Short Stories

by Agatha Christie

  True, there had been romance - of a kind. Dick Windyford, a fellow clerk. Very much of a woman at heart, Alix had always known without seeming to know that he cared. Outwardly they had been friends, nothing more. Out of his slender salary, Dick had been hard put to it to provide for the schooling of a younger brother. For the moment, he could not think of marriage. Nevertheless, when Alix envisaged the future, it was with the half acknowledged certainty that she would one day be Dick's wife. They cared for one another, so she would have put it, but they were both sensible people. Plenty of time, no need to do anything rash. So the years had gone on.

  And then suddenly deliverance from daily toil had come to the girl in the most unexpected manner. A distant cousin had died leaving her money to Alix. A few thousand pounds, enough to bring in a couple of hundred a year. To Alix, it was freedom, life, independence. Now she and Dick need wait no longer.

  But Dick reacted unexpectedly. He had never directly spoken of his love to Alix, now he seemed less inclined to do so than ever. He avoided her, became morose and gloomy. Alix was quick to realize the truth. She had become a woman of means. Delicacy and pride stood in the way of Dick's asking her to be his wife.

  She liked him none the worse for it and was indeed deliberating as to whether she herself might not take the first step when for the second time the unexpected descended upon her.

  She met Gerald Martin at a friend's house. He fell violently in love with her and within a week they were engaged. Alix, who had always considered herself "not the falling-in-love kind," was swept clean off her feet.

  Unwittingly she had found the way to arouse her former lover. Dick Windyford had come to her stammering with rage and anger.

  "The man's a perfect stranger to you. You know nothing about him."

  "I know that I love him."

  "How can you know - in a week?"

  "It doesn't take everyone eleven years to find out that they're in love with a girl," cried Alix angrily.

  His face went white.

  "I've cared for you ever since I met you. I thought that you cared also."

  Alix was truthful.

  "I thought so, too," she admitted. "But that was because I didn't know what love was."

  Then Dick had burst out again. Prayers, entreaties, even threats.

  Threats against the man who had supplanted him. It was amazing to Alix to see the volcano that existed beneath the reserved exterior of the man she thought she knew so well. Also, it frightened her a little... Dick, of course, couldn't possibly mean the things he was saying, the threats of vengeance against Gerald Martin. He was angry, that was all...

  Her thoughts had gone back to that interview now, on this sunny morning, as she leaned on the gate of the cottage. She had been married a month, and she was idyllically happy. Yet, in the momentary absence of the husband who was everything to her, a tinge of anxiety invaded her perfect happiness, and the cause of that anxiety was Dick Windyford.

  Three times since her marriage she had dreamed the same dream.

  The environment differed, but the main facts were always the same. She saw her husband lying dead and Dick Windyford standing over him, and she knew clearly and distinctly that his was the hand which had dealt the fatal blow.

  But horrible though that was, there was something more horrible still - horrible that was, on awakening, for in the dream it seemed perfectly natural and inevitable. She, Alix Martin, was glad that her husband was dead - she stretched out grateful hands to the murderer, sometimes she thanked him. The dream always ended the same way, with herself clasped in Dick Windyford's arms.

  She had said nothing of this dream to her husband, but secretly it had perturbed her more than she liked to admit. Was it a warning a warning against Dick Windyford? Had he some secret power which he was trying to establish over her at a distance? She did not know much about hypnotism, but surely she had always heard that persons could not be hypnotized against their will.

  Alix was roused from her thoughts by the sharp ringing of the telephone bell from within the house. She entered the cottage, and picked up the receiver. Suddenly she swayed, and put out a hand to keep herself from falling.

  "Who did you say was speaking?"

  "Why, Alix, what's the matter with your voice? I wouldn't have known it. It's Dick."

  "Oh!" said Alix - "Oh! Where are you?"

  "At the Travelers Arms - that's the right name, isn't it? Or don't you even know of the existence of your village pub? I'm on my holiday doing a bit of fishing here. Any objection to my looking you two good people up this evening after dinner?"

  "No," said Alix sharply. "You mustn't come."

  There was a pause, and Dick's voice, with a subtle alteration in it, spoke again.

  "I beg your pardon," he said formally. "Of course I won't bother you -"

  Alix broke in hastily. Of course he must think her behavior too extraordinary. It was extraordinary. Her nerves must be all to pieces. It wasn't Dick's fault that she had these dreams.

  "I only meant that we were - engaged tonight," she explained, trying to make her voice sound as natural as possible. "Won't you won't you come to dinner tomorrow night?"

  But Dick evidently noticed the lack of cordiality in her tone.

  "Thanks very much," he said, in the same formal voice. "But I may be moving on any time. Depends upon whether a pal of mine turns up or not. Good-bye, Alix." He paused, and then added hastily, in a different tone, "Best of luck to you, my dear."

  Alix hung up the receiver with a feeling of relief.

  "He mustn't come here," she repeated to herself. "He mustn't come here. Oh! what a fool I am! To imagine myself into a state like this. All the same, I'm glad he's not coming."

  She caught up a rustic rush hat from a table, and passed out into the garden again, pausing to look up at the name carved over the porch, Philomel Cottage.

  "Isn't it a very fanciful name?" she had said to Gerald once before they were married. He had laughed.

  "You little Cockney," he had said, affectionately. "I don't believe you have ever heard a nightingale. I'm glad you haven't Nightingales should sing only for lovers. We'll hear them together on a summer's evening outside our own home."

  And at the remembrance of how they had indeed heard them, Alix, standing in the doorway of her home, blushed happily.

  It was Gerald who had found Philomel Cottage. He had come to Alix bursting with excitement. He had found the very spot for them - unique - a gem - the chance of a lifetime. And when Alix had seen it, she too was captivated. It was true that the situation was rather lonely - they were two miles from the nearest village - but the cottage itself was so exquisite with its Old World appearance, and its solid comfort of bathrooms, hot-water system, electric light and telephone, that she fell a victim to its charm immediately. And then a hitch occurred. The owner, a rich man who had made it his whim, declined to rent it. He would only sell.

  Gerald Martin, though possessed of a good income, was unable to touch his capital. He could raise at most a thousand pounds. The owner was asking three. But Alix, who had set her heart on the place, came to the rescue. Her own capital was easily realized, being in bearer bonds. She would contribute half of it to the purchase of the home. So Philomel Cottage became their very own, and never for a minute had Alix regretted the choice. It was true that servants did not appreciate the rural solitude - indeed at the moment they had none at all - but Alix, who had been starved of domestic life, thoroughly enjoyed cooking dainty little meals and looking after the house.

  The garden which was magnificently stocked with flowers was attended to by an old man from the village who came twice a week, and Gerald Martin, who was keen on gardening, spent most of his time there.

  As she rounded the corner of the house, Alix was surprised to see the old gardener in question busy over the flower beds. She was surprised because his days for work were Mondays and Fridays, and today was Wednesday.

  "Why, George, what are you doing here?" she asked, as sh
e came towards him.

  The old man straightened up with a chuckle, touching the brim of an aged cap.

  "I thought as how you'd be surprised, ma'am. But 'tis this way.

  There be a fkte over to Squire's on Friday, and I sez to myself, I sez, neith Mr Martin nor yet his good lady won't take it amiss if I comes for once on a Wednesday instead of a Friday."

  "That's quite all right," said Alix. "I hope you'll enjoy yourself at the fkte."

  "I reckon to," said George simply. "It's a fine thing to be able to eat your fill and know all the time as it's not you as is paying for it.

  Squire allus has a proper sit-down tea for 'is tenants. Then I thought too, ma'am, as I might as well see you before you goes away so as to learn your wishes for the borders. You'll have no idea when you'll be back, ma'am, I suppose?"

  "But I'm not going away."

  George stared at her.

  "Bain't you going to Lunnon tomorrow?"

  "No. What put such an idea into your head?"

  George jerked his head over his shoulder.

  "Met Maister down to village yesterday. He told me you was both going away to Lunnon tomorrow, and it was uncertain when you'd be back again."

  "Nonsense," said Alix, laughing. "You must have misunderstood him."

  All the same, she wondered exactly what it could have been that Gerald had said to lead the old man into such a curious mistake.

  Going to London? She never wanted to go to London again.

  "I hate London," she said suddenly and harshly.

  "Ah!" said George placidly. "I must have been mistook somehow, and yet he said it plain enough it seemed to me. I'm glad you're stopping on here - I don't hold with all this gallivanting about, and I don't think nothing of Lunnon. I've never needed to go there. Too many moty cars - that's the trouble nowadays. Once people have got a moty car, blessed if they can stay still anywheres. Mr Ames, wot used to have this house - nice peaceful sort of gentleman he was until he bought one of them things. Hadn't 'ad it a month before he put up this cottage for sale. A tidy lot he'd spent on it, too, with taps in all the bedrooms, and the electric light and all.

  'You'll never see your money back,' I sez to him. 'It's not everyone as'll have your fad for washing themselves in every room in the house, in a manner of speaking.' But 'George,' he sez to me, 'I'll get every penny of two thousand pounds for this house.' And sure enough, he did."

  "He got three thousand," said Alix, smiling.

  "Two thousand," repeated George. "The sum he was asking was talked of at the time. And a very high figure it was thought to be."

  "It really was three thousand," said Alix.

  "Women never understand figures," said George, unconvinced.

  "You'll not tell me that Mr Ames had the face to stand up to you, and say three thousand brazen like in a loud voice."

  "He didn't say it to me," said Alix. "He said it to my husband."

  George stooped again to his flower bed.

  "The price was two thousand," he said obstinately.

  Alix did not trouble to argue with him. Moving to one of the further beds, she began to pick an armful of flowers. The sunshine, the scent of the flowers, the faint hum of hurrying bees, all conspired to make the day a perfect thing.

  As she moved with her fragrant posy towards the house, Alix noticed a small dark green object, peeping from between some leaves in one of the beds. She stooped and picked it up, recognizing it for her husband's pocket diary. It must have fallen from his pocket when he was weeding.

  She opened it, scanning the entries with some amusement. Almost from the beginning of their married life, she had realized that the impulsive and emotional Gerald had the uncharacteristic virtues of neatness and method. He was extremely fussy about meals being punctual, and always planned his day ahead with the accuracy of a time table. This morning, for instance, he had announced that he should start for the village after breakfast - at 10:15. And at 10:15 to the minute he had left the house.

  Looking through the diary, she was amused to notice the entry on the date of May 14th. "Marry Alix St Peter's 2:30."

  "The big silly," murmured Alix to herself, turning the pages.

  Suddenly she stopped.

  "Thursday, June 18th - why that's today."

  In the space for that day was written in Gerald's neat precise hand:

  "9 p.m." Nothing else. What had Gerald planned to do at 9 p.m. Alix wondered. She smiled to herself as she realized that had this been a story, like those she had so often read, the diary would doubtless have furnished her with some sensational revelation. It would have had in it for certain the name of another woman. She fluttered the back pages idly. There were dates, appointments, cryptic references to business deals, but only one woman's name - her own.

  Yet as she slipped the book into her pocket and went on with her flowers to the house, she was aware of a vague uneasiness. Those words of Dick Windyford's recurred to her, almost as though he had been at her elbow repeating them: "The man's a perfect stranger to you. You know nothing about him."

  It was true. What did she know about him. After all, Gerald was forty. In forty years there must have been women in his life...

  Alix shook herself impatiently. She must not give way to these thoughts. She had a far more instant preoccupation to deal with.

  Should she, or should she not, tell her husband that Dick Windyford had rung her up?

  There was the possibility to be considered that Gerald might have already run across him in the village. But in that case he would be sure to mention it to her immediately upon his return and matters would be taken out of her hands. Otherwise - what? Alix was aware of a distinct desire to say nothing about it. Gerald had always shown himself kindly disposed towards the other. "Poor devil," he had said once, "I believe he's just as keen on you as I am. Hard luck on him to be shelved." He had had no doubts of Alix's own feelings.

  If she told him, he was sure to suggest asking Dick Windyford to Philomel Cottage. Then she would have to explain that Dick had proposed it himself, and that she had made an excuse to prevent his coming. And when he asked her why she had done so, what could she say? Tell him her dream? But he would only laugh - or worse, see that she attached an importance to it which he did not.

  Then he would think - oh! he might think anything!

  In the end, rather shamefacedly, Alix decided to say nothing. It was the first secret she had ever kept from her husband, and the consciousness of it made her feel ill at ease.

  When she heard Gerald returning from the village shortly before lunch, she hurried into the kitchen and pretended to be busy with the cooking so as to hide her confusion.

  It was evident at once that Gerald had seen nothing of Dick Windyford. Alix felt at once relieved and embarrassed. She was definitely committed now to a policy of concealment. For the rest of the day she was nervous and absentminded, starting at every sound, but her husband seemed to notice nothing. He himself seemed to have his thoughts far away, and once or twice she had to speak a second time before he answered some trivial remark of hers.

  It was not until after their simple evening meal, when they were sitting in the oak beamed living room with the windows thrown open to let in the sweet night air scented with the perfume of the mauve and white stocks that grew outside, that Alix remembered the pocket diary, and seized upon it gladly to distract her thoughts from their doubt and perplexity.

  "Here's something you've been watering the flowers with," she said, and threw it into his lap.

  "Dropped it in the border, did I?"

  "Yes, I know all your secrets now."

  "Not guilty," said Gerald, shaking his head.

  "What about your assignation at nine o'clock tonight?"

  "Oh! that -" he seemed taken back for a moment, then he smiled as though something afforded him particular amusement. "It's an assignation with a particularly nice girl, Alix. She's got brown hair and blue eyes and she's particularly like you."

  "I don't under
stand," said Alix, with mock severity. "You're evading the point."

  "No, I'm not. As a matter of fact, that's a reminder that I'm going to develop some negatives tonight, and I want you to help me."

  Gerald Martin was an enthusiastic photographer.

  He had a somewhat old-fashioned camera, but with an excellent lens, and he developed his own plates in a small cellar which he had fitted up as a dark room. He was never tired of posing Alix in different positions.

  "And it must be done at nine o'clock precisely," said Alix teasingly.

  Gerald looked a little vexed.

  "My dear girl," he said, with a shade of testiness in his manner, "one should always plan a thing for a definite time. Then one gets through one's work properly."

  Alix sat for a minute or two in silence watching her husband as he lay in his chair smoking, his dark head flung back and the clear-cut lines of his clean-shaven face showing up against the somber background. And suddenly, from some unknown source, a wave of panic surged over her, so that she cried out before she could stop herself. "Oh! Gerald, I wish I knew more about you."

  Her husband turned an astonished face upon her.

  "But, my dear Alix, you do know all about me. I've told you of my boyhood in Northumberland, of my life in South Africa, and these last ten years in Canada which have brought me success."

  "Oh, business!"

  Gerald laughed suddenly.

  "I know what you mean - love affairs. You women are all the same.

  Nothing interests you but the personal element."

  Alix felt her throat go dry, as she muttered indistinctly: "Well, but there must have been - love affairs. I mean - If I only knew -"

  There was silence again for a minute or two. Gerald Martin was frowning, a look of indecision on his face. When he spoke, it was gravely, without a trace of his former bantering manner.

  "Do you think it wise, Alix - this Bluebeard's chamber business?

  There have been women in my life, yes. I don't deny it. You wouldn't believe me if I did deny it. But I can swear to you truthfully that not one of them meant anything to me."