My Friend Walter (10 page)

Of course no one else could see the smoke, but they could smell it all right. And they did. I wasn't to know that I had chosen a No Smoking seat, was I? I hadn't even thought to look. At the first stop – Reading, it was – a lady got in and sat down opposite us. She kept coughing and wiping her eyes and eyeing me angrily. So I held my nose and shrugged my shoulders. It wasn't long before she got up and moved away and we had the whole carriage to ourselves. Then the ticket collector came round. He must have been about seven foot tall. He sniffed the air deliberately. ‘Are you on your own?' he asked, taking my ticket. I nodded. ‘Someone meeting you at the other end, are they?'

‘Yes,' I said.

‘That's all right then,' said the ticket collector sniffing again. ‘Bit of a pong in here. I've had a complaint. Lady back there says you been smoking. You been smoking, have you?' I shook my head. He handed me back my ticket. ‘Bad for you, you know. Stunts your growth. Never had one in my life.' And he was gone.

It was dark by the time we got back to Exeter. They were all there waiting on the platform: Mother, Father, Will and Little Jim. Mother and Father hugged me so I could hardly breathe and I think they cried a bit, even Father. Little Jim grabbed my nose and pulled it which made me screech – he had such sharp little nails. Will was the only one who didn't seem at all pleased to see me. He just looked at me coldly; and I could see that Father, although he was relieved to have me back, was angry under it all and trying hard not to show it.

‘Everyone's been out looking for you,' he said as we walked back along the platform. ‘What were you thinking of, going off like that?'

‘I told you, dear,' said Mother, ‘she was upset, weren't you Bess?' I nodded.

‘I thought so,' Mother went on. ‘She just couldn't take any more, could you dear? I mean there was times
today when I would have done the same thing myself given half a chance. We didn't even know you were missing till after the sale, teatime it was.'

‘To go running off like that without so much as . . .' Father was getting into his stride but Mother looked at him and stopped him before he got going.

‘Never mind all that, dear,' she said firmly. ‘There's no real harm done, not now she's back.'

‘But she's got to know the trouble she's caused,' Father insisted. ‘I mean, we had the police out looking along the river bank. They put frogmen in the river. Will said you told him you were going fishing. We thought you'd fallen in and drowned.'

‘Sorry,' I said. ‘I didn't mean it, honest I didn't. It was all those people and then Sally was going to be sold and I just wanted to get away, that's all.'

‘We understand, dear,' said Mother.

‘I'm not so sure
they
will,' said Father, nodding towards the ticket barrier.

Two policemen were standing there; I recognised one of them as the same one who had come when Sally went missing. They were both looking hard at me as I came towards them. Neither looked very pleased to see me. ‘And where have you been, young lady?' said
the one with the peaked cap, the one I'd seen before.

‘London,' I said.

‘You've put a lot of people to a lot of trouble, you know that?' I nodded and looked down at my feet because I didn't want to look him in the eye. ‘I don't know why you went, but don't you ever go off like that again, do you hear me? Promise me, now.'

‘Promise,' I said, and I meant it.

‘I'll call off the search then, Mr Throckmorton.'

‘Thanks,' said Father shaking his hand, ‘and I'm sorry we've put you to so much trouble.'

‘It's what we're here for,' he said. ‘All's well that ends well, eh?' He'd borrowed another of Gran's favourite sayings.

Will never said a word to me, not in the station and not in the Land Rover all the way home. But I sensed he was looking at me in the darkness and it made me feel uncomfortable. I coughed four times and with some relief I saw the dark shape of Walter appear beside him.

We were back home in the kitchen before Will said a word to me. Mother had taken Little Jim up to bed and Father was taking Humph out for his walk as he always did last thing at night. At first there was a
silence between us. ‘Why didn't you tell me?' Will said suddenly. ‘I wouldn't have said anything.'

‘I know,' I said.

‘You didn't want me to come with you, did you?' Will went on. He was hurt more than angry.

‘It wasn't that,' I said. ‘I just wanted to be alone, that's all.'

‘And I've been thinking,' he said.

‘What about?'

‘That you wouldn't hardly go off like that unless you had a reason, and a good reason. It doesn't make sense.'

‘I told you, I wanted to be alone.'

‘You can be alone down by the river,' said Will. ‘You don't need to go all the way to London to be alone, do you? There's something you're not telling me, Bess.' Mother came in at that moment and it was just as well. It was obvious that Will didn't believe a word I'd said.

‘Little Jim's fast asleep,' Mother said. She put the kettle on the stove and sat down heavily. ‘Well, there's a day I never want to have to live through again. Still, it's over now. All we've got to do is clear up this mess tomorrow and we'll be gone. I want to be out of here as quick as possible now.'

Humph scratched open the back door and came
bounding in nose to the ground. He dashed straight through the kitchen, skidded in the hallway and thundered up the stairs. ‘He'll wake up Little Jim,' said Mother.

‘What's the matter with that dog?' said Father, putting the torch down on the kitchen table. ‘Didn't seem to want his walk and that's not like him at all.' You could hear Humph shuffling along the passage upstairs. ‘What the dickens is he after?' said Father, looking up at the ceiling.

‘Dunno,' I said, but I knew all right. Will was looking at me and then up at the ceiling and then back at me. He was frowning. I knew for sure where my friend Walter was. There was no need for me to cough. The clock on the mantelpiece struck twelve.

‘Weather forecast,' said Father. ‘Always listen to the weather forecast last thing at night. Always have done. Not that it matters to me, now that I'm not a farmer any more.'

‘You'll always be a farmer, dear,' Mother said going over to him and putting an arm round him. ‘It's in your blood. Something will turn up, you'll see. We had a good sale, didn't we? Better than we could have hoped for. We'll be all right.'

The radio whistled and hissed until Father found the station he was looking for. ‘. . .
And here are the main headlines again tonight
.' I could hear Humph whining outside my room and scratching at the door. The voice on the radio faded in and out, but you could hear most of what was said:
‘Police have confirmed tonight that one of the Crown Jewels is missing. One of the golden orbs, known as Queen Mary's Orb, has been stolen from the Tower of London. It is the first time that any of the Crown Jewels has been stolen. Police say that there is no evidence of a break-in and that no alarm was set off. Streets around the Tower are still sealed off tonight. A police spokesman said it was clearly the work of experts. The Crown Jewels, seen by millions of visitors each year, are kept under the tightest possible electronic security. The orb is said to be worth well over ten million pounds. And now here is the weather forecast . . .'

I did not hear the weather forecast, for my head was swimming and the pounding of my heart was so loud in my ears that I thought everyone must hear it. The ‘honeycomb'! So that was the ‘honeycomb' Walter was talking about in his riddle. It all fell into place in a few sickening seconds. Who else but a ghost, who else but my friend Walter, could steal the Crown Jewels
without setting off alarms, without breaking anything? And who had disappeared for a few minutes and left me alone in the Bloody Tower? Who had talked of taking the ‘honeycomb' and how angry the bees would be if it was discovered? My friend Walter had done it, and he was upstairs in my bedroom now; and six to one he had the golden orb from the Crown Jewels with him.

Mother put a mug of tea in front of me and stirred in the sugar. I felt as if I was being drawn down into it and would drown in the whirlpool of tea in front of my eyes. ‘You all right, dear?' said Mother, pushing the hair back from my forehead to feel it. ‘You're very pale all of a sudden and there's a cold sweat on you. Don't suppose you've had anything to eat all day, have you, dear?'

‘No,' I said.

‘Tired out I shouldn't wonder,' said Father switching off the radio. ‘Well I'm blowed, did you hear that? How the devil did they manage it? We went up there once years ago. Coach trip, remember? You were there only a couple of months ago, weren't you, Bess? Went there with Aunty Ellie after that family gathering, didn't you?' I managed to nod. ‘Don't know
what they think they can do with it, though. Can hardly sell it, can they? I mean, someone would recognise it – most famous jewels in the world, they are. Still, ten million quid!' he whistled. ‘What I couldn't do with a little of that just at the moment, and they say it pays to be honest. Ah well.' I dared not look across at Will for fear of catching his eye.

‘Well, Bess went up to London today,' Will said, ‘p'raps she's brought it back with her.' And they all laughed at that. I tried to laugh with them but I think it came out more like a groan. We all went up to bed at the same time that night. At the top of the stairs Father kissed me on the forehead – just like my friend Walter – and I don't think he'd ever done that before. It was almost worth running away. ‘Tomorrow can only be better,' he said.

Humph came lolloping out of my bedroom. ‘Find what you were looking for, Humph?' said Father. ‘Now get downstairs.' Humph looked up at him and went soulfully downstairs, stopping to look back over his shoulder every few steps as if there might be a reprieve. There wasn't. ‘Tomorrow night we'll be at Aunty Ellie's and
she
won't let you sleep upstairs, that's for sure.' Humph sighed and went.

Will made as if to follow me into my room but Mother wouldn't let him. ‘You can talk in the morning,' she said. ‘Bess is tired out, and anyway the removal lorry will be here by seven o'clock. We've all got to be up early. Off to bed now.' And Will obeyed, a bit too easily I thought.

My room was not my room any more. All my owls had been packed away. There were no curtains at the windows, no pictures on the walls. ‘Elephant' was nowhere to be seen. There was a packing case where my chair had been, and screwed-up newspaper was scattered around all over the floor. I shut the door and coughed. My friend Walter was sitting propped up against the pillows on my bed, his legs crossed at the ankles. He was smiling triumphantly. ‘He knew I was here,' he said. ‘That cur of yours sniffed me from head to toe and I had nothing to offer him, except this.' And he threw back his cloak. The golden orb lay on his lap shining and glittering in the light of my bedside lamp. I had guessed right, so it was no real surprise to me, but all the same I could not take my eyes off it. He held it out to me. ‘It is yours, chick. Come, take it. It will not bite you.'

It was a perfect globe of gold encircled with bands
of pearls and diamonds and rubies and sapphires and emeralds and many more stones that I could not recognise. At the top of it was a small, jewel-encrusted cross. I was about to touch it when I pulled back. ‘You stole it, didn't you?' I said. ‘You stole it from the Tower. It was on the radio. They're looking for it everywhere. You shouldn't have.'

‘I am no thief, cousin,' Walter protested, his voice rising with indignation. ‘Is it stealing to take what is mine? Did I not tell you how I was robbed of everything that was rightly mine, my lands, my castles, my jewels?' He held up the golden orb in one hand. ‘This bauble is but a trifle of what I am owed, what is due to my family, to you. You are of my blood and therefore it is yours by right. Take it. I have only taken back what is ours, and ours it shall remain. I tell you, cousin I had more jewels on one of my shoes than there are in this trinket. Take it, for with it you can restore your family's fortune.'

‘But it belongs to the Queen.'

‘It belongs to you, Bess,' he said smiling, ‘and if you will not take it then you must catch it.' And with that he tossed it to me. I had not time to think about dropping it, which was just as well because otherwise I
would most certainly have done so. I can't catch to save my life. It was heavier than I expected, a lot heavier.

Suddenly the door behind me opened. I swung round, the golden orb in my hands. My brother Will was standing there, his mouth gaping.

‘Cripes!' he said.

‘YOU!' WILL SAID. ‘IT WAS YOU! YOU STOLE IT. You really stole it.'

‘No I didn't,' I said. He ignored me.

‘But how? How did you do it?'

‘I told you, I didn't do it. How could I? Close the door, Will, or they'll hear us.'

‘I don't mind if they hear us.' He could not take his eyes off the orb. ‘What did you do it for?'

‘I never did it,' I whispered. ‘Honest I didn't.'

‘Then how come you're standing there holding it if you never took it?' He reached out and touched it. ‘Is that really it?' he asked. ‘Is that really the one?'

‘I suppose so,' I said.

‘Well, somebody stole it, didn't they?' I had nothing
to say. ‘I mean it didn't get here on its own, did it, Bess? So if you didn't steal it, who did?'

‘I can't tell you,' I said, ‘not yet. And even if I could you wouldn't believe me. You'd just say I was making it all up.' Will looked at me for a moment and then suddenly he leaned forward and grabbed the orb out of my hands. ‘If you won't tell me right now what's going on,' he said, ‘I'll take this next door and show them. I will, Bess, honest I will. There's been things going on around here that I don't understand and you're going to tell me. For instance, I don't know how that letter and that bottle I found just disappeared. You said you'd tell me one day and you still haven't. One minute they were there and the next minute they weren't, and that's not natural. Then you go running off to London for no good reason, and now this. Something's going on, and I want to know what it is. Now are you going to tell me or not?'