Free The Affair of the Mutilated Mink by James Anderson

once.'
    'Hugh?'
    'Thanks, but I'd rather not.'
    Lord Burford, who'd got the gist of his daughter's hint, turned to Laura. 'Forgive me, signorina, for not including you. 'Fraid it just didn't occur to me that you . . .'
    Rex said lightly, 'Oh, I can't imagine that such a distinguished and intellectual actress would find such an event at all amusing.'
    Laura smiled at him sweetly. 'You are quite wrong, Mr Ransom.' She looked at the Earl. 'I should enjoy much watching the dear leetle bambini performing, and helping you judge them.'
    Avoiding the eye of Rex, who was looking very slightly disgruntled at this, Lord Burford said, 'Well, we're going to have quite a party. Anybody else who'd like to join us, of course, will be more than welcome.'
    Hugh said, 'Thank you, Lord Burford. I think I'll change my mind and come along.'
    Now it was Paul's turn to look displeased. He said, 'Come with me in my car, Gerry?'
    'Yes, of course.'
    She glanced a little anxiously at Hugh. But he was looking at Laura.
     
    * * *
     
    When coffee was being served in the drawing room after dinner, Rex suddenly said, 'Do you know, George, what I've been looking forward to ever since I knew I was coming here: learning something of the history of Alderley and of your ancestors. There must be quite a few interesting stories in nearly three hundred years.'
    'Oo, don't know about that. Pretty dull lot, actually. Most of 'em just hung around here, looking after the estate and collectin' things.'
    'Surely, they can't all have been dull?'
    'Well, there was the fifth Earl. He was very mechanical. Built a flying machine. Powered by gunpowder. Tried to take off from the roof of the east wing. People still fish bits of the machine out of the lake from time to time. And the Earl, for all I know. Then there's the business of the seventh Earl and the Westshire Declaration of Independence. Got the idea from the American colonists. Proclaimed the county an independent republic, with himself as president. Couldn't get anyone to take him seriously. So he went to London, bought up several tons of tea and dumped it in the East India dock. But nobody took any notice. He couldn't understand it. Said it had worked for the colonists. His wife came and took him home then.'
    Cecily said, 'George, wasn't there a ghost at one time?'
    'Oh, you mean Lady Elfreda.'
    'That sounds interesting,' said Paul.
    'Not especially. Daughter of the eighth Earl. Shut herself up in her room for the unrequited love of a dancin' master and swore never to eat again.'
    'What happened?' Cecily asked. 'Did she die?'
    'Oh, yes.'
    'She starved herself to death for love?'
    'Just the opposite. Kept it up for three days, then crept down in the night and stuffed herself with a rather doubtful game pie they'd been going to throw away. Died of food poisonin'. We still hear her voice sometimes. Calling for castor oil.'
    'Wasn't your grandfather something of a character, sir?' Paul asked.
    'Oh, old Aylwin. Well, I agree, you couldn't call him dull.'
    'Tell us about him,' said Haggermeir.
    'He wasn't exactly an admirable character.'
    'So much the better,' said Rex.
    The Earl collected his thoughts. 'Aylwin was a holy terror from the start. Always in scrapes — playing practical jokes, taking up dares. Got through dozens of nursemaids. No viciousness in him, mind. Just high-spirited, with a keen - if not very subtle - sense of humour. And apparently quite fearless. When he was eleven they sent him to Eton. There he was constantly in trouble for fighting, being out after hours, and was eventually expelled after being found playing cards for money in a public house. He came home for a few years, made life miserable for a succession of tutors, and was generally thoroughly pestilential throughout the neighbourhood. By the time he was eighteen he already had a county-wide reputation for drinking, gaming, wenching, fighting, and all kinds of wild stunts.
    'Then, for the first time, he fell in love. The girl was a Lady Mary