“Actually, I should prefer to talk to Miss Marler alone, if you would not mind, sir,” Michael said.
He frowned. “You will not harass her? She is a good girl, and I should not like her to become distressed.”
“No harassment, I assure you. She is not in any trouble, and need only tell truthfully what she remembers.”
“I shall be just outside, Daisy, if you need me.” Still frowning, he withdrew, Daisy’s eyes following him anxiously to the door.
“Now then, Miss Marler—”
“Everyone calls me Daisy, sir, if you don’t mind.”
“Very well, then, Daisy. Now, tell me first, you and Mr Eustace are old friends, are you not?”
“Oh, yes, sir! Known him years, I have, and he was always kind to me, even when old Mr Sinclair were here. I used to oblige Mr Eustace even then, when he asked… when he were staying here, like.” She blushed as she spoke of‘obliging’Eustace.
“And he was generous, I expect, when you obliged him.”
“Oh yes, very generous, and we was always glad of the extra money. It got my little brother a good apprenticeship with a cobbler. There’s not been so much lately… well, he’s away a lot, isn’t he, and I dare say he has other girls he likes, too, so I never minded, but I’m always happy when he asks for me.”
“As he did on that night in June — do you remember the date?” A sudden look of panic crossed her face, and she shook her head. “It is of no consequence, Daisy. So Mr Eustace asked for your company. Did he send the carriage for you?”
“The dog cart. He always does, unless it be raining, and then it’s the carriage. And home again afterwards,” she added proudly. “He’s ever so kind.”
“Well, then, you arrived, you had dinner… do you remember what you ate?”
Another moment of panic, then her face cleared. “Mutton. It’s always mutton.”
Michael laughed. “An excellent choice. One can never go wrong with mutton. And then you went to bed at about eight o’clock and stayed there until ten the next morning?”
“I don’t remember the times,” she said warily.
“But you were with Mr Eustace the whole night.”
“Yes. The whole night. We was awake for quite a long time, and then we was exhausted so we slept until late the next morning. We never stirred, neither of us.”
“Thank you, Daisy. You have told us all we needed to know.”
Relief flooded her face, and she dashed out of the room.
“She’s lying,” Sandy said at once. “That whole business of being exhausted and never stirring, that was rehearsed.”
“Of course it was, and we expected that, remember? An uneducated girl like Daisy could easily get flustered and not know what to say, so anyone would put some words into her head. But do you know how I know she is telling the truth? She did not know the date or the exact times. If she hadnotbeen here, he would have told her all that and she would have come right out with it. No, she was here, and I am sure the servants will verify the story. The plan, Sandy… kitchens and stables next. Let us get all that out of the way, and then we can have a look at those cannons, eh?”
Sandy’s face broke into a smile. “That’s all ye’s here for, isn’t it?”
Michael merely grinned.
19: Walter Intervenes
The incident at the General Office began a pleasant interlude in Winnie’s life. In one way or another, Mr Lomax managed to see her every day. Sometimes it was merely a morning call, but more often there would be a drive or a walk, with Aunt Sofia chaperoning them. When they went to the theatre, he joined them, and when they had dinner guests, he was invited too. When a party was got up to go to Richmond to visit Uncle Edmund’s mother, the ladies drove in Mr Lomax’s landau. When neighbours held an evening party, with impromptu dancing, he danced twice with Winnie and then hovered nearby for the rest of the evening, as if he wished he could stand up for every dance with her. And after ten days, the seriousness of his intentions became clear when Mrs Lomax arrived from Oxfordshire to inspect the young lady who was keeping her son in town. Two days later, they dined at Mr Lomax’s town house on Charles Street, just off Berkeley Square.
It was gratifying, of course, but to Winnie it was also heartbreaking, for while one man courted her with flatteringintensity, the other treated her with the same casual affection as always. Why, why, why could it not be Walter who drove her about, who brought her flowers, who looked at her with fire in his eyes? He was hurtfully disdainful of Mr Lomax, as if he thought that no sensible man could possibly want to pay her any attention. And he showed not one iota of jealousy.
Gradually it became clear that he would never change. If the long journey south and spending hours every day together did not bring him to see her in a different light, if even a rival for her hand could not inspire him to see her as a woman, then nothing would. And although these bitter reflections caused her to weep a little, she could not wait for ever for Walter. She knew what she must do. She was unsurprised, therefore, when Aunt Sofia came to see Winnie in her room one night.
“I think you will need to be ready, Winnie,” she said without preamble.
“Ready?” she said, although she knew what her aunt was about to say.
