Cards on the Table - Agatha Christie [43]
‘And afterwards? Did Dr Roberts come to the house again?’
‘No, he didn’t, Nosey! You’ve got some grudge against him. I tell you there was nothing in it. If there were he’d have married her when the master was dead, wouldn’t he? And he never did. No such fool. He’d taken her measure all right. She used to ring him up, though, but somehow he was never in. And then she sold the house, and we all got our notices, and she went abroad to Egypt.’
‘And you didn’t see Dr Roberts in all that time?’
‘No. She did, because she went to him to have this—what do you call it?—’noculation against the typhoid fever. She came back with her arm ever so sore with it. If you ask me, he made it clear to her then that there was nothing doing. She didn’t ring him up no more, and she went off very cheerful with a lovely lot of new clothes—all light colours, although it was the middle of winter, but she said it would be all sunshine and hot out there.’
‘That’s right,’ said Sergeant O’Connor. ‘It’s too hot sometimes, I’ve heard. She died out there. You know that, I suppose?’
‘No, indeed I didn’t. Well, fancy that! She may have been worse than I thought, poor soul.’
She added with a sigh:
‘I wonder what they did with all that lovely lot of clothes. They’re blacks out there, so they couldn’t wear them.’
‘You’d have looked a treat in them, I expect,’ said Sergeant O’Connor.
‘Impudence,’ said Elsie.
‘Well, you won’t have my impudence much longer,’ said Sergeant O’Connor. ‘I’ve got to go away on business for my firm.’
‘You going for long?’
‘May be going abroad,’ said the Sergeant.
Elsie’s face fell.
Though unacquainted with Lord Byron’s famous poem, ‘I never loved a dear gazelle,’ etc., its sentiments were at that moment hers. She thought to herself:
‘Funny how all the really attractive ones never come to anything. Oh, well, there’s always Fred.’
Which is gratifying, since it shows that the sudden incursion of Sergeant O’Connor into Elsie’s life did not affect it permanently. ‘Fred’ may even have been the gainer!
Chapter 17
The Evidence of Rhoda Dawes
Rhoda Dawes came out of Debenham’s and stood meditatively upon the pavement. Indecision was written all over her face. It was an expressive face; each fleeting emotion showed itself in a quickly varying expression.
Quite plainly at this moment Rhoda’s face said: ‘Shall Ior shan’t I? I’d like to…But perhaps I’d better not…’
The commissionaire said, ‘Taxi, Miss?’ to her hopefully.
Rhoda shook her head.
A stout woman carrying parcels with an eager ‘shopping early for Christmas’ expression on her face, can-noned into her severely, but still Rhoda stood stock-still, trying to make up her mind.
Chaotic odds and ends of thoughts flashed through her mind.
‘After all, why shouldn’t I? She asked me to—but perhaps it’s just a thing she says to everyone…She doesn’t mean it to be taken seriously…Well, after all, Anne didn’t want me. She made it quite clear she’d rather go with Major Despard to the solicitor man alone…And why shouldn’t she? I mean, three is a crowd…And it isn’t really any business of mine…It isn’t as though I particularly wanted to see Major Despard…He is nice, though…I think he must have fallen for Anne. Men don’t take a lot of trouble unless they have…I mean, it’s never just kindness…’
A messenger boy bumped into Rhoda and said, ‘Beg pardon, Miss,’ in a reproachful tone.
‘Oh, dear,’ thought Rhoda. ‘I can’t go on standing here all day. Just because I’m such an idiot that I can’t make up my mind…I think that coat and skirt’s going to be awfully nice. I wonder if brown would have been more useful than green? No, I don’t think so. Well, come on, shall I go or shan’t I? Half-past three, it’s quite a good time—I mean, it doesn’t look as though I’m cadging a meal or anything. I might just go and look, anyway.’
She plunged across the road, turned to the right, and then to the left, up Harley Street,