Plum Pie (10 page)

"He would of course receive a pension."

"It's no good her thinking she can gloss it over with any talk about pensions. Wrap it up as she may, the stark fact remains that she's planning to fire him. She must not be allowed to do this frightful thing. Good heavens, you might just as well fire the Archbishop of Canterbury."

He would have spoken further, but at this moment there came from the stairs outside the slumping of feet, announcing that Freddie was back from the Fanshawes and on his way to his room. Lord Emsworth winced. Like so many aristocratic fathers, he was allergic to younger sons and since going to live in America Freddie had acquired a brisk, go-getter jumpiness which jarred upon him.

"Frederick," he said with a shudder, and Gally started.

"I've got a telegram for Freddie," he said. "I'd better take it up to him."

"Do," said Lord Emsworth. "And I think I will be going and having a look at my flowers."

He left the room and making for the rose garden pottered slowly to and fro, sniffing at its contents. It was a procedure which as a rule gave him great pleasure, but today his heavy heart found no solace in the scent of roses. Listlessly he returned to the library and took a favourite pig book from its shelf. But even pig books were no palliative. The thought of Beach fading from the Blandings scene, if a man of his bulk could be said to fade, prohibited concentration.

He had sunk into a sombre reverie, when it was interrupted by the entrance of the subject of his gloomy meditations.

"Pardon me, m'lord," said Beach. "Mr. Galahad desires me to ask if you would step down to the smokingroom and speak to him."

"Why can't he come up here?"

"He has sprained his ankle, m'lord. He and Mr. Frederick fell downstairs."

"Oh?" said Lord Emsworth, not particularly interested. Freddie was always doing odd things. So was Galahad. "How did that happen?"

"Mr. Galahad informs me that he handed Mr. Frederick a telegram. Mr. Frederick, having opened and perused it, uttered a sharp exclamation, reeled, clutched at Mr. Galahad, and they both fell downstairs. Mr. Frederick, too, has sprained his ankle. He has retired to bed."

"Bless my soul. Are they in pain?"

"I gather that the agony has to some extent abated. They have been receiving treatment from the kitchen maid. She is a Brownie."

"She's a
what?"

"A Brownie, m'lord. I understand it is a species of female Boy Scout. They are instructed in the fundamentals of first aid."

"Eh? First aid? Oh, you mean first aid," said Lord Emsworth, reading between the lines. "Bandages and that sort of thing, what?"

"Precisely, m'lord."

By the time Lord Emsworth reached the smokingroom the Brownie had completed her ministrations and gone back to her Screen Gems. Gally was lying on a sofa, looking not greatly disturbed by his accident. He was smoking a cigar.

"Beach tells me you had a fall," said Lord Emsworth.

"A stinker," Gaily assented. "As who wouldn't when an ass of a nephew grabs him at the top of two flights of stairs."

"Beach seems to think Frederick's action was caused by some bad news in the telegram which you gave to him."

"That's right. It was from Aggie."

"Aggie?"

"His wife."

"I thought her name was Frances."

"No, Niagara."

"What a peculiar name."

"A gush of sentiment on the part of her parents. They spent the honeymoon at Niagara Falls."

"Ah yes, I have heard of Niagara Falls. People go over them in barrels, do they not? Now there is a thing I would not care to do myself. Most uncomfortable, I should imagine, though no doubt one would get used to it in time. Why was her telegram so disturbing?"

"Because she says she's coming here and will be with us the day after tomorrow."

“I see no objection to that."

"Freddie does, and I'll tell you why. He's gone and given her dog to Valerie Fanshawe."

"Who is Valerie Fanshawe?"

"The daughter of Colonel Fanshawe of Marling Hall, the tally-ho and view-halloo chap. Haven't you met him?"

"No," said Lord Emsworth, who never met anyone, if he could help it. "But why should Frances object to Frederick giving this young woman a dog?"

"I didn't say a dog, I said her dog. Her personal Alsatian, whom she loves to distraction. However, that could be straightened out, I imagine, with a few kisses and a remorseful word or two if Valerie Fanshawe were a girl with a pasty face and spectacles, but unfortunately she isn't. Her hair is golden, her eyes blue, and years of huntin', shootin', and fishin', not to mention swimmin', tennis-playin' and golfin', have rendered her figure lissom and slender. She looks like something out of a beauty chorus, and as you are probably aware the little woman rarely approves of her mate being on chummy terms with someone of that description. Let Aggie get one glimpse of Valerie Fanshawe and learn that Freddie has been showering dogs on her, and she'll probably divorce him."

"Surely not?"

"It's on the cards. American wives get divorces at the drop of a hat."

"Bless my soul. What would Frederick do then?"

"Well, her father obviously wouldn't want him working at his dog biscuit emporium. I suppose he would come and live here."

"What, at the castle?" cried Lord Emsworth, appalled. "Good God!"

"So you see how serious the situation is. However, I've been giving it intense thought, turning here a stone, exploring there an avenue, and I am glad to say I have found the solution. We must get that dog back before Aggie arrives."

"You will ask Rosalie Fanshawe to return it?"

"Not quite that. She would never let it go. It will have to be pinched, and that's where you come in."

"I?"

"Who else is there? Freddie and I are both lying on beds of pain, unable to move, and we can hardly ask Connie to oblige. You are our only mobile force. Your quick intelligence has probably already told you what you have to do. What do people do when they've got a dog? They instruct the butler to let it out for a run last thing at night."

"Do they?"

"Invariably. Or bang go their carpets. Every dog has its last-thing-at-night outing, and I think we can safely assume that it will be via the back door."

"What the back door?"

“Via.”

"Oh, via? Yes, yes, quite."

"So you must pop over to the Fanshawes—say around ten o'clock—and lurk outside their back door till the animal appears, and bring it back here."

Lord Emsworth stared, aghast.

"But, Galahad!"

"It's no good saying 'But, Galahad!'. It's got to be done. You don't want Freddie's whole future to turn blue at the edges and go down the drain, do you? Let alone having him at the castle for the rest of his life. Ah, I see you shudder. I thought you would. And, dash it, it's not much I'm asking of you. Merely to go and stand in a back garden and scoop in a dog. A child could do it. If it wasn't that we want to keep the thing a secret just between ourselves, I'd hand the job over to the Brownie."

"But what if the dog refuses to accompany me? After all, we've scarcely met."

"I've thought of that. You must sprinkle your trouser legs with aniseed. Dogs follow aniseed to the ends of the earth."

"But I have no aniseed."

"Beach is bound to be able to lay his hands on some. And Beach never asks questions. Unlike Connie's young, smart butler, who would probably be full of them. Oh, Beach," said Gaily, who had pressed the bell. "Have we aniseed in the house?"

"Yes, Mr. Galahad."

"Bring me a stoup of it, will you?"

"Very good, sir," said Beach.

If the request surprised him, he did not show it. Your experienced butler never allows himself to look surprised at anything. He brought the aniseed. At the appointed hour Lord Emsworth drove off in Freddie's sports model car, smelling to heaven. And Gaily, left alone, lit another cigar and turned his attention to the
Times
crossword puzzle.

He found it, however, difficult to concentrate on it. This was not merely because these crossword puzzles had become so abstruse nowadays and he was basically a Sun-god-Ra and Large-Australian-bird-emu man. Having seen Lord Emsworth off on his journey, doubts and fears were assailing him. He was wishing he could feel more confident of his brother's chances of success in the mission which had been entrusted to him. A lifetime association with him had left him, feeling that the head of the family was a frail reed on which to lean in an emergency. His genius for doing the wrong thing was a byword in his circle of acquaintance.

Which, he was asking himself, of the many ways open to him for messing everything up would Lord Emsworth select? Drive the car into a ditch? Go to the wrong house? Or would he forget all about his assignment and sit by the roadside musing on pigs? It was impossible to say, and Gally's emotions were similar to those of a General who, having planned a brilliant piece of strategy, finds himself dubious as to the ability of his troops to carry it out. Generals in such circumstances chew their moustaches in an overwrought sort of way, and Gaily would have chewed his, if he had had one.

Heavy breathing sounded outside the door. Beach entered.

"Miss Fanshawe, sir," he announced.

Gally's acquaintance with Valerie Fanshawe was only a slight one and in the interval since they had last met he had forgotten some of her finer points. Seeing her now, he realized how accurate had been his description of her to Lord Ems-worth. In the best and deepest sense of the words she was a dish and a pippin—in short, the very last type of girl to whom a young husband should have given his wife's Alsatian.

"Good evening," he said. "You must forgive me for not rising as directed in the books of etiquette. I've sprained my ankle."

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Valerie. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."

"Not at all."

"I asked for Mr. Threepwood, forgetting there were two of you. I came to see Freddie."

"He's gone to bed. He has sprained his ankle."

The girl seemed puzzled.

"Aren't you getting the cast of characters mixed up?" she said. "It was you who sprained the ankle."

"Freddie also."

"What, both of you? What happened?"

"We fell downstairs together."

"What made you do that?"

"Oh, we thought we would. Can I give Freddie a message?"

"If you wouldn't mind. Tell him that all is well. Did he mention to you that he was trying to sell Father those dog biscuits of his?"

"He did."

"Well, I approached Father on the subject and he said Oh, all right, he would give them a try. He said he didn't suppose they would actually poison the dumb chums and as I was making such a point of it he'd take a chance."

"Splendid."

"And I've brought back "the dog."

It was only the most sensational piece of news that could make Gally's monocle drop from his eye. At these words it fell like a shooting star.

"You've done
what
?" he exclaimed, retrieving the monocle and replacing it in order the better to goggle at her.

"He gave me an Alsatian dog this afternoon, and I've brought it back."

"You mean you don't want it?"

"I want it all right, but I can't have it. The fathead's first act on clocking in was to make a bee line for Father's spaniel and try to assassinate it, the one thing calculated to get himself socially ostracized. Father thinks the world of that spaniel. 'Who let this canine paranoiac into the house?' he thundered, foaming at the mouth. I said I had. 'Where did you get the foul creature?' he demanded. 'Freddie gave him to me,' I said. 'Then you can damn well take him back to this Freddie, who ever he is' he---"

"Vociferated?"

"Yes, vociferated. 'And let me add,' he said, 'that I am about to get my gun and count ten, and if the animal's still around when I reach that figure, I shall blow his head off at the roots and the Lord have mercy on his soul.' Well, I'm pretty quick and I saw right away that what he was hinting at was that he preferred not to associate with the dog, so I've brought him back. I think he went off to the Servants Hall to have a bite of supper. I shall miss him, of course. Still, easy come, easy go."

And so saying Valerie Fanshawe, reverting to the subject of Gally's ankle, expressed a hope that he would not have to have it amputated, and withdrew.

If at this moment somebody had started to amputate Gally's ankle, it is hardly probable that he would have noticed it, so centred were his thoughts on this astounding piece of good luck which had befallen a nephew of whom he had always been fond. If, as he supposed, it was the latter's guardian angel who had engineered the happy ending like a conjuror pulling a rabbit out of a hat, he would have liked to slap him on the back and tell him how greatly his efforts were appreciated. Joy cometh in the morning, he told himself, putting the clock forward a little, and by way of celebrating the occasion he rang for Beach and asked him to bring, him a whisky and soda.

It was some considerable time before the order was filled, and Beach was full of apologies for his tardiness.

"I must express my regret for being so long, Mr. Galahad. I was detained on the telephone by Colonel Fanshawe."

"The Fanshawe family seem very much with us tonight. Is there a Mrs. Fanshawe?"

"I understand so, Mr. Galahad."

"No doubt she will be dropping in shortly. What did the Colonel want?"

"He was asking for his lordship, but I have been unable to locate him."

"He's gone for a stroll."

"Indeed? I was not aware. Colonel Fanshawe wished him to come to Marling Hall tomorrow morning in his capacity of Justice of the Peace. It appears that the butler at Marling Hall apprehended a prowler who was lurking in the vicinity of the back door and has locked him in the cellar. Colonel Fanshawe is hoping that his lordship will give him a sharp sentence."

For the second time that night Gally's monocle had fallen from the parent eye socket. He had not, as we have seen, been sanguine with regard to the possibility of his brother getting through the evening without mishap, but he had not foreseen anything like this. This was outstanding, even for Clarence.