passing. What was it that you wanted to see me about?’
‘Er…’ I cleared my throat. ‘Do you know, sir, I’d very much like to meet Mr Carthy-Todd. He sounds a most go-ahead, enterprising man.’
The Duke nodded warmly.
‘Do you know where I could find him?’
‘Tonight, do you mean?’ He was puzzled.
‘No, sir. Tomorrow will do.’
‘I suppose you might find him at our office. He’s sure to be there, because he knows I will be calling in myself. Warwick races, do you see?’
‘The Accident Fund office… is in Warwick?’
‘Of course.’
‘Silly of me,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know.’
The Duke twinkled at me. ‘I see you haven’t joined the Fund.’
‘I’ll join tomorrow. I’ll go to the office. I’ll be at Warwick too, for the races.’
‘Great,’ he said. ‘Great. The office is only a few hundred yards from the racecourse.’ He put two fingers into an inside pocket and brought out a visiting card. ‘There you are, my dear chap. The address. And if you’re there about an hour before the first race, I’ll be there too, and you can meet Charles. You’ll like him, I’m sure of that.’
‘I’ll look forward to it,’ I said. I finished my whisky and stood up. ‘It was kind of you to let me come… and I think your trains are absolutely splendid…’
His face brightened. He escorted me all the way down to the front door, talking about young Matthew and the plans they had for the holidays. Would I fix Matthew’s flight for Thursday, he asked. Thursday was Matthew’s birthday. He would be eleven.
‘Thursday it is,’ I agreed. ‘I’ll do it in the evening, if there’s a charter fixed for that day.’
‘Most good of you, my dear chap.’
I looked at the kind, distinguished, uncomprehending face. I knew that if his partner Charles Carthy-Todd skipped with the accumulated premiums before paying out the Newmarket widows, as I was privately certain he would, the honourable Duke of Wessex would meet every penny out of his own coffers. In all probability he could afford it, but that wasn’t the point. He would be hurt and bewildered and impossibly distressed at having been tangled up in a fraud, and it seemed to me especially vicious that anyone should take advantage of his vulnerable simplicity and goodness.
Charles Carthy-Todd was engaged in taking candy from a mentally retarded child and then making it look as though the child had stolen it in the first place. One couldn’t help but feel protective. One couldn’t help but want to stop it.
I said impulsively, ‘Take care of yourself, sir.’
‘My dear chap… I will.’
I walked down the steps from his front door towards Honey’s Mini waiting in the drive, and looked back to where he stood in the yellow oblong of light. He waved a hand gently and slowly closed the door, and I saw from his benign slightly puzzled expression that he was still not quite sure why I had come.
It was after one o’clock when I got back to the caravan. Tired, hungry, miserable about Nancy, I still couldn’t stay asleep. Three o’clock, I was awake again, tangling the sheets as if in fever. I got up and splashed my itching eyes with cold water: lay down, got up, went for a walk across the airfield. The cool starry night came through my shirt and quietened my skin but didn’t do much for the hopeless ache between my ears.
At eight in the morning I went to fetch Honey, filling her tank with the promised petrol at the nearest garage. She had made a gallon or two on the deal, I calculated. Fair enough.
What was not fair enough, however, was the news with which she greeted me.
‘Colin Ross wants you to ring him up. He rang yesterday evening about half an hour after you’d buzzed off.’
‘Did he say… what about?’
‘He did ask me to write you a message, but honestly, I forgot. I was up in the tower until nine, and then Uncle was impatient to get home, and I just went off with him and forgot all about coming down here with the message… and anyway, what difference would a few hours make?’
‘What was the message?’
‘He said to tell you his sister didn’t meet anyone called Chanter at Liverpool. Something about a strike, and this Chanter not being there. I don’t know… there were two aircraft in the circuit and I wasn’t paying all that much attention. Come to think of it, he did seem pretty anxious I should give you the message last night, but