Dinner was rather late.
Benina insisted on bringing it into the study where they were more comfortable.
She made David chuckle by telling him how Nanny had thought that the five pound note he had given her must be fake.
At first she had laughed and put it on the table.
“Then what happened?” asked David.
Benina hesitated before replying,
“It was kept a secret from the Marquis, but I would suppose it’s all right to tell you, my Lord?”
“Tell me what?”
“Well, one of the gardeners who was here for years was instructed to leave and your grandfather thought that he had given up his cottage. But he managed to find work in the village and therefore never left it.”
She threw up her hands.
“Of course, we were most grateful to him because he occasionally brought us vegetables when it was too cold for me to dig them up in the kitchen garden.”
She paused to see if David was still interested.
“We were very grateful to him,” she added quickly, “and his son has helped us move things when they were too heavy for Nanny and me.”
“What you are saying,” David smiled, “is that the son, whoever he is, went to buy the food for my dinner.”
Benina clapped her hands.
“You are so clever and you are quite right! Nanny will be very upset if you don’t enjoy it.”
Actually it was tender meat, very well cooked and David did enjoy it.
He noticed that Benina was eating slowly as if her every mouthful was ambrosia from the Gods and she did look very thin.
He thought the same when he met Nanny and was certain that the lines on her face were owing to deprivation rather than age.
After the excellent meat, there was some fruit and following that cheese.
“We have not seen one of these for years,” Benina enthused, “and my parents loved really good cheese.”
David noticed that although she was delighted with the cheese, she could not eat very much.
Having been so long in India, he knew the reason only too well – people who had been starving could never eat very much until they gradually acclimatised themselves to more and better nourishment.
They retired to bed early because he was tired.
David had found out from Benina that there was a chaise available for hire if he wanted it.
“What about our own horses?” he asked her.
“I think that they are too weak if you are going into town. They have been out to grass all winter and are only now getting enough to eat.”
David’s lips tightened.
If there was one thing that infuriated him most, it was unnecessary cruelty to animals and he knew only too well what effect this would have on well-bred horses.
“I am going to give you a list, Benina, of items we need urgently, like feed for the horses, and something for us to drink. Perhaps you could go into the village whilst I am seeing my grandfather’s Bank Manager?”
“I thought that is what you would do, my Lord. I know it is very stupid of me, but I did not think before how we could gain access to the cellar.”
“Did my grandfather have nothing to drink?”
“He did sometimes, I think just when he felt ill, but he kept the keys of the rooms and cupboards to himself, so I have never been inside the cellar.”
“I can see we have a lot of exploring to do, Benina, but first I must go and see the Bank Manager, so that we know exactly where we stand.”
Benina agreed to this plan of action and then she took David upstairs.
He washed in a room that had obviously not been cleaned or dusted for a long time, but after cooking dinner, Nanny had done the best she could to the Master bedroom.
Actually David did not really feel like sleeping in his grandfather’s bed, but he knew it would upset Benina and Nanny as they had taken so much trouble for him.
It was certainly an imposing room and had been the Master Suite for many generations.
The huge four-poster bed was hung with curtains that had faded and were torn but were still colourful.
David bade Benina goodnight and then he asked as an afterthought,
“Where do you and Nanny sleep?”
There was a little pause before she answered,
“You may think it perhaps rather impertinent of us, but we were not very comfortable in the old nursery where your grandfather put us, and there were so many flights of stairs for Nanny to climb – ”
She paused before she added apologetically,
“It was when the Marquis was so ill and required a lot of attention that we both moved down to this floor.”
“That was quite right. It would have been silly for you to do otherwise.”
Benina smiled.
“You are so kind and understanding, my Lord. We were so frightened you would be like your grandfather and turn us out immediately.”
“I have already told you, Benina, that I need your help. There is no one else to tell me the appalling things that have been happening here and somehow I have to put it all right.”
Benina drew in her breath.
“Can you – really?”
“I will do my best.”
“I think you are wonderful! Now, I must go and tell Nanny at once.”
She ran to the door then stopped to look back.
“Thank you for being you. Nanny and I will have breakfast ready for you in the study at eight-thirty.”
She was gone again before David could reply.
He heard her running down the corridor.
He thought as he undressed that he had expected to find strange goings-on at Ingle Hall.
Yet he had never anticipated there would be a very beautiful young girl to help him.
‘It is really lucky,’ he said to himself, ‘because if I was here alone with no servants, I would not know where to begin.’
He climbed into the vast bed and as he had not been able to sleep very much last night worrying about what was awaiting him, he fell asleep at once.
*
He woke early because having been a soldier it was what he was used to.
When he went downstairs, he found Nanny dusting the study.
“Good morning, Nanny.”
She turned round and smiled at him.
“I hope, my Lord, you’ve had a good night’s sleep, and if you want the truth, it’s the first night for months that I haven’t lain awake a-worrying.”
David laughed.
“I am glad, but we all still have a lot of worrying to do and the first thing, as you know, Nanny, as there are no secrets from you, is to find out if we have any money.”
“It’s what I’ve been saying to myself over and over. But just where’s it all gone? His Lordship certainly didn’t spend it on riotous living!”
“I am sure,” smiled David, “and thank you for the delicious dinner last night. I want you to buy anything that you need from the village, so that I can with luck eat many more delicious meals!”
He saw Nanny was pleased at his praise.
“Do you think that the butcher and the baker and whoever else there is in the village, will allow you to open an account or will they expect to be paid cash down?”
“I thinks when I a-tells them your Lordship’s going to put things back to normal, they’ll all be flying flags and singing in the streets.”
Her voice changed as she added seriously,
“It’s been really terrible these past years to see the cottagers a-needing their roofs thatched, the shops closing down because there weren’t customers and the pensioners dying ’cos his Lordship wouldn’t give them any money.”
“Why did no one do anything about it, Nanny?”
“The Vicar did his level best, but when his Lordship threatened to reduce his stipend, he gave what he could out of his own pocket.”
“I must try to pay him back for what he has spent,” David said, as if he was speaking to himself. “But first I have to find out what has happened to all the money.”
*
Benina sent the gardener’s son to order a carriage to take him into Canterbury.
It arrived at ten o’clock and it was not the smartest vehicle and the old horse was not very fast.
David knew that the first thing he wanted more than anything else was some decent horses to ride, but it was no use ruminating about what he required before he had the wherewithal to pay for it.
As he picked up his hat in the hall, Benina came running down the stairs and he knew she had been tidying his bedroom.
“Are you going now, my Lord?” she asked him rather breathlessly.
“The sooner I go, the sooner I will come back and then we will know where we stand.”
She stood still beside him for a moment and then she murmured,
“I am praying now as I prayed last night that you will find what you want and everything will turn out for the best.”
“Thank you, Benina, and I think that we will need all your prayers to put matters straight.”
He climbed into the carriage, wishing that he could drive himself.
He sat back on the upholstered seat and, as it was a sunny day, the hood was raised.
As they drove down the drive, he could see first the dilapidated lodge – his grandfather must have evicted those who had lived there.
Both the gates were off their hinges and the gardens that David was sure used to be full of spring flowers were untended.
As he became aware of the really pathetic condition of the village, he realised that Benina had not been exaggerating when she had told him that every cottage needed to be re-thatched.
As he passed the Church, he saw there were bricks missing from the top of the tower and the gutters round the main building had fallen down.
He was thankful, when they were finally out of the village and into the countryside, so that he could not see any more.
He had no idea how far the land belonging to Ingle Hall went, but the hedges had not been cut for years and the field were unploughed or fallow.
By the time he reached Canterbury, he was feeling exceedingly apprehensive.
What would he learn from the Bank Manager?
*
As soon as he entered the Bank and explained who he was, he was taken immediately into the Bank Manager’s office and an elderly man received him respectfully.
“My name is Morley, my Lord,” he began, “and I have been expecting you.”
“I arrived last night and having seen the condition of Ingle Hall, I am waiting for you to tell me exactly what the current situation is.”
He sat down in a comfortable armchair, which Mr. Morley held ready for him.
“I find it difficult, my Lord, to tell you how strange matters have been these last years.”
“In what way, Mr. Morley?”
“His late Lordship was always exceedingly careful with money, but when he reached old age, I think, to be honest, it became an obsession with him.”
“How?”
“I believe he thought that he would lose all his money and that he could trust no one.”
“So what did he do?”
“He started nearly four years ago to draw out from the Bank everything he possessed.”
“Everything!” exclaimed David.
“He insisted on selling all his shares,” Mr. Morley continued. “They were all in Companies paying out good dividends and were promising investments for the future.”
“But surely his firm of Solicitors would have had said something about this to my family?”
“I don’t think, my Lord, there were many of your family left with the exception, of course, of his Lordship’s elder son, Viscount Stone, and his second son, Lord Cecil.”
“Did they not say anything about it?”
“Lord Cecil was away from home for some years before he was killed in battle, and I think to be honest, the Viscount was far too intimidated by his father to question anything he did.”
“Did no one else make any enquiries? There must have been some cousins or other relatives of the Ingles?”
“If there were or there are, they did not contact me and I think the Marquis would not entertain any of them at Ingle Hall. I was convinced that if they communicated with him, he would not answer.”
David drew in a deep breath.
“Now please tell me exactly what has happened?”
“The late Marquis took out of the Bank practically everything he owned. I tried to expostulate with him, but he would not listen. He merely demanded that I sold share after share and he came and collected the proceeds himself every month – mostly in coinage.”
David stared at the Bank Manager.
“Are you saying that my grandfather, old though he was, came here himself and carried every penny away.”
“That is exactly what happened, my Lord, and, of course, we did not talk about him in the town or anywhere else in case he should be set on by highwaymen or robbers when he was driving back home.
“It always astonished me that, as his Lordship had very few servants to guard him, the robbers did not break into Ingle Hall and steal what he had secreted there.”
David stared at him,
“Are you saying that my grandfather collected his money in cash that must have come to a considerable sum and then carted it all back to Ingle Hall?”
“That is exactly what occurred, my Lord, but what happened to it afterwards I have no idea.”
For a moment David was speechless.
Then Mr. Morley continued his story,
“I have a complete list of what has been sold and what has been taken away and I obtained the highest price possible for the items we sold for him in the open market.”
“I really cannot understand why he was doing this,” murmured David.
“It is something I have asked myself thousands of times, my Lord, but I never found an answer.”
“And what is left, Mr. Morley?”
He knew that this was the most important question.
“I am afraid, my Lord, you will be upset to know that the answer is in fact very little.”
“I have always believed that my grandfather, when he came into the title, was an exceedingly rich man.”
“He was, my Lord, and if the money he has taken from this Bank is still in existence, as it should be, then it is worth nearly two million pounds!”
David gasped.
He had realised that as the Head of the family, his grandfather was unbelievably rich, but he had not thought he was as rich as that in actual cash.
And if one included the house, its contents and the estate, the total would amount to considerably more.
“I must tell you, my Lord,” Mr. Morley carried on, “there were some shares that we could not sell, but which may be worth a great deal more in the future than they are at present. I have a list of them.”
He took a piece of paper from the table.
“Your grandfather, my Lord, invested in steamships when they were first driven by oil. However, he invested into an English Company that has not done as well as the Americans.”
He handed the list to David.
“My directors believe it has prospects, although at the moment the dividends are hardly worth mentioning.”
David looked down at the paper he was holding.
He saw that the Marquis had, as the Bank Manager had just revealed, quite a number of other investments.
America, he had been told, was booming and it was therefore reasonable to believe they might be worth a great deal more in the future.
“There are several shares, my Lord, in Companies that are involved in developing inventions for machinery and photography. But they are of little value at present, but we can hope that they will prove successful in the future.”
“I think there could be every likelihood that they will, but equally I need a great deal of money now to put the estate in order.”
“I have been told so, my Lord, and I can only hope that by some miracle you will be able to find the money your grandfather withdrew from us.”
“Do you think that it could be hidden somewhere in Ingle Hall?” David asked him.
Mr. Morley held up his hands in a helpless gesture.
“How can we possibly tell? I think before he died his Lordship was not reasonable in any way, nor was he, I feel, entirely aware of what was happening around him.”
David thought that this was true, seeing the condition of the house and the grounds.
He then asked the Bank Manager if he could have an overdraft and some cash immediately.
“I have spent what I had when I left India on the journey and providing myself and the two people in Ingle Hall with something to eat last night. I have no wish to go hungry tonight or next week while I look round to see what has happened to the two million pounds that should still be safely in your keeping.”
“I only hope that you will find it, my Lord, and of course, as we have been of service to the Inglestone family for many years, we will be pleased to permit your Lordship to overdraw a reasonable amount without security.”
“As you are well aware, Mr. Morley, everything in Ingle Hall is entailed, yet I cannot help thinking that I will be able to find something I can either sell or pawn until we set matters straight or better still, find the enormous fortune my grandfather has hidden away.”
“We are only too willing to help in every way we can, my Lord, but as you are well aware, I am responsible to our Head Office in London, who will undoubtedly ask questions if anything unusual occurs at this branch.”
“I am most grateful to you and also for the way you have kept this unhappy affair secret. Please continue to do so, as I have no wish to have the newspapers hammering on my door or people coming to stare at Ingle Hall.”
“They would have been far too frightened to do so when your grandfather was alive. I heard he threatened to shoot anyone who wandered round Ingle Hall at night!”
David had not heard of this, but made no comment.
Then he asked Mr. Morley for an advance of one hundred and fifty pounds for which he signed a cheque.
He shook him warmly by the hand and thanked him for his cooperation.
“As you can imagine, my Lord, it is to the Bank’s advantage, as well as to yours, that the money is found.”
“I promise you I will do my best, and without it, as you realise better than anyone else, life is going to be very difficult for me.”
The Bank Manager smiled.
“I believe, just like your father, Lord Richard, that you will eventually win your way through.”
David was amused.
His father had married for love and gone off on his explorations, and as a consequence became a hero in the eyes of his friends and those in Canterbury who were old enough to remember him.
As he drove back, he was trying to decide what he should do first.
Actually there was no question about it – he had to find the hidden money.
He reasoned it out.
If his grandfather had gone mad in his old age and would not trust the Bank with his money, he would surely not have trusted anyone else.
Therefore it was quite obvious that the money was hidden somewhere in Ingle Hall or on the estate.
Such a large amount, especially as it was in coinage, could not be pushed into the back of a drawer, nor could it be put in a small safe as it would take up too much space.
But there were enough rooms at Ingle Hall to hide a herd of elephants!
*
David returned to be greeted excitedly by Benina.
She ran down the steps as soon as the chaise came to a standstill.
He thought as he saw her approach how pretty she really was and he remembered that he had had no time to think about anything except the task ahead of him.
He paid the driver and then walked into the house, recognising that Benina was longing to find out what had happened at the Bank.
She was controlled and tactful enough not to ask him anything until they had reached the study.
Then she regarded him questioningly with her large blue eyes and, as he sat down, David told her quietly,
“I don’t know whether it is worse or better than I had anticipated.”
“What has happened? Please tell me, my Lord,” she pleaded. “I have been praying all the time you have been away.”
“I am sure that your prayers helped me. The Bank Manager and I have reached the conclusion that it is quite impossible for the money, and it is indeed a large sum, to have been hidden anywhere but in this house.”
“Here!” Benina exclaimed. “But where could the Marquis have concealed it?”
“That is what you and I have to find out. Although he was mad, he was very clever, as mad people often are, and it is not going to be easy.”
“We must start looking at once, my Lord, otherwise there may not be anything for us to eat!”
David smiled.
“It is not as bad as that. I have arranged to have an overdraft. It’s not a very large one, but we must at first be grateful for small mercies.”
“I shall be grateful for anything as long as we don’t have to be as hungry as we have been this last few months. It was terrible when Nanny began to feel ill and I thought I might be left entirely alone here.”
“Nanny can now eat until she is as fat as she ought to be,” said David, “and the same applies to you. You are far too thin and I have often been told that thin women are querulous and disagreeable!”
He was teasing, but Benina answered indignantly,
“I am none of those things.”
“I know,” smiled David, “but it is something I don’t want you to become.”
“Then let’s start looking right away!”
“I think we would feel better if we had luncheon first and I am certain that Nanny would be most annoyed if we let it get cold.”
“You are quite right, my Lord, shall I go to the kitchen and tell her what you have told me?”
“Yes, of course, Benina, we are all in this adventure and if we fail, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.”
“We are not going to fail,” insisted Benina.
“Well, before we start our search, I intend to find a key to the cellar or break down the door!”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you, my Lord. How stupid of me! I was so excited to see you back that I forgot.”
“What did you forget?”
“I found the key! It was hidden in a drawer in what is now your bedroom. Your grandfather put it right at the back behind a Bible and some old letters. I am sure that no one would have thought to look in there.”
“Well done, Benina! If you have the key, let’s go and explore the cellar. Perhaps we might find some wine down there.”
He thought as he spoke that considering how mean his grandfather had been, it was most unlikely that there would be any at all.
However, to his joy there were a number of bottles of claret, brandy and wine that had been home-brewed.
The cellar was cavernous and with the lantern that Benina carried, it was easy to see that it was practically empty.
There was nothing likely to be hidden in the bare walls or below the stony ground.
‘After all,’ David thought, ‘we are not looking for a few coins, but for a large amount of golden guineas.’
They could not be just shoved away in a corner.
When they emerged from the cellar, they found that Nanny was dishing up their luncheon.
“You’re going to enjoy all this, my Lord,” she said, “and so’ll Miss Benina. I’m feeling more like myself than I’ve felt for many a month.”
“I have obtained some more money for you, Nanny, as soon as you need it, but there is one thing I want to do before we start chasing round the house and that is to get in touch with Newman.”
“Oh, he’s in the workhouse, my Lord.”
“Yes, I know, Nanny, but is he in fairly good health and capable of coming back to help us?”
Nanny looked at David in surprise.
“That the best thing you’ve ever said, my Lord. If there’s one person who knows every inch of the house, it’s Mr. Newman and I knows that nothing’d please him more than being back here in what he has always considered his own home.”
“As we are rather busy, Nanny, can you please get the gardener’s son to go and tell him I am here and ask him when it will be convenient to pick him up.”
“He will be thrilled!” exclaimed Benina.
“There must be someone in the village, who would be willing to drive him here if I pay him.”
“I’ll arrange it, my Lord,” Nanny offered, “and I do knows that Mr. Newman’ll be here as quick as he can, if he has to fly to do so!”
She picked up the roast lamb she had on a tray and carried it ahead of them into the study.
David found that Benina had laid the table they had used last night and when Nanny put down the lamb, all he had to do was to carve.
There were vegetables to go with it which he knew must have come from the garden, and David suspected that the gardener or his son were only too willing to help if they could be paid a few pennies for doing so.
David thought he must see the gardener and arrange for him to go to work on the garden again.
Yet he thought it would please Newman to be the first to be back working again at Ingle Hall.
He and Benina both enjoyed their luncheon and the bread-and-butter pudding Nanny had made for them with a little cream from the village was simply delicious.
“Have you had enough to eat, my Lord?” Benina asked when they had finished. “I expect Nanny forgot that you might like some cheese and biscuits.”
“I have had plenty, Benina, and like you I want to get on with our task of searching the house. What I think is important now is to find all the keys. You have told me the safe was locked – ”
“I will go and collect all the keys I can find.”
“I will come with you, Benina, because I think we must do this in a systematic manner, starting at the bottom and working up until we reach the attics. If we cannot find the money, at least we will know what is in the house.”
David paused for a moment and then he enquired,
“Is there an inventory of the contents anywhere?”
“Yes, it’s in the library and I think, although I may be wrong, that your grandfather compiled it, hoping to find something he could sell and add to his pile of money.”
David thought that this was unlikely, as he was quite certain that his deranged grandfather was obsessed by the idea that everything Ingle Hall contained was his.
And he would resent anything, however small and unimportant, being stolen, mislaid or sold.
He might be wrong and yet if the old man had been so possessive to the point of hoarding all his money in his own hands, he would not have been willing to sell anything illegally.
It was, however, what David himself was prepared to do if he thought he could get away with it, but he knew the fuss there would be if anyone tried to evade the very strict laws of entailment.
Yet, if there was anything that had been overlooked, he thought he would be absolutely justified in selling it to bring the land back into cultivation and restore the house to its former glory.
He and Benina set off as he had suggested.
Having investigated the wine cellar, they searched the other cellars and there was nothing except rubbish and an accumulation of dust and dirt from old age.
There was one cellar full of empty old boxes and trunks that had obviously been put there when the servants were too lazy to carry them up to the attics.
Their hands became filthy from handling them, but there was nothing to be found, not even old documents that might have been valuable.
He looked through the long inventory that Benina had managed to find of all the contents of the house, but he was not hopeful of finding anything that could be sold.
The exploration of the cellars took them the whole of the afternoon and into the evening.
When they came upstairs, Nanny made them wash their hands in the kitchen before, as she insisted, they went into the ‘gentry’ part of the house.
As they did so, David thought that he could hear someone arriving.
“I am sure there is a carriage outside,” he remarked.
Nanny smiled at him.
“I expect it be the visitor you’re expecting.”
“Newman!”
He hurried from the kitchen into the front hall, but Benina beat him to the front door.
She opened it in time to see Newman stepping out of a farmer’s cart.
He was looking, David thought, as he reached him, a great deal older with his white hair, but he was smiling broadly and was very obviously delighted to be back.
“I just didn’t believe my old ears, Mr. David, when they tells me you had come home and wanted me.”
“I want you very much, Newman, and I am so glad you are well enough to come.”
“Well enough! There’ll be nothing wrong with me and I can see there’s a great deal wrong with the house, but take it from me, his late Lordship, mad or not, was clever enough as a cartload of monkeys.”
“He was lucky to get away with it all,” commented David. “I would have thought that there would have been someone to stop him.”
“If you would ask me, he was able to save himself by sacking everyone in the house and forcing Miss Benina and Nanny to do all the work.”
“You may be right, Newman, but he must have put the money somewhere and we have to find it.”
“And we’ll find it, my Lord, but I’m not pretending to you or anyone else it’s going to be easy.”
When David retired to bed, he thought that this was true, yet somehow he felt rather more optimistic than he had felt before, now that Newman was back.
Of course, he told himself, he could bring in trained detectives to find what they were seeking, but that would be to make their problem public – sooner or later someone would be bound to talk.
He was certain, if that did happen, it would evoke a great deal of sympathy, curiosity and greed.
The prize was two million pounds so who would not be anxious to help in the search?
The more he thought about his situation, the more he was convinced that everything must be kept secret.
Newman, Nanny and Benina, having been sworn to remain silent, the rest of the world would not be interested – they would think he was only trying to repair the damage wrought by neglect.
They would have no idea there were other reasons for their rampaging through the many rooms of Ingle Hall.
Already David was aware of the enormous amount of servants he would ultimately require to clean up the dirt and dust in every room.
He would need many expert craftsmen to repair the ceilings that had fallen down and put in new windowpanes.
But what was much more important than anything else was to find the money.
As once again he went to bed in the four-poster in which his ancestors had slept, he sent up a little prayer to his father and mother as he felt that they more than anyone else would appreciate the enormous task in front of him.
A task that was essential not only for him, but for the generations of his family to come.