The Greengage Summer
Page 20
Freeing himself from us he said, “This came yesterday,” and from his wallet took out a piece of paper and unfolded it; it was a telegram. He read aloud, “Come immediately Hôtel des Oeillets Vieux-Moutiers Marne France your sister in hospital children urgently—repeat urgently—need your help.”
“But who sent it?” asked Madame Corbet.
“It isn’t signed,” said Uncle William.
“Someone must have sent it,” said Inspector Cailleux and looked round on us all. I tried to put a surreptitious hand on Hester, but I was too late.
“Eliot, of course,” said Hester.
“Eliot!” That came from Joss, Mademoiselle Zizi, Madame Corbett and Inspector Cailleux.
“Yes. He always did look after us,” said Hester, beaming.
“The fool!” Mademoiselle Zizi’s cry rang out as she darted across the room and snatched the telegram from Uncle William. She was crumpling it in her hand, tearing it with her teeth as they caught her. Inspector Cailleux ripped it away and Monsieur Dufour and Madame Corbet struggled to hold her as the little sheet of paper was smoothed out and pieced together on the table.
“Châlons. Eleven twenty-five yesterday morning.”
“He was heading for the German border,” said Monsieur Dufour.
“Obviously,” said Inspector Cailleux and snapped, “Get me Lavalle on the telephone.” Then he stopped. “No, wait. Châlons,” he said, puzzled. “But Châlons is almost here.”
“C’est vingt-et-un kilomètres,” said the man in the window.
“Twenty-one kilometres at eleven o’clock yesterday,” said Inspector Cailleux.
“He had been at the dinner,” reminded Monsieur Dufour.
“But only until about midnight. He had had at least nine or ten hours,” said Inspector Cailleux. “I don’t understand,” but he said it as if in a minute, or minutes, he would understand and he began to pace up and down. Mademoiselle Zizi was quiet now, limp and sobbing against Madame Corbet.
“Could he be walking?” asked Monsieur Dufour.
“With the roads watched?”
“Cross-country?”
“There are roads into Châlons,” said Inspector Cailleux irritably and he walked up and down. “Somewhere slow, where we would not look for him. Of course not. We are looking everywhere fast. Very clever, Monsieur Allen. Slow, Vieux-Moutiers, Châlons, into Germany.”
“Châlons? You mean Châlons-sur-Marne?” said Uncle William in his pleasant voice. “On the Marne?”
“The Marne!” Inspector Cailleux stopped. “The Marne!”
From the river, into our silence, came the hoot of a passing barge.
First published 1958 by Macmillan
First published 1961 by Pan Books
First published with a new preface 1993 by Pan Books
This edition published 2004 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2011 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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ISBN 978-1-447-21027-6 EPUB
Text copyright © Rumer Godden 1958, 1993
The right of Rumer Godden to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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