Talk of the Village (12 page)

'Apparently most of the villagers had guessed already about these two babies of ours, but were keeping mum.'

'Oh, my word. Had they.'

113

When Ralph woke during the night after only a few hours' sleep he knew he would be awake until breakfast time. Jet lag seemed to affect him more as he got older. He turned over in bed hoping he wouldn't disturb Muriel.

'Ralph,' Muriel whispered. 'Are you awake?'

'I'm so sorry my dear, did I wake you?'

'No, you didn't. I've been awake for ages. I didn't realise that flying could upset one's personal clock so much. I didn't notice it when we went out to Australia. I suppose that was because I was so excited. How long will it be before I'm back to normal?'

'A few days that's all.'

'Ralph isn't it lovely to be back home again?'

'Yes my dear, it is.'

'You don't sound as enthusiastic as I am.'

'Oh I am, I'm all mixed up I suppose. You see, it's coming home for you, but I haven't quite found my feet yet.'

'It feels as if you've always lived here.'

'Does it?'

'Yes.' Muriel turned over, snuggled up to Ralph and put her arm around him. 'Doing this, putting my arm around you, feels the most wonderful thing in the world. You see I've always had a bed of my own, a room of my

114

own, and now sharing it with someone I love is so comforting. No matter how afraid or upset I am now, I've always got someone who will listen. It's surprising, isn't it, what one can tell someone in the dead of night when the curtains are closed and the whole world is asleep.'

'And what kind of things would you like to say to me at this moment? Have you some dark secret you have refrained from disclosing, Lady Templeton?'

'Doesn't that sound grand? Definitely not. I am very worried about Caroline.'

Ralph released himself from Muriel's grasp and got out ofbed.

'Would you enjoy a cup of tea and a slice of toast?'

'Yes Ralph, but I'll get it.'

'No, no, I will. You rest there and allow your beloved husband to wait upon you.' He searched under the bed for his slippers, put on his dressing gown and went downstairs. Muriel lay back in bed admiring the pretty wallpaper and matching curtains. She was pleased she had resisted Ralph's insistence on redecorating. She loved the Laura Ashley papers and in any case the house had seen enough sorrow; it needed leaving alone for a while. Poor Suzy giving up her babies like that. Still it was the best decision in the end. They had two wonderful parents now.

After a while Ralph returned to the bedroom. He'd found the best tray, Muriel's favourite tray cloth and the morning tea set her cousin had bought them for a wedding present. The toast was keeping warm under a silver cover with the family crest on, from Ralph's old home. Muriel couldn't help but reflect on how affronted an earlier generation might have been to find their son and heir tucked up in bed with their head gardener's daughter. Things had changed.

Ralph poured the tea and presented Muriel with her

115

toast and a paper napkin. 'My mother would have fainted at the prospect of paper napkins. White starched linen was
de rigueur,
so starched it nearly cut one's mouth if one was so foolish as to use one. What a ridiculous set of standards they had.'

Muriel popped the last piece of her toast in her mouth, and drank the remains of her tea. Ralph got up. 'Here let me take your things.' He put their cups and plates on the tray and got out of bed to place it outside the bedroom door.

He took off his dressing gown, climbed back into bed and took hold of her hand. She squeezed his hand with both of hers and smiled.

'What do you think about Jimmy and the rabbits, Ralph?'

'Frankly, I think Caroline is making much too much fuss. If we went into it I'm sure we'd be horrified at the way chickens are killed, and the way cows and pigs and sheep are killed. A few rabbits hardly matter in the scheme of things do they?'

'That's not quite the point though, is it Ralph? Just because others are suffering it doesn't mean to say it's all right for those rabbits does it? It's like people say, "Oh, well, everyone else is taking pens and paper and equipment home from the office so it's all right if I do it." It's still stealing isn't it?'

'Yes, you have a point. But I'm not going to join her in her "Freedom for Rabbits" campaign. I'm too much of a countryman at heart.'

'Well, I'm afraid I'm on her side. It has to stop.'

'Muriel, please, you will not get embroiled.'

'Why not?'

'Because I don't want you to.'

While Muriel mulled over a side of Ralph's character she hadn't met before, he turned towards her and began caressing her neck in the way he knew she enjoyed. He

116

tried to turn her to face him but she resisted.

'Ralph, it's the middle of the night.'

'Not to me it isn't, but in any case is the time relevant in some way?'

'No, but we haven't sorted out about the rabbits. I hate being at cross purposes with you, Ralph.'

'I didn't know we were.'

'
You
said you didn't want me to get embroiled, I didn't say I wouldn't.'

'Well, leave it for now and we'll sort it out in the morning.'

Ralph was still caressing her neck and Muriel could feel her bones beginning to melt; a sensation she had grown to appreciate these last few months. 'Very well dear. Ralph I do love you. Listen! What's that noise? It's Perry drinking the tea out of the bottom of our cups! He is a naughty dog, but it's so nice to have him back. I have missed him.'

'There's a little girl in you who has never quite grown up and every now and again she emerges. It's that youthful quality of yours which I love.'

'Is that all I am, just a little girl?'

'Come here and prove otherwise.'

The two of them were very late waking the following morning and to Muriel's chagrin they missed morning service. 'Oh Ralph, I did want to hear how much they'd got with the Festival yesterday. Peter will think us very neglectful not getting to church.'

Ralph picked up the clock and saw it was already eleven. 'When I see him I'll tell him why you slept in.'

'Ralph!'

'Stay another half an hour, and then we'll have brunch and this afternoon we'll take Pericles for a long walk, have an early tea and go to evening service.'

'What a good idea. It's so nice to have someone to

117

make up my mind for me. Put your arm round me and we'll have a little doze.'

She changed her mind about going for a walk, deciding she needed to answer some letters which were awaiting urgent attention. Ralph had only been gone a few minutes when Muriel heard an urgent knocking at the door. She opened it to fmdjimbo there.

'Muriel, please, have you seen Flick?'

'Flick? No, why?'

'We can't find her. She was with the Brownies this morning in church and we went home with the boys, thinking she would follow in a little while when Brown Owl had dismissed them. She hasn't though. We've looked everywhere. I've even been up to the Health Club and Venetia and I have searched up there, but there's no sign of her. I've left Jeremy looking round the grounds and the people from Home Farm are searching their barns. We're absolutely at our wits' end. Harriet's being so sensible but underneath she's terrified.'

'Ohjimbo, I'm so sorry. I'll get my cardigan and keys and I'll come to help you look.'

'Is Ralph in?'

'No, he's gone out for a couple of hours. I'll set off and walk with Pericles along the beck. She might have gone wandering off with her cats.'

'Thank you. We're getting really desperate now. It's been an hour and a half you see.' Having tried each house in the immediate vicinity of the green Jimbo went home to Harriet.

'Harriet, I've had no luck. Have you heard ... no obviously you haven't.'

'Jimbo, it's time to ring the police.'

'I know, I know. Look phone round some more of her schoolfriends will you. She might have gone off with one of the Brownies, fancying having lunch with them or something. You know what children are like. "Oh I've

118

asked Mummy and she says it's all right." Go on, darling, ring. Ah, Sadie, you're back.'

'She's not at my house hiding or anything. Have you been angry with her about something Jimbo?'

'Not at all. As far as I know she is perfectly happy. God I'm going mad. Harriet's ringing up some more of her friends. If she has no luck then I shall contact the police. It's no good relying on the local Sergeant, we need more brains than his.'

Harriet came back into the room. 'Mother, what's the name of that girl whose mother held the barbecue and nearly set the father alight?'

'Now she tells me. What kind of friends do we have?' Jimbo grunted. 'Idiots?'

'She's called Jenny something,' Sadie remembered, 'I know, Jenny Barlow.'

'That's it.' But Harriet returned, having drawn a blank. She said she couldn't think of anyone else to ring. 'I know, I'll ring Brown Owl and see if she noticed where Flick went. I should have done that in the first place.' And she went off to the telephone once more.

'Jimbo, I didn't like to ask this in front of Harriet, but did you try at the Baxters' house?'

'Yes, Sadie, but there was no reply.'

'Well, I think we should try again.'

'So do I, but they're not going to let me in, are they? And if I ask, they'll say no they haven't seen her, even if they have. That's why I want the police. They can insist on looking, whereas I can't.'

Fergus and Finlay were standing listening.

'I know I've asked you two this before, but do you have any clue at all about where Flick might be?'

'None at all Daddy. We finished before the Brownies did, 'cos they'd got a lot of notices. She didn't say anything to us.'

'Have you been needling her?'

119

'No, we've been very good today. Aren't we going to find her Daddy?'

'Yes, of course we are. Don't be silly. We will, won't we Grandma?' Jimbo appealed to Sadie as much for reassurance for himself as for the boys.

'Yes, we will. Let Grandma make you a nice drink. 1 think I might be able to find a KitKat for each of you, if I have two sensible boys.'

'We'll save one for Flick for when she gets back.'

'Of course.'

As far as Jimbo was concerned, that last remark of the boys made up his mind for him.

'Right Harriet, no news from Brown Owl?'

'No. Jimbo what are we going to do? I can't think straight.'

'Neither can I. It's the police next, there's no doubt in my mind.'

The Sergeant, roused from his afternoon sleep brought on by a surfeit of Mrs Sergeant's jam roly poly pudding, knew that this meant the end of his Sunday and possibly his Monday as well. They'd gone for years in this village without so much as the theft of a bicycle bell and now this. Murder, suicide, sudden death. It was all happening in Turnham Malpas. Now worst of all, a missing child.

'I have to tell you this Sergeant, the only house where I have had no response is the Misses Baxter's. All the other people have answered their doors, looked in their sheds and gardens, and done their best to help. Three quarters of the village is out looking for her, but there's no news yet. I don't know what to think any more. I do know that something serious needs doing though.'

'Right Mr Charter-Plackett. It seems to me that we can't dismiss this on the basis that she will turn up shortly. It's been two hours now, you say, and all she had to do was walk from the church to your house. That

120

would take one minute at the outside. I want you to go find Willie Biggs and get him to search the churchyard with you and the church and the church hall as well. I'll get onto the station in Culworth. Keep looking in all the most unlikely places. She may have got locked in somewhere.'

'That's it! She could be locked in the vestry or something, couldn't she? I'll see Willie straight away.'

The two of them searched the church, unlocking the vestries and the boilerhouse, looking behind the old tombs and in every nook and cranny. They then began methodically combing the churchyard. Willie kept the grass between the graves absolutely immaculate so the chances of her being found there were nil, but they still persisted. Jimbo wished the churchyard was overgrown and that he would find her hidden in the long grass with a broken ankle or something. Anything but this total blank.

When he got back to the house, the police from Culworth had arrived. Harriet was showing them a photograph of Flick. The Sergeant took the Detective Inspector on one side and after a short consultation the Inspector went off with his Detective Constable to the Baxters' cottage. Meanwhile the village Sergeant accompanied Jimbo to the school to knock on Michael Palmer's door and ask to search the premises.

Detective Inspector Proctor had no preconceived ideas about the Misses Baxter. So far as he was concerned this was just another house in a dead alive hole which he wouldn't live in if his salary was doubled. DC Cooper knocked loudly on the front door and they both waited. The Inspector thought he saw the curtain move slightly but couldn't be sure. He always said it was his wife who was intuitive but today he acknowledged his own instincts were sending signals that all was not as it should