Living in the Prisoner's home, to make
nothing of taking possession of the Prisoners Lotus 7! We are told by Mrs
Butterworth herself that she has a taste for a little speed, but since when did
an Estate Agent become car salesmen? Mrs Butterworth said that it was the
Estate Agents Stumbell and Croyden who arranged it all, that the car was
for sale. I mean what was the Prisoner's car to an Estate Agent? What's more,
there was still six months lease to run on the house!
So when did Mrs Butterworth take up
residence at 1
Buckingham Place? Its very difficult to estimate. It might have been
arranged a few days before the Prisoner set sail on his epic Sea voyage, so
that Mrs Butterworth was safely ensconced in the house before the Prisoner's
return to London. I think was can say that Mrs
Butterworth departed 1 Buckingham Place for the Village, sometime after she was
interviewed about her role in this matter by either the Police or Special
Branch.
Back in The Village, Number 6 soon discovers that Mrs.
Butterworth is Number 2 {the first to operate out as well as in The Village}. Keeping her promise, she baked him a birthday
cake, which has six candles upon it. Whether Mrs Butterwoth was in the Village
at the outset of the episode ‘Many
Happy Returns’ cannot be reckoned. She might have become involved
with the plan, as we saw she was, but didn't take up her role as the new Number
2 until the Prisoner was safely on his way back to The Village, having arrived
there herself some little time before him.
Actually, and this would depend upon just
when Mrs Butterworth moved into 1 Buckingham Place, it is fortunate that she or her maid did
not encounter Janet Portland of ‘Do
Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.’ Because in this episode Janet Portland
was walking along Buckingham Place when she was her fiancés car parked
outside his house. Of course she knocks on the front door and eventually
encounters the Colonel, apparently having taken up residence in the Prisoner's
house. Now what if one day, Janet Portland had been walking along
Buckingham Place, and saw her fiancés car parked outside his house, thinking
that he was back, from wherever he had been. Approaching the house with heart
beating, knocks on the front door only to encounter........Martha, Mrs
Butterworth’s house maid, just as the Prisoner had once done. What then? Surely
Janet wouldn't accept that some woman was now living in the Prisoner's house!
She would wish to speak to Martha’s mistress, Mrs Butterworth who would in
all probability tell Janet Portland the same tale she told the Prisoner,
showing Janet her lease to the house, and the log book of the car. It would be
a tricky moment for Mrs Butterworth. But remember that she had been interviewed
by either the Police or Special Branch, and they found her story
reliable. So it would be a piece of cake for her to convince Janet
Portland.....surely.
And afterwards what, when everyone had gone? Mrs Butterworth and
her house maid Martha depart London for The Village. The house returns to
the former occupier, with six months still to run on the lease. And the Lotus
is garaged once more. Well someone had had to be looking after the Lotus,
because it couldn't be left parked on a yellow line in Buckingham Place. Parking tickets would have been
placed on the windscreen, and if these had been ignored, then a Police warning
notice would have been placed on the car, and eventually towed away to a Police
car pound!
I'll be seeing you.
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