Fire Within

by Patricia Wentworth

  Three hours later David Blake came out of the room that faced old Mr. Mottisfont’s at the farther end of the corridor. It was a long, low room, fitted up as a laboratory—very well and fully fitted up—for the old man had for years found his greatest pleasure and relaxation in experimenting with chemicals. Some of his experiments he confided to David, but the majority he kept carefully to himself. They were of a somewhat curious nature. David Blake came out of the laboratory with a very stern look upon his face. As he went down the stair he met with Edward Mottisfont coming up. The sternness intensified. Edward looked an unspoken question, and then without a word turned and went down before David into the hall. Then he waited.

  “Gone?” he said in a sort of whisper, and David bent his head.

  He was remembering that it was only a week since he had told Edward in this very spot that his uncle might live for three years. Well, he was dead now. The old man was dead now—out of the way—some one had seen to that. Who? David could still hear Edward Mottisfont’s voice asking, “How long is he likely to live?” and his own answer, “Perhaps three years.”

  “Come in here,” said Edward Mottisfont. He opened the dining-room door as he spoke, and David followed him into a dark, old-fashioned room, separated from the one behind it by folding-doors. One of the doors stood open about an inch, but there was only one lamp in the room, and neither of the two men paid any attention to such a trifling circumstance.

  Edward sat down by the table, which was laid for dinner. Even above the white tablecloth his face was noticeably white. All his life this old man had been his bugbear. He had hated him, not with the hot hatred which springs from one great sudden wrong, but with the cold slow abhorrence bred of a thousand trifling oppressions. He had looked forward to his death. For years he had thought to himself, “Well, he can’t live for ever.” But now that the old man was dead, and the yoke lifted from his neck, he felt no relief—no sense of freedom. He felt oddly shocked.

  David Blake did not sit down. He stood at the opposite side of the table and looked at Edward. From where he stood he could see first the white tablecloth, then Edward’s face, and on the wall behind Edward, a full-length portrait of old Edward Mottisfont at the age of thirty. It was the work of a young man whom Market Harford had looked upon as a very disreputable young man. He had since become so famous that they had affixed a tablet to the front of the house in which he had once lived. The portrait was one of the best he had ever painted, and the eyes, Edward Mottisfont’s black, malicious eyes, looked down from the wall at his nephew, and at David Blake. Neither of the men had spoken since they entered the room, but they were both so busy with their thoughts that neither noticed how silent the other was.

  At last David spoke. He said in a hard level voice:

  “Edward, I can’t sign the certificate. There will have to be an inquest.”

  Edward Mottisfont looked up with a great start.

  “An inquest?” he said, “an inquest?”

  One of David’s hands rested on the table. “I can’t sign the certificate,” he repeated.

  Edward stared at him.

  “Why not?” he said. “I don’t understand—”

  “Don’t you?” said David Blake.

  Edward rumpled up his hair in a distracted fashion.

  “I don’t understand,” he repeated. “An inquest? Why, you’ve been attending him all these months, and you said he might die at any time. You said it only the other day. I don’t understand—”

  “Nor do I,” said David curtly.

  Edward stared again.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Mr. Mottisfont might have lived for some time,” said David Blake, speaking slowly. “I was attending him for a chronic illness, which would have killed him sooner or later. But it didn’t kill him. It didn’t have a chance. He died of poisoning—arsenic poisoning.”

  One of Edward’s hands was lying on the table. His whole arm twitched, and the hand fell over, palm upwards. The fingers opened and closed slowly. David found himself staring at that slowly moving hand.

  “Impossible,” said Edward, and his breath caught in his throat as he said it.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Edward leaned forward a little.

  “But, David,” he said, “it’s not possible. Who—who do you think—who would do such a thing. Or—suicide—do you think he committed suicide?”

  David drew himself suddenly away from the table. All at once the feeling had come to him that he could no longer touch what Edward touched.

  “No, I don’t think it was suicide,” he said. “But of course it’s not my business to think at all. I shall give my evidence, and there, as far as I am concerned, the matter ends.”

  Edward looked helplessly at David.

  “Evidence?” he repeated.

  “At the inquest,” said David Blake.

  “I don’t understand,” said Edward again. He put his head in his hands, and seemed to be thinking.

  “Are you sure?” he said at last. “I don’t see how—it was an attack—just like his other attacks—and then he died—you always said he might die in one of those attacks.”

  There was a sort of trembling eagerness in Edward’s tone. A feeling of nausea swept over David. The scene had become intolerable.

  “Mr. Mottisfont died because he drank a cup of tea which contained enough arsenic to kill a man in robust health,” he said sharply.

  He looked once at Edward, saw him start, and added, “and I think that you brought him that tea.”

  “Yes,” said Edward. “He asked me for it, how could there be arsenic in it?”

  “There was,” said David Blake.

  “Arsenic? But I brought him the tea—”

  “Yes, you brought him the tea.”

  Edward lifted his head. His eyes behind his glasses had a misty and bewildered look. His voice shook a little.

  “But—if there’s an inquest—they might say—they might think—”

  He pushed his chair back a little way, and half rose from it, resting his hands on the table, and peering across it.

  “David, why do you look at me like that?”

  David Blake turned away.

  “It’s none of my business,” he said, “I’ve got to give my evidence, and for God’s sake, Edward, pull yourself together before the inquest, and get decent legal advice, for you’ll need it.”

  Edward was shockingly pale.

  “You mean—what do you mean? That people will think—it’s impossible.”

  David went towards the door. His face was like a flint.

  “I mean this,” he said. “Mr. Mottisfont died of arsenic poisoning. The arsenic was in a cup of tea which he drank. You brought him the tea. You are undoubtedly in a very serious position. There will have to be an inquest.”

  Edward had risen completely. He made a step towards David.

  “But if you were to sign the certificate—there wouldn’t need to be an inquest—David—”

  “But I’m damned if I’ll sign the certificate,” said David Blake.

  He went out and shut the door sharply behind him.

  CHAPTER IV

  A MAN’S HONOUR

  “Will you give me your heart?” she said. “Oh, I gave it you long ago,” said he. “Why, then, I threw it away,” said she. “And what will you give me instead? Will you give me your honour?” she said.

  “ELIZABETH!”

  There was a pause.

  “Elizabeth—open your door!”

  Elizabeth Chantrey came back from a long way off. Mary was calling her. Mary was knocking at her door. She got up rather wearily, turned the key, and with a little gasp, Mary was in the room, shutting the door, and standing with her back against it. The lamp burned low, but Elizabeth’s eyes were accustomed to the gloom. Mary Mottisfont’s bright, clear colour was one of her great attractions. It was all gone and her dark eyes looked darker and larger than they should have done.

  “Why, Molly, I thou
ght you had gone home. Edward told me he was sending you home an hour ago.”

  “He told me to go,” said Mary in a sort of stumbling whisper. “He told me to go—but I wanted to wait and go with him. I knew he’d be upset—I knew he’d feel it—when it was all over. I wanted to be with him—oh, Liz—”

  “Mary, what is it?”

  Mary put up a shaking hand.

  “I’ll tell you—don’t stop me—there’s no time—I’ll tell you—oh, I’m telling you as fast as I can.”

  She spoke in a series of gasps.

  “I went into your little room behind the dining-room. I knew no one would come. I knew I should hear any one coming or going. I opened the door into the dining-room—just a little—”

  “Mary, what is it?” said Elizabeth. She put her arm round her sister, but Mary pushed her away.

  “Don’t—there’s no time. Let me go on. David came down. He came into the dining-room. He talked to Edward. He said, ‘I can’t sign the certificate,’ and Edward said, ‘Why not?’ and David said, ‘Because’—Liz—I can’t—oh, Liz, I can’t—I can’t.”

  Mary caught suddenly at Elizabeth’s arm and began to sob. She had no tears—only hard sobs. Her pretty oval face was all white and drawn. There were dark marks like bruises under her hazel eyes. The little dark rings of hair about her forehead were damp.

  “Dearest—darling—my Molly dear,” said Elizabeth. She held Mary to her, with strong supporting arms, but the shuddering sobs went on.

  “Liz—it was poison. He says it was poison. He says there was poison in the tea—arsenic poison—and Edward took him the tea. Liz—Liz, why do such awful things happen? Why does God let them happen?”

  Elizabeth was much taller than her sister—taller and stronger. She released herself from the clutching fingers, and let both her hands fall suddenly and heavily upon Mary’s shoulders.

  “Molly, what are you talking about?” she cried.

  Mary was startled into a momentary self-control.

  “Mr. Mottisfont,” she said. “David said it was poison—poison, Liz.”

  Her voice fell to a low horrified whisper at the word, and then rose on the old gasp of, “Edward took him the tea.” A numbness came upon Elizabeth. Feeling was paralysed. She was conscious neither of horror, anxiety, nor sorrow. Only her brain remained clear. All her consciousness seemed to have gone to it, and it worked with an inconceivable clearness and rapidity.

  “Hush, Mary,” she said. “What are you saying? Edward—”

  Mary pushed her away.

  “Of course not,” she said. “Liz, if you dared—but you don’t—no one could really—Edward of all people. But there’s all the talk, the scandal—we can’t have it. It must be stopped. And we’re losing time, we’re losing time dreadfully. I must go to David, and stop him before he writes to any one, or sees any one. He must sign the certificate.”

  Elizabeth stood quite still for a moment. Then she went to the wash-stand, poured out a glass of water, and came back to Mary.

  “Drink this, Molly,” she said. “Yes, drink it all, and pull yourself together. Now listen to me. You can’t possibly go to David.”

  “I must go, I must,” said Mary. Her tone hardened. “Will you come with me, Liz, or must I go alone?”

  Elizabeth took the empty glass and set it down.

  “Molly, my dear, you must listen. No—I’m thinking of what’s best for every one. You don’t want any talk. If you go to David’s house at this hour—well, you can see for yourself. No—listen, my dear. If I ring David up, and ask him to come here at once—at once—to see me, don’t you see how much better that will be?”

  Mary’s colour came and went. She stood irresolute.

  “Very well,” she said at last. “If he’ll come. If he won’t, then I’ll go to him, and I don’t care what you say, Elizabeth—and you must be quick—quick.”

  They went downstairs in silence. Mr. Mottisfont’s study was in darkness, and Elizabeth brought in the lamp from the hall, holding it very steadily. Then she sat down at the great littered desk and rang up the exchange. She gave the number and they waited. After what seemed like a very long time, Elizabeth heard David’s voice.

  “Hullo!”

  “It is I—Elizabeth,” said Elizabeth Chantrey.

  “What is it?”

  “Can you come here at once? I want to see you at once. Yes, it is very important—important and urgent.”

  Mary was in an agony of impatience. “What does he say? Will he come at once?”

  But Elizabeth answered David and not her sister.

  “No, presently won’t do. It must be at once. It’s really urgent, David, or I wouldn’t ask it. Yes, thank you so much. In my room.”

  She put down the receiver, rang off, and turned to Mary.

  “He is coming. Had you not better send Edward a message, or he will be coming back here? Ring up, and say that you are staying with me for an hour, and that Markham will walk home with you.”

  In Elizabeth’s little brown room the silence weighed and the time lagged. Mary walked up and down, moving perpetually—restlessly—uselessly. There was a small Dutch mirror above the writing-table. Its cut glass border caught the light, and reflected it in diamond points and rainbow flashes. It was the brightest thing in the room. Mary stood for a moment and looked at her own face. She began to arrange her hair with nervous, trembling fingers. She rubbed her cheeks, and straightened the lace at her throat. Then she fell to pacing up and down again.

  “The room’s so hot,” she said suddenly. And she went quickly to the window and flung it open. The air came in, cold and mournfully damp. Mary drew half a dozen long breaths. Then she shivered, her teeth chattered. She shut the window with a jerk, and as she did so David Blake came into the room. It was Elizabeth he saw, and it was to Elizabeth that he spoke.

  “Is anything the matter? Anything fresh?” Elizabeth moved aside, and all at once he saw Mary Mottisfont.

  “Mary wants to speak to you,” said Elizabeth. She made a step towards the door, but Mary called her sharply. “No, Liz—stay!”

  And Elizabeth drew back into the shadowed corner by the window, whilst Mary came forward into the light. For a moment there was silence. Mary’s hands were clasped before her, her chin was a little lifted, her eyes were desperately intent.

  “David,” she said in a low fluttering voice, “Oh, David—I was in here—I heard—I could not help hearing.”

  “What did you hear?” asked David Blake. The words came from him with a sort of startled hardness.

  “I heard everything you said to Edward—about Mr. Mottisfont. You said it was poison. I heard you say it.”

  “Yes,” said David Blake.

  “And Edward took him the tea,” said Mary quickly. “Don’t you see, David—don’t you see how dreadful it is for Edward? People who didn’t know him might say—they might think such dreadful things—and if there were an inquest—” the words came in a sort of strangled whisper. “There can’t be an inquest—there can’t. Oh, David, you’ll sign the certificate, won’t you?”

  David’s face had been changing while she spoke. The first hard startled look went from it. It was succeeded by a flash of something like horror, and then by pain—pain and a great pity.

  “No, Mary, dear, I can’t,” he said very gently. He looked at her, and further words died upon his lips. Mary came nearer. There was a big chair in front of the fireplace, and she rested one hand on the back of it. It seemed as if she needed something firm to touch, her world was shifting so. David had remained standing by the door, but Mary was not a yard away from him now.

  “You see, David,” she said, still in that low tremulous voice, “you see, David, you haven’t thought—you can’t have thought—what it will mean if you don’t. Edward might be suspected of a most dreadful thing. I’m sure you haven’t thought of that. He might even”—Mary’s eyes widened—“he might even be arrested—and tried—and I couldn’t bear it.” The hand that rested on
the chair began to tremble very much. “I couldn’t bear it,” said Mary piteously.

  “Mary, my dear,” said David, “this is a business matter, and you mustn’t interfere—I can’t possibly sign the certificate. Poor old Mr. Mottisfont did not die a natural death, and the matter will have to be inquired into. No innocent person need have anything to be afraid of.”

  “Oh!” said Mary. Her breath came hard. “You haven’t told any one—not yet? You haven’t written? Oh, am I too late? Have you told people already?”

  “No.” said David, “not yet, but I must.”

  The tears came with a rush to Mary’s eyes, and began to roll down her cheeks.

  “No, no, David, no,” she said. Her left hand went out towards him gropingly. “Oh, no, David, you mustn’t. You haven’t thought—indeed you haven’t. Innocent people can’t always prove that they are innocent. They can’t. There’s a book—a dreadful book. I’ve just been reading it. There was a man who was quite, quite innocent—as innocent as Edward—and he couldn’t prove it. And they were going to hang him—David!”

  Mary’s voice broke off with a sort of jerk. Her face became suddenly ghastly. There was an extremity of terror in every sharpened feature. Elizabeth stood quite straight and still by the window. She was all in shadow, her brown dress lost against the soft brown gloom of the half-drawn velvet curtain. She felt like a shadow herself as she looked and listened. The numbness was upon her still. She was conscious as it were of a black cloud that overshadowed them all—herself, Mary, Edward. But not David. David stood just beyond, and Mary was trying to hold him and to draw him into the blackness. Something in Elizabeth’s deadened consciousness kept saying over and over again: “Not David, not David.” Elizabeth saw the black cloud with a strange internal vision. With her bodily eyes she watched David’s face. She saw it harden when Mary looked at him, and quiver with pain when she looked away. She saw his hand go out and touch Mary’s hand, and she heard him say:

  “Mary, I can’t. Don’t ask me.”

  Mary put her other hand suddenly on David’s wrist. A bright colour flamed into her cheeks.