Later, Mrs. Sugden felt a stab of alarm. She knew that Philip was a trusted friend and neighbour of Mrs. Shackleton’s parents, but there was no telling about the other one. He was too good-looking and too nervy for her liking.

She went up to check.

Harriet was sound asleep.

She could hear them talking, Mr. Tufty Hair and Mr. Bonnie Boy. They were talking about motor car engines.

Chapter 49

Chapter Forty-Nine

Cousin James was waiting on the platform, hat pulled down, scarf wound around his throat and mouth. He strode towards me, a startled expression on his face. Who else had he expected? Then I realised that it was my appearance that shocked him.

He grabbed both my hands in his. “You’re freezing. You’re shivering. What on earth is it that couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

“Murder most foul, and it’s already tomorrow.”

“Let’s get you home.”

He looked about for a porter. “Where’s your luggage?”

I had Sykes’s motoring blanket over my arm, a flask in my hand and the satchel on my shoulder. “This is it.”

He took the flask and blanket. We began walking towards the exit.

“There’s a warm bed waiting for you.”

“We have to talk.”

“You need a good night’s sleep.”

“I dozed on the train.”

“Don’t believe you. You look whacked.”

“I need to have certain things clear before I see Commander Woodhead tomorrow, and don’t worry, I won’t say it came from you.”

“He’ll know.”

“But he won’t have been told. That’s how it works, isn’t it?”

*   *   *

Dad or Mother must have spoken to James’s wife. Prudence had set out night clothes, toiletries and a choice of dresses for morning. We don’t have the same size feet so I would be wearing my funeral shoes tomorrow. That seemed appropriate.

Perhaps what I told James was true, and that I had napped on the train, because by the time I was in bed, sitting up with a cup of cocoa, I felt alert again.

James sat in the chair beside the bed, still in his suit, one leg crossing the other. “There’s nothing I can tell you.”

“You mean there’s nothing you can tell me unless I ask the right questions and swear secrecy.”

“You get me up in the middle of the night, drag me out into the cold and now –”

“What piece of information led you to believe that a Bolshevik with Russian gold was coming to Yorkshire?”