Page 155 of The Affairs of Ashmore Castle

‘Went out last evening and didn’t come back. I had to undress myself. Didn’t bother to ring as it was late. But this morning, in comes old Crooks with my shaving water, looking very furtive, and says no one knows where Speen is.’

Giles frowned in thought, taking his time over silver tongs and kidneys. ‘Does he drink?’

‘Oh, I’m sure he does. Crooks mumbled something about the Dog and Gun – that’s where the male servants go on their evenings off.’

‘Well, he probably got drunk and went to sleep in a barn or something,’ Giles said. ‘He’ll come back with a sore head. But we’ll sort it all out later, when Talbot and Mary have gone.’

The carriage had departed for the station, the females of the household had withdrawn, and Giles summoned Moss before himself, Richard and Sebastian.

Moss was almost wringing his hands. He knew this was a judgement on his running of the below-stairs. His authority there ought to be absolute. That someone had flouted it so obviously – and in such a way that the Family had to know – diminished him.

‘But where was he going?’ Giles asked impatiently.

‘No one knows, my lord. I don’t think anyone actually saw him leave.’

‘So he could still be in the house?’ said Richard.

‘I have, of course, undertaken a search. He is nowhere on the premises.’

‘Speaking of premises: did he go to the pub?’

Moss’s eyes slithered away. ‘There is some talk that he went to the Dog and Gun, my lord, but when he did not return this morning, I took the liberty of sending a boy over there, and the landlord says he did not see Speen there last night.’

Richard looked at Giles. ‘Well, that’s the most likely scenario scotched.’

‘There are plenty of other pubs,’ Giles pointed out. ‘He might have gone down to the village.’

Sebastian spoke. ‘Is there bad blood between Speen and anyone else in the house, Moss?’

Moss swallowed. ‘There are always little frictions, sir, as is natural in a staff, but nothing serious.’

‘Not so as to make him want to quit?’

‘Oh, you’re thinking he’s hooked it?’ said Richard. ‘But I can’t see him being bested by any of our people. He’s a crafty Londoner, the sort that always comes out on top. I can imagine him leaving because he’s bored with country life, but if that was the case, why wouldn’t he give his notice in the normal way?’

‘I beg your pardon, sir,’ Moss said ‘but we checked his room first thing, and there’s nothing missing, not more than he might be wearing or normally carrying.’

‘Well, then, the most likely thing is that he’s had an accident,’ said Giles. ‘Though since you don’t know where he was going, it’s hard to know where to look. But we had better search, in case he’s lying helpless in a ditch somewhere.’

Moss’s mind tweaked painfully at the word ‘ditch’, and he thought briefly of William. He had been out at the same time, and come back with scratches and a bruise to the cheek. Had they met? Could there have been a fight? But as Mr Richard said, Speen was canny and hard, and in any fight would surely put William down with one hand tied behind his back. In any contest, Moss would back Speen to come out on top, so where was he? Besides, Corbie at the Dog had said he hadn’t seen William either. Moss had asked, in the note he sent by the boy.

Giles made his decision. ‘The grooms and boys must search the estate. Those who can be mounted can start at the far boundaries and work back, those on foot starting here and working outwards. And when they reach the farms, they can ask the tenants to use their own men to help cover the ground.’

Richard cocked his head. ‘From the tone of your voice, you don’t think they’ll find him.’

‘I think if he was going to be found, he’d have been found already. All these tracks are well-used. And I can’t see a town-bred man like him venturing off the paths or into the woods. No, I think that for reasons of his own, he’s flown the coop.’

‘And not taken his clothes with him?’ said Richard.

Giles met Moss’s eyes, and a painful thought occurred to both. ‘Better find out what he has taken,’ said Giles. ‘But do it discreetly. No need to blacken a man’s name without evidence.’

‘I certainly would not do that, my lord,’ Moss said, shocked. Theft, in a house like this, was a horrible thing.

Moss was at the door when Sebastian had a thought. ‘Has Speen any family? Who is his next of kin?’

‘I have never heard him speak of any family, sir. But I will enquire of the other servants.’

Mr Cowley was delighted with Nina’s new friend. He had been acquainted with Lady Clemmie’s father, having met him a couple of times at Marlborough House. He thought her manners particularly gentle and ladylike, a model for any young female.