By the Pricking of My Thumbs - Agatha Christie [47]
She had almost reached the far wall now. The graves here were neglected and overgrown, nobody seemed to care about this bit of the cemetery. Many of the stones were no longer upright but lay about on the ground. The wall here was damaged and crumbling. In places it had been broken down.
Being right behind the church, it could not be seen from the road–and no doubt children came here to do what damage they could. Tuppence bent over one of the stone slabs–The original lettering was worn away and unreadable–But heaving it up sideways, Tuppence saw some coarsely scrawled letters and words, also by now partly overgrown.
She stopped to trace them with a forefinger, and got a word here and there–
Whoever…offend…one of these little ones…
Millstone…Millstone…Millstone…and below–in uneven cutting by an amateur hand:
Here lies Lily Waters.
Tuppence drew a deep breath–She was conscious of a shadow behind her, but before she could turn her head–something hit her on the back of her head and she fell forwards on to the tombstone into pain and darkness.
Book 3
Missing–A Wife
Chapter 10
A Conference–and After
‘Well, Beresford,’ said Major-General Sir Josiah Penn, K.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., speaking with the weight appropriate to the impressive stream of letters after his name. ‘Well, what do you think of all that yackety-yack?’
Tommy gathered by that remark that Old Josh, as he was irreverently spoken of behind his back, was not impressed with the result of the course of the conferences in which they had been taking part.
‘Softly, softly catchee monkey,’ said Sir Josiah, going on with his remarks. ‘A lot of talk and nothing said. If anybody does say anything sensible now and then, about four beanstalks immediately get up and howl it down. I don’t know why we come to these things. At least, I do know. I know why I do. Nothing else to do. If I didn’t come to these shows, I’d have to stay at home. Do you know what happens to me there? I get bullied, Beresford. Bullied by my housekeeper, bullied by my gardener. He’s an elderly Scot and he won’t so much as let me touch my own peaches. So I come along here, throw my weight about and pretend to myself that I’m performing a useful function, ensuring the security of this country! Stuff and nonsense.
‘What about you? You’re a relatively young man. What do you come and waste your time for? Nobody’ll listen to you, even if you do say something worth hearing.’
Tommy, faintly amused that despite his own, as he considered, advanced age, he could be regarded as a youngster by Major-General Sir Josiah Penn, shook his head. The General must be, Tommy thought, considerably past eighty, he was rather deaf, heavily bronchial, but he was nobody’s fool.
‘Nothing would ever get done at all if you weren’t here, sir,’ said Tommy.
‘I like to think so,’ said the General. ‘I’m a toothless bulldog–but I can still bark. How’s Mrs Tommy? Haven’t seen her for a long time.’
Tommy replied that Tuppence was well and active.
‘She was always active. Used to make me think of a dragonfly sometimes. Always darting off after some apparently absurd idea of her own and then we’d find it wasn’t absurd. Good fun!’ said the General, with approval. ‘Don’t like these earnest middle-aged women you meet nowadays, all got a Cause with a capital C. And as for the girls nowadays–’ he shook his head. ‘Not what they used to be when I was a young man. Pretty as a picture, they used to be then. Their muslin frocks! Cloche hats, they used to wear at one time. Do you remember? No, I suppose you’d have been at school. Had to look right down underneath the brim before you could see the girl’s face. Tantalizing it was, and they knew it! I remember now–let me see–she was a relative of yours–an aunt wasn’t she?–Ada. Ada Fanshawe–’
‘Aunt Ada?’
‘Prettiest girl I ever knew.’
Tommy managed to contain the surprise he felt. That his Aunt Ada could ever have been considered pretty seemed beyond belief. Old Josh was dithering on.
‘Yes, pretty