Chapter 12 – An Escape
When Etta woke up in the morning, she did have a brainwave that she couldn’t wait to tell her mother about. When Jen entered her room in the morning, bearing a tray of tea and toast, Etta immediately blurted out, ‘why don’t we try to escape?’
‘What?’
‘Escape. Why don’t we take the car and drive off in it. It might help us to get out of the dream.’
Jen looked sceptical.
‘I think it could work,’ argued Etta. ‘Perhaps if we show that we are trying to escape, it will show our brains that we are trying to wake up and they might do it.’
Jen was not convinced.
‘Have you got a better idea?’ Etta challenged her.
Jen shook her head. ‘No, but even if we do decide to try it, there is one problem.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Inspector Brighton. He doesn’t want anyone leaving the house.’
‘Once we’re outside, we won’t have to worry about him.’
‘Isn’t there a policeman on the gate?’
‘We’ll tell him that Inspector Brighton gave us permission to go to the nearest town for something. Come on, Mum, it’s worth a try.’
Jen gave in. ‘Ok. When shall we do it?’
‘As soon as possible.’
Jen thought about it. ‘Have some breakfast and we’ll slip out. The hoity toities will be at breakfast and the servants will be busy. And Inspector Brighton and his sidekick haven’t arrived yet.’
Etta gobbled down her toast and gulped some tea. Jen slipped out and returned with a coat and handbag.
‘Have you got your car keys?’ she asked.
Etta fished around in her bag and pulled out a set of keys. She dangled these at Jen.
‘Are these them?’
Jen peered at them. ‘I haven’t got my glasses on.’
Etta put the keys close to her eyes. ‘One of them looks like a car key,’ she reported.
‘Lets go then. I’ll take the back stairs and meet you in the garage.’
‘Where is the garage?’ Etta hadn’t been shown it on her tour yesterday.
‘As you come out of the main door, it’s to your right. Just keep walking and you’ll find it.’
Etta managed to slip out of the house without anyone noticing her. Luckily Cook was not hovering to ask inconvenient questions. She walked briskly round the side of the house, and as Jen had instructed, kept walking until she found the garage.
There was nobody there except a handsome slim man with sharp dark eyes. He was wearing a chauffeur’s uniform.
‘What there anything you wanted … miss?’ He had a soft Scottish accent.
‘I wanted my car. I thought I’d take it for a spin.’
His dark eyebrows rose but he said nothing.
‘It’s over there.’ He gestured to a corner of the garage.
A magnificent red convertible with its hood down, sat where he was pointing.
Etta gasped even though she knew that she shouldn’t. ‘It’s beautiful.’
His attitude changed. ‘It is, isn’t it. Must have cost you a pretty penny but worth every one of them.’ There was warmth in his words.
Etta walked over and inspected it. Its bodywork gleamed. That was surprising, Etta thought, because it should have some dust and grime from the journey here.
‘It’s spotless,’ she remarked.
He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I gave it a quick clean, hope I didn’t overstep the mark.’
‘No, thank you so much.’
At that moment, Jen hurried into the garage, wearing her coat and hat and carrying her battered handbag.
‘So, you’re going too, Jane?’ asked the man.
‘Yes, Miss Ashcroft wants me to come on a shopping trip with her,’ Jen informed her.
Not what I just told him, Etta thought but her mother’s explanation was better. It covered why Jen was coming with her.
‘Hope you enjoy your spin.’ His voice was dry.
‘Thank you, Mr. Fraser.’ Her mother sounded very formal.
Etta opened the door and climbed into the driving seat. It was higher than her normal car seat and she felt conspicuous there. Jen clambered into the passenger seat. The seats were yellow leather and very comfortable. Etta stared at the wooden dashboard for a moment, familiarising herself with the controls.
‘Are you ok? Can you drive this thing?’ hissed Jen.
‘Mum!’ Etta hissed back. ‘Leave me alone. I’m just looking at it.’
She was aware that Mr. Fraser was watching her. After a couple of fumbled attempts to fit the key into the ignition, she succeeded and pressed down on the clutch and put the car into first. Then she pressed her foot lightly on the accelerator, nothing happened and she put some more pressure on. The car roared and it jerked forward. After a couple more hops, Etta got the hang of it and drove out of the garage, past a grinning chauffeur and onto the drive. She had never driven an open-air car before and found she liked it. She drove out of the courtyard and down the lane to the gates.
As expected, there was a policeman standing outside the massive wrought iron gates. He was tall with a pleasant doughy face and a belly to match. Jen got out and pulled one of the gates open. He watched her do it before asking, ‘do you have permission to go outside, miss?’ He was talking to Etta.
‘Oh yes,’ she said with what she hoped was a confident and breezy air. ‘That darling inspector, Inspector Brighton, said we could go out if we were on urgent business.’
‘And what urgent business might that be miss?’ he enquired stolidly.
Etta tried to look coy and batted her eyelashes while she racked her brains. ‘It’s ladies’ business, constable. Do I need to go into detail?’
‘No, miss,’ he replied, looking horrified. ‘Quite all right. Off you go.’
Jen had hopped back in to the car so Etta triumphantly drove off, congratulating herself.
They had only bowled a hundred yards along the road when they saw a dark car coming towards them and saw that there was a policeman driving it. As they passed it, they saw that Inspector Brighton and Sergeant Wolf were in the back. The two stared at Etta and Jen as they passed by.
‘That’s torn it,’ Etta said. ‘What do we do?’
‘Carry on,’ Jen said. ‘It’ll take them a little time to turn that car around and come after us. With a bit of luck, we might have gone far enough that we’ll just wake up before they catch us up.’
Etta drove on and came to a crossroads where she halted. There was a faded signpost, the left hand one said Little Missle and the right said Bedhamstead.
‘Which way?’ she asked.
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Jen said. ‘Just keep going. They’re coming after us.’
Etta glanced back and saw the dark car gaining on them.
She turned left and drove as fast as she could, which was not that fast, she discovered. She had just gone through a village with a village green and duck pond, Little Missle she presumed, when she heard a police siren behind them. She darted a look back and saw the car now had flashing lights. Etta reluctantly braked and tried to pull in, it took her a lot longer than expected to slow down and she stopped the car yards on from where she had intended to stop, and waited.