The Savage Gorge

TEN

They descended the steps into the hotel lounge. Tables were laid for tea. In a corner, Lance stood up from a table to greet them, his slim hand extended. He pulled out a chair for Paula, who took off her leather jacket.

'May I?' suggested Lance, taking the jacket to hang from the back of her chair. 'I am so glad you could join me,' he said to Tweed. 'They have excellent muffins here. I hope you are both hungry.'

'Ravenous,' replied Tweed as Lance sat opposite Paula. 'I could tackle all those.'

A smartly dressed waitress had placed a large metal container on the table, carefully removed the top without the flourish used in London restaurants. They began eating, Tweed scooping up large quantities of strawberry jam, ignoring the small talk between Lance and Paula.

Paula was studying Lance. He was clad in a smart blue blazer with gold buttons, a Liberty cravat at his neck, his black hair neatly brushed. She was impressed by his good manners, his handsome face; fascinated by his almond-shaped eyes.

'I really come here as an emissary from my father,' Lance began.

'Oh, really,' Tweed responded in a bored tone as he drank tea the waitress had served from Wedgwood china.

'He wishes me to pass his unreserved apologies to both of you for his behaviour when you were leaving…'

'Does he?' commented Tweed, now busy consum ing the first of two large apple tarts garnished with cream, his eye on the massive Dundee cake in the middle of the table.

'When his other visitor had left -'

'Archie MacBlade in his Bugatti,' Tweed remarked.

'Oh, you know him?' Lance enquired sharply.

'Saw his picture in the paper,' Tweed said as he cut a huge slice of Dundee cake.

'My father would regard it as an honour if you dined with him at Hobart House this evening,' con tinued Lance in his uphill conversational struggle with Tweed, smiling all the time.

'My father wasn't drunk,' Lance pressed on. 'He can consume a large quantity without it affecting him. Reminds me of what I read in a Winston Churchill biography. Winston once said he'd taken more out of alcohol than alcohol had taken out of him.'

'Do your sisters Sable and Margot like each other?' Tweed asked suddenly.

'I'm afraid they hate each other…'

'Why?' Tweed demanded.

'Sable is my father's favourite. She'd like to be Lady Bullerton when he passes away one day.'

'Peculiar,' Tweed said, having finished his cake. 'Normally the title descends to a male relative. In this case yourself.'

'I don't want the damned title. Excuse me,' he said to Paula. 'All that responsibility. I prefer to enjoy myself. As to tradition, when King John, or whoever it was, conferred the title on an ancestor centuries ago, a special clause was added that if a male candidate refused to accept it then the title passed to the nearest female available.'

'And in this case Sable?' Tweed suggested.

'It would actually be Margot, who was born a year before Sable.'

'And yet Sable is your father's favourite. Why?'

'He thinks her personality is superior to Margot's, gives her fantastically expensive presents on her birthday.'

'Like the diamond brooch she flaunted,' Tweed said grimly.

'Flaunted?'

For the first time the smile vanished off Lance's face, was replaced by a sneering curl of his lips.

'Never mind,' said Tweed.

'I expect you have a lot of girl friends,' Paula inter vened, appalled by Tweed's aggressive treatment of everything Lance had said.

'Oh, lots and lots,' Lance said, the smile returning when he turned to her. Tm afraid I'm rather wicked. I've got a small pad in Gunners Gorge Father doesn't know about. When a girl attracts my attention I settle her there. Until she starts talking about marriage. Then I wait until she's out. I pack all her things neatly in her suitcase, place it in the hall, get the locks changed at once.'

'Isn't that a bit tough on her?' Paula suggested.

'Until she gets home,' Lance said with a grin. 'When she unpacks she finds an envelope stuffed with money.'

'That probably eases her sorrow,' Paula said with a smile.

'Don't much care whether it does or not. Self-inter est is what drives the world.' He turned to Tweed, tried again. 'Would it be possible for the two of you to dine with my father at Hobart House this evening?'

'Don't see why not. What time?'

'Would 8 p.m. suit you, sir?'

'Yes, it would.' Tweed stood up, abruptly the soul of good humour. 'Please thank your father and say we're looking forward to seeing him again. Also, I would like to thank you for the truly excellent tea. To get this in London you'd have to go to the Ritz or the Savoy. I have enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you. Please excuse us – we must leave now…'

'I think you were pretty tough on Lance,' Paula com mented as they walked through the entrance hall, keeping her voice low.

'You've certainly been with me long enough to know I adapt my tactics to obtain information. They worked.'

'It's been raining while we were having tea,' Paula remarked, gazing through the front entrance before Tweed turned into the garage.

'Buckets of it,' called out landlord Bowling. 'All the time you were having tea. Drenched down – a cloud burst. The river has risen. It will be coming over the falls like an express train.'

'What did you think of Lance?' Tweed asked as they entered the garage and headed for his Audi.

'Very smooth. Too smooth for my liking. I would never trust him despite his good looks – which he obviously exploits to the full.'

'I think, like the others round here, with the excep tion of old Mrs Grout, he was lying. Now I want to drive all the way along the High Street and up to Aaron's Rock at the top of the gorge. Should be quite a sight after all the rain…'

As he was cruising along the High Street, Paula used her binoculars to study the road on the far side of the river. On each bank a wide area of grass separated road from river.

'They call that road on the far side Ascot Way,' she observed. 'The horsey lot must live over there. Tweed, could you park for a moment? I've spotted the path which probably leads to the stone Pit Bull had erected when Lizbeth drowned.'

' If she drowned,' Tweed said as he climbed out, fol lowing Paula along the curving path through lush green grass.

'Why "if"?' Paula called back.

'They found her clothes neatly piled by the river. Despite the fact everyone agrees she was sloppy and untidy in her habits. The discrepancy bothers me.'

'Look at the wording on the stone,' she exclaimed.