Lessons in Solving the Wrong Problem - Charlie Cochrane Page 0,40
places.”
“She might even have told you about your heritage then, knowing that you’d be highly unlikely to remember the conversation, but planting the seed in your mind. This culture is in part your culture. You might even be related to the people who came here.”
Orlando slipped his arm around his lover’s waist. “You’re a clever old bird, aren’t you?”
“I try my best. There’s something else I’m particularly clever at, mind you.” Jonty snuggled into the embrace. “If you’d come up the stairs with me, I think there’s ample time for a practical demonstration.”
***
On Sunday afternoon they made their way—by bicycle this time—to Madingley, where Baylis, the gardener, would be waiting to see them at his granddaughter’s cottage. Although by now in his eighties, he professed himself still to be active and the beautifully kept gardens surrounding the building, a profusion of colour despite the time of year, surely bore testament to that fact.
Once settled around a table with tea and cake, with all the introductions performed and small talk dispensed with, they could tackle the matter in hand.
“Can I thank you again for seeing us,” Jonty said, removing a stray crumb from his jacket sleeve.
“I’ve been looking forward to it.” Baylis replied. “You’ve been asked by his lordship to find his treasure?”
Jonty nodded. “The trove that his brother Richard found on the estate a few days before Lord Michael was killed and which mysteriously disappeared.”
“Some of the questions we want to ask may seem a touch strange, I confess, but they will make sense to us.” Orlando hoped that didn’t come across as too condescending.”
Baylis’s face broke into a wide, wrinkly grin. “I used to do some work on college gardens, so I’m used to gentlemen from the university. Your brains don’t work in the same way as us normal folk. Ask what you like and I’ll answer as best I can. That treasure was a strange thing. If you’re wondering why we weren’t all put to digging for it, we had other things to do. Lots of damage those storms caused on the estate, so what with that and the old lord’s death it didn’t seem important. I’ve a thing to ask you. I know it’s not my place to question my betters, but why has finding it become important now?”
“That’s a very good question, Mr Baylis and you’ve every right to ask it. I’m not sure we have an answer.” Jonty shot Orlando a glance. “There’s an excavation happening in the nearby fields, where they’ve turned up a Roman villa. It probably seemed the right time.”
“Aah. They say they were mighty clever, those Roman types, although it seems daft to me, burying your valuables and then going off and leaving them.”
Orlando had anticipated this being an awkward interview, with a man whose powers might be failing. What a ridiculous assumption to have made. “Young Edward’s nurse maid was there the day the trove turned up. She had a brother who was a bit of a rogue? Name of Jude?”
“Oh yes. Nobody liked him, not even the girl herself, I hear. He turned up at the house, not long before the old lord died. Got slung off the estate.” Baylis helped himself to cake, generating as many crumbs as Jonty usually did. “My wife, Lizzie, she was a maid up at the big house before we married, so she knew all the gossip. Shame she’s not here to put you right.”
“Did she mention if he held a grudge against the family?” Jonty asked.
Baylis grinned again. “Are you thinking that wastrel was the cause of his lordship’s accident? Don’t look so shocked, you’re not the first ones to have had the idea. Both Lizzie and I wondered if he’d scared the horse to make it shy. I wouldn’t know of anyone else who’d want to harm his lordship.”
“We must confess it crossed our minds. Clearly we university men don’t think so differently after all.” Orlando suspected this man could give some of the dunderheads a lesson in logical thought.
“You should meet my great grandson. He’s as clever as anything. Still works on the estate, but Lord Henry’s paying for him to be schooled properly. He wants to be an engineer.”
“A splendid profession.” Jonty took some more tea. “What conclusion did you and your wife reach about this brother? What was his surname, by the way? That appears to have slipped our notice.”
“Gold and a more misleading name I can’t think of. Still, he couldn’t have done it, because he was