Curtain - Agatha Christie [43]
I do not think that either before or since I have ever suffered as I suffered then . . .
IV
Presently I roused myself. I washed and shaved and changed. I went down to dinner. I behaved, I fancy, in quite a normal manner. Nobody seemed to notice anything amiss.
Once or twice I saw Judith flash a curious glance at me. She must have been puzzled, I think, by the way I was able to appear quite like my usual self.
And all the time, underneath, I was growing more and more determined.
All that I needed was courage – courage and brains. After dinner we went outside, looked up at the sky, commented on the closeness of the atmosphere, prophesied rain – thunder – a storm.
Out of the tail of my eye I saw Judith disappear round the corner of the house. Presently Allerton strolled in the same direction.
I finished what I was saying to Boyd Carrington and wandered that way myself.
Norton, I think, tried to stop me. He took my arm. He tried, I think, to suggest walking up to the rose garden. I took no notice.
He was still with me as I turned the corner of the house.
They were there. I saw Judith’s upturned face, saw Allerton’s bent down over it, saw how he took her in his arms and the kiss that followed.
Then they broke away quickly. I took a step forward. Almost by main force, Norton hauled me back and round the corner. He said: ‘Look here, you can’t –’
I interrupted him. I said forcefully: ‘I can. And I will.’
‘It’s no good, my dear fellow. It’s all very distressing but all it comes to is that there’s nothing you can do.’
I was silent. He might think that that was so, but I knew better.
Norton went on: ‘I know how ineffectual and maddened one feels, but the only thing to do is to admit defeat. Accept it, man!’
I didn’t contradict him. I waited, allowing him to talk. Then I went firmly round the corner of the house again.
The two of them had disappeared now, but I had a shrewd idea of where they might be. There was a summer-house concealed in a grove of lilac trees not far away.
I went towards it. I think Norton was still with me, but I’m not sure.
As I got nearer I heard voices and stopped. It was Allerton’s voice I heard.
‘Well, then, my dear girl, that’s settled. Don’t make any more objections. You go up to town tomorrow. I’ll say I’m running over to Ipswich to stay with a pal for a night or two. You wire from London that you can’t get back. And who’s to know of that charming little dinner at my flat? You won’t regret it, I can promise you.’
I felt Norton tugging at me, and suddenly, meekly, I turned. I almost laughed at the sight of his worried anxious face. I let him drag me back to the house. I pretended to give in because I knew, at that moment, exactly what I was going to do . . .
I said to him clearly and distinctly: ‘Don’t worry, old chap. It’s all no good – I see that now. You can’t control your children’s lives. I’m through.’
He was ridiculously relieved.
Shortly afterwards, I told him I was going to bed early. I’d got a bit of a headache, I said.
He had no suspicions at all of what I was going to do.
V
I paused for a moment in the corridor. It was quite quiet. There was no one about. The beds had been all turned down ready for the night. Norton, who had a room on this side, I had left downstairs. Elizabeth Cole was playing bridge. Curtiss, I knew, would be downstairs having his supper. I had the place to myself.
I flatter myself that I have not worked with Poirot for so many years in vain. I knew just what precautions to take.
Allerton was not going to meet Judith in London tomorrow.
Allerton was not going anywhere tomorrow . . . The whole thing was really so ridiculously simple.
I went to my own room and picked up my bottle of aspirins. Then I went into Allerton’s room and into the bathroom. The tablets of Slumberyl were in the cupboard. Eight, I considered, ought to do the trick. One or two was the stated dose.