Free Red In The Morning by Dornford Yates Page A

Mansel?”
    “I do. May I ask what you want?”
    “Half an hour’s talk. Where are you?”
    “Please stand very still,” said Mansel, “and tell me from where you come.”
    “I should think you could guess.”
    “I prefer to be told.”
    “From a place beginning with A.”
    “I see. Please get into your car and switch on the ceiling light.”
    “I’m all alone.”
    “I know. Please do as I say.”
    There was another silence. Then the girl gave a short laugh and turned to the car. I heard her flounce into her seat. A moment later the ceiling light went up.
    At once I lifted my head. She was alone in the car.
    “All clear, Mansel,” I said.
    The girl started violently.
    “My God,” she said. And then, “You don’t take any risks.”
    “Not with places like Arx,” I said.
    “You’re wise. How’s Mrs Chandos?”
    “None the worse.”
    “You’re rather abrupt, Mr Chandos.”
    “Yes.”
    Mansel took up the running.
    “Do you still wish to talk?” he said.
    “That’s what I came for,” said the girl.
    “Very well. I will talk in this car. But not here. If you will allow me to drive it, I’ll move a little way off. Mr Chandos will sit behind.”
    “I can hardly help myself.”
    “Oh, yes, you can,” said Mansel. “You can turn my conditions down and drive on your way.”
    “Damn your soul,” said the girl: “you can do as you please.”
    “I will in a moment,” said Mansel: and then, “I want you, John.”
    He moved away from the car and I knew he was giving orders. After perhaps a minute I heard the Lowland start…
    The girl was extremely handsome – not to say, beautiful. She might have been twenty-six. Her face was oval, and her cheekbones were rather high. She was very dark, and she had a beautiful skin. Her blue-black hair was so sleek that it looked like a cap. She was wearing an elegant housecoat of flowered silk and a very fine emerald bracelet upon her right arm: this was matched by earrings which must have been worth a great deal. On her left wrist, a watch was set in the same rare stones. She was using a strong make-up, and she looked theatrical.
    When Mansel appeared again, I opened my door of the car and took my seat behind: the girl moved across to the left, and Mansel took the wheel. He switched off the ceiling- and headlights, but left the parking lights on. Then he started the engine and let in the clutch.
    We drove for three miles in silence, before turning up a track and into a wood. As we came to rest, I heard the Lowland behind us turn off the road.
    It was then that I saw the girl’s wristwatch, which had a luminous dial. It moved from beneath her skirt and up to the door: there it seemed to hover for a moment and then returned to her lap. I switched on the ceiling light, to see that the pocket on the door was showing a very slight bulge.
    “And now,” said Mansel.
    “I don’t come from Gedge,” said the girl.
    “No?”
    “I come from my Uncle Horace, who owns the Château of Arx.”
    “I see.”
    “He – doesn’t like Gedge very much.”
    “Not everyone does.”
    “Oh, for God’s sake be human,” snapped the girl. “I’m here as a friend.”
    “But we are not,” said Mansel. “We are here at your invitation – no more and no less.”
    “Guilty, until I’m proved innocent?”
    “Yes,” said Mansel. “Anyone must be that who comes out of Arx.”
    The girl bit her lip. Then –
    “My Uncle Horace knows that you are up against Gedge. He, too, is up against Gedge. He thinks, if you worked together, it would be rather more easy to put Gedge out.”
    “I see,” said Mansel. “Why is he up against Gedge?”
    “Blackmail. Certain letters of his fell into Gedge’s hands. That was two years ago. Gedge doesn’t ask for money. Instead, he uses the château as though it were his. And that is intolerable.”
    “I can think of few things more unpleasant. Why doesn’t the Baron de Parol go to the police?”
    The girl shrugged her elegant