After Sir Charles d’Auberley had a fit on receiving the threatening letter, Mr Holmes has put the owner of Dendringham Hall into a trance – he has hypnotized him so he can control what he will do next. He believes that if Sir Charles puts right “the great wrong” that Dot heard Lady Sarah talking about from her bedroom window, the terrifying events at the Hall will stop happening – because they seem to be connected to the false accusation against the inventor Giles Langton. As Sir Charles awakes, let’s see…
“Ah! Ohhh….”
Sir Charles was awake. He stared up at Dot and Mr Holmes as if he didn’t know where he was. Then his face relaxed.
“My word” he said, clearing his throat. “My word… I feel… I feel so much better!”
Mr Holmes looked sideways at Dot and smiled.
Rather stiffly, Sir Charles got up and walked over to his desk.
“This is extraordinary!” he said. “I feel better than I’ve felt for years!” He shook his head as he sat down again at his desk. He shook his head. “After one of those damned Cholerics, I usually take a week to get over it – beastly feeling, all washed out. But now” he opened his eyes wide and smoothed down his bushy grey moustache “I feel as fresh as daisy, ‘deed I do!”
Just at that moment the door swung open and Lady Sarah came in, followed by Crabbings the butler. She went straight up to the desk with her hands held out. Still a little stiff, Sir Charles got to his feet to greet her.
Dot knew that all real gentlemen – whoever they were, and wherever they came from - did that in those days. It was considered VERY bad manners to stay seated if a lady came into the room, whoever she might be! Quite nice she thought… wonder if I could get Slam or Darren at school to do that…
“My dear!” Lady Sarah said anxiously, slightly out of breath after rushing over from the furthest part of the Hall. “My dear! Are you all - ” she stopped and looked at him closely. “But… but… Crabbings told me you’d had one of those horrible attacks! Surely, you can’t have!”
“Indeed I did!” said Sir Charles taking his wife’s hands and smiling at her in a way Dot had never seen before. “But Mr Holmes here had the cure.”
The detective nodded his head and smiled. “I think” he said “I think that you have the cure in your own hands now, Sir Charles.”
For a moment Sir Charles looked puzzled. Dot held her breath. Then his face cleared and his smile returned – wider than ever. “Of course!” he said, snapping his fingers. “Of course! Crabbings, my dear fellow” – Dot saw Lady Sarah look even more astonished - “First thing in the morning - would you send one of the stable boys over to Fernbank Cottage and ask Mr Giles Langton to join me here as soon as possible? Matter of the utmost importance. I’ll just write a note!”
He sat down and took a sheet of cream paper from a heavy wooden tray in front of him and scribbled a few lines. Then he took a big envelope, with the d’Auberley crest on it, and wrote Giles’ name on it.
Then he did something which really puzzled Dot for a moment. He opened a little drawer in the desk – there were lots of them, each with a small, shiny brass handle - and took out a big box of matches. And what looked like a stick of red plastic. Crabbings stepped forward, and, taking the “plastic”, held it close to the envelope – just where we’d stick the flap down nowadays.
But there was no sticking down – Sir Giles struck a match and put it just under the tip of the red stuff. Weirder and weirder thought Dot!
A blob appeared on the end of the red stuff and came off, falling onto the envelope. “Thank you Crabbings, that’ll do!” said Sir Charles, Quickly, he turned his right hand over and pressed down on the waxy red stuff with the big gold ring on his little finger. It made a neat pattern of the d’Auberley crest.
Oh I see, thought Dot. It’s so whoever gets a letter with that on it can be sure it’s from him!
Then he looked up at Lady Sarah and smiled. “Signed, sealed and delivered!” he said.
“Oh… my dearest!” said Lady Sarah, her eyes filling with tears. “At last! At last!”
It seemed a good moment to go. Obviously Mr Holmes thought the same. “Excellent!” he said. “But I think Dorothea, I should take you to the good Miss Walsingham now! Good night Lady Sarah – Sir Charles.”
“Good night!” said Dot, curtseying – it always made her feel TOTALLY silly, but it was what she had to do – Miss Walsingham had made that very clear.
Quietly, almost unnoticed, they left Sir Charles’ study, followed by Crabbings – it was obvious the Lord and Lady of the Manor of Dendringham Hall needed time alone together. The heavy door shut with a click.
When they were safely outside, Crabbings shook his head. “Well I’m fair amazed, sir” he said to Mr Holmes. “I don’t know what you did for Sir Charles, but it seems to me you’ve brought a great blessing on this place. Good night, sir!”
And with that he opened a little door in the long corridor by the study and stepped through it, down to the servants’ quarters.
Mr Holmes looked down at Dot. “Well now” he said “I think we can guess what was in that letter, and what will happen tomorrow. Now all we have to do is - ”
“Mr Holmes!” hissed a voice. “Mr ‘olmes!”
