Angel with Two Faces

was much better placed to satisfy her curiosity. She liked William Motley instantly – a reaction rare for her – and responded easily to his warmth and humour. He was, she guessed, in his early sixties, which was younger than she had expected, and he had an attractive, infectious vitality about him which had been passed down to his older daughter. Lettice was generally the more like him of the two – there was something continental about Ronnie’s beauty which she must have inherited from her mother – but William seemed to have Ronnie’s mischief as well as Lettice’s kindness, and Josephine could easily understand why many people would try their luck with him – and why it would take something very special to succeed.

‘Of course, what was remarkable was the way they found Harry’s body,’ he said now, refilling Josephine’s glass with the last drop of an excellent Chablis. ‘Did Morveth tell you about that, Archie?’

Archie shook his head, interested. ‘No. She just said that Morwenna was in a terrible state because of the waiting.’

‘Yes, that’s true, so Morveth took things into her own hands. She asked to borrow one of the boats from the Lodge and made Jago row her out to the middle of the lake early one morning with some of Harry’s clothes.’

‘Why? In case he was cold?’ quipped Ronnie, pouring herself a generous glass of red in preparation for the next course.

Josephine couldn’t help laughing, but thought she knew what William was getting at. ‘To find out where the body sank?’ she asked.

‘Exactly – you’ve heard of that before?’

‘Once, when I was a child. A holidaymaker went missing near the loch one summer, and his wife was convinced he’d drowned. Everybody else assumed he’d left her – we’re not a nation inclined towards the benefit of the doubt – but she insisted she could find him. Apparently, there’s an ancient belief that you can find drowned bodies by casting some of the dead person’s clothes on to the stretch of water where they died. The clothes are supposed to float on the spot where the body went down.’

‘Gosh – did it work?’ Lettice asked, fascinated.

‘Well, they found the man’s body about half a mile out from the shore at Foyers, so I suppose in a way it did. I couldn’t swear to you that any strange powers were involved, though. Personally, I think she did him in – but perhaps that’s just the Scot in me talking.’

‘And you say you haven’t got a criminal mind?’ Archie said, amused. ‘How old were you when this Loch Ness murder went undetected?’

‘About six,’ she admitted, ‘but I didn’t say I hadn’t got a criminal mind; I said I was too logical to be another Edgar Wallace. Readers seem to expect characters in fiction to do the most preposterous things, and I’m happy to oblige, but if I wanted to commit a real murder, I genuinely think I’d be very good at it.’

Archie held up his hands in defeat. ‘Just make sure you are,’ he laughed, ‘because I don’t want to have to arrest you. Bill would never forgive me.’

‘Perhaps Morveth bumped Harry off, then?’ Ronnie suggested helpfully.

‘That would certainly be the Scottish way of looking at things,’ Josephine said, ‘and I might bear it in mind for the book. If it’s good enough for Mr Wallace…’

They chatted inconsequentially for a while as a pretty young girl from the village came in to clear the plates away. ‘Mrs Snipe says I’m to apologise for the state of the lamb,’ she said earnestly, ‘but apparently things aren’t quite up to scratch in the kitchen. Half the stuff she expected to find is missing, she says, so I’m to tell you she’s done her best but she can’t perform miracles. She says she don’t know what sort of house we run here, and it wasn’t like that in her day. Honestly, sir, I’ve never heard of most of the things she was grumbling about – I think the city must have gone to her head.’

‘Don’t worry, Sheila,’ William said with a conspiratorial wink. ‘Things will be back to normal soon, and I’m sure the lamb will be perfect. Just tell her I’m sorry and that we all appreciate her efforts.’

Sheila smiled, winked back, and left to deliver her message. Lettice watched with relief as the trout bones were removed from the room, but the door had barely closed before Archie returned to the lake. ‘You’re not honestly telling me that Morveth conjured Harry’s body up with a pair of trousers are you?’ he asked William incredulously.

‘I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but there’s no denying that the body came to the surface soon afterwards. Not quite where Morveth laid the clothes, but not far off. Jago spotted it later that day, under those low-hanging branches along the western side by Bar Walk plantation.’

‘But that’s a coincidence, surely?’

‘I know what you mean – I suppose I’m sceptical about it, too, but there’s a part of me that is inclined to give Morveth the benefit of the doubt.’ He smiled at Josephine. ‘The English part, probably. Don’t ask me why, Archie, but you know how people round here trust her and believe in her – you included, if I remember rightly.’

‘I believe she’s a good person, yes. I’ll even go as far as to say that I believe she has the wisdom and the power to heal in ways that aren’t open to doctors and ordinary medicine. But I can’t stretch to magic tricks – not even from Morveth.’

‘What’s the difference? In the sense that finding Harry’s body brought comfort to Morwenna, don’t you think that what she did – if she did it – was a kind of healing? Your mother…’ He hesitated for a second, and Josephine got the impression that he had changed his mind about the rest of the sentence. ‘Your mother always said that Morveth could work miracles,’ he finished more gently. ‘Don’t be too dismissive.’

Archie seemed to relent a little. ‘You’re right,’ he said to William. ‘Where Morveth’s concerned, I’m happy to accept more things than any self-respecting policeman should. I just think that in this case there’s a more rational explanation. The body must have got caught in the weeds on the bed of the lake. The longer it was down there, the more it’ll have been eaten away at by fish and God knows what. It’ll have floated to the surface quite naturally sooner or later.’

‘For goodness’ sake, Archie, not during dinner,’ Lettice pleaded, and even Ronnie lost her colour for a moment.

‘All right, I’m sorry – but just one more thing. You say that Kestrel Jacks was the only person who actually saw the accident?’

William nodded. ‘That’s right. It was early morning, and he was coming back by Lower Pentire at the time. We’ve had some trouble with gypsies out that way, and he’d been over to check the pheasants.’ ‘And did he see what startled the horse?’

‘No. He wasn’t watching them, particularly. He saw Harry riding along parallel with the bank, and the next time he looked up, Shilling had changed direction completely and was heading towards the lake.’

‘How is Shilling now?’ Josephine asked.

‘Better, but still not himself. It’s a terrible shame – he’s a magnificent animal. I’ve had him brought to our stables for the time being – it didn’t seem fair on Morwenna to have him at Loe Cottage as a constant reminder of the accident. You must go and see him when you’re passing – him and the others. The girls told me how fond of horses you are, and you’d be most welcome to take one out any time you like.’

‘Was there anyone else about that morning?’ Archie asked, keen to return to the accident. From Jacks’s account, it seemed that Harry could have guided the horse towards the Loe himself.

‘No. It was still early,’ William said. ‘But Lettice is right – this is all too gloomy for the first night of a holiday. We should change the subject. Archie – have you told Josephine about our Minack performance?’

‘From one funeral to another,’ Ronnie muttered under her breath.

‘I just hope they’ve sorted out some of the problems we had with the theatre last year,’ Lettice added, helping Josephine and herself to generous portions. ‘I was speaking to Hephzibah the other day, and she’s told Rowena straight – she’s not performing there again until they make the stage a little safer.’

‘What went wrong?’ Josephine asked, intrigued. ‘You never mentioned it.’

‘They were doing the Dream,’ Ronnie explained, ‘and Rowena decided to put it to music. The dancing fairies kept falling over the forest of Athens, and they kicked up so much dust that the front three rows were either blinded or choked or both.’

‘But how was that Hephzibah’s fault?’

‘I’m coming to that. We can forgive her the dust – although she’s never been light on her feet – but it didn’t stop there. The audience sits on a very steep slope, and a woman was on her way back to her seat during the