unless he’d been playing truant from school and if he had, we’d have been told about it. Which is what makes me think it must have been a ghost, because wouldn’t any other children have been at their lessons, too?”
Which was another excellent and unanswerable point.
Baylis eased himself out of his chair. “Now, you’re not going without me showing you the garden. It’s my pride and joy.”
“Lead on,” Jonty said, with an unmistakable note of genuine pleasure. “There are one or two things I might trouble you for a cutting from.”
Which, as far as Orlando could see, would be the most positive outcome from the afternoon. Both candidates for killing Henry’s father, the one Lord Michael had appeared to mention and the one his son had implied, were now both effectively eliminated from the enquiry. Which left whoever was meant by “the boy”. It was all too disheartening.
Chapter Nine
Henry’s response to the treasure query awaited them when they returned from St. Bride’s on Monday. Yes, he wrote, it was possible that his brother had mistaken the period the treasure came from, misled by the items Edward had found. Henry himself had clearly never seen the trove although he had turned out the original notes Richard had made and if what looked like necklaces in the shape of circles were torcs, then it might well be the same items as had been offered for sale. He congratulated them on their efforts so far and wished them continued luck. He also enclosed an address for Matilda the second nurse maid, who—assuming she hadn’t passed over in the interim—could be found just outside of Ely.
“We must try to see her next weekend. Now, if what the friend of Applecross’s friend was offered was the Greysands hoard, then the coins and torcs must have been dug up and subsequently went to ground somewhere.” Jonty, who hadn’t even taken off his overcoat in his eagerness to join his colleague in reading the missive, divested himself of it now. “Applecross called into the college today. Said he wasn’t aware of any similar items appearing around the relevant time. They’re pretty rare beasts so somebody should have heard of them, unless they’ve gone into a private collection. I caught that wince, by the way. What’s that about?”
“Nothing.” Orlando occupied himself with hanging up his own overcoat and scarf.
“Really? I recall a similar wince every time Applecross was mentioned prior to us visiting his dig. Then it disappeared for a while and now it’s back.” Jonty grinned at his lover’s discomfiture. It might seem cruel to tease him, but it was better for the man to air whatever the matter was, rather than let him brood.
A sheepish Orlando turned round from the coat stand. “I’m sorry. I confess to a touch of the old Orlando emerging when Applecross first hove into view and I thought I had dealt with it. Gave myself a stiff talking to. Now I’ve met him, I know he’s a decent chap and I have no idea why I feel a touch of resentment that he’s visiting you in St Bride’s. Plenty of other folk must do so.”
“A positive stream of them.” Jonty slipped his arm round Orlando’s shoulders. “I suspect it isn’t resentment at him, per se. I recognise a discontented Orlando when I see him. If we could get this business all sorted, you’d be happy. Perhaps it’s time to go back to the start, putting aside all our assumptions. Like performing differentiation from first principles, which was the bane of my schoolboy life but no doubt brought you extreme joy.”
“It did. It does. And you’re probably right.” Orlando pecked him on the cheek. “We’ll discuss it after dinner, which is rumoured to be ox cheek stew. You wouldn’t want to spoil that with talk of murder.”
“Not if it comes with either mashed potatoes or Yorkshire puddings. Or preferably both.”
After dinner, which had been served with the former, along with carrots and winter greens, they settled at the fireside, where Jonty opened the batting. Best to start slowly and steadily because the wicket would be turning later in the discussion. “There are, as I see it, three mysteries, which may or may not be related. What happened to the treasure, what happened to Lord Michael and what happened with Edward.”
“Regarding the first, if the items have ended up in a private collection we might as well give up on finding them. However, there’s another possibility, which is that—for whatever reason—they didn’t get