Nemesis - Agatha Christie [15]
‘You look very well,’ she said, ‘and very gay.’
‘So do you, Miss Marple.’
‘Well, of course, I am rather older now. And one has so many ailments. I mean, not desperate ones, nothing of that kind, but I mean one has always some kind of rheumatism or some kind of ache and pain somewhere. One’s feet are not what one would like feet to be. And there’s usually one’s back or a shoulder or painful hands. Oh, dear, one shouldn’t talk about these things. What a very nice house you have.’
‘Yes, we haven’t been in it very long. We moved in about four months ago.’
Miss Marple looked round. She had rather thought that that was the case. She thought, too, that when they had moved in they had moved in on quite a handsome scale. The furniture was expensive, it was comfortable, comfortable and just this side of luxury. Good curtains, good covers, no particular artistic taste displayed, but then she would not have expected that. She thought she knew the reason for this appearance of prosperity. She thought it had come about on the strength of the late Mr Rafiel’s handsome legacy to Esther. She was glad to think that Mr Rafiel had not changed his mind.
‘I expect you saw the notice of Mr Rafiel’s death,’ said Esther, speaking almost as if she knew what was in Miss Marple’s mind.
‘Yes. Yes, indeed I did. It was about a month ago now, wasn’t it? I was so sorry. Very distressed really, although, well, I suppose one knew — he almsot admitted it himself, didn’t he? He hinted several times that it wouldn’t be very long. I think he was quite a brave man about it all, don’t you?’
‘Yes, he was a very brave man, and a very kind one really,’ said Esther. ‘He told me, you know, when I first worked for him, that he was going to give me a very good salary but that I would have to save out of it because I needn’t expect to have anything more from him. Well, I certainly didn’t expect to have anything more from him. He was very much a man of his word, wasn’t he? But apparently he changed his mind.’
‘Yes,’ said Miss Marple. ‘Yes. I am very glad of that. I thought perhaps — not that he, of course, said anything — but I wondered.’
‘He left me a very big legacy,’ said Esther. ‘A surprisingly large sum of money. It came as a very great surprise. I could hardly believe it at first.’
‘I think he wanted it to be a surprise to you. I think he was perhaps that kind of man,’ said Miss Marple. She added: ‘Did he leave anything to — oh, what was his name? — the man attendant, the nurse-attendant?’
‘Oh, you mean Jackson? No, he didn’t leave anything to Jackson, but I believe he made him some handsome presents in the last year.’
‘Have you ever seen anything more of Jackson?’
‘No. No, I don’t think I’ve met him once since the time out in the islands. He didn’t stay with Mr Rafiel after they got back to England. I think he went to Lord somebody who lives in Jersey or Guernsey.’
‘I would like to have seen Mr Rafiel again,’ said Miss Marple. ‘It seems odd after we’d all been mixed up so. He and you and I and some others. And then, later, when I’d come home, when six months had passed — it occurred to me one day how closely associated we had been in our time of stress, and yet how little I really knew about Mr Rafiel. I was thinking it only the other day, after I’d seen the notice of his death. I wished I could know a little more. Where he was born, you know, and his parents. What they were like. Whether he had any children, or nephews or cousins or any family. I would so like to know.’
Esther Anderson smiled slightly. She looked at Miss Marple and her expression seemed to say ‘Yes, I’m sure you always want to know everything of that kind about everyone you meet’. But she merely said:
‘No, there was really only one thing that everyone did know about him.’
‘That he was very rich,’ said Miss Marple