N or M_ - Agatha Christie [10]
The old woman stared at Tuppence with a kind of devouring interest.
‘Tis a fine thing to be out walking before breakfast,’ she observed. ‘A grand appetite it gives you.’
Mrs Sprot said to her offspring:
‘Nice bread and milk, darling,’ and endeavoured to insinuate a spoonful into Miss Betty Sprot’s mouth.
The latter cleverly circumvented this endeavour by an adroit movement of her head, and continued to stare at Tuppence with large round eyes.
She pointed a milky finger at the newcomer, gave her a dazzling smile and observed in gurgling tones: ‘Ga–ga bouch.’
‘She likes you,’ cried Mrs Sprot, beaming on Tuppence as on one marked out for favour. ‘Sometimes she’s so shy with strangers.’
‘Bouch,’ said Betty Sprot. ‘Ah pooth ah bag,’ she added with emphasis.
‘And what would she be meaning by that?’ demanded Mrs O’Rourke, with interest.
‘She doesn’t speak awfully clearly yet,’ confessed Mrs Sprot. ‘She’s only just over two, you know. I’m afraid most of what she says is just bosh. She can say Mama, though, can’t you, darling?’
Betty looked thoughtfully at her mother and remarked with an air of finality:
‘Cuggle bick.’
‘’Tis a language of their own they have, the little angels,’ boomed out Mrs O’Rourke. ‘Betty, darling, say Mama now.’
Betty looked hard at Mrs O’Rourke, frowned and observed with terrific emphasis: ‘Nazer–’
‘There now, if she isn’t doing her best! And a lovely sweet girl she is.’
Mrs O’Rourke rose, beamed in a ferocious manner at Betty, and waddled heavily out of the room.
‘Ga, ga, ga,’ said Betty with enormous satisfaction, and beat with a spoon on the table.
Tuppence said with a twinkle:
‘What does Na-zer really mean?’
Mrs Sprot said with a flush: ‘I’m afraid, you know, it’s what Betty says when she doesn’t like anyone or anything.’
‘I rather thought so,’ said Tuppence.
Both women laughed.
‘After all,’ said Mrs Sprot, ‘Mrs O’Rourke means to be kind but she is rather alarming–with that deep voice and the beard and–and everything.’
With her head on one side Betty made a cooing noise at Tuppence.
‘She has taken to you, Mrs Blenkensop,’ said Mrs Sprot.
There was a slight jealous chill, Tuppence fancied, in her voice. Tuppence hastened to adjust matters.
‘They always like a new face, don’t they?’ she said easily.
The door opened and Major Bletchley and Tommy appeared. Tuppence became arch.
‘Ah, Mr Meadowes,’ she called out. ‘I’ve beaten you, you see. First past the post. But I’ve left you just a little breakfast!’
She indicated with the faintest of gestures the seat beside her.
Tommy, muttering vaguely: ‘Oh–er–rather–thanks,’ sat down at the other end of the table.
Betty Sprot said ‘Putch! ’ with a fine splutter of milk at Major Bletchley, whose face instantly assumed a sheepish but delighted expression.
‘And how’s little Miss Bo Peep this morning?’ he asked fatuously. ‘Bo Peep!’ He enacted the play with a newspaper.
Betty crowed with delight.
Serious misgivings shook Tuppence. She thought:
‘There must be some mistake. There can’t be anything going on here. There simply can’t!’
To believe in Sans Souci as a headquarters of the Fifth Column needed the mental equipment of the White Queen in Alice.
Chapter 3
On the sheltered terrace outside, Miss Minton was knitting.
Miss Minton was thin and angular, her neck was stringy. She wore pale sky-blue jumpers, and chains or bead necklaces. Her skirts were tweedy and had a depressed droop at the back. She greeted Tuppence with alacrity.
‘Good morning, Mrs Blenkensop. I do hope you slept well.’
Mrs Blenkensop confessed that she never slept very well the first night or two in a strange bed. Miss Minton said, Now, wasn’t that curious? It was exactly the same with her.
Mrs Blenkensop said, ‘What a coincidence, and what a very pretty stitch that was.’ Miss Minton,