Ever After (53 page)

“Oh, if
that’s
all,” said Dinah, beginning to get her wind back, “I needn’t have come!”

“Dinah, I haven’t words.” He took both her hands and kissed them, as the cab entered Trafalgar Square. “You were superb. Scotland Yard will never be the same again. Nor shall I.”

“Nor will Edward, if he finds out!”

“I’m coming in now and talk to Edward.”

“Had you better?”

“Yes, it’s time.”

“He’s convinced you’re in jail by now! Bracken, what
did
happen? Did you know she was in London?”

“Only since yesterday afternoon, when she suddenly appeared at the office. Gave me something of a shock, I admit!”

“She came—? But what did she
want
?”

“It was a form of blackmail. Partridge was going to deal with it.
And then this other thing happened. Inspector Evans was waiting for me when I got home last night.”

“Oh, Bracken, and I went to bed so happy!”

“So did I,” he said. “God forgive me, so did I. They asked me to come down to the Yard this morning, and the woman who had found—found the body was there. She had seen a man go into Lisl’s room, about six, and assumed it was me. When they asked to see my hat, I was sure she had seen Hutchinson.”

“Who is he?”

“The man Lisl had been living with on the Continent. He is a Westerner and always wore a broad brim in New York. Apparently he still does. Anyway, my hat was wrong, and she said I was too slender for the man she had seen. How’s that for a word? Slender, she said!”

“I like thin men,” said Dinah softly.

“All right, I’ll see that you have one. In the meantime—” He took the flat jeweller’s case out of an inner pocket, extracted the watch, and put the chain around her neck. “Let Edward make the most of that!”

“Oh, Bracken, do we
dare
?”

“You, after taking on the whole police force, talk about daring? Where on earth is this fellow going?”

The cabby, having had no directions, had simply followed his nose. Put right by a few words from Bracken through the trap, he soon brought them to St. James’s Square and Bracken helped Dinah down, and they rang the bell. The footman looked surprised to see Dinah, whom he had admitted an hour ago with Miss French, and Bracken asked for Lord Alwyn, who sent back word that he would see them in the library.

But the library had no terrors for Dinah now, and she followed Bracken quite jauntily across the black-and-white marble squares of the hall floor, her fingers clasping the little watch which was their talisman.

“
Well
—” Alwyn began emphatically as soon as they appeared in the doorway, and Bracken cut in, speaking very softly, looking very bland, as was his way in a crisis.

“Now, before you say another word, Alwyn, let’s get one thing quite clear. I am going to marry Dinah. I told you that two years ago, so you can’t say you weren’t warned. If you want to make a row about it, I am still going to marry Dinah. So why can’t we talk it over sensibly?”

“Dinah is much too young to make up her mind,” said Alwyn.

“I agree. That’s why I am hoping that you will take a reasonable view of things and allow an ordinary engagement to exist in the ordinary way, at least till she has passed her eighteenth birthday.
And by that I mean I must be free to see her, make her little gifts, take her around with only the usual amount of chaperonage, and no objections from you.”

“But my dear fellow, you’re in the midst of a bloody scandal!”

“Much as it may surprise you, Alwyn, I did not kill my wife. Even Scotland Yard says I didn’t, now. What’s more, they are well on the track of the man who did. The publicity is unfortunate, certainly, but it will blow over, publicity always does. And I fail utterly to see why you consider a marriage like Clare’s to a man like Flood less objectionable than Dinah’s, for love, to me. Incidentally, old boy—Dinah will have just as much money to spend as Clare ever will!”

Alwyn was uncomfortable. He had allowed his natural
domineering
nature to run away with him, and he had been honestly horrified at the idea of Dinah’s being involved in a
cause
célèbre
—and he was touchy and resentful because Virginia Murray had had the effrontery to refuse him twice, and on top of that accept his brother Archie who had no prospects. But he had always liked Bracken, who was a very useful man on a horse, and he had a very wholesome respect for the Murray fortune.

“Well, you do see my position, don’t you, old boy,” he said
placatingly
. “Of course you did mention at the ball that you were taken with Dinah, but it was hard for me to believe that you meant to follow through on it—Dinah is a sweet child, of course, but she isn’t quite the wife I’d pick for a man like you.”

“Dinah has said something of the same kind herself,” said Bracken. “It’s just possible that I see something in Dinah that both of you have yet to discover. But if she stays exactly the way she is now for the rest of her natural life, I shall be content.” He put his arm around her, holding her close to his side. “May we have your blessing, Alwyn, or must we do the best we can without it?”

“I seem to have very little choice, since you’ve both made up your minds.” Alwyn rose from behind the desk, shook hands with Bracken and kissed Dinah sketchily. “Stubborn little beggar, aren’t you,” he said to her with a grudging affection. “Always did have a mind of your own, dammit. Well, you’ve got him now, I hope you’re satisfied!”

“Thank you, Edward,” said Dinah in her usual docile tone, but her smile was wide and cheeky.

“Well, how about lunch, eh?” queried Alwyn, ready to do the thing handsomely once he started. “You’ll stay to lunch, won’t you, old boy? Have to celebrate this with champagne, I suppose!”

“That’s very kind of you,” said Bracken, and his fingers tightened excruciatingly in Dinah’s ribs, with triumph.

“Oh, heavens, I forgot Miss French!” Dinah cried. “Edward,
Bracken says I can have her after we’re married, to help with the housekeeping, so don’t you think it would be silly to sack her in the meantime? Can’t she just stay on now, we’ve been such friends!”

“Very well, have everything your own way!” said Alwyn, making as graceful a surrender as possible. “I swear it’s got so a man isn’t master of his own house any longer, the women run it all!”

“And may Bracken come up to the schoolroom with me and tell her—now, before lunch?”

“Tell her what? Oh, I see. Whatever you like, go ahead! Luncheon at one-thirty.” Alwyn waved them out.

They took the two flights of stairs at a run, hand-in-hand, and arrived breathless at the schoolroom door where she stopped him, pointing towards the key still in Miss French’s lock.

“She’s in there,” she whispered.

“Do we have to let her out right away?”

“You could kiss me first,” Dinah suggested hopefully.

Ever
After
is the story of Bracken Murray, Special Correspondent of the
New
York
Star,
and of his junior-reporter cousin, Fitz Sprague. Bracken, deserted by his eccentric Viennese wife, goes to London to cover the Jubilee Summer of 1807. There he falls in love with a young English girl. Meanwhile, in New York, Fitz rescues a music hall singer from a gambling gang and she falls in love with him.

Ever
After
carries one generation further the evolution of a War Correspondent—from Julian Day in
Dawn’s
Early
Light
and Cabot Murray of
Yankee
Stranger
to Bracken Murray. Against the rich and varied backgrounds of New York. Williamsburg. London and Cuba, Miss Thane, with her sure sense of period and character, weaves two strong love stories through a pattern full of emotion, humour and suspense.

In
order:

Dawn’s Early Light

Yankee Stranger

Ever After

The Light Heart

Kissing Kin

This Was Tomorrow

Homing