She had loved Hunterbury. Always, at the back of her mind, she had felt sure of living there permanently some day. Aunt Laura had fostered that idea. Little words and phrases: "Some day, Elinor, you may like to cut down those yews. They are a little gloomy, perhaps!"
"One might have a water garden here. Some day, perhaps, you will."
And Roddy? Roddy, too, had looked forward to Hunterbury being his home. It had lain, perhaps, behind his feeling for her, Elinor. He had felt, subconsciously, that it was fitting and right that they two should be together at Hunterbury.
And they would have been together there. They would have been together here – now – not packing up the house for selling, but redecorating it, planning new beauties in house and garden, walking side by side in gentle proprietary pleasure, happy – yes, happy together – but for the fatal accident of a girl's wild-rose beauty.
What did Roddy know of Mary Gerrard? Nothing – less than nothing! What did he care for her – for the real Mary? She had, quite possibly, admirable qualities, but did Roddy know anything about them? It was the old story – Nature's hoary old joke!
Hadn't Roddy himself said it was an "enchanment?" Didn't Roddy himself – really – want to be free of it?
If Mary Gerrard were to – die, for instance, wouldn't Roddy some day acknowledge, "It was all for the best. I see that now. We had nothing in common."
He would add, perhaps, with gentle melancholy, "She was a lovely creature."
Let her be that to him-yes-an exquisite memory-a thing of beauty and a joy forever. If anything were to happen to Mary Gerrard, Roddy would come back to her – Elinor. She was quite sure of that!
If anything were to happen to Mary Gerrard…
Elinor turned the handle of the side door. She passed from the warm sunlight into the shadow of the house. She shivered. It felt cold in here, dark, sinister. It was as though Something was there, waiting for her, in the house…
She walked along the hall and pushed the baize door that led into the butler's pantry. It smelled slightly musty. She pushed up the window, opening it wide.
She put down her parcels – the butter, the loaf, the little glass bottle of milk. She thought, Stupid! I meant to get coffee.
She looked in the canisters on a shelf. There was a little tea in one of them, but no coffee. She thought, Oh, well, it doesn't matter. She unwrapped the two glass jars of fish paste and stood staring at them for a minute. Then she left the pantry and went upstairs. She went straight to Mrs. Welman's room. She began on the big tallboy, opening drawers, sorting, arranging, folding clothes in little piles.
II
In the lodge Mary Gerrard was looking round rather helplessly. She hadn't realized, somehow, how cramped it all was. Her past life rushed back over her in a flood. Mum making clothes for her dolls. Dad always cross and surly. Disliking her. Yes, disliking her…
She said suddenly to Nurse Hopkins, "Dad didn't say anything – send me any message before he died, did he?"
Nurse Hopkins said cheerfully and callously, "Oh, dear me, no. He was unconscious for an hour before he passed away."
Mary said slowly, "I feel perhaps I ought to have come down and looked after him. After all, he was my father."
Nurse Hopkins said with a trace of embarrassment, "Now, just you listen to me, Mary: whether he was your father or not doesn't enter into it. Children don't care much about their parents in these days, from what I can see, and a good many parents don't care for their children, either. That's as may be but, anyway, it's a waste of breath to go back over the past and sentimentalise. We've got to go on living-that's our job-and not too easy, either, sometimes!"
Mary said slowly, "I expect you're right. But I feel perhaps it was my fault we didn't get on better."
Nurse Hopkins said robustly, "Nonsense!"
The word exploded like a bomb. It quelled Mary.
Nurse Hopkins turned to more practical matters. "What are you going to do with the furniture? Store it? Or sell it?"
Mary said doubtfully, "I don't know. What do you think?"
Running a practical eye over it, Nurse Hopkins said, "Some of it's quite good and solid. You might store it and furnish a little flat of your own in London some day. Get rid of the rubbish. The chairs are good – so's the table. And that's a nice bureau – it's the kind that's out of fashion, but it's solid mahogany, and they say Victorian stuff will come in again one day. I'd get rid of that great wardrobe, if I were you. Too big to fit in anywhere. Takes up half the bedroom as it is."
They made a list between them of pieces to be kept or let go.
Mary said, "The lawyer's been very kind – Mr. Seddon, I mean. He advanced me some money, so that I could get started with my training fees and other expenses. It will be a month or so before the money can be definitely made over to me, so he said."
Nurse Hopkins said, "How do you like your work?"
"I think I shall like it very much. It's rather strenuous at first. I come home tired to death."
Nurse Hopkins said grimly, "I thought I was going to die when I was a probationer at St. Luke's. I felt I could never stick it for three years. But I did."
They had sorted through the old man's clothes. Now they came to a tin box full of papers.
Mary said, "We must go through these, I suppose."
They sat down one on each side of the table. Nurse Hopkins grumbled as she started with a handful.
"Extraordinary what rubbish people keep! Newspaper cuttings! Old letters. All sorts of things!"
Mary said, unfolding a document, "Here's Dad's and Mum's marriage certificate. At St. Albans, 1919."
Nurse Hopkins said, "Marriage lines, that's the old-fashioned term. Lots of the people in this village use that term yet."
Mary said in a stifled voice, "But, Nurse -"
The other looked up sharply. She saw the distress in the girl's eyes. She said sharply, "What's the matter?"
Mary Gerrard said in a shaky voice, "Don't you see? This is 1939. And I'm twenty-one. In 1919 I was a year old. That means – that means – that my father and mother weren't married till – till – afterward."
Nurse Hopkins frowned. She said robustly, "Well, after all, what of it? Don't go worrying about that, at this time of day!"
"But, Nurse, I can't help it."
Nurse Hopkins spoke with authority, "There's many couples that don't go to church till a bit after they should do so. But so long as they do it in the end, what's the odds? That's what I say!"
Mary said in a low voice, "Is that why – do you think – my father never liked me? Because, perhaps, my mother made him marry her?"
Nurse Hopkins hesitated. She bit her lip, then she said, "It wasn't quite like that, I imagine." She paused. "Oh, well, if you're going to worry about it, you may as well know the truth. You aren't Gerrard's daughter at all."
Mary said, "Then that was why!"
Nurse Hopkins said, "Maybe."
Mary said, a red spot suddenly burning in each cheek, "I suppose it's wrong of me, but I'm glad! I've always felt uncomfortable because I didn't care for my father, but if he wasn't my father, well that makes it all right! How did you know about it?"
Nurse Hopkins said, "Gerrard talked about it a good deal before he died. I shut him up pretty sharply, but he didn't care. Naturally, I shouldn't have said anything to you about it if this hadn't cropped up."
Mary said slowly, "I wonder who my real father was."
Nurse Hopkins hesitated. She opened her mouth, then shut it again. She appeared to be finding it hard to make up her mind on some point.
Then a shadow fell across the room, and the two women looked round to see Elinor Carlisle standing at the window.
Elinor said, "Good morning."
Nurse Hopkins said, "Good morning, Miss Carlisle. Lovely day, isn't it?"
Mary said, "Oh – good morning, Miss Elinor."
Elinor said, "I've been making some sandwiches. Won't you come up and have some? It's just on one o'clock, and it's suc
h a bother to have to go home for lunch. I got enough for three on purpose."
Nurse Hopkins said in pleased surprise, "Well, I must say, Miss Carlisle, that's extremely thoughtful of you. It is a nuisance to have to break off what you're doing and come all the way back from the village. I hoped we might finish this morning. I went round and saw my cases early. But, there, turning out takes you longer than you think."
Mary said gratefully, "Thank you, Miss Elinor, it's very kind of you."
The three of them walked up the drive to the house. Elinor had left the front door open. They passed inside into the cool of the hall. Mary shivered a little. Elinor looked at her sharply.
She said, "What is it?"
Mary said, "Oh, nothing – just a shiver. It was coming in – out of the sun."
Elinor said in a low voice, "That's queer. That's what I felt this morning."
Nurse Hopkins said in a loud, cheerful voice and with a laugh, "Come, now, you'll be pretending there are ghosts in the house next. I didn't feel anything!"
Elinor smiled. She led the way into the morning-room on the right of the front door: The blinds were up and the windows open. It looked cheerful.
Elinor went across the hall and brought back from the pantry a big plate of sandwiches. She handed it to Mary, saying, "Have one?"
Mary took one. Elinor stood watching her for a moment as the girl's even white teeth bit into the sandwich. She held her breath for a minute, then expelled it in a little sigh. Absentmindedly she stood for a minute with the plate held to her waist, then at sight of Nurse Hopkins's slightly parted lips and hungry expression she flushed and quickly proffered the plate to the older woman.
Elinor took a sandwich herself. She said apologetically, "I meant to make some coffee, but I forgot to get any. There's some beer on that table, though, if anyone likes that?"
Nurse Hopkins said sadly, "If only I'd thought to bring along some tea now."
Elinor said absently, "There's a little tea still in the canister in the pantry."
Nurse Hopkins's face brightened. "Then I'll just pop out and put the kettle on. No milk, I suppose?"
Elinor said, "Yes, I brought some."
"Well, then, that's all right," said Nurse Hopkins and hurried out.
Elinor and Mary were alone together. A queer tension crept into the atmosphere. Elinor, with an obvious effort, tried to make conversation. Her lips were dry. She passed her tongue over them. She said, rather stiffly, "You – like your work in London?"
"Yes, thank you. I – I'm very grateful to you -"
A sudden harsh sound broke from Elinor. A laugh so discordant, so unlike her, that Mary stared at her in surprise. Elinor said, "You needn't be so grateful!"
Mary, rather embarrassed, said, "I didn't mean – that is -" She stopped.
Elinor was staring at her – a glance so searching, so, yes, strange that Mary flinched under it.
She said, "Is – is anything wrong?"
Elinor got up quickly. She said, turning away, "What should be wrong?"
Mary murmured, "You – you looked -"
Elinor said with a little laugh, "Was I staring? I'm so sorry. I do sometimes – when I'm thinking of something else."
Nurse Hopkins looked in at the door and remarked brightly, "I've put the kettle on," and went out again.
Elinor was taken with a sudden fit of laughter. "Polly put the kettle on, Polly put the kettle on, Polly put the kettle on – we'll all have tea! Do you remember playing that, Mary, when we were children?"
"Yes, indeed I do."
Elinor said, "When we were children. It's a pity, Mary, isn't it, that one can never go back?"
Mary said, "Would you like to go back?"
Elinor said with force, "Yes – yes."
Silence fell between them for a little while.
Then Mary said, her face flushing, "Miss Elinor, you mustn't think -"
She stopped, warned by the sudden stiffening of Elinor's slender figure, the uplifted line of her chin.
Elinor said in a cold, steel-like voice, "What mustn't I think?"
Mary murmured, "I – I've forgotten what I was going to say." Elinor's body relaxed – as at a danger past.
Nurse Hopkins came in with a tray. On it was a brown teapot, and milk and three cups. She said, quite unconscious of anticlimax, "Here's the tea!"
She put the tray in front of Elinor. Elinor shook her head. "I won't have any." She pushed the tray along toward Mary. Mary poured out two cups.
Nurse Hopkins sighed with satisfaction. "It's nice and strong."
Elinor got up and moved over to the window. Nurse Hopkins said persuasively, "Are you sure you won't have a cup, Miss Carlisle? Do you good."
Elinor murmured, "No, thank you."
Nurse Hopkins drained her cup, replaced it in the saucer, and murmured, "I'll just turn off the kettle. I put it on in case we needed to fill up the pot again."
She bustled out.
Elinor wheeled round from the window. She said, and her voice was suddenly charged with a desperate appeal, "Mary -"
Mary Gerrard answered quickly, "Yes?"
Slowly the light died out of Elinor's face. The lips closed. The desperate pleading faded and left a mere mask – frozen and still.
She said, "Nothing."
The silence came down heavily on the room.
Mary thought, How queer everything is today. As though – as though we were waiting for something.
Elinor moved at last.
She came from the window and picked up the tea-tray, placing on it the empty sandwich plate.
Mary jumped up. "Oh, Miss Elinor, let me."
Elinor said sharply, "No, you stay here. I'll do this."
She carried the tray out of the room. She looked back once over her shoulder at Mary Gerrard by the window, young and alive and beautiful…
III
Nurse Hopkins was in the pantry. She was wiping her face with a handkerchief. She looked up sharply as Elinor entered.
She said, "My word, it's hot in here!"
Elinor answered mechanically, "Yes, the pantry faces south."
Nurse Hopkins relieved her of the tray.
"You let me wash up, Miss Carlisle. You're not looking quite the thing."
Elinor said, "Oh, I'm all right."
She picked up a dish-cloth. "I'll dry."
Nurse Hopkins slipped off her cuffs. She poured hot water from the kettle into the basin.
Elinor said idly, looking at her wrist, "You've pricked yourself."
Nurse Hopkins laughed. "On the rose trellis at the lodge – a thorn. I'll get it out presently."
The rose trellis at the lodge. Memory poured in waves over Elinor. She and Roddy quarrelling – the Wars of the Roses. She and Roddy quarrelling – and making it up. Lovely, laughing, happy days. A sick wave of revulsion passed over her. What had she come to now? What black abyss of hate – of evil? She swayed a little as she stood. She thought, I've been mad – quite mad.
Nurse Hopkins was staring at her curiously.
"Downright odd, she seemed," so ran Nurse Hopkins's narrative later. "Talking as if she didn't know what she was saying, and her eyes so bright and queer."
The cups and saucers rattled in the basin. Elinor picked up an empty fish-paste pot from the table and put it into the basin. As she did so she said, and marvelled at the steadiness of her voice, "I've sorted out some clothes upstairs, Aunt Laura's things. I thought, perhaps, Nurse, you could advise me where they would be useful in the village."
Nurse Hopkins said briskly, "I will indeed. There's Mrs. Parkinson, and old Nellie, and that poor creature who's not quite all there at Ivy Cottage. Be a godsend to them."
She and Elinor cleared up the pantry. Then they went upstairs together.
In Mrs. Welman's room clothes were folded in neat bundles: underclothing, dresses, and certain articles of handsome clothing, velvet tea-gowns, a musquash coat. The latter, Elinor explained, she thought of giving to Mrs. Bishop.
Nurse Hopkins nodded assent. She noticed that Mrs. Welman's sables were laid on the chest of drawers. Going to have them remodelled for herself, she thought.
She cast a look at the big tallboys. She wondered if Elinor had found that photograph signed Lewis, and what she had made of it, if so. Funny, she thought to herself, the way O'Brien's letter crossed mine. I never dreamed a thing like that could happen. Her hitting on that photo just the day I wrote to her about Mrs. Slattery.
She helped Elinor sort through the clothing and volunteered to tie them up in separate bundles for the different families and see to their distribution herself.
She said, "I can be getting on with that while Mary goes down to the lodge and finishes up there. She's only got a box of papers to go through. Where is the girl, by the way? Did she go down to the lodge?"
Elinor said, "I left her in the morning-room."
Nurse Hopkins said, "She'd not be there all this time." She glanced at her watch. "Why, it's nearly an hour we've been up here!"
She bustled down the stairs. Elinor followed her. They went into the morning-room.
Nurse Hopkins exclaimed, "Well, I never, she's fallen asleep."
Mary Gerrard was sitting in a big armchair by the window. She had dropped down a little in it. There was a queer sound in the room: stertorous, laboured breathing.
Nurse Hopkins went across and shook the girl. "Wake up, my dear -"
She broke off. She bent lower, pulled down an eyelid. Then she started shaking the girl in grim earnest. She turned on Elinor. There was something menacing in her voice as she said, "What's all this?"
Elinor said, "I don't know what you mean. Is she ill?"
Nurse Hopkins said, "Where's the phone? Get hold of Dr. Lord as soon as you can."
Elinor said, "What's the matter?"
"The matter? The girl's ill. She's dying." Elinor recoiled a step. She said, "Dying?"
Nurse Hopkins said, "She's been poisoned." Her eyes, hard with suspicion, glared at Elinor.
Chapter 8
Hercule Poirot, his egg-shaped head gently tilted to one side, his eyebrows raised inquiringly, his finger tips joined together, watched the young man who was striding so savagely up and down the room, his pleasant freckled face puckered and drawn.
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