At Bertram's Hotel - Agatha Christie [8]
For instance what Lady Sedgwick had said wasn’t true. She had only just gone up to her room, and it must have been then that she “remembered she had forgotten something” (if there had been any truth in that statement at all) and had come down to find it. Or had she perhaps come down to meet someone or look for someone? But if so, what she had seen as the lift door opened had startled and upset her, and she had immediately swung into the lift again and gone up so as not to meet whoever it was she had seen.
It must have been the two newcomers. The middle-aged woman and the girl. Mother and daughter? No, Miss Marple thought, not mother and daughter.
Even at Bertram’s, thought Miss Marple, happily, interesting things could happen….
Chapter Three
“Er—is Colonel Luscombe—?”
The woman in the violet hat was at the desk. Miss Gorringe smiled in a welcoming manner and a page, who had been standing at the ready, was immediately dispatched but had no need to fulfil his errand, as Colonel Luscombe himself entered the lounge at that moment and came quickly across to the desk.
“How do you do, Mrs. Carpenter.” He shook hands politely, then turned to the girl. “My dear Elvira.” He took both hands affectionately in his. “Well, well, this is nice. Splendid—splendid. Come and let’s sit down.” He led them to chairs, established them. “Well, well,” he repeated, “this is nice.”
The effort he made was somewhat palpable as was his lack of ease. He could hardly go on saying how nice this was. The two ladies were not very helpful. Elvira smiled very sweetly. Mrs. Carpenter gave a meaningless little laugh, and smoothed her gloves.
“A good journey, eh?”
“Yes, thank you,” said Elvira.
“No fog. Nothing like that?”
“Oh no.”
“Our flight was five minutes ahead of time,” said Mrs. Carpenter.
“Yes, yes. Good, very good.” He took a pull upon himself. “I hope this place will be all right for you?”
“Oh, I’m sure it’s very nice,” said Mrs. Carpenter warmly, glancing round her. “Very comfortable.”
“Rather old-fashioned, I’m afraid,” said the Colonel apologetically. “Rather a lot of old fogies. No—er—dancing, anything like that.”
“No, I suppose not,” agreed Elvira.
She glanced round in an expressionless manner. It certainly seemed impossible to connect Bertram’s with dancing.
“Lot of old fogies here, I’m afraid,” said Colonel Luscombe, repeating himself. “Ought, perhaps, to have taken you somewhere more modern. Not very well up in these things, you see.”
“This is very nice,” said Elvira politely.
“It’s only for a couple of nights,” went on Colonel Luscombe. “I thought we’d go to a show this evening. A musical—” he said the word rather doubtfully, as though not sure he was using the right term. “Let Down Your Hair Girls. I hope that will be all right?”
“How delightful,” exclaimed Mrs. Carpenter. “That will be a treat, won’t it, Elvira?”
“Lovely,” said Elvira, tonelessly.
“And then supper afterwards? At the Savoy?”
Fresh exclamations from Mrs. Carpenter. Colonel Luscombe, stealing a glance at Elvira, cheered up a little. He thought that Elvira was pleased, though quite determined to express nothing more than polite approval in front of Mrs. Carpenter. “And I don’t blame her,” he said to himself.
He said to Mrs. Carpenter:
“Perhaps you’d like to see your rooms—see they’re all right and all that—”
“Oh, I’m sure they will be.”
“Well, if there’s anything you don’t like about them, we’ll make them change it. They know me here very well.”
Miss Gorringe, in charge at the desk, was pleasantly welcoming. Nos 28 and 29 on the second floor with an adjoining bathroom.
“I’ll go up and get things unpacked,” said Mrs. Carpenter. “Perhaps, Elvira, you and Colonel Luscombe would like to have a little gossip.”
Tact, thought Colonel Luscombe. A bit obvious, perhaps, but anyway it would get rid of her for a bit. Though what he was going to gossip about to Elvira, he really didn’t know. A very nice-mannered girl, but he wasn’t used to girls.