11 - Ticket to Oblivion Read Free Page A

with frustration because you won’t tell me what I’m entitled to hear. It’s cruel of you. I have a right to know.’
    Producing a handkerchief, she dabbed at the tears that started to flow. Her husband realised that he couldn’t hide the full facts from her any longer. Going down on one knee, he put a consoling hand on her shoulder and soothed her as best he could. When she stopped crying, he dragged an upright chair across so that he could sit beside her. She looked imploringly up at him.
    He cleared his throat before speaking in a low voice.
    ‘Imogen caught the train – there’s no doubt about that. When it arrived in Oxford, neither she nor Rhoda got off it. Your sister looked into every single carriage. They were not there.’
    Paulina was trembling. ‘Wherever can they be?’
    ‘That’s what I intend to find out,’ he said, firmly. ‘We have Cassandra to thank for taking prompt action. She wasso convinced that Imogen would have caught the train that she made the stationmaster send a railway policeman on the return journey to Shrub Hill in order to make enquiries.’
    He hesitated for a few seconds. ‘Go on, go on – don’t stop.’
    ‘The two of them did catch the train. The policeman spoke to a porter who put their luggage on board. He knew Imogen by sight. Hearing that, the policeman did what Cassandra had ordered him to do. He hired a horse and brought word here as fast as he could. The man is to be commended – and so, of course, is your sister.’
    ‘But wait a moment,’ she said, raising a palm. ‘I thought that the train didn’t stop anywhere between Worcester and Oxford.’
    ‘It didn’t. The driver confirmed that.’
    ‘So how did Imogen get off it?’
    He shrugged. ‘I wish I knew, my dear.’
    Paulina’s mind was aflame. Her imagination conjured up all sorts of horrors. On the one occasion that her mother didn’t travel to Oxford with her, Imogen had vanished into thin air. It was therefore her mother’s fault. Racked by guilt, she began to quiver with apprehension.
    ‘She must have been attacked,’ she wailed. ‘Someone got into the carriage and assaulted both Imogen and Rhoda before throwing them out of the train.’
    ‘That’s nonsense,’ he said. ‘Tolley obeyed my orders to the letter. He put them into an empty first-class compartment and waited until the train had departed.’
    ‘Then Imogen must have fallen out accidentally.’
    ‘Paulina—’
    ‘That’s what must have happened, Marcus. Perhapsthe door wasn’t closed properly. When she got up to see to it, the door suddenly opened and Imogen somehow fell through onto the track.’
    ‘Stop torturing yourself with fevered speculation.’
    ‘It could easily have happened. I’ve read about incidents like that.’
    ‘There’s someone you’re forgetting,’ he told her, squeezing both of her hands, ‘and that’s Rhoda. If there had been a problem with the door, Rhoda would certainly have dealt with it. She’d never let Imogen struggle with something like that. And – even supposing that our daughter
did
somehow fall out – her maid would still have been in the carriage to report what happened.’ He leant forward to kiss her on the temple. ‘It would have been far better if I’d kept you in the dark until this mystery has been solved.’
    ‘But I
had
to know,’ she insisted. ‘After all, I’m the culprit.’
    ‘Don’t be absurd.’
    ‘It was my decision to let her go alone. I should have made her wait until I was fit enough to accompany her. I should have cancelled the trip to Oxford.’
    ‘But that would have been a terrible disappointment to all concerned. You know how much Imogen enjoys seeing her cousins and vice versa. It would have been wrong to call off the visit.’
    ‘But it would have saved our daughter’s life!’
    ‘There’s no need to be so melodramatic.’
    ‘She’s dead, Marcus. I sense it.’
    ‘And I have an equally strong feeling that Imogen is still alive,’ he said