady Rose in the background. Do you dislike your own daughter so much that you must needs guard her night and day and possibly try to force her into an unsuitable marriage? Remember that she is now capable of working for a living, and as soon as she reaches her majority, she may simply leave home to get away from the pressure.
‘I doubt if she will ever forgive you for putting her in asylum.’
‘We didn’t know it was an asylum. She just thought it was a nerve place where she could be talked out of her odd ideas,’ said the earl.
‘You are in danger of forfeiting the love of your daughter,’ pursued Harry.
‘Don’t be vulgar,’ said Lady Polly. Really, what was this odd man talking about? Daughters simply did as they were told. Everyone knew that. Did he expect her to behave like some common character in a cheap play?
‘We’ll be here all day,’ grumbled the earl. ‘Where’s that newspaper?’
‘You told the servants not to interrupt us,’ his wife reminded him.
A look of cunning came into the earl’s usually guileless eyes. ‘Wait in the drawing-room, Cathcart.’
When the door closed behind Harry, the earl said, ‘We needn’t bother. Let the man make his proposal. Rose isn’t going to accept him.’
The worry cleared from Lady Polly’s face.
‘Of course. I’ll go and get Rose.’
Rose was waiting in her sitting-room. She was dressed in a blue organdie gown with a little white spot. Blue kid shoes were on her feet and blue ribbons were threaded in her thick hair.
‘You look very fine!’ exclaimed her mother. ‘Were we due to go out anywhere?’
‘No, Mama.’
‘You’re to go down to the drawing-room. Captain Cathcart wishes to propose marriage to you.’ She gave a chuckle. ‘Hurry along then. You’ve got ten minutes to deal with him.’
Rose entered the drawing-room and a footman closed the double doors behind her.
The couple studied each other for a moment, each reflecting how fine the other one looked.
Harry walked forward and took Rose by the hand. Then he sank down on one knee. ‘Lady Rose,’ he said huskily, ‘would you do me the very great honour of giving me your hand in marriage?’
‘There’s no need to play-act,’ said Rose.
‘Who knows when they’ll walk in on us?’
‘All right. Yes, I do.’
Harry stood up and fished in his pocket and drew out a little box. He opened it to reveal a sapphire-and- diamond ring.
‘Oh, how beautiful,’ said Rose, as he slid it on her finger. ‘You should not have gone to so much trouble.’
‘He gone yet?’ asked the earl.
Lady Polly looked down from the window. ‘His motor car is still there with his manservant at the wheel.’
‘I think we’d better see what’s going on.’ The earl sighed and put down his freshly ironed paper with reluctance.
‘They’re coming,’ said Harry, cocking his head to one side. He drew Rose into his arms.
‘You’re not going to kiss me, are you?’ demanded Rose, blushing.
‘No, just lean your head on my manly chest.’
The doors opened and the earl and countess stood stricken at the tableau in front of them.
‘Congratulate me,’ said Harry. ‘I am the happiest of men.’
There was nothing that Rose’s parents could do now but give their blessing.
When Harry had gone, the countess rounded on her daughter. ‘Not a word out of you. You have thrown yourself away. Come, dear, I need a cup of tea.’
The earl went back to the morning-room and picked up his precious newspaper only to find it had fallen in the marmalade dish. ‘You,’ he said to a footman, ‘take this away and clean it and iron it again!’
Dr McWhirter’s corpse – or what was left of it – was eventually discovered by a gamekeeper. Foxes and other predators had done their busy work and left the rest to the maggots. The bullet had dropped down through the exposed skeleton and fallen to the ground. When two policemen came to remove the remains, one large regulation boot ground the bullet down into the forest floor. From the rags still clinging to the skeleton, they assumed it to be the remains of some tramp.
The remains were buried in a pauper’s grave. Foul play was not suspected.
Superintendent Kerridge read of Harry’s engagement in the
