Will Thomas - Fatal Enquiry

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Certainly. Now, please tell me, coherently and in full sentences, what you and Cyrus have been doing since you ran out of your offices last week.”

It was a challenge, but I rose to it. After I had given her a full summary of our exploits, I couldn’t remember a word I’d actually said, but I knew I had acquitted myself well enough.

“So he is out there somewhere without a penny to his name.”

“I’m afraid so.”

“He sent a message to warn me that Sebastian Nightwine is in London, but actually, I knew that already. He came calling yesterday afternoon.”

“Nightwine came here?”

“No, he came down to Sussex. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was showing Cyrus he could get to me if he wanted to.”

“He didn’t threaten or harm you in any way?”

“We talked for about an hour, that’s all. I have always been able to see through his intrigues. The man hasn’t changed a hair.”

“You mean you know him?”

“Oh, years now. He proposed marriage to me once, but I think it was merely to get at Cyrus. You cannot fathom how deeply the two of them despise each other.”

I shook my head in disbelief. It did make sense, however; they had all known each other in China.

“May I ask how Sebastian Nightwine came to propose to you or would that be impertinent of me?”

“I suppose I should tell you about Colin, my late husband,” she began. “He was an engineer, mostly concerned with bridges and dams. It’s the kind of occupation that will make a fortune in the East. We’d been married five years when he was hired by the government to work in southern China. We bought a house in Canton in the foreign settlement on Shameen Island. It was like a little bit of England; the husbands would go off in the mornings and we wives would pay visits or plan parties or try to stay cool in the unmerciful heat. We were not encouraged to explore the city or encounter the native population, but there was one fellow whom Colin brought home now and again, a Chinese boat captain who carried freight for him on occasion.”

“Shi Shi Ji,” I said, using Barker’s Chinese name. “But I still can’t believe you couldn’t tell he was European.”

“His forehead was shaved up to the crown, a queue hung down his back, and the bottom of his mustache was long and braided. With his dark spectacles, I defy you to have recognized him as a Scotsman, either. He came once a month or so for almost a year, though we rarely spoke. I did not know how well he could speak or understand English, and we really didn’t speak until Colin died.”

“May I ask how your husband was killed?”

“A rock gave way above an area he was surveying. It was dangerous work. That was why they had called on his expertise.”

“I’m sorry,” I murmured.

She looked momentarily brittle and tight, but it passed quickly. Underneath that gentle elegance there was a rod of iron.

“That was a long time ago. Cyrus came to the funeral and stood at the outer edge of the party, dressed in a white tunic as is the Chinese custom. Then he started to come by the estate to do little things, or to make improvements. He was monosyllabic and gruff but I came to rely on him. He took over our garden and grounds but he would never step in the house, not for nearly a year.”

“Why did you stay in China after your husband died?”

“I did not relish returning home and becoming an object of concern to my family and friends. I did not want their pity. Also, I wanted to see that Colin’s work was completed. If I could see that the improvements he had designed actually made a difference to the people there, then he had not died in vain.”

“Of course.”

“Eventually I began to attend social functions again. I was at a gymkhana with some neighbors when I was introduced to Sebastian. I knew right off he was the kind of man who would use a widow as his own personal bank account until she had not twopence to rub together. However, he was attentive. You cannot possibly understand what it is like to live in social seclusion for a year. It felt good to be noticed by a handsome man and for once to be the object of interest in my community.”

“What was Nightwine doing then?” I asked.

“Not much of anything, I believe. He had been stationed in Hong Kong, but had gotten in trouble enough there to move to the mainland. He called one day to see me, and apparently, Cyrus saw him leave.”

I sat forward quickly. “What did the Guv do?”

“He burst in the door and started barking at me in voluble Cantonese. My grasp is not good and I only caught every tenth word, but enough to know I didn’t like what he said. Who was he to come into my house and make insinuations about my friends? What was he to me but a glorified gardener, after all? I argued back. And you won’t guess what he said.”

“What?” I demanded. “What did he say?”

“He said, ‘Haud yer wiest, woman!’”

We both suddenly smiled. I could imagine this huge, agitated Chinaman telling her to hold her tongue in broad Scots, as if I were there myself.

“Well, of course, he had to come clean about being a Scotsman and then to admit that his interests extended beyond my garden. At the moment, he was in a spot, because he had come to Canton to study Chinese boxing, which is not taught to foreigners, but by the same token, I could not exactly be seen in polite society on the arm of a Chinaman, now could I? Our growing relationship had to remain a secret. Then there was Sebastian, whom once attracted is more difficult to get rid of than blight.”

“I see a fight coming on,” I commented.

She frowned. “Are you going to tell the story or shall I, Thomas?”

“You tell it in your own way, Mrs. Ashleigh, but please don’t drag it out. It’s killing me. I do not think I can stand the suspense.”

“One Saturday afternoon Sebastian came calling with flowers and chocolate and, as I suspected, a ring. I don’t believe he really wanted to marry me, but there was no other way for him to legally get to my money without it. Once my name was on a document he could systematically drain everything Colin had left me. Sebastian wouldn’t be denied his attempt at man’s most grand gesture. He went down on one knee in front of me.

“‘Get your foul knee up off that clean floor,’ a voice bellowed in the hall. Cyrus stood there in the sleeveless tunic he wore when he worked in the garden.

“Sebastian did not seem that surprised to meet his old adversary in my parlor. That’s when I realized that as much as it was about the money I had, it was more about doing Cyrus out of what he wanted.

“The next I knew the two of them were destroying my house in an attempt to defeat each other. They knocked over tables and upset chairs. I tried yelling over the din but it made little difference. Paintings were knocked from walls, pots overturned, and bric-a-brac shattered. An old suit of armor that Colin had purchased in his university days fell to pieces on the marble floor with an appalling din. I stepped outside and asked a neighbor to send for the police.

“The fight ended when they ran out of things to break, and both of them were bloody and disreputable. By that time several sparrows escaped from a broken cage were flying about the room and the only piece of furniture that was not damaged was the grand piano, though they had given it a valiant effort. I gave them both the thorough tongue-lashing they deserved.

“The next I knew, the police entered the room, or rather, the English army officers who guarded our island. They seemed to disapprove of everyone, even me, as if I had engaged them to start a fracas, and began to question us individually. Then a Chinese magistrate in a tasseled hat entered and pointed to Cyrus. He questioned nobody at all but barked an order and a squad of Chinese soldiers entered and took him away. Not to be outdone, the British soldiers promptly took Sebastian in for questioning.”