The Passions of Bronwyn (10 page)

Wyn and Betty were moving the paintings resting on the wall at the back of the room when they saw an old rug rolled up in the corner. 

‘Look at this Wyn,’ said to Mrs Brompton, ‘how old do you think this is?’ 

‘Very old from the look of it,’ was the reply. 

‘Bring it out here so we can see it better.’ 

‘Grab hold of the end,’ Wyn told William, ‘it’s quite heavy.’ 

They carried it out of the room and laid it down on the basement floor.  It was tied up in two places with old rope that had frayed in quite a few places. 

‘It’s a good thing I thought to bring a knife down with me,’ William said. 

He cut the rope and then started unrolling the rug.  The musty smell they had smelt in the room when they first walked in got stronger.  They all looked at each other and William stopped unrolling. 

‘What do you think?’ he asked them. 

Mrs Brompton took deep breath and told him to carry on unrolling the rug.  William carried on slowly and jumped back when a leg bone fell out. 

‘Stop unrolling now’ Mrs Brompton told him.  ‘We are going to have to tell someone about this.’  Wyn and Betty were looking at the bone in shock.   ‘Come on all of you upstairs now,’ Mrs Brompton said.  ‘I’ll lock the door and no-one is to come down here until the police have been informed.’

When they got upstairs Mrs Brompton sent William to the garage to tell Ned to drive to the nearest police station to report what had been found and then come back to the house to tell her what the police had said.  When Ned got back he told them all that a couple of police constables would be coming round shortly to  have a look at what they had found.  Until then no-one was to go anywhere near the basement.  Mrs Brompton told them to have a cup of tea then carry on with their normal duties until the police arrived.

‘They will need someone to show them where to go and they might need to talk to all of you even though you won’t know anything.  It must have been down there a long time,’ she said.  Wyn went into the scullery to start preparing vegetables for dinner while Betty went up to the bedrooms to start lighting the fires.  It wasn’t long before there was a knock on the door.  William opened it to find two policemen standing outside. 

‘Come in he told them, I’ll take you to where it is.’ 

He picked up a lantern and took them down to the basement.  There were already a couple of lanterns down there and he lit them.  The police constables went over to the rug and looked at the leg bone. 

‘Can you unroll the rug a bit more but very slowly they told him.’ 

William started unrolling the rug and more of the skeleton appeared.  When he had finished unrolling he stood back.  On the now completely unrolled rug lay a whole skeleton.  William looked down at it in shock.

‘I think we are going to have to inform Scotland Yard of this’ the constable told him.  ‘It’s too big for me to deal with.  Come on out now, lock the door and give the key to me.  We don’t want anyone being tempted to come down here now.’

William took them up to see Mrs Brompton to let her know what they were doing and then went down to the kitchen to let the rest of the household know. 

‘Well I never exclaimed,’ Mrs Davis, ‘I wonder who the poor soul was.’ 

‘They don’t even know whether it was a man or a woman,’ William told them ‘or how long it’s been down there. Mrs Brompton told them that the house had been in Mr Brompton’s family for a long time,’ said William, ‘so it could have happened a long time ago.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The next day Mrs Brompton called them together and told them that there would now be detectives investigating the body in the basement. 

‘In the meantime, she told them, ‘I would like you to search through Mr Brompton’s study thoroughly to find any papers you can about Mr Brompton’s family.  Any little thing could be of significance,’ she said, ‘so don’t discount anything.  The clue to who it was could be in there.’ 

They all felt quite excited about doing it as this was something completely different to their usual tasks.  They went into the study which was very opulent.  There was an enormous mahogany desk with a padded chair under the window with cabinets next to it and bookcases all around the walls. 

‘There must be hundreds of books in here,’ said Wyn. 

‘Yes and we’ll have to look through all of them,’ replied William.  ‘You never know what might be hidden in one of them.  This is going to take a long time.’ 

‘I love it,’ exclaimed Betty.’

‘It’s better than doing the cleaning or preparing vegetables,’ put in Wyn. 

‘Come on stop chattering, let’s get on with it,’ William told them. 

Wyn pulled a face at him but started looking in the cabinets. 

‘I don’t really know what I’m looking for,’ she muttered. 

‘Just take everything out and put it into a pile.  Once we have emptied every drawer or cabinet in here, we’ll have a look through it and anything interesting, we’ll take to Mrs Brompton and let her decide what’s important,’ replied William.

In the cabinet Wyn found all kinds of documents that were dated from the mid 1800’s. 

‘There’s some really old stuff in here,’ she said as she started making a pile of papers.

Betty was looking through the drawers in the desk and found some old pictures. 

‘Look at these,’ she told the others. ‘I think these are of Mr Brompton when he was young but who’s this boy?’ 

‘I think there was an older brother,’ William told her ‘but I don’t know what happened to him although I expect Mrs Brompton will probably know.’

Wyn was still looking through the cabinets and pulling things out of them.  She came across some newspaper clippings from the Daily News about attacks on young women. 

‘What would these be doing in here?’ she asked the others. 

‘That’s very strange,’ commented William,

‘Yes, especially as there’s a body in the basement,’ added Wyn. 

‘Now don’t let your imagination go wild,’ William told her, ‘it might just be a coincidence.’  ‘Hmm,’ Wyn replied, ‘we’ll see.’  She put the clippings on the growing pile of documents.  ‘Maybe Mrs Brompton can say something about this too.’ 

It was beginning to get dark so William told them to finish what they were doing, ‘we’ll start again in the morning,’ he said.  Wyn put the pile of documents on top of one of the cabinets and told Betty to do the same.  The pile was quite big, it was going to take a while to go through them but none of them minded.  Once the study was tidy they all left and went downstairs to the kitchen.  Mrs Davis looked up at them and started moaning about not having any help making dinner. 

She said to Wyn, ‘you can go and peel vegetables,’

‘Betty, you go up and make up the table in the small dining room for Mrs Brompton.  I know Mrs Brompton wants all of you to search for things, but I need help too so I want you to finish a bit earlier so that you can help me.’ 

‘Alright,’ they agreed. 

When dinner was ready William was told to go and get Ned.  He found him just sitting in the garage with the car looking very bored. 

‘I need something else to do,’ he told William.  ‘Can’t I come and help you?’ 

‘I’ll ask Mrs Brompton,’ William told him.  ‘It might help keep Mrs Davis quiet.’  William brought him up to date about everything that had happened so far. 

‘It sounds very interesting,’ Ned said, ‘I would really like to help.  Life’s certainly not boring with this family he added.’

After Wyn and Betty had finished their duties the next day they were all back in the study.  Ned was with them this time as Mrs Brompton had agreed he could help too as there was nothing for him to do with the car. Wyn finished emptying the cabinets and then started looking through the hundreds of books on the shelves.  Betty was still looking through the desk drawers and came across a Birth Certificate for Charles Brompton and one with the name George Edward Brompton on it. 

‘Who’s he?’ she asked. 

‘I don’t know,’ replied William, ‘I’ve never heard that name.  Put it on the pile for Mrs Brompton and forget about it for now.’ 

She finished clearing the desk drawers and then joined Wyn in looking through the books.  Wyn came across an old family Bible that went back centuries.  There was a complete list of all the Bromptons in the front. 

‘Here’s that name again,’ she told them.  ‘He was born in 1851 and Charles Prentice Brompton was born in 1853.  It looks like he was the older brother.’ 

‘This is strange,’ William said, ‘I’ve never heard that name mentioned.  He’s never visited the family since I’ve been here.’ 

‘Maybe he died,’ Wyn said. 

‘I suppose that could be it,’ William agreed, ‘you don’t suppose the body in the basement could be him do you?’ 

They all looked at each other and Wyn said ‘no, surely not.’

‘Just keep on searching,’ William told them.  ‘There might be more about him in here somewhere.’ 

William was searching the top bookshelves when he found a large bundle of papers clipped together.  ‘I’ve found lists of the staff of the house from the beginning of 1800,’ he told them.  ‘The family must have kept records of everyone.  It could help in identifying whoever the body in the basement was if it wasn’t George Brompton,’ he added.

They were coming to the end of the search of everything apart from the books when Mrs Brompton came in. William showed her the pile of documents that she was going to have a look through.  ‘Oh my,’ she exclaimed, ‘this is going to take me a while.’ 

William showed her the Birth Certificate and the Bible that Wyn had found.  She opened the Birth Certificate first and read the name and then she had a look at the first page of the Bible.  ‘It looks like I had a brother-in-law,’ she said.  ‘I didn’t know him.  I’ll have to try and find out who he is or was.  Maybe the solicitor knows.  I’ll go and see him tomorrow.’  She turned to Ned and told him to have the car at the front of the house at ten o’clock the next morning.  She told the others that there would be two detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department coming to the house and that they were to give them any help they needed. 

‘In the meantime keep looking through the books,’ she said, ‘there may be some more interesting things inside them.  Look more carefully now, I don’t want you to miss anything.’  She then turned and left the room.  Wyn took a few books off the middle shelf and took them over to the desk.  There was nothing in the first few books but in the last book there was a piece of paper that looked like a torn page of an accounts book. 

‘Look at this,’ she said to William.  ‘It mentions that name again with some figures by the side of it.’ 

‘Keep hold of that,’ William told her, ‘Mrs Brompton might find it interesting.’

Betty had taken more books from the middle shelf.  She suddenly exclaimed, ‘I’ve found some pages too.  Why are they hidden in books do you think?  Who is this man?’ 

‘Just keep the pages together and keep looking,’ William told them. 

They cleared the middle shelf and had quite a pile now of the pages. 

‘Take them straight up to Mrs Brompton,’ William told Wyn, ‘she might need to take them with her tomorrow.’ 

Wyn took them up to the drawing room where Mrs Brompton had started looking through the documents they had found so far. 

‘We thought you might need to take these tomorrow,’ Wyn told her as she handed the pages over. 

‘Well, this looks very interesting,’ Mrs Brompton said, ‘my solicitor might be able to shed some light on these too.  Thank you.  Off you go now, it’s almost dinner time.’  As Wyn turned to leave, she said, oh yes, before I forget, as you have all been working extremely hard over the last few days, I think you should take the whole weekend off.’ 

‘Oh thank you,’ said Wyn, ‘I’ll tell the others, they’ll be very happy.’  Wyn skipped happily down the stairs back to the study.  ‘Mrs Brompton says we can all have the whole weekend off.’  They all cheered loudly. ‘We’ll have to find somewhere to go she told them.’  They finished off in the study and then went downstairs to prepare the dinner.

After dinner they sat around the table discussing where to go. ‘Have you ever been to a big market?’ Betty asked Wyn.

‘No, I never have,’ Wyn told her. 

There was a livestock market with a few stalls selling vegetables and dairy products but that was all. 

‘Well that’s one thing we can do,’ Betty told her excitedly, ‘I love Petticoat Lane Market, we could go there on Sunday.’ 

The others all agreed.

‘How about Portobello Road on Saturday?  There’s always something interesting going on there, suggested William.  There are some good Taverns round there as well.’ 

‘Markets during the day and Taverns at night.  That sounds like paradise,’ said Betty and Ned.

The next day William let two Detectives into the basement.  They had a close look at the skeleton, ‘there was obviously a huge blow to the head,’ one said, ‘I don’t think this was natural causes, I think we need the Coroner.  He turned to William and asked him to make sure no-one came anywhere near the body.  ‘We’ll arrange for the undertaker to come and pick it up and take it to the Coroner.’ 

‘Do you know if it was male or female?’ William asked them. 

‘Not at this point,’ they told him.  ‘The Coroner should be able to tell. Does anyone in the house have any idea who it was?’ they asked William. 

‘No, I don’t think so,’ William replied. 

‘Oh well, I suppose it might become clearer when we know what sex it was,’ the Detective said.  They started looking around the basement.  ‘Where exactly was it stored?’ he asked.  ‘Rolled up in this rug in that room,’ William told them. ‘Show me,’ he asked.  William had taken the key with him as he thought that they might need to see inside.  He unlocked the door and let them in.  ‘It was resting up against the back wall,’ he said.  They walked over to take a look.  ‘Can’t see anything there,’ they said, ‘smells a bit musty in here though.’  ‘I think it must have been in here for quite a while,’ one of them mused.  ‘Right we’re finished, there’s nothing in here.’  They walked out of the room.  ‘This is a very thick door’ one of them said, ‘it’s like a prison door.  I bet it’s air tight.’

William showed them up the stairs and out of the house.   ‘Don’t forget,’ he was told, ‘no one is to go down there until the undertaker has picked it up.  It should be later today.’ 

‘Alright,’ William said, ‘I’ll make sure no-one goes down there although I don’t think anyone would want to.’

When William went into the kitchen Wyn told him that Mrs Brompton was back and wanted to see them. 

‘She must of found out about George Brompton,’ William said.  When they got up to the drawing room, Mrs Brompton was waiting for them. 

‘Sit down she told them.  As you know I have been to see my solicitor.  He had a lot of information about George Brompton because he still corresponds with him.  He is living in Jamaica on the sugar plantation and has been for a long time. He is the black sheep of the family and was a worse gambler than my husband.’  He owed a lot of money to a lot of important people.  It got so bad that he was called out in an illegal duel.  When his father heard about it, he put George on the next boat to Jamaica before he could either be totally disgraced or killed.  He is now living with an ex-slave black woman with whom he has two children and he will never be coming back to this country.  Mr Brompton made financial arrangements for him ín his Will which I will, of course, comply with.  It means, she continued, that the body in the basement isn’t that of George Brompton.  I’m seeing the coroner later today so I might find out a bit more then.  William, I would like you to come with me please.’  Looking at Wynn and Betty she said, ‘you two can carry on with your normal duties until I know what is to be done next.’  She asked William to be downstairs by two o’clock.  ‘Ned already knows and will have the car ready’ she said.   Wyn and Betty went down to the kitchen and told Mrs Davis that they were back to their normal duties for a while.

‘Thank goodness for that’ she said.  ‘This house is not as clean as it should be so I want you to go through it room by room and thoroughly clean it.  Wyn can start with the bedrooms while Betty starts in the sitting room.  You’ve got two hours until lunch time so start right away.’  Wyn took what she needed out of the scullery and went up to Mrs Brompton’s  bedroom first.  She changed the bedding and dusted and cleaned the room.  She took the large rug from the floor down through the kitchen to the garden and threw it over the washing line.  She started beating the dust out of it.  William suddenly appeared, put his arms around her and started nuzzling her neck. 

‘Stop that,’ she told him, ‘I’ve got work to do.’ 

‘Roll on Saturday,’ he told her, ‘who knows what we will be able to get up to then.  He gave her a wink, pinched her bottom and then walked back into the kitchen whistling.  Wyn just smiled to herself and carried on beating. When there was no more dust coming off the rug she took it back up to the bedroom.  By the time she had finished she was very out of breath.  ‘I’ve had too much time away from this,’ she thought to herself.  ‘I’ve got to get used to it again.’  She went into the next bedroom which was Catherine Brompton’s.  This only needed a bit of dusting as it hadn’t been used for a while.  The next room was Charles Brompton’s and again, only needed dusting.  She had just finished these rooms when she heard Betty calling her.  When Wyn got back Betty told her lunch was ready and she was to take a tray up to the Sitting Room for Mrs Brompton.  Wyn arranged a tray of food and took it up to Mrs Brompton who looked up from the letter she had been writing when Wyn put the tray down on a little table in front of her, ‘thank you,’ she said, ‘could you post this letter for me?’ she added.  Wyn took the letter and went back downstairs,