Hide and Seek for Love (10 page)

“We are only too willing to help in every way we can, my Lord, but as you are well aware, I am responsible to our Head Office in London, who will undoubtedly ask questions if anything unusual occurs at this branch.”

“I am most grateful to you and also for the way you have kept this unhappy affair secret.  Please continue to do so, as I have no wish to have the newspapers hammering on my door or people coming to stare at Ingle Hall.”

“They would have been far too frightened to do so when your grandfather was alive.  I heard he threatened to shoot anyone who wandered round Ingle Hall at night!”

David had not heard of this, but made no comment.

Then he asked Mr. Morley for an advance of one hundred and fifty pounds for which he signed a cheque.

He shook him warmly by the hand and thanked him for his cooperation.

“As you can imagine, my Lord, it is to the Bank's advantage, as well as to yours, that the money is found.”

“I promise you I will do my best, and without it, as you realise better than anyone else, life is going to be very difficult for me.”

The Bank Manager smiled.

“I believe, just like your father, Lord Richard, that you will eventually win your way through.”

David was amused.

His father had married for love and gone off on his explorations, and as a consequence became a hero in the eyes of his friends and those in Canterbury who were old enough to remember him.

As he drove back, he was trying to decide what he should do first.

Actually there was no question about it – he had to find the hidden money.

He reasoned it out.  

If his grandfather had gone mad in his old age and would not trust the Bank with his money, he would surely not have trusted anyone else.

Therefore it was quite obvious that the money was hidden somewhere in Ingle Hall or on the estate.

Such a large amount, especially as it was in coinage, could not be pushed into the back of a drawer, nor could it be put in a small safe as it would take up too much space.

But there were enough rooms at Ingle Hall to hide a herd of elephants!

*

David returned to be greeted excitedly by Benina.

She ran down the steps as soon as the chaise came to a standstill.

He thought as he saw her approach how pretty she really was and he remembered that he had had no time to think about anything except the task ahead of him.

He paid the driver and then walked into the house, recognising that Benina was longing to find out what had happened at the Bank.

She was controlled and tactful enough not to ask him anything until they had reached the study.

Then she regarded him questioningly with her large blue eyes and, as he sat down, David told her quietly,

“I don't know whether it is worse or better than I had anticipated.”

“What has happened?  Please tell me, my Lord,” she pleaded. “I have been praying all the time you have been away.”

“I am sure that your prayers helped me.  The Bank Manager and I have reached the conclusion that it is quite impossible for the money, and it is indeed a large sum, to have been hidden anywhere but in this house.”

“Here!” Benina exclaimed.  “But where could the Marquis have concealed it?”

“That is what you and I have to find out.  Although he was mad, he was very clever, as mad people often are, and it is not going to be easy.”

“We must start looking at once, my Lord, otherwise there may not be anything for us to eat!”

David smiled.

“It is not as bad as that.  I have arranged to have an overdraft.  It's not a very large one, but we must at first be grateful for small mercies.”

“I shall be grateful for anything as long as we don't have to be as hungry as we have been this last few months.  It was terrible when Nanny began to feel ill and I thought I might be left entirely alone here.”

“Nanny can now eat until she is as fat as she ought to be,” said David, “and the same applies to you.  You are far too thin and I have often been told that thin women are querulous and disagreeable!”

He was teasing, but Benina answered indignantly,

“I am
none
of those things.”

“I know,” smiled David, “but it is something I don't want you to become.”

“Then let's start looking right away!”

“I think we would feel better if we had luncheon first and I am certain that Nanny would be most annoyed if we let it get cold.”

“You are quite right, my Lord, shall I go to the kitchen and tell her what you have told me?”

“Yes, of course, Benina, we are all in this adventure and if we fail, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.”

“We are
not
going to fail,” insisted Benina.

“Well, before we start our search, I intend to find a key to the cellar or break down the door!”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, my Lord.  How stupid of me!  I was so excited to see you back that I forgot.”

“What did you forget?”

“I found the key!  It was hidden in a drawer in what is now your bedroom.  Your grandfather put it right at the back behind a Bible and some old letters.  I am sure that no one would have thought to look in there.”

“Well done, Benina!  If you have the key, let's go and explore the cellar.  Perhaps we might find some wine down there.”

He thought as he spoke that considering how mean his grandfather had been, it was most unlikely that there would be any at all.

However, to his joy there were a number of bottles of claret, brandy and wine that had been home-brewed.

The cellar was cavernous and with the lantern that Benina carried, it was easy to see that it was practically empty.

There was nothing likely to be hidden in the bare walls or below the stony ground.

‘After all,' David thought, ‘we are not looking for a few coins, but for a large amount of golden guineas.'

They could not be just shoved away in a corner.

When they emerged from the cellar, they found that Nanny was dishing up their luncheon.

“You're going to enjoy all this, my Lord,” she said, “and so'll Miss Benina.  I'm feeling more like myself than I've felt for many a month.”

“I have obtained some more money for you, Nanny, as soon as you need it, but there is one thing I want to do before we start chasing round the house and that is to get in touch with Newman.”

“Oh, he's in the workhouse, my Lord.”

“Yes, I know, Nanny, but is he in fairly good health and capable of coming back to help us?”

Nanny looked at David in surprise.

“That the best thing you've ever said, my Lord.  If there's one person who knows every inch of the house, it's Mr. Newman and I knows that nothing'd please him more than being back here in what he has always considered his own home.”

“As we are rather busy, Nanny, can you please get the gardener's son to go and tell him I am here and ask him when it will be convenient to pick him up.”

“He will be thrilled!” exclaimed Benina.

“There must be someone in the village, who would be willing to drive him here if I pay him.”

“I'll arrange it, my Lord,” Nanny offered, “and I do knows that Mr. Newman'll be here as quick as he can, if he has to fly to do so!”

She picked up the roast lamb she had on a tray and carried it ahead of them into the study.

David found that Benina had laid the table they had used last night and when Nanny put down the lamb, all he had to do was to carve.

There were vegetables to go with it which he knew must have come from the garden, and David suspected that the gardener or his son were only too willing to help if they could be paid a few pennies for doing so.

David thought he must see the gardener and arrange for him to go to work on the garden again.

Yet he thought it would please Newman to be the first to be back working again at Ingle Hall.

He and Benina both enjoyed their luncheon and the bread-and-butter pudding Nanny had made for them with a little cream from the village was simply delicious.

“Have you had enough to eat, my Lord?” Benina asked when they had finished.  “I expect Nanny forgot that you might like some cheese and biscuits.”

“I have had plenty, Benina, and like you I want to get on with our task of searching the house.  What I think is important now is to find all the keys.  You have told me the safe was locked – ”

“I will go and collect all the keys I can find.”

“I will come with you, Benina, because I think we must do this in a systematic manner, starting at the bottom and working up until we reach the attics.  If we cannot find the money, at least we will know what is in the house.”

David paused for a moment and then he enquired,

“Is there an inventory of the contents anywhere?”

“Yes, it's in the library and I think, although I may be wrong, that your grandfather compiled it, hoping to find something he could sell and add to his pile of money.”

David thought that this was unlikely, as he was quite certain that his deranged grandfather was obsessed by the idea that everything Ingle Hall contained was his.

And he would resent anything, however small and unimportant, being stolen, mislaid or sold.

He might be wrong and yet if the old man had been so possessive to the point of hoarding all his money in his own hands, he would not have been willing to sell anything illegally.

It was, however, what David himself was prepared to do if he thought he could get away with it, but he knew the fuss there would be if anyone tried to evade the very strict laws of entailment.

Yet, if there was anything that had been overlooked, he thought he would be absolutely justified in selling it to bring the land back into cultivation and restore the house to its former glory.

He and Benina set off as he had suggested.

Having investigated the wine cellar, they searched the other cellars and there was nothing except rubbish and an accumulation of dust and dirt from old age.

There was one cellar full of empty old boxes and trunks that had obviously been put there when the servants were too lazy to carry them up to the attics.

Their hands became filthy from handling them, but there was nothing to be found, not even old documents that might have been valuable.

He looked through the long inventory that Benina had managed to find of all the contents of the house, but he was not hopeful of finding anything that could be sold.

The exploration of the cellars took them the whole of the afternoon and into the evening.

When they came upstairs, Nanny made them wash their hands in the kitchen before, as she insisted, they went into the ‘gentry' part of the house.

As they did so, David thought that he could hear someone arriving.

“I am sure there is a carriage outside,” he remarked.

Nanny smiled at him.

“I expect it be the visitor you're expecting.”

“Newman!”

He hurried from the kitchen into the front hall, but Benina beat him to the front door.

She opened it in time to see Newman stepping out of a farmer's cart.

He was looking, David thought, as he reached him, a great deal older with his white hair, but he was smiling broadly and was very obviously delighted to be back.

“I just didn't believe my old ears, Mr. David, when they tells me you had come home and wanted me.”

“I want you very much, Newman, and I am so glad you are well enough to come.”

“Well enough!  There'll be nothing wrong with me and I can see there's a great deal wrong with the house, but take it from me, his late Lordship, mad or not, was clever enough as a cartload of monkeys.”

“He was lucky to get away with it all,” commented David.  “I would have thought that there would have been someone to stop him.”

“If you would ask me, he was able to save himself by sacking everyone in the house and forcing Miss Benina and Nanny to do all the work.”

“You may be right, Newman, but he must have put the money somewhere and we have to find it.”

“And we'll find it, my Lord, but I'm not pretending to you or anyone else it's going to be easy.”

When David retired to bed, he thought that this was true, yet somehow he felt rather more optimistic than he had felt before, now that Newman was back.

Of course, he told himself, he could bring in trained detectives to find what they were seeking, but that would be to make their problem public – sooner or later someone would be bound to talk.

He was certain, if that did happen, it would evoke a great deal of sympathy, curiosity and greed.

The prize was two million pounds so who would not be anxious to help in the search?

The more he thought about his situation, the more he was convinced that everything must be kept secret.

Newman, Nanny and Benina, having been sworn to remain silent, the rest of the world would not be interested – they would think he was only trying to repair the damage wrought by neglect.

They would have no idea there were other reasons for their rampaging through the many rooms of Ingle Hall.

Already David was aware of the enormous amount of servants he would ultimately require to clean up the dirt and dust in every room.

He would need many expert craftsmen to repair the ceilings that had fallen down and put in new windowpanes.

But what was much more important than anything else was to find the money.

As once again he went to bed in the four-poster in which his ancestors had slept, he sent up a little prayer to his father and mother as he felt that they more than anyone else would appreciate the enormous task in front of him.

A task that was essential not only for him, but for the generations of his family to come.

 

David came in late for breakfast and Benina looked at him questioningly.

Newman had already opened up the breakfast room and swept away most of the dust.  It was a pretty room with long windows overlooking the garden and as it faced East, it received the first rays of the sun.