Barbara Cleverly by The Last Kashmiri Rose Page B

cool spot under that tree over there, Naurung. Let’s have another look at the notes on Alicia Simms-Warburton, shall we? Here we are — coroner’s verdict: accidental death by drowning.
    ‘Now first things first, why was she going over? Here’s an account from her husband, written to the coroner whom he apparently seems to know as he addresses him as “Dear Wilfred”. This seems to be leading up to it:
    ‘ “I curse the day when somebody told her there was a hatch of Camberwell Beauty butterflies over there. ‘The Mourning Cloak’ they call it. Ironic, don’t you think?
    ‘ “As you know, Alicia was a keen lepidopterist. But — for the record — I mean really keen. She had thousands of butterflies in her collection. And she didn’t do it like most of the mems — just a way of passing the time by finding something pretty and sticking it in an album. No, she really knew about them. Have a look at her collection! All carefully pinned out and labelled. Good God, she even collected samples of their eggs, chrysalides and caterpillars — what have you — and stuck them in alongside. A really professional job. Up to museum standards. The servants were always bringing her samples of butterflies and insects but what she really liked to do was to go herself to examine what she called their habitat. There was one specimen that had long eluded her. This Camberwell Beauty thing. ‘Can’t you get one in England?’ I asked her. Apparently not. They’re even rarer back home than they are in India. And anyway I think it was the thrill of the chase that appealed, you know.
    ‘ “Anyhow, word got to her that a Camberwell Beauty had been spotted on the other side of the river south of Jhalpani and that was it. She was off the very next day. Couldn’t wait for me to come home and escort her. I was away on tour in the mofussil and didn’t find out what had happened for a week. I hear it was through Prentice that she found out about the wretched thing. One of his bearers or somebody had spotted one. You’d better ask him. I know about all this because she’d rushed off and left an unfinished letter to her sister who’s as mad as she is
    was
    on her desk. I think you should probably see this but I’d like to have it back when you’ve finished with it.” ’
    It was signed ‘John Simms-Warburton’.
    ‘And where, I wonder, is Captain Simms-Warburton now? Is he still on the station? Would you know, Naurung?’
    ‘Alas, sahib, he is dead. He was killed in the war.’
    ‘Pity. Well, let’s hear what the lady herself has to say.’
    The attached copy of an unfinished letter confirmed all that Captain Simms-Warburton had to say about his wife. Joe winced at the innocent enthusiasm with which Alicia communicated her coming coup to her sister Anne in Surrey.
    ‘ “
    news to make you turn positively green with envy, Anne! I have in my sights no less than — a Camberwell Beauty!! I heard just this morning from Colonel Prentice that they are to be found in a clump of willows on the river bank near a small native village just a few miles north of the station. What luck! His mali — that’s his gardener (see how I’m picking up the phrases!) — came to him and asked him to tell the memsahib who loves butterflies that there was a rare one near his own village. He described it and Colonel Prentice looked it up and there it was! And there shall I be very soon. The only problem will be crossing the river. You know how I feel about rivers! And John is not here to go with me — he’s off gashting round the countryside with ten other like-minded, pig-sticking shikari
    ” ’
    Here the letter had broken off.
    ‘Well, this gets her to the scene. She came here, presumably on horseback, tethered it where we have left ours and climbed aboard the ferry. And look, over there, that’s where she was going — those willow trees! So she wouldn’t have needed transport on the other side, not even her horse. Now I think we have an account by an eyewitness here
    yes
    here it is. Signed by