Nine Coaches Waiting

"If he's in it with them, and he started to-well, to-"

"To make love to me?"

"Yes, miss. If he did that, and, like you said, it wasn't safe, mightn't that be why Monsieur and Madame were so a

"I thought they were at first, but they weren't. I told you. Monsieur was awfully nice to me this afternoon."

"Oh, but they were, miss. Albertine said you were to be sent away. Everyone knew. They were all talking about it. And why should they bother to send you away, unless Monsieur Raoul was in with them, and it wasn't safe, like you said. Otherwise you'd hardly think they'd trouble their heads about his goings-on, because-oh, I'm sorry, miss, I do beg your pardon, I'm sure."

"It's all right. 'Goings-on' will do. Well, they might be a

"Yes, I know."

"You know?"

"Yes, miss. Everybody does."

I don't think I spoke for a full five seconds. "Do they? Second sight or just more gossip?"

"I don't know what you mean. Bernard told Albertine and she told the rest of us."

"When was this?"

She looked uncomfortable. "Well, she'd been saying things about you for quite a time. She'd been saying you were, well-"

"Yes?"

"She said you were out to get him, miss, and that Monsieur and Madame were furious and you were going to be sent away. And then yesterday she was saying it had happened, like."

"Yesterday? You mean after the ball?"

"That's right."

"Did she say she knew for certain?"

"I don't know. She was sounding sure enough about it. She said-oh, well, never mind. She's a nasty one sometimes, that one."

"Yes. Let it pass. I've had my fill of Albertine. But let's think," I said a little desperately, "if she and everyone else were talking about our engagement, then, even if they hadn't been actually told, you'd think Monsieur and Madame would know too?"

"That's right, you would."

"But you said they were genuinely furious before that-when it was known that he and I were, well, interested in each other."

"Oh yes. I'm sure of that."

"But I tell you it doesn't make sense. I told you, I saw Monsieur de Valmy yesterday-when presumably he knew as much about it as everyone else-and he was extremely nice to me. And neither of them sent for me to ask me about it or- or anything. I-I can't work it out, Berthe. My head's spi

My voice trailed away into nothing. I swallowed hard. I repeated, unrecognisably: "He'd already had Hippolyte's cable!”

In the silence that followed she stirred and the bed creaked.

I said slowly: "He and Madame were angry with me before; I know they were. I believe they were pla

But Hippolyte's cable changed all that. They had to make a plan in a hurry and that plan included me. How does that fit?"

"Well-"

"It does, you know. But how? How? Are you sure Bernard said nothing?"

"I'm sure," she said desperately. "Don't you fret, miss. I’d go bail you'll be in no danger."

"What makes you think I'm worrying about that?" I said, almost sharply. "But we must get this straight, don't you see? It's the only way we'll be able to do anything to help Philippe. What can they be pla

She said: "Maybe you've nothing to do with it at all. Maybe they just think it'd look fu

"Yes, but marriage is a bit-"

"Maybe they want to make sure you'll hold your tongue if you suspect anything," said Berthe.

"Oh, dear God," I said wearily, "they surely can't imagine that I’d suspect a child was murdered and do nothing about it?"

"But if you were going to marry him, and everyone knew-"

"What difference would that make? They'd never be idiot enough to think I'd help them? No, it's nonsense. They'd never use marriage as a bait to make me hold my tongue. Why, good heavens-"

"I wasn't going to say that." There was some new quality in Berthe's voice that stopped me short. She was still speaking softly, but there was some curious vibrancy in the tones that held me. She said: "Everybody knows you're engaged to Monsieur Raoul. If Philippe died, you'd be Madame la Comtesse de Valmy one day. If the cable really came before the ball-"

"What do you mean?" Then I saw. I finished in a voice that wasn't a voice at all: "You mean that when the cable came and they made their plan, it did include me? That they've given me a motive for murder? That they can't risk another 'accident' without a scapegoat ready to hand in case things go wrong and people ask questions? Is that what you mean?"

Berthe said simply: "Why else should he ask you to marry him?”

"Why else indeed?" I said.

I had checked up again on Philippe. He still slept peacefully. The house was quiet. I tiptoed back into my bedroom and reached for my dressing-gown.

Berthe said: "Is he all right?"

I was putting the dressing-gown on with hands that shook and were clumsy. "Yes. You realise, I suppose, that the likeliest time for anything to happen is tonight, now, and everybody's out at the dance except Mrs.

Seddon?”

" Mr. Seddon didn't go. He stayed with her."

"Oh? Well, I'd trust them all right, but she's ill and I doubt if he'd be much use-even if they'd believe us, which isn't likely." I found my slippers and thrust my feet hastily into them. "Will you stay with Philippe and mount guard over him? Lock his door and window now."

"What are you going to do?"

"The only possible thing. What's the time?"

"Going on quarter past one. I-we came away early."

"Did Bernard come up with you?"

"Yes." She didn't look at me. "I persuaded him to bring me up in the brake. It wasn't difficult. He-he's asleep now in my room." She finished in a thin little voice: "It was awful, driving up that zigzag with him so drunk still…"

I was hardly listening. I was reflecting that, apart from the Seddons, we were alone in the house with Léon de Valmy and Bernard. Thank God the latter still had to sleep it off. I said: "Was Madame de Valmy at the dance?"

"Yes, but she'll have left by now. She never stays long."

"I see. Now can I get to the telephone in Seddon's pantry without being heard or seen? Does he lock it?"

"No, miss. But he goes to bed at midnight and he always switches it through to the Master's room then."

Something fluttered deep in my stomach. I ignored it. "Then I'll switch it back again. How d'you do it?"

There’s a red tab on the left. Press it down. But-he might hear it. Miss-what are you going to do? "

"There's only one thing I can do. We must have help. D'you mean that if I use the telephone it'll ting in the Master's room or something? Because if so I can't use it. And I can't go out and leave Philippe. You may have to go for the police yourself if you can-"

"The police?"

I was across at the door that gave on to the corridor, listening. I turned and looked back at her in surprise.