Our Lady of Pain Read Online Free PDF Page B

tomorrow’s papers. Kerridge, we must get her back before this gets out.”
    Kerridge said, “Do you remember last year when we had to smuggle them out of the house? They went out over the garden wall at the back.”
    “Come on,” said Harry, “let’s look. My lord, make sure none of your servants breathes a word of this to the press.”
    In the garden they found the ladder propped against the wall. “We’ll go to the nearest cab rank,” said Kerridge. “They must have taken a hack somewhere. I’ll put out an alert that all ports and stations are to be watched.”
    “If you do that, when she returns you will be obliged to arrest her. Let me find her and bring her back,” pleaded Harry.
    “I could lose my job.”
    “If Wetherby asks, tell him she’s had a nervous breakdown and you need to wait to see her again.”
    Kerridge sighed. “I’ll give you a couple of days. I can’t hold out longer than that.”
    By diligent questioning, working all day and long into the evening, Harry traced them as far as Paddington station. A porter remembered two ladies, one heavily veiled and one cheeky one. He had put their luggage on the train and he’d heard the cheeky one saying they were going to Thurby-on-Sea. Harry checked the timetable. There were no trains to Thurby-on-Sea until early morning the next day. He returned to his car parked outside the station and said to Becket, “I’ve found out where they’ve gone. Thurby-on-Sea. We’ll set out first thing in the morning. I’m bone-weary. I need some sleep. It’ll be better if we drive instead of taking the train.”
    “They may have journeyed on from Thurby,” said Becket anxiously.
    “I know the place. It’s a dead-alive hole. They won’t be going any further. I need to let my anger calm down or I’ll strangle Lady Rose.”
    “Perhaps I could go myself,” suggested Becket. “I don’t mind driving through the night.”
    “No, Becket.”
    Rose and Daisy went back up to their rooms after breakfast the next morning. It had been raining during the night and the wind still howled with dreadful ferocity. They locked the doors and took off their disguises.
    “I’m bored,” said Rose. “It’s like being under some sort of genteel house arrest. I know, I put some books in the bottom of my trunk.”
    Rose had not completely unpacked. She searched through clothes and underwear, and then sat back on her heels with a cry of alarm.
    Daisy came to join her. Lying in the bottom of the trunk beside three books was a bundle of letters. Rose selected one. It read, “Trollops like you shouldn’t be allowed to live. I’m coming to get you.” Rose picked up one after the other, reading feverishly.
    “These are the threatening letters,” she said, turning a white face to Daisy. “Someone put them in my luggage.”
    “What threatening letters?”
    “Captain Cathcart said something about someone sending threatening letters to Miss Duval. He then said the letters were now missing. What are they doing in my luggage?”
    “Someone’s trying to get you accused of the murder,” said Daisy.
    “Whoever it is must have been watching and followed us,” said Rose. “There are very few guests. Did you notice anyone in particular?”
    Daisy furrowed her brow. “Let me see. Last night was busier. There was that elderly couple; a travelling salesman, or said he was, talked loudly to the couple; a spinster-looking lady and a sort of youngish man.”
    “What was he like? The young man?”
    “I didn’t notice him much. Only a quick glance. He was seated at the table behind us. How would anyone recognize us with our disguises?”
    “Someone who was watching the house and followed us from London. We’ll need to find somewhere else,” said Rose frantically. “And what do we do with these letters? If he can find us, the police can find us.”
    “Burn them,” said Daisy, looking at the fire.
    “They’re evidence!”
    “They’re evidence against you!”
    The door