Blood on the Line

Caleb Andrews was not the most sensitive of men but even he could not miss the change of mood in his daughter. As a rule, Madeleine had a sunny disposition and a natural optimism. Time and again, she’d cheered her father up or eased him gently out of any descent into grief and brooding. Their roles were reversed now. It was Andrews who was buoyant and Madeleine who was jaded. When he got back from work that evening, he spotted the signs.

‘What’s happened, Maddy?’ he asked.

‘Nothing has happened.’

‘Then why are you looking so miserable?’

She manufactured a smile. ‘I don’t feel miserable.’

‘You’ve been sad and distracted all week.’

‘That’s not true, Father.’

‘I speak as I find.’

‘Then you’re mistaken,’ she said with false brightness. ‘I’ve had such a good day at the easel that I probably worked too long. I’m tired, that’s all. Take no notice.’

Andrews was not fooled. He waited until they were eating their supper before he broached the subject again. She looked tense and sorrowful. Her mind was clearly elsewhere.

‘Dirk Sowerby was so jealous when I told him,’ he began.

She was bemused. ‘What’s that?’

‘You know how much Dirk wants to sail in a steamship. When I told him that Inspector Colbeck was crossing the Atlantic, he was green with envy.’ He drank some tea. ‘He is coming back, Maddy.’

‘Yes, I know.’

‘Time will fly past.’

‘It’s not doing that at the moment.’

‘Are you worried about him?’

‘Yes,’ she confessed. ‘I’m very worried.’

‘Steamships have a good safety record – unless they’re designed by Brunel, that is. You wouldn’t get me in one of his vessels.’

‘Don’t be so prejudiced.’

‘He’s our main rival, Maddy. Everyone who works for the LNWR hates the man. For a start, he’s so cocky.’

‘Robert hasn’t sailed on one of his ships.’

‘Then there’s nothing to get anxious about, is there?’

‘I’m not anxious.’

‘And I’m not blind. You’re my daughter. I know your ways.’

‘Yes,’ she said with a wan smile, ‘of course, you do. I’m sorry if I’ve been a bit lacklustre. I don’t mean to be.’

‘You miss him.’

‘I miss him a great deal.’

‘And you think something terrible could happen.’

‘Well, I was upset at first but only because I’d been reading American Notes. Charles Dickens sailed to America with his wife and they had a dreadful voyage. They were caught in a heavy swell and everything in their cabin was tossed about. Mrs Dickens thought they were going to drown.’

‘Did you mention this to the inspector?’

‘I did,’ she replied, ‘and he pointed out that Mr Dickens made the crossing in January when the weather was at its worst. It’s autumn now. Also, shipbuilding has improved since he went to America. Vessels are built to withstand whatever storms batter them.’

‘So you were worrying about nothing, Maddy.’

‘Not exactly …’

‘You mean that there’s something else?’

Madeleine hesitated. It was on occasions like this that she felt the absence of her mother or of a sympathetic female to whom she could talk in confidence. There was always plenty of light-hearted banter with her father and she would freely discuss any household matters with him. Emotional issues were more problematical. She tended to conceal those from him and try to resolve them on her own. This time, however, she felt the need of support. Her father was keen to help. She wondered if it was time to tell him the truth.

‘There is something else,’ she said, quietly.

‘I knew it.’

‘Though I fancy I’m probably fretting unnecessarily about it.’

‘Why not let me be the judge of that?’

‘It’s this investigation,’ she explained. ‘Robert has become obsessed with it. I know that he gets immersed in every case he deals with but this one is different. It’s made him so single-minded.’

‘Do you know why that is?’

‘Frankly, I don’t.’

‘Then let me tell you,’ said Andrews, tapping his chest, ‘because I understand what’s going through his mind. It’s those policemen, Maddy. Two were killed on the train and the other one was shot in London. Inspector Colbeck has a bond with fellow policemen, the same way that I do with engine drivers. It’s something that goes very deep. He’s single-minded because he’s chasing people who murdered his kin – at least, that’s what they’ll seem like to him.’

‘That’s not the whole story, Father.’

‘Yes it is, so you can stop losing sleep over it.’

‘It’s more personal than that.’

‘What could be more personal than a detective who worked alongside you on the case being shot dead?’

‘This is not about Constable Peebles,’ she said. ‘Robert was shocked by what happened to him but he’s driven by something from the distant past. He as good as said so when I last saw him.’

‘Did he explain what it was?’

‘No – that’s why I’m upset about it. I feel that he should have told me everything there is to tell. It’s so unlike Robert. He’s never concealed things from me before. This case has a real significance for him but he refused to say why. I feel as if I’m deliberately being kept ignorant,’ she said, shaking her head in despair, ‘and it’s not what I expect from the man I’m about to marry.’

* * *

A sudden squall cleared the upper deck of the Jura and made the vessel dip and rock on the choppy sea. While Leeming went into the saloon, Colbeck repaired to their state room to have some time alone. As he checked through the paperwork he’d brought with him, he picked out the passenger’s contract ticket, issued when he’d booked the passage. It was an interesting legal document, listing the obligations placed both on the shipping line and on the passenger. Trained as a lawyer, he noted the small print on the document. Among other things, it stipulated that the victualling scale had to be printed out in the body of the ticket. Consequently, the daily quantities of water and provisions for each person were listed. If the Jura defaulted in any way on its obligations, it was liable to legal redress.

Studying one form of contract made him reflect on another. Marriage was the most solemn contract of all, committing two people to lifelong conditions from which they could not waver. As he went through the service of holy matrimony in his mind, he was ready to commit himself to Madeleine when the moment arose. Yet somehow he was not prepared to state exactly when that moment would be. The urge to delay and prevaricate was implanted deep within him. Even though he could see how much distress it was causing Madeleine, he could not bring himself to name the day when he would make her his wife. The invisible barrier stopped him.

He recalled the joyous openness with which Ian Peebles had talked about his forthcoming marriage, and the way that Victor Leeming always looked back on his own nuptials with such fondness. Colbeck wished that his path to the altar had been as straight and uncomplicated as theirs. Before the wedding, the banns would have to be published. He remembered how nervous Leeming had been when that phrase about just cause or impediment had