Scandalous Behavior

50

Billy Barnett, née Teddy Fay, woke at seven o’clock, as if by an alarm. His wife slept soundly on. Since breakfast was prepared and brought to their room she didn’t have to get up and make it, as she did at home.

Billy shaved carefully and gave some thought to allowing a mustache to sprout. He left his upper lip unshaven. He dressed in the riding clothes he had bought in the village and was sitting at their little table when the maid brought what the locals called “a full English breakfast.” He woke his wife with a kiss, and she joined him for their morning meal.

“So what will your day be like?” she asked him, her mouth full of toast.

“I’ll take a ride over to the Curtis place with Stone and Peter and have a look at how the work is going there.”

“That interests you?”

“Building is one of my many interests.”

“Do they need any guarding here? Is that why you’re going?”

Billy shook his head. “They’re safe enough, since the Reverend Don got run out of the country, and all his people with him.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

They finished breakfast and Billy walked downstairs and out the rear door of the house to the stables, where the three horses had been saddled for their riders. They snorted, and their breath could be seen in the chill morning air. Billy greeted his mount with a stroke of the neck and offered her a sugar cube, which the horse quickly made disappear.

Peter appeared first, stretching his body and yawning, and Stone arrived soon after. They mounted and trotted off across the broad meadow before Windward Hall. They took the trail through the wood and emerged a hundred yards from the stone wall. Stone and Peter took the wall abreast, while Billy followed a few yards back. He was about to spur his horse on for the jump when something he saw ahead made him rein up and dismount.

He approached the stone wall and reached out to feel the two marks, one on a lower stone, one at the top of the wall. They were the marks of bullets striking the stone, and they hadn’t been there yesterday. Billy turned and looked back the way they had come, then focused his attention on the wood.

Al watched the third man, who had spoiled his aim, as he dismounted and inspected the wall. It had never occurred to him that someone might notice the marks where his bullets had struck. He watched as the man looked back, then trained his attention on the wood. Al shrank back behind a tree and saw the man walking toward him, leading his horse. He moved to another tree, then another. The man came relentlessly on, his eyes raking the edge of the wood. Al turned and ran back as far as the empty little house and waited there. If the man approached this far, he would kill him.

Billy walked through the first trees, his eyes sweeping the area, particularly the ground. He had gone only a few yards when the gleam of something in the sunlight got his attention. He bent and picked it up, then sniffed it. He avoided looking farther into the wood, because he knew a man was waiting there with a rifle. Rather, he slipped the brass shell casing into his jacket pocket, remounted his horse, and ran her toward the wall, clearing it easily, then rode on toward the house and its collection of parked workmen’s vehicles. He dismounted, tied his horse to a hitching post, and went into the house in search of Stone. He found him talking earnestly with Susan Blackburn, who held a book of wallpaper.

Billy waited until they had finished their conversation, then caught Stone’s eye and with a motion of his head, beckoned him into the hallway.

“What’s up, Billy?” Stone asked.

Billy fished the casing from his pocket and handed it to Stone. “I found two bullet marks in the stone wall, and I walked into the wood far enough to come across this.”

“Two-two-three?”

“Right — a military round.”

“I thought the army were all up on Salisbury Plain, not down here. Any idea when this was left in the wood?”

“The marks weren’t on the wall yesterday,” Billy replied. “I’d guess this morning. I think someone was further back in the wood, but I wouldn’t pursue an armed man into the trees. Are there any firearms in the house?”

“Half a dozen shotguns and a couple of deer rifles. They’re in a concealed case in the study.”

“With your permission, I’d like to arm myself and have a look around the wood.”

“Of course. Be careful, and for God’s sake don’t shoot anybody if you can possibly avoid it, and if you can’t, don’t kill him. The police around here don’t spend a lot of time dealing with men dead of gunshot wounds. They’d be all over us for days.” Stone explained how to open the gun closet.

“Well, I don’t want to make their day,” Billy replied, “but I will search the wood.”

“Do it carefully,” Stone said. “Do you want company?”

“No, thank you.” Billy left the house and got back onto his horse.

Al watched Billy through the trees as he rode back toward Windward Hall, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He thought he might wait for the two Barringtons to return; maybe he’d get a shot, after all.