Джорджетт Хейер - No Wind of Blame

"Oh, Maurice, thank God you've come!" cried Mary, hurrying across the room towards him. "Oh, for Heaven's sake, do something!"

He took her hand, but looked towards Ermyntrude. "What is it?" he asked.

Her wrath had exhausted Ermyntrude. She collapsed suddenly on to the sofa, and burst into tears. "Ask him! Ask him what he said about my Vicky!" she sobbed. "Oh, I've never been so deceived in anyone in my life!"

The Prince at once burst into speech, but as his agitation had made him forget his English, no one, least of all the doctor, could understand much of what he said. It was Mary who gave the doctor a hurried account of the quarrel. He betrayed neither surprise nor indignation, but merely said that since the situation was clearly impossible, he thought the Prince had better come and stay at his house until after the Inquest.

Ermyntrude, who was weeping on Vicky's shoulder, lifted her head to say in a broken voice that she was sure she didn't want to hurry the Prince's departure, but Mary threw the doctor a look of heartful gratitude, and took the Prince aside to explain to him that Ermyntrude's nerves were in such a precarious condition that she feared a breakdown, and thought he would be better out of the house.

Finally, the Prince went upstairs to superintend the packing of his suitcases; Ermyntrude was resuscitated with brandy, and smelling-salts; and the rest of the party, with the exception of Vicky, who stayed to hold her mother's hand, withdrew into the hall.

Mary said: "I'll never forget this, Maurice, never! You are the truest friend anyone ever had!"

"Well, I think I'd better be getting along," said Hugh. "Can I give you a lift, Inspector?"

"No, thank you, sir: the police-car's waiting for me. Now, I don't want to worry you, miss, but just tell me one thing! Was Mrs. Carter thinking of divorcing her husband, or was she not?"

"No, no, of course she wasn't!" replied Mary. "She told me quite definitely that nothing would induce her to."

"Thank you, that's all I wanted to know," said Hemingway, and left the house in Hugh Dering's wake.

In the porch he drew a long breath, and said: "Talk about the old Lyceum! Why, it was nothing to it! Don't you run away, sir! I want you to tell me just what that young terror was playing at! I don't mind owning I didn't see my way at all."

"I warned you that you were in for a shock," grinned Hugh.

"Seems to me you'd better have warned me to bring along my trick cycle," retorted the Inspector. "Quite out of the picture, I was. Well, I've met some queer people in my time, but this little lot fairly takes my breath away. Don't tell me the Duchess of Malfi isn't on the stage, because I wouldn't believe you!"

Hugh laughed. "Was, not is. Are you interested in the Drama?"

"I am, but I never had a bit of use for Family Charades. What was it all about, that's what I'd like to know?"

"Miss Fanshawe," said Hugh carefully, "does not wish her mother to marry Prince Varasashvili."

"Well, I'm bound to say she shows sense," remarked the Inspector. "All the same, you'd think the girl could think of some way of getting rid of him without putting on a three-reel drama, wouldn't you? The nerve of her dragging me into her antics! Not but what it was a highly talented performance. She's got more brain than I gave her credit for."

At this moment, Vicky came out of the house. "Oh, good, you haven't gone!" she said, addressing Hugh. "It's suddenly dawned on me that it's very nearly eight o'clock. You'd better stay to dinner, because you'll be frightfully late if you go back to the Manor. Besides, we may as well think out a good plan of campaign while we have the chance." She noticed the Inspector, half-hidden in the shadows beyond the shaft of light coming through the open door. "Oh, you weren't meant to hear that! I dare say it doesn't actually matter, but I do rather feel that it's time you went home."

"Thanks to you, miss, I'm feeling very much the same myself. I suppose you didn't happen to think when you were carrying on like that, that there might be two ways of looking at that big act of yours?"

"There aren't two ways of looking at the Prince," said Vicky positively. "Anyone can see that he's utterly apocryphal, besides being a complete adder."

"We won't go into that," said the Inspector. "What I meant was, that you were so anxious to get me to say I'd a case against you to suit your own ends, that perhaps you didn't stop to think whether I might really have a case against you?"

"That's nonsense!" Hugh said quickly.

The Inspector looked at him. "Oh, is it? What makes you so sure of that, sir?"

"I saw Miss Fanshawe when she came up from the bridge. If she had just shot her stepfather, she's a better actress than she's yet given me any reason to suppose."

"Well, you needn't spoil it!" said Vicky indignantly. "What about the act I've just put on? I thought it went awfully well, and though you may not know it, it isn't everyone who can cry real tears in an act. I did!"

"Why didn't your dog bark, miss?"

"I can't think, and it's bothered me a lot," replied Vicky frankly. "Does that look as though I must have done it? Shall you arrest me?"

"Go inside, you impossible brat!" said Hugh, grasping her by the arm, and twisting her round. "You don't want her, do you, Inspector?"

"No, sir, you're more than welcome," replied Hemingway.

Hugh pushed Vicky into the house, and shook her.

"You ought to have been drowned at birth! Do you imagine all this is some kind of a parlour game?"

"Oh no, I think it's quite ghoulish, and as a matter of fact, it gives me nightmares. Oh, I can hear Alexis! Come quickly into the library! It would be most frightfully gauche and tactless of me to run into him after all that lovely sabotage! Besides, I'm going to ring up Robert."

"What the devil for?" demanded Hugh, following her into the library.

Vicky picked up the receiver and began to dial a number. "Oh, don't be silly! It's his cue, of course. You've no idea how cherishing he is, which is just what Ermyntrude needs. Darling Robert! He wouldn't try and set the police on to little Vicky! Oh, is that you, Robert? This is Vicky. Would you like to come and see Ermyntrude after dinner? I thought it would be a goodish sort of a move if you were just to drift in too utterly casually, because everything is most dislocated here, and I'm practically imprisoned already, which is naturally very upsetting for Ermyntrude… Oh no, truly, I'm not joking! It's only that I do so believe in wearing a brave smile, like Invictus… No, I don't think I could explain over the telephone, on account of people listening in… Oh no! that's all part of it; he's gone - at least, he's going… Yes, I thought you would. Good-bye, and come at about nine!" She put down the receiver, and turned towards Hugh, who was standing with his shoulders against the door, somewhat grimly regarding her. "The great thing is to strike while the iron's hot," she said earnestly.

"Does it occur to you," said Hugh, "that this matchmaking of yours is a trifle premature?"

"No, because Ermyntrude simply must have a protector. Poor sweet, she's not very sensible, you know, and she might quite easily let her kind heart get the better of her, and forgive Alexis, which would be fatal. Even you must see that he's the most appalling menace!"

Hugh could not deny this, but said: "You're a bit of a menace yourself, if I may say so, Vicky."

"Yes, but I have the most beautiful intentions," Vicky assured him.

But Mary, when they joined her in the dining-room a quarter of an hour later, seemed unable to perceive the beauty of Vicky's intentions. She had done what she could do to soothe the Prince's injured feelings, and had bidden him a most civil farewell upon the doorstep; and she had then been called to Ermyntrude's side, so that she had a good deal of excuse for being out of temper.