The Talisman Ring Read online

  ‘No,’ said the Beau slowly. ‘No. He has not told me. Is it possible that my house was broken into?’

  ‘Exactly,’ nodded Sir Tristram. ‘If your servants are to be believed a band of desperate ruffians entered through the library window.’

  ‘Yes,’ chimed in Miss Thane, ‘and only fancy, Mr Lavenham! Sir Tristram had been dining with us here, and was riding back to the Court when he heard shots coming from the Dower House. You may imagine his amazement! I am sure you should be grateful to him, for he instantly rode up to the house. You may depend upon it, it was the noise of his arrival which frightened the wretches into running away.’

  The glance the Beau cast at his cousin was scarcely one of gratitude. He had turned rather pale, but he said in quite level tones: ‘I am indeed grateful. What a fortunate chance that you should have been passing the house just at that moment, Tristram! I suppose none of these rogues was apprehended?’

  ‘I fear not,’ replied Shield. ‘By the time I entered the house there was no sign of them. There had been (as you will see for yourself presently) a prodigious struggle in the library – quite a mill, I understand. I am afraid your fellows were much knocked about. In fact, your butler,’ he pursued, stooping to put another log on the fire, ‘welcomed my advent with profound relief.’

  ‘No doubt!’ said the Beau, breathing rather quickly. ‘I do not doubt it!’

  ‘The poor butler!’ said Miss Thane, with a tinkling laugh. ‘I am sure I do not wonder he should be alarmed! He must feel you to be his preserver, Sir Tristram. He will be doubly glad to exchange his masters!’

  The Beau looked at her. ‘I beg your pardon, ma’am?’

  Miss Thane said: ‘I only meant, since he was about to enter Sir Tristram’s service –’

  ‘You are mistaken, Miss Thane,’ Sir Tristram interrupted, frowning at her. ‘There is no question of my cousin’s butler leaving his service that I know of.’

  ‘Oh, how stupid of me! Only you was saying to Eustacie that you had found Mr Lavenham’s butler, and she asked, do you not remember, whether his memory –’

  Eustacie said in a hurry: ‘I hope so much that nothing has been stolen from your house, Basil. To have –’

  ‘So do I hope it, my cousin. But pray let Miss Thane continue!’

  Miss Thane, encountering a frown from Eustacie, stammered: ‘Oh, indeed it was nothing! I would not for the world – I mean, I was mistaken! I confused one thing with another. My brother tells me I am a sad shatterbrain.’

  Sir Tristram intervened, saying in his cool way: ‘I am making no attempt to steal your butler from you, I assure you, Basil.’

  ‘Of course not! The stupidest mistake!’ said Miss Thane, all eagerness to atone. ‘It is not your present butler, Mr Lavenham, but one you was used to employ. I remember perfectly now!’ She looked from Sir Tristram to Eustacie and faltered: ‘Have I said something I ought not? But you did tell Eustacie.’

  The Beau was gripping his snuff-box tightly. ‘Yes? A butler I once employed? Are you thinking of taking him into your service, Tristram?’

  ‘Why, yes, I confess I had some such notion,’ admitted Shield. ‘You have no objection, I trust?’

  ‘Why should I?’ said the Beau, with a singularly mirthless smile. ‘I doubt, though, whether you will find him so useful as you expect.’

  ‘Oh, I dare say I shall not engage him after all,’ replied Shield, and made haste to change the subject.

  The Beau did not linger. Excusing himself on the score of being obliged to go home to ascertain what losses, if any, he had sustained, he very soon took his leave of the party, and drove away in the direction of Warninglid.

  No sooner as he had left the inn than Eustacie cast herself upon Miss Thane’s bosom, announcing that she forgave her for her unfeeling conduct of the night before. ‘You did it so very well, Sarah. He was bouleversé, and I think frightened.’

  ‘He was certainly frightened,’ agreed Miss Thane. ‘He forgot to smile. What do you suppose he will do, Sir Tristram?’

  ‘I hope he may make an attempt to find Cleghorn and buy his silence. If he does he will have delivered himself into our hands. But don’t let Ludovic stir from the house! I’ll warn Nye to be careful whom he lets into the inn.’

  ‘I can feel my flesh creeping already,’ said Miss Thane, with a shudder. ‘It has suddenly occurred to me that that very unpleasant person thinks Ludovic is occupying the back bedchamber.’

  Eustacie gave a gasp. ‘Oh, Sarah, you do not think he will come to murder Ludovic, do you?’

  ‘I shouldn’t be at all surprised,’ said Miss Thane. ‘And I am occupying the back bedchamber! I just mention it, you know.’

  ‘So you are!’ Eustacie’s face cleared. ‘But it is of all things the most fortunate! It could not be better, enfin !’

  ‘That,’ said Miss Thane, with strong feeling, ‘is a matter of opinion. I can see where it could be much better.’

  ‘But no, Sarah! If Basil comes to murder Ludovic in the night he will find not Ludovic, but you!’

  ‘Yes, that was what I was thinking,’ said Miss Thane.

  ‘Well, but it would be a good thing, Sarah!’

  ‘A good thing for whom?’ demanded Miss Thane with asperity.

  ‘For Ludovic, of course! You do not mind doing just that little thing to help, do you? You said that you wanted to have an adventure!’

  ‘I may have said that I wanted to have an adventure,’ replied Miss Thane, ‘but I never said that I wanted to be murdered in my bed!’

  ‘But I find that you are absurd, Sarah! Of course he would not murder you!’

  ‘Unless, of course, he regarded it as a good opportunity to rid the world of a chattering female,’ said Sir Tristram, with a gravity wholly belied by the twinkle in his eyes. ‘That is a risk, however, which we shall have to run.’

  Miss Thane looked at him. ‘You did say “we,” didn’t you?’ she said in a failing voice.

  He laughed. ‘Yes, I said it. But in all seriousness, Miss Thane, I do not think there will be any risk. If you are afraid, share Eustacie’s bed.’

  ‘No,’ said Miss Thane, with the air of one going to the stake. ‘I prefer that my blood should be upon your heads.’

  She spoke in jest, and certainly did not give the matter another thought, but the exchange had made an impression on Eustacie’s mind, and for the rest of the day she could scarcely bear to let Ludovic out of her sight. When Sir Tristram had gone, and Miss Thane proposed they should take their usual morning walk, she refused with such resolution that Miss Thane forebore to press the matter, but went out with her brother, leaving Eustacie keeping guard over Ludovic like a cat with one kitten.

  As the day drew towards evening Eustacie’s fears became more pronounced. When the candles were lit and the blinds drawn, she persisted in hearing footsteps, and fancying some stranger to have got into the inn. She confided in Miss Thane that she was sure there was someone in the house, hiding, and insisted, in spite of his protestations that no one could have entered without his knowledge, upon Nye’s searching every nook and cranny. The house was an old and rambling one, and the boards creaked a good deal. Miss Thane, when Eustacie held up her finger for the fifth time, enjoining silence that she might listen for a fancied noise, said roundly: ‘A little more, and I shall be quite unable to sleep a wink all night. Now what’s amiss?’

  Eustacie, drawing the curtains more closely across the window, said: ‘There was just a crack. Someone might look in and see Ludovic. I think it will be better if I pin the curtains together.’

  Sir Hugh, who was engaged upon his nightly game of piquet with Ludovic, became aware of her restlessness, and turned to look at her. ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘So you don’t like the moonshine either! It’s a queer thing, but if ever I have a bad dream you may depend upon it the moon’s up. There’s