A False Mirror - Charles Todd [15]
Before she could answer, the maid, Nan, appeared at the top of the steps.
“Mrs. Hamilton?” she asked. “Is everything all right?”
“No—yes—” Felicity said, wiping her face with her gloved hands. “Thank you, Nan. I’ve just had bad news, that’s all.”
“Not your mother—” Nan said, her strong face registering alarm. “Oh, not your mother, ma’am.”
“She’s—it’s Mr. Hamilton. I’ll explain later. Could you find some tea for us, please? We’ll be in the sitting room.”
She walked briskly toward the rear of the house, and into a room that looked out on the sea. It was filled with windows, two pairs on the front and one pair on the side, and seemed to glow with the reflected light of the sun on the water.
Vantage Point. It was certainly that.
Sinking into a chair, she said, “Shut the door. What are we to do? Bennett will be here before we know it, after your blood. Casa Miranda is the first place he’ll look. And I must go back to Matthew.” Her voice broke again. “I don’t know whether to believe you or not. Matthew hasn’t an enemy in the world, I can’t imagine why anyone should attack him like that, except in anger.” Looking up at him, she added irritably, “Do sit down, Stephen! I’m not accusing you, I’m just terribly confused, and worried and frightened. What have you done with your motorcar?”
“It’s in your shed, where Bennett or his men can’t see it from the road.” Stephen took the chair farthest from her. “Felicity, what good would it possibly do me to hurt Matthew?” He cleared his throat. “Look, even if I did away with Matthew, do you think I’d be fool enough to believe I’d have you then? That you’d forget him and walk off into the rainbow with me? What good would it do me to hurt Matthew, for God’s sake—it would be like hurting you.”
“Bennett won’t believe you. You ran, Stephen; it was the worst thing you could do.”
“I told you, I ran to you, not from him. That was uppermost in my mind, making sure you didn’t believe what he was saying. I’ll find Bennett now and apologize and let him ask me whatever it is he wants to ask me.”
“He’ll take you into custody. And there’ll be no end of fuss. They’ll drag our names through God knows what scandal, and in the end, it will be impossible to show our faces anywhere. I heard him raving in Dr. Granville’s office—” She stopped, unwilling to repeat to Mallory what had been said. “You can’t imagine how furious he is, how determined he is to blame you.”
“When Matthew comes to his senses, he’ll be able to tell them what happened—who did this to him.”
She looked at him. “What if he didn’t see his attacker? What if he doesn’t remember what happened? What if he dies without waking up? What then?”
Stephen wheeled to the window, blind to the distant sea glimmering at the bottom of the lawns, and gulls wheeling above a fishing boat pulling for shore. What would Matthew do when he was in his right mind again? And if he couldn’t remember, what would he think? Whom would he believe? Bennett?
He turned back to Felicity, trying to stifle the fear rising in him. He said, with more force than he felt, “He’s bound to remember. He’s a stubborn old bird, he’ll come through this, Felicity, wait and see.”
“I must go back to the surgery. What will you do—”
She broke off as Nan came in with the tea tray. The woman’s eyes were busy, moving from her mistress’s face to Stephen Mallory’s as she tried to make sense of the strained relations between them. There was an avidness as well, and Stephen frowned. What he saw worried him, and his first thought was that Nan would go rushing off to the police, given the chance.
He got up hastily and took the tray from her, saying, “Thank you, Nan, that will be all for now.”
The maid reluctantly withdrew, and after she had gone, Stephen went silently to the door and pulled it open suddenly, expecting to find her there, listening. But she was not in the passage.
Felicity was trying to pour the tea with shaking hands and sloshed half of hers into the saucer.
Stephen gently took