The Silver Ghost by Charlotte MacLeod

Author:Charlotte MacLeod [MacLeod, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-09-03T04:00:00+00:00

13

“THAT SOUNDS LIKE RATHER a major involvement,” Sarah observed. “Does he plan to involve himself further?”

Jeremy Kelling’s pink little mouth drew up in a pucker. “He’s been after Gerry to help him break the trust so he can get at the principal.”

“Oh my! Is Gerry helping?”

“No, he thinks it would be unfair to Erp and his sisters. Gerry did give a substantial donation out of his own pocket to show Bunny he’s not taking a wholly negative stand on the project, but evidently it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what Bunny hoped to raise. Elizabeth, Bunny’s wife, is organizing a fund drive. You might like to help, Sarah.”

“Not on your life, and don’t you dare volunteer me. So what it amounts to is that you think Bunny may have tried a different way of raising money.”

“Dash it,” Jem sputtered, “this is turning into a singularly unpleasant conversation.”

“You might bear in mind that your friend Bill isn’t having too pleasant a time right now, either. I do most sincerely hope Bunny Whet hasn’t let his enthusiasm get out of hand, but you know perfectly well these things have to come out if we’re going to get anywhere.”

Sarah didn’t add that Bunny Whet would match Drusilla Gaheris’s description of the Morris dancer as well as any and better than some. She didn’t remind her uncle of certain Kellings who’d allowed their interest in good works to turn into something almost like fanaticism. Almost but never quite. Was that the case with Bunny? Would he rather sell the Billingsgates’ family heirlooms than his own grandparents’ house, for instance? Why not? His wife and children needed a place to live, but nobody really needed ten antique Rolls Royces.

Bunny’s wife had been in Lorista’s consort yesterday, playing the serpent. Sarah recalled Elizabeth clearly: one of those thinnish, tallish, intense women who oozed intellect even in a starched ruff and a steeple hat. Radcliffe, no doubt. She’d be sympathetic to Bunny’s ecological urges, but probably not to the extent of mortgaging her children’s future. Jem was right, this was not agreeable mealtime conversation. That didn’t mean Sarah was going to change the subject.

“Does Erp share his father’s interests?”

“In Morris dancing? Certainly, or he wouldn’t do it,” Jem replied with some acerbity. “Sarah, you’re not toying with the notion that Bunny Whet would rope his own son into helping him kill his friend’s servant and steal his friend’s cars on a matter of principle?”

“John Brown got his sons to help him raid Harper’s Ferry on a matter of principle.”

“John Brown was what some people today might call a terrorist and his sons didn’t go to a rather strict boarding school. You might check with Erp’s housemaster about the period during which the New Phantom was taken.”

“Thank you, I expect I will. Now what about Young Dork?”

“Young Dork is a model of filial virtue. He’s kind to his parents and dutiful to his in-laws. He’s taken over his grandfather’s business, which was the manufacture

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