Nemesis - Agatha Christie [86]
‘All life is difficult sometimes,’ said Miss Marple.
‘Lavinia talks of going away,’ said Clotilde. ‘She talks of going to live abroad again. At Taormina, I think. She was there with her husband a lot and they were very happy. She’s been at home with us now for many years, but she seems to have this longing to get away and to travel. Sometimes I think — sometimes I think she doesn’t like being in the same house as Anthea.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Miss Marple. ‘Yes, I have heard of cases like that where these difficulties do arise.’
‘She’s afraid of Anthea,’ said Clotilde. ‘Definitely afraid of her. And really, I keep telling her there’s nothing to be afraid of. Anthea’s just rather silly at times. You know, has queer ideas and says queer things. But I don’t think there’s any danger of her — well, I mean of — oh, I don’t know what I mean. Doing anything dangerous or strange or queer.’
‘There’s never been any trouble of that kind?’ enquired Miss Marple.
‘Oh no. There’s never been anything. She gets nervous fits of temper sometimes and she takes rather sudden dislikes to people. She’s very jealous, you know, over things. Very jealous of a lot of — well, fuss being made over different people. I don’t know. Sometimes I think we’d better sell this house and leave it altogether.’
‘It is sad for you, isn’t it,’ said Miss Marple. ‘I think I can understand that it must be very sad for you living here with the memory of the past.’
‘You understand that, do you? Yes, I can see that you do. One cannot help it. One’s mind goes back to that dear, lovable child. She was like a daughter to me. She was the daughter, anyway, of one of my best friends. She was very intelligent too. She was a clever girl. She was a good artist. She was doing very well with her art training and designing. She was taking up a good deal of designing. I was very proud of her. And then — this wretched attachment, this terrible mentally afflicted boy.’
‘You mean Mr Rafiel’s son, Michael Rafiel?’
‘Yes. If only he’d never come here. It just happened that he was staying in this part of the world and his father suggested he might look us up and he came and had a meal with us. He could be very charming, you know. But he always had been a sad delinquent, a bad record. He’d been in prison twice, and a very bad history with girls. But I never thought that Verity…just a case of infatuation. I suppose it happens to girls of that age. She was infatuated with him. Insisted that everything that had happened to him had not been his fault. You know the things girls say. “Everyone is against him,” that’s what they always say. Everyone’s against him. Nobody made allowances for him. Oh, one gets tired of hearing these things said. Can’t one put a little sense into girls?’
‘They have not usually very much sense, I agree,’ said Miss Marple.
‘She wouldn’t listen. I — I tried to keep him away from the house. I told him he was not to come here any more. That of course was stupid. I realized that afterwards. It only meant that she went and met him outside the house. I don’t know where. They had various meeting places. He used to call for her in his car at an agreed spot and bring her home late at night. Once or twice he didn’t bring her home until the next day. I tried to tell them it must stop, that it must all cease, but they wouldn’t listen. Verity wouldn’t listen. I didn’t expect him to, of course.’
‘She intended to marry him?’ asked Miss Marple.
‘Well, I don’t think it ever got as far as that. I don’t think he ever wanted to marry her or thought of such a thing.’
‘I am very sorry for you,’ said Miss Marple. ‘You must have suffered a lot.’
‘Yes. The worst was having to go and identify the body. That was some time after — after she’d disappeared from here. We thought of course that she’d run away with him and we thought that we’d get news of them some time. I knew the police