The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia De Luce Novel by Alan Bradley

Author:Alan Bradley [Bradley, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0385665822
Amazon: B0027G6XDS
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: 2009-04-28T05:00:00+00:00

seventeen

PART OF ME WAS POSITIVELY TWITCHING TO PULL out the blasted stamps and press them into his hand, but Inspector Hewitt had put me on my honor. I could not possibly put into Father’s hands anything which might have been stolen; anything which might further incriminate him.

Fortunately Father was oblivious. Even another sudden flash of lightning, followed by a sharp crack and a long roll of thunder, did not pull him back to the present.

“The Ulster Avenger marked TL, of course,” he went on, “became the cornerstone of Dr. Kissing’s collection. It was a well-known fact that only two such stamps were in existence. The other one—the specimen marked AA—having passed upon the death of Queen Victoria to her son, Edward the Seventh, and upon his death, to his son, George the Fifth, in whose collection it remained until recently—was stolen in broad daylight from a stamp exhibition. It has not been recovered.”

“Ha!” I thought. “What about the TL?” I said aloud.

“TL, as we have seen, was tucked safely away in the safe of the headmaster’s study at Greyminster. Dr. Kissing brought it out from time to time, ‘in part to gloat,’ he once told us, ‘and in part to remember my humble beginnings in case I should ever show signs of rising above myself.’

“The Ulster Avenger was seldom shown to others, though; perhaps only to a few of the most serious philatelists. It was said that the King himself had once offered to buy the stamp, an offer that was politely but firmly declined. When that failed, the King begged, through his private secretary, special permission to view ‘this marmalade phenomenon’ as he called it: a request which was speedily granted and which ended with a secret after-dark visit to Greyminster by his late Royal Highness. One wonders, of course, whether he brought AA with him so that the two great stamps might be once more, if only for a few hours, reunited. That, perhaps, will forever remain one of the great mysteries of philately.”

I touched my pocket lightly, and my fingertips tingled at the slight rustle of paper.

“Our old housemaster, Mr. Twining, clearly recalled the occasion, and remembered, most poignantly, how the lights in the headmaster’s study burned long into that winter night.

“Which brings me back, alas, to Horace Bonepenny.”

I could tell by the changed tone of his voice that Father had once more retreated into his personal past. A chill of excitement ran up my spine. I was about to get at the truth.

“Bony had, by this time, become more than an accomplished conjurer. He was now a forward, pushy young man with a brazen manner, who generally got his own way by the simple expedient of shoving harder than the other fellow.

“Besides the allowance he received from his father’s solicitors, he was earning a good bit extra by performing in and around Greyminster, first at children’s parties and then later, as his confidence grew, at smoking concerts and political dinners. By then he had taken on

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