Death in the Clouds - Agatha Christie [82]
With an absent-minded hand he arranged a pile of picture papers that Norman Gale had disarranged in his wild spring.
Something arrested his attention—a snapshot of Venetia Kerr at a race meeting, ‘talking to Lord Horbury and a friend.’
He handed it to Mr Clancy.
‘You see that? In a year’s time there will be an announcement: “A marriage is arranged and will shortly take place between Lord Horbury and the Hon. Venetia Kerr.” And do you know who will have arranged that marriage? Hercule Poirot! There is another marriage that I have arranged, too.’
‘Lady Horbury and Mr Barraclough?’
‘Ah, no, in that matter I take no interest.’ He leaned forward. ‘No—I refer to a marriage between M. Jean Dupont and Miss Jane Grey. You will see.’
II
It was a month later that Jane came to Poirot.
‘I ought to hate you, M. Poirot.’
She looked pale and fine drawn with dark circles round her eyes.
Poirot said gently:
‘Hate me a little if you will. But I think you are one of those who would rather look truth in the face than live in a fool’s paradise; and you might not have lived in it so very long. Getting rid of women is a vice that grows.’
‘He was so terribly attractive,’ said Jane.
She added:
‘I shall never fall in love again.’
‘Naturally,’ agreed Poirot. ‘That side of life is finished for you.’
Jane nodded.
‘But what I must do is to have work—something interesting that I could lose myself in.’
Poirot tilted back his chair and looked at the ceiling.
‘I should advise you to go to Persia with the Duponts. That is interesting work, if you like.’
‘But—but—I thought that was only camouflage on your part.’
Poirot shook his head.
‘On the contrary—I have become so interested in archaeology and prehistoric pottery that I sent the cheque for the donation I had promised. I heard this morning that they were expecting you to join the expedition. Can you draw at all?’
‘Yes, I was rather good at drawing at school.’
‘Excellent. I think you will enjoy your season.’
‘Do they really want me to come?’
‘They are counting on it.’
‘It would be wonderful,’ said Jane, ‘to get right away—’
A little colour rose in her face.
‘M. Poirot—’ She looked at him suspiciously. ‘You’re not—you’re not—being kind?’
‘Kind?’ said Poirot with a lively horror at the idea. ‘I can assure you, Mademoiselle—that where money is concerned I am strictly a man of business—’
He seemed so offended that Jane quickly begged his pardon.
‘I think,’ she said, ‘that I’d better go to some museums and look at some prehistoric pottery.’
‘A very good idea.’
At the doorway Jane paused and then came back.
‘You mayn’t have been kind in that particular way, but you have been kind—to me.’
She dropped a kiss on the top of his head and went out again.
‘Ça, c’est très gentil! ’ said Hercule Poirot.
About Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English and another billion in 100 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Mrs Christie is the author of eighty crime novels and short story collections, nineteen plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.
Agatha Christie’s first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was written towards the end of World War I (during which she served in the Voluntary Aid Detachments). In it she created Hercule Poirot, the little Belgian investigator who was destined to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. After having been rejected by a number of houses, The Mysterious Affair at Styles was eventually published by The Bodley Head in 1920.
In 1926, now averaging a book a year, Agatha Christie wrote her masterpiece. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the first of her books to be published by William Collins and marked the beginning of an author-publisher relationship that lasted for fifty years and produced over seventy books. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was also the first of Agatha Christie’s works to be dramatised