Mr Campion's Fault Read Online Free PDF Page B

Yorkshireman called John Nevison who supposedly robbed a man in Gad’s Hill in Kent at four a.m. and then rode to York by eight p.m. the same day to establish an alibi.’
    ‘Did the alibi work?’
    ‘Yes, it did. No one believed he could have ridden that far in sixteen hours, but he had witnesses to say he was in York that evening so he couldn’t have been in Kent that morning.’
    ‘Clever fellow.’
    ‘Not that clever,’ she said, her hands busy rustling something inside the shopping bag now balanced on her knees. ‘He was hanged about ten years later, though he went to the scaffold like a true gentleman. Humbug?’
    ‘Yes, please. Where did you learn all that?’
    Perdita stretched out an arm and pressed a black-and-white sweet into her husband’s mouth.
    ‘From dear old Brigham Armitage, no less, a story he told me when I was little. The curse of the schoolmaster, I suppose. You have to teach an innocent child a fact a day.’
    ‘A bit like the Drink-A-Pinta-Milk-A-Day campaign,’ mumbled Rupert as he tackled a hard, minty mouthful. ‘When you spoke to him yesterday did he say any more about the teacher you – we – are replacing?’
    Perdita unwrapped a sweet for herself and popped it between her teeth, then daintily kissed the stickiness off her fingers before answering.
    ‘A little. It was strange really, almost as if he was rehearsing a funeral oration. Perhaps he was. Lots of what you might expect: trusted colleague, admired by the boys he taught, driving force behind the school’s drama productions and an inspiration on the rugby field …’
    ‘Oh dear,’ said Rupert, ‘I’m going to be a terrible disappointment.’
    ‘The late Mr Browne – that’s Browne with an “e”, if it matters – used to play for something called the Sappers Rugby Club in his youth apparently, though I’ve no idea where that is.’
    ‘It’s based in Chatham in Kent, I think,’ said Rupert, ‘at the home of the Royal Engineers. Quite a famous old club, though the Sappers always were a sporty lot. The Royal Engineers played in the first-ever FA Cup Final, you know. That’s the other sort of football.’
    ‘The one with the round ball?’ Perdita asked impishly and, when Rupert nodded, said smugly, ‘See, I do take an interest.’
    ‘So Mr Browne was an ex-military man?’ Rupert persevered.
    ‘I got the impression Brigham likes to recruit teachers from the services. Probably thinks it’s good for discipline in the classroom.’
    ‘That’s another reason I’ll be a disappointment – I didn’t even get to do National Service.’ Rupert frowned but kept his eyes firmly fixed on the road ahead. ‘I’m not sure I fancy trying to impose discipline in a classroom.’
    ‘You won’t have to, will you? You can shout at them across a muddy field or blow your little whistle or something. It’s me who has to drum the Romantic poets into reluctant young brains and then try and get them to remember their Marlowe.
This is hell, nor am I out of it
.’
    ‘
Faustus
?’
    ‘Yes, but I was thinking of Yorkshire.’
    ‘We’re not there yet,’ grinned Rupert. ‘We could turn back and say the car broke down.’
    ‘Oh, we couldn’t do that, I’ve promised,’ said Perdita sweetly. ‘A goddaughter’s word is her bond and all that.’
    They pulled into a lay-by near Norman Cross and got out of the tiny car to stretch their legs, eat sandwiches and drink tea from the plastic cups which topped Perdita’s flask as northward-bound lorries thundered by them, close enough to make the Mini rock on its chassis.
    It was an early luncheon or a very late breakfast, but Perdita was determined to get to Denby Ash before it got dark, and so naturally she insisted on driving the rest of the way. Rupert did not object as he knew her to be an excellent driver, and stoically folded his legs into the well of the passenger seat amongst the bags, books and roadmaps whilst Perdita adjusted the rear-view mirror – automatically