Chapter 9
Roger Walker thought Captain Geoffrey Marlow's behaviour very puzzling. Admittedly Roger hadn't done more than shake hands with the chap, and it wasn't as if Roger knew anything about being a cousin even, let alone being a husband or a father. Something seemed wrong, though, about the sacrifice that Rowan was making. Roger could not imagine for a minute his father letting Susan missing the last year or so of school to run a farm so that he could continue with his naval career. Not in peace time. Nor could he imagine John letting Jane make that sort of sacrifice. He couldn't imagine Nancy letting that happen either – although he could imagine the day-to-day chaos and general excitement of a farm run by Nancy.
And surely Captain Marlow must have realised that there was a fair chance of inheriting Trennels? A chance remark by Mrs Herbert had shown Roger that she at least had realised that Jon was not the marrying sort. But then there had been the correspondence with Bridget …
In the ordinary way of things, Captain Marlow couldn't have expected to outlive Jon, who was a decade younger. Perhaps Roger was being harsh. Rowan's older brother couldn't have expected to inherit Trennels until he was in his fifties himself and presumably retired from the navy. It was still unfair on Rowan.
"I suppose if father had given up the navy, we'd have been taken away from Kingscote and gone to the local school." Ann had said as they danced. Rowan was sacrificing herself for her younger siblings and, however little she made of it, one at least of them had realised it. Roger unwisely grinned with something very like pride and inhaled a fly or two, even at the Norton's currently comparatively modest speed. But Ann had mentioned the local Grammar school, where one of Rowan's step nieces, or whatever they should be called, went. Roger guessed all the Marlows would be bright enough to pass the eleven plus. Rowan so obviously was, and Jon certainly had been. It was amazing really that Jon had been so stupid about putting money into other people's schemes, certainly after the first time. Stupid enough to let on what had happened too, surely making him a target for every other idiot who thought he had a good idea.
Roger had arrived and dismounted before the realisation hit him, just as he flicked the side stand out. Jon wasn't stupid, not in the slightest, so anything Jon had done, and done repeatedly was not stupid either. And it did explained – only too well, to anybody – why money would be disappearing, if Jon were being, for example, blackmailed.
Roger's stomach clenched as a sickening thought struck him. He took a deep breath and examined the thought carefully.
No, Jon's fatal accident, misadventure – call it what he would- had been just that. There were a thousand and one ways – well, at least three that Roger could think of, off-hand - that Jon could have done that particular deed . Besides, whoever had been doing the blackmailing, if that is really what was happening, had been doing it for years. Whoever it was therefore presumably not the type to kill off the goose that laid golden eggs.
But why hadn't Jon said something? To Roger himself, if to no-one else. There had been some things that Roger had told himself he should check over on his return. He walked into the office without conscious thought and started searching though a pile of paperwork without really seeing it.
Jon probably hadn't said anything for the exactly the same reasons that he had never said anything directly to Roger about being "not the marrying kind". It wasn't Roger's business anyway; perhaps Jon thought Roger would judge him harshly and, most probably of all, Jon would judge himself harshly for dragging Roger into his problems. It wasn't as if Roger had any idea about how exactly you got rid of blackmailers. He was pretty sure Nancy could have come up with a plan or two however. There was simply nothing to be done now.
Damn, he hadn't switched off the petrol feed on the Norton.