By the Pricking of My Thumbs - Agatha Christie [89]
Tuppence felt annoyed. Perhaps Alice Perry had gone to Market Basing to shop. She particularly wanted to see Alice Perry. Tuppence knocked at the door, rapping first gently then loudly. Nobody answered. She turned the handle but the door did not give. It was locked. She stood there, undecided.
There were some questions she wanted badly to ask Alice Perry. Possibly Mrs Perry might be in Sutton Chancellor. She might go back there. The difficulty of Canal House was that there never seemed to be anyone in sight and hardly any traffic came over the bridge. There was no one to ask where the Perrys might be this morning.
Chapter 17
Mrs Lancaster
Tuppence stood there frowning, and then, suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the door opened. Tuppence drew back a step and gasped. The person confronting her was the last person in the world she expected to see. In the doorway, dressed exactly the same as she had been at Sunny Ridge, and smiling the same way with that air of vague amiability, was Mrs Lancaster in person.
‘Oh,’ said Tuppence.
‘Good morning. Were you wanting Mrs Perry?’ said Mrs Lancaster. ‘It’s market day, you know. So lucky I was able to let you in. I couldn’t find the key for some time. I think it must be a duplicate anyway, don’t you? But do come in. Perhaps you’d like a cup of tea or something.’
Like one in a dream, Tuppence crossed the threshold. Mrs Lancaster, still retaining the gracious air of a hostess, led Tuppence along into the sitting-room.
‘Do sit down,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid I don’t know where all the cups and things are. I’ve only been here a day or two. Now–let me see…But–surely–I’ve met you before, haven’t I?’
‘Yes,’ said Tuppence, ‘when you were at Sunny Ridge.’
‘Sunny Ridge, now, Sunny Ridge. That seems to remind me of something. Oh, of course, dear Miss Packard. Yes, a very nice place.’
‘You left it in rather a hurry, didn’t you?’ said Tuppence.
‘People are so very bossy,’ said Mrs Lancaster. ‘They hurry you so. They don’t give you time to arrange things or pack properly or anything. Kindly meant, I’m sure. Of course, I’m very fond of dear Nellie Bligh, but she’s a very masterful kind of woman. I sometimes think,’ Mrs Lancaster added, bending forward to Tuppence, ‘I sometimes think, you know, that she is not quite–’ she tapped her forehead significantly. ‘Of course it does happen. Especially to spinsters. Unmarried women, you know. Very given to good works and all that but they take very odd fancies sometimes. Curates suffer a great deal. They seem to think sometimes, these women, that the curate has made them an offer of marriage but really he never thought of doing anything of the kind. Oh yes, poor Nellie. So sensible in some ways. She’s been wonderful in the parish here. And she was always a first-class secretary, I believe. But all the same she has some very curious ideas at times. Like taking me away at a moment’s notice from dear Sunny Ridge, and then up to Cumberland–a very bleak house, and, again quite suddenly, bringing me here–’
‘Are you living here?’ said Tuppence.
‘Well, if you can call it that. It’s a very peculiar arrangement altogether. I’ve only been here two days.’
‘Before that, you were at Rosetrellis Court, in Cumberland–’
‘Yes, I believe that was the name of it. Not such a pretty name as Sunny Ridge, do you think? In fact I never really settled down, if you know what I mean. And it wasn’t nearly as well run. The service wasn’t as good and they had a very inferior brand of coffee. Still, I was getting used to things and I had found one or two interesting acquaintances there. One of them who knew an aunt of mine quite well years ago in India. It’s so nice, you know, when you find connections.’
‘It must be,’ said Tuppence.
Mrs Lancaster continued cheerfully.
‘Now let me see, you came to Sunny Ridge, but not to stay, I think. I think you came to