Free Bright Hair About the Bone by Barbara Cleverly

this somewhat irregular life.”
    He scrambled to his feet and stood to attention before her, swaying a little but determined. “Miss Talbot. I have already thanked you for your kindness in detaching me from the grasp of the constabulary. I do so again. Let that be the end of it. Your thoughtfulness, which does you credit, does not entitle you to pursue the interrogation the police themselves had embarked on. I bid you good day and will now continue with my disrupted sleep.”
    â€œWell spoken, sir!” Letty said cheerfully, not at all abashed by his stiff reprimand. “I deserved that! But listen, will you? I have a reason for asking these questions—a good reason. I didn’t argue with
you
when you told me how to sell the book—extend to me the same courtesy, will you?”
    He glared, settling himself back onto the tombstone. But he replied with no more than a touch of truculence: “I fought in the Great War. I was for four years in Flanders. Twice wounded. I have, as you will have observed, suffered an injury to the left foot.” His chin came up defiantly. “And, as with many of my fellows, I bear unseen wounds.”
    â€œYou are a man of some education…” Letty left the sentence hanging between them.
    He grunted and swept an arm sideways to the ancient wall of Peterhouse College. “Somewhere in that building you may find a trace, a record of the man I was.”
    Letty took a deep breath and came to a decision. “Would you like to have employment? Or are you quite content to mingle your bones with the long dead? To sit here staring, useless and excluded, at the outer walls of a place where once you were welcomed? Esmé, hand our friend those two pound notes.”
    Esmé ferreted about in her purse and did as Letty told her with a breathed: “Sorry about this…she can be very bossy, you know…” as she handed him the money.
    â€œI’d like you to use this to smarten yourself up,” Letty told the old soldier. “Get yourself some clothes. The Salvation Army do a good line in secondhand gents’ clothing, I understand, but I’m sure you’re better aware of the facilities Cambridge has to offer than I am. I would like you to present yourself here,” she handed over a card, “at, shall we say, four o’clock this afternoon to attend an interview with my father. There is a position in the household he is seeking to fill. You’ll find there’s an omnibus service out to Melchester.”
    He took the card and glanced at the address. “Now you know who I am,” Letty persisted. “May I know
your
name?”
    When he hesitated, she insisted: “So I may inform our butler whom to expect…”
    â€œWilliam Gunning,” he said, reluctantly.
    â€œAh. A good, solid English name,” said Letty. “Can you drive a motorcar, Mr. Gunning?”
    He nodded.
    â€œCan you speak French?”
    Again he nodded.
    â€œGood. That’s settled then.”
    â€œNothing is settled,” he corrected. “Tell me, Miss Talbot, something of the nature of the position. Is Sir Richard looking for a chauffeur…a groom…a steward?”
    â€œAll those. Oh, and yes…a bodyguard.”
    â€œA
bodyguard
? Is your father’s life at risk?”
    â€œOh, no. It is not Sir Richard who is to be the object of your attentions,” she said evasively.
    â€œI must ask—then who exactly
is
the object?”
    â€œI am.”
    Without a word, he solemnly handed back the two pound notes.

CHAPTER 6
    A halfhearted game of croquet was in progress on the lawn behind the house when the doorbell rang. Letty checked her watch. Five minutes to four. Although she and Esmé hurried inside, they were too late to catch a glimpse of the visitor being shown into Sir Richard’s study. The butler was just closing the door behind him and, though longing to stop and question him, Letty