Edward Marston - Ticket to Oblivion

‘It’s because — and this is merely guesswork on my part — they didn’t recognise Sir Marcus’s daughter and her maid.’

‘That’s impossible. They knew both of them well.’

‘Mrs Vaughan and her daughter were expecting two women to get off the train. It was a crowded platform, remember. They wouldn’t have looked twice if a man and a woman had alighted together — or if two men stepped out of a carriage.’

Leeming snapped his fingers. ‘It’s that valise again!’

‘Suppose that it contained a means of disguise.’

‘They’d have plenty of time to change on their way to Oxford and they could easily have lost themselves in the crowd when they got there. I think you’ve hit on the solution, sir.’ The excitement drained out of Leeming’s voice. ‘There’s just one thing,’ he said, dully. ‘I can’t think of a single reason why Sir Marcus’s daughter should want to sneak past her aunt and her cousin. She enjoyed her visits to Oxford. The coachman confirmed that. Why deceive her relatives in that way?’

‘Imogen Burnhope was seizing her one chance of escape.’

‘Why should she want to escape from a life of such privilege?’

‘I’m not certain, Victor, but it may be related to that book of Shakespeare sonnets in the library. She was the person who’d been reading them, not her parents. Poetry would seem to be signally absent from the Burnhope marriage.’

‘I’ve never read any sonnets,’ confessed Leeming. ‘In fact, I don’t even know what a sonnet is. What’s so special about them?’

‘The overriding theme of Shakespeare’s sonnets is love.’

‘Then someone about to get married would be likely to read them.’

‘Only if she was pleased with the wedding plans,’ said Colbeck, ‘and I fancy that she may have had reservations.’

‘Yet her father insisted that she’d never been happier.’

‘That only means that the marriage had his blessing. His daughter would have had no freedom of choice in the matter. I doubt very much if her happiness was even considered. It was just assumed by her father. We heard how beautiful Imogen Burnhope was. She must have had many admirers. Being trapped on the estate for most of the time, she’d have been unable to enjoy their admiration unless …’ Colbeck hunched his shoulders. ‘… unless she found a way to circumvent her mother’s control of her life. If that were the case, she’d be in a position to make her own choice.’

Leeming goggled. ‘You think that the young lady is on the run?’

‘Yes, Victor, I do. I wouldn’t dare mention it to her family or to her relatives but her behaviour smacks of calculation. Her reading of the sonnets suggests that Imogen Burnhope is in love but it may not be with the man she is destined to marry.’

‘Yet she accepted his proposal.’

‘So it seems.’

‘She can’t renounce that.’

‘It’s highly unusual, I grant you. It would take a great deal of courage for her to make such a momentous decision but love can embolden even the meekest of individuals. The truth will only emerge when we meet the man to whom she is betrothed. Is she running to him?’ asked Colbeck, stroking his chin meditatively, ‘or running away from him?’

Clive Tunnadine was an unwelcome visitor to Oxford. He stormed into University College and ordered the head porter to take him at once to the Master’s Lodging. He was received politely by Dominic Vaughan and offered refreshment that he spurned rudely as if he’d just been invited to drink poison. Before he could explain why he’d descended on the college in such an ill-tempered way, Tunnadine was interrupted by the arrival of Cassandra and obliged to go through ritual greetings. Her presence made him moderate his tone somewhat.

‘I saw you through the window,’ she said, ‘and guessed why you must have come. It’s this terrible business about Imogen. We are quite distraught.’

‘We are also mystified,’ said her husband. ‘The OWWR is capable of some catastrophic errors but it has, to my mind, never before contrived to lose two of its passengers in transit. Sir Marcus will take the company to task.’

‘The fault may not lie at their door, Mr Vaughan.’

‘Where else, I pray?’

Tunnadine looked from one to the other. He’d met them only twice before at social gatherings and formed a clear view of the couple. Vaughan struck him as a refugee from a real life in which he was too timid to thrive, preferring instead to inhabit the alternative universe of scholarship with its mild intellectual joys and its monastic affinities. Cassandra, however, was too forceful and opinionated to blend easily into the surroundings. While her husband may have withdrawn from the workaday world, she still kept one foot in it and felt able to pass judgement on major events of the day in a way that Tunnadine found annoying and unbecoming in a woman. It was something he was determined to prevent Imogen Burnhope from ever doing when she eventually became his wife.

For their part, Dominic and Cassandra Vaughan accepted him at face value because he was about to join the family. Vaughan had a natural respect for any member of the government and his wife could see that — though wholly lacking in charm or good looks — Tunnadine would be a vigorous husband in every sense. Her view of him was about to be changed.

‘It pains me to say this,’ he said with blatant dishonesty, ‘but I’m led to think that you, Mrs Vaughan, may have been at fault.’

Cassandra blenched. ‘How dare you even suggest it!’

‘Imogen did get off that train but you must have missed her in the crowd.’

‘That’s an appalling allegation.’

‘And it’s one that I refute,’ said Vaughan, coming to her aid. ‘My wife is exceptionally sharp-eyed. There is no way that she — or Emma, for that matter — would have failed to see a face that is so lovingly familiar.’

‘I believe that Mrs Vaughan may have been cleverly distracted,’ argued Tunnadine. ‘It was all part of a game. Let me finish,’ he added, quelling them with a wave of his arm. ‘On the train from London, I’ve had ample time to explore the possibilities and I’ve come to one conclusion. This family is to blame.’

‘That’s a monstrous accusation!’ cried Cassandra.

‘I demand that you withdraw it,’ said Vaughan, confronting him. ‘Even if my wife and daughter did miss them in the crowd, it would not account for their total disappearance. Imogen and her maid would simply have caught a cab and come straight here to the college. Your claim is baseless, sir.’

‘I think not,’ asserted Tunnadine.

‘I’m afraid that I must ask you to leave this college.’

‘I’ll not go until this matter is finally sorted out.’

‘My wife and daughter are wholly innocent of your charge.’

‘That may be so.’

‘It is so!’ shouted Cassandra. ‘I demand an apology.’

Vaughan drew himself up to his full height. ‘Well, Mr Tunnadine?

‘There is someone you are conveniently overlooking,’ said their visitor. ‘Perhaps I was too hasty in apportioning blame. Your wife and daughter may, after all, bear no direct responsibility. Both were unwitting victims. They were duped by someone who’d take delight in such an exercise.’

‘To what exercise are you referring, may I ask?’

‘I speak of the disgraceful prank that has caused us so much pain.’

‘I’m not aware of any prank

Tunnadine’s eyes blazed. ‘Need I speak his abominable name?’

There was a long, eventful silence. Vaughan’s jaw dropped and Cassandra’s cheeks turned crimson. Their visitor’s accusation no longer seemed so far-fetched. He had reached a conclusion that neither of them had even considered. Husband and wife were so troubled by mutual embarrassment that they dared not look at each other.