Cold, Lone and Still

‘You’ve had a couple of very nasty shocks, whether your conscious mind recognises that fact or not. Then you had the harassment of believing that Bingley suspected you. You go along to Dame Beatrice —’

‘And have my head looked at?’

‘Yes, if you care to put it like that.’

Hera offered to accompany me, but I thought I should do better on my own. I said I was not going to keep her away from her job. She had some lucrative modelling on hand and I knew she did not want to lose the chance of it. Fortunately she was only too willing to listen to reason, so, having made an appointment, I went alone, as before, to the Stone House.

‘Ah,’ said Dame Beatrice, when I had described my recurrent dream, ‘and how old were we when we first encountered the Ancient Mariner and his albatross?’

Her reptilian smile and her use of the royal, the editorial and the specialist’s plural, impressed me about equally and not very deeply. I knew it was a joke.

‘I was ten and at my prep school,’ I said. ‘I had a woman teacher and she did not beat us for our misdemeanours, but caused us to learn poetry by heart. If we failed to come up to scratch, we were sent to the headmaster as stubborn recusants and he did beat us, so, of course, we learnt the stuff, however hard a grind it turned out to be.’

‘I see. Have you discussed this dream with your fiancee?’

‘No. I’ve told my business partner about it.’

‘So he is your good friend as well as your business partner. What had he to say?’

‘Well, rather strangely he said that the dream was not really about Todd. He said I was substituting Todd for someone else.’

‘I am sure he was right. In fact, I think you are substituting Todd for two other people. If you will not take my supposition amiss, I think one of them is your fiancee.’

‘Hera? Oh, no, I assure you!’

‘I am glad to hear that.’ She did not look very glad. In fact, those brilliant black eyes summed me up very shrewdly indeed and it was not difficult to imagine what she was thinking. She was right, too, although I was not prepared to admit it. I did find being engaged to Hera something of an onus at times. Her character was so much firmer than my own that I was often at a disadvantage when we discussed anything or argued about it. But Dame Beatrice had more to say. ‘What ought you to have told me about Mr Carbridge when last you were here?’

So I told her what had happened at Crianlarich. She nodded solemnly and then suddenly cackled.

‘You would have preferred to punch Mr Todd, I suppose, but, to employ a phrase much used by Laura, he is above your weight, a taller and a more robust man than yourself.’

‘I wasn’t going to let Hera see me take a hiding.’

‘Very wise. A jousting knight must win or retire from the lists.’

‘Besides, although I somewhat distrust Todd, he doesn’t irritate me in the way Carbridge did.’

‘Well, Mr Melrose, we will take it that you are suffering from suppressed hysteria due to your recent disquieting experiences. With your collaboration, I shall place you under light hypnosis and then I shall talk to you. You may answer me if you wish, but you will remember nothing of what we say, and the dream you have described will not recur. However, as I read the evidence, I do not think that at present you are very anxious to be married.’

‘Well, I am and I’m not,’ I said truthfully.

‘Elucidate.’

‘Well, I’m very fond of Hera and I admire her very much, but when we announced our engagement to my business partner, Hera added that she wanted to come into the firm. She has some capital and I was willing to consider the idea, although I was not too keen on it, but Sandy was not at all in agreement, so that damped me down a bit. The last thing I want is any kind of a break with him.’

‘Your business needs an infusion of money?’

‘Well, I suppose most businesses do, but I don’t much want Hera to go out to work after we’re married. I pointed out to her that it would be jollier to find her all nice and domesticated at home when I got back each evening.’

‘A typical male reaction, of course, selfish, possessive, hidebound and utterly understandable. I wonder whether she expected to be a sleeping partner or an active partner in your business?’

‘Well, that’s where Sandy and I are not in agreement. I say she would only be a sleeping partner drawing her small share of the profits and staying out of the office. I say that she will take no part in making decisions or even meeting any of our authors. They show up from time to time and take us out to lunch or we take them out to lunch — that kind of thing. Sometimes they come to raise hell about their contracts and try to sick us on to get to grips with their publishers, but it’s all in the day’s work and I don’t intend Hera to be a part of it.’

‘How does your partner see her role, then?’

‘Sandy says women are never satisfied unless they’ve got a finger in the pie. I’m bound to admit that in Hera’s case he may be right.’

‘Difficult for you. Shall we proceed?’

So I suffered her to put me under what she called ‘light hypnosis’ and all that I remembered afterwards was the sound of her beautiful voice reciting poems from Peacock Pie before I came under the influence. What magic formula she used, once she had me under control, I have no idea. When I came to, we had tea, at which we were joined by Laura, and I drove back to London feeling calm and refreshed. I slept that night, and for many nights, without, so far as I can remember, dreaming at all. It was only after waking in the mornings that I wondered what I had told Dame Beatrice.

‘So you didn’t talk about the bodies,’ said Sandy.