Laurette screamed. Edgar’s plate crashed to the crazy-paving, scattering shards and crumbs.
“We never use the best china on the terrace,” said Geraldine, but she, like everyone else, rose to her feet and gazed in the direction Laurette was pointing.
Vincent had lost his hat and acquired a limp. He hobbled along the gravel path from the south corner of the house towards the steps, leaning heavily on a walking stick.
Alec and Crowley ran to help him. As they reached him, he staggered. Each seized an arm to support him. Slowly they came up the steps, Vincent stumbling between the two larger men. He was dishevelled, his clothes soiled with leaf mould all down one side; it was even stuck in his brilliantined hair.
“Hop it, you three,” Alec said to the children.
“Oh, Daddy!”
“Go along.”
The trio, plus dog, reluctantly took themselves off.
Vincent slumped into a chair. Laurette hovered over him, bleating with dismay and flapping ineffectually with a napkin at the dirt on his jacket.
“My dear fellow!” said Edgar. “My dear fellow!”
“Tea,” said Geraldine, pouring a cup. “With plenty of sugar for shock. And you must send for the doctor, Edgar.”
“No,” Vincent gasped. “I don’t need a … doctor. I’ll be all right in a minute.”
Martha, distressed, said to Daisy, “Ought we to…?”
“No,” Daisy said firmly. “We’d only be in the way.”
Lowecroft appeared with a silver tray holding two decanters, a soda siphon, and a glass. He moved at his usual stately pace but was visibly out of breath. Ernest, now hovering on the threshold of the French windows, must have witnessed the scene and notified the butler. “Brandy, sir?” he enquired of Vincent. “Or whisky if you prefer.”
“Brandy … yes … neat.” The brandy chased down the sweet tea, already dispatched, and Vincent held out his glass for more.
Daisy wondered whether to suggest some bread and butter to sop up the resulting cocktail in his insides.
Alec sat down beside him, while Frank helped himself to a slice of cake and went to sit on the parapet, where he had a dress-circle view.
“What happened?” Alec asked.
“I went for a stroll in the park and into the woods. I was walking among the trees when a branch … fell. I saw it from the corner of my eye and was able to dodge, so it didn’t hit me. It made me lose my balance and I tripped over something.”
“A branch fell? You don’t sound very certain of that.”
“It must have, mustn’t it? A limb broke off a tree.…”
“But…?”
Vincent frowned. “But I have a sort of vague impression that it actually came whizzing at me out of the bushes. It was quite overgrown along the path I was following.”
“Edgar,” said Geraldine severely, “you really must allow some clearing in the woods. I know your caterpillars like undergrowth but when it comes to a guest being injured—Enough is enough.”
“Yes, dear. I’ll speak to Wharton.”
“See that you do!”
Raymond, who had remained silent and apparently uninterested since Vincent’s arrival, suddenly put in a truculent oar. “What do you mean, whizzed at you?”
“We-ell, I must have imagined it. I was taken by surprise, pretty shaken up, in shock really.”
Geraldine frowned. “Are you sure you oughtn’t to see a doctor?”
“Oh yes, chéri, do!” Laurette urged.
“No, I don’t need a doctor. I’m just a bit bruised.” He patted his left hip. “Nothing to it. I’ll be right as rain in no time.”
“Lowecroft, a hot bath with Epsom salts for Mr. Vincent, in a quarter of an hour.”
“Certainly, my lady.” Lowecroft took the decanters with him, apparently thinking Vincent had had quite as much restorative brandy as he needed.
“How long ago did this happen?” Alec asked.
“I don’t know. I lay half-stunned for some time—”
“You didn’t lose consciousness completely, however.”
“No.”
“That’s good. No concussion. Sorry, go on.”
“Then I sat awhile till I felt able to move. And I couldn’t move very fast.”
“Did you notice what tripped you?”
“I can’t say I paid any particular attention. Another branch, I suppose, or a stone. Just something lying there on the path.”
“Perhaps I’d better go and have a look, to make sure whatever it was isn’t going to trip some other unsuspecting stroller. Could you describe the spot? Tell me how to get there?”
“I’m afraid not. I started out wandering at random. Coming back, I was still a bit dazed. I took the nearest path that seemed to go in the right direction, until I was out of the wood. Then I saw the house and followed the path that brought me here.”