Free The Railway Detective Collection: The Railway Detective, the Excursion Train, the Railway Viaduct (The Railway Detective Series) by Edward Marston Page A

Pike had finally departed, given some hope by the brief moment when his friend and work mate seemed to rally. He accepted that it was Madeleine’s place to keep watch over her father. Both she and the fireman prayed earnestly that she was not sitting beside a deathbed.
    It was well after dawn when Caleb Andrews started to wake from his long sleep. Eyes still shut, he rocked from side to side as if trying to shake himself free of something, and a stream of unintelligible words began to tumble from his mouth. Madeleine bent solicitously over him.
    ‘Can you hear me?’ she asked.
    He puckered his face as he fought to concentrate. When he tried to move the arm that was in a sling, he let out a cry of pain then became silent again. Madeleine thought he had fallen asleep and made no effort to rouse him. She simply sat there and gazed at him by the light that was slanting in through a gap in the curtains. The room was small and featureless but the bed was a marked improvement on the table in the stationmaster’s office. Greater comfort had allowed the patient to rest properly and regain some strength. When his daughter least expected it, Caleb Andrews forced his eyes open and squinted at the ceiling.
    ‘Where am I?’ he whispered.
    ‘You’re somewhere safe, Father,’ she replied.

    He recognised her voice. ‘Maddy? Is that you?’
    He turned his head towards her and let out another yelp of pain.
    ‘Keep still, Father.’
    ‘What’s wrong with me?’
    ‘You were badly injured,’ she explained, putting a delicate hand on his chest. ‘The train was robbed and you were attacked.’
    ‘Where’s Frank? Why isn’t my fireman here?’
    ‘I sent him home.’
    Andrews was bewildered. ‘Home? Why?’ His eyes darted wildly. ‘Where are we, Maddy?’
    ‘In the stationmaster’s house at Leighton Buzzard.’
    ‘What am I doing here? I should be at work.’
    ‘You need rest,’ she told him, putting her face close to his. ‘You took some blows to the head and you fractured a leg when you fell from the footplate. Your arm is in a sling because you have a broken collarbone. Be very careful how you move.’
    His face was puce with rage. ‘Who did this to me?’
    ‘There’s no need to worry about that now.’
    ‘Tell me. I want to know.’
    ‘Calm down. You must not get excited.’
    ‘Frank Pike shouldn’t have deserted his post. He’ll be reported.’
    ‘Forget him, Father,’ she advised. ‘All we have to think about is how to get you better. It’s a miracle that you’re alive and able to talk again. I thought I might have lost you.’
    She brushed his lips with a tender kiss. Though his face was contorted with pain, he managed a faint smile of thanks and reached up with his free hand to touch her arm. Still hazy,torn between fatigue and anger, puzzled and comforted by his daughter’s presence, he struggled to piece together what had happened to him but his memory was hopelessly clouded. All that he could remember was who he was and what he did for a living. When he heard a train steaming through the nearby station, a sense of duty swelled up in him.
    ‘I must get out of here,’ he decided, attempting to move.
    ‘No, Father,’ she said, using both hands to restrain him gently.
    ‘Frank and I have to take the mail train to Birmingham.’
    ‘It was robbed yesterday. You were assaulted.’
    ‘Help me up, Maddy. We have to get there on time.’
    ‘There is no mail train,’ she said, trying to break the news to him as softly as she could. ‘The men who robbed you removed a section of the track. When you were knocked unconscious, Frank Pike was forced to drive the engine off the rails. He told me that it’s lying on its side until they can get a crane to it.’
    Andrews was appalled. ‘My engine came off the track?’ Madeleine nodded sadly. ‘Oh, no! That’s a terrible thing to hear. She was such a lovely piece of engineering. Mr Allan designed her and I looked after her as if she was my own daughter