Ordeal by Innocence - Agatha Christie [32]
“How can I go on living here and suspecting everybody?”
“If you will take my advice it will be better for you to leave this house.”
“I can’t just now.”
“Why not? Because of the young doctor?”
“I don’t know what you mean, Kirsty.” Colour flamed up in Hester’s cheeks.
“I mean Dr. Craig. He is a very nice young man. A sufficiently good doctor, amiable, conscientious. You could do worse. But all the same I think it would be better if you left here and went away.”
“The whole thing’s nonsense,” Hester cried angrily, “nonsense, nonsense, nonsense. Oh, how I wish Dr. Calgary had never come here.”
“So do I,” said Kirsten, “with all my heart.”
II
Leo Argyle signed the last of the letters which Gwenda Vaughan placed in front of him.
“Is that the last?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“We’ve not done too badly today.”
After a minute or two when Gwenda had stamped and stacked the letters, she asked:
“Isn’t it about time that you—took that trip abroad?”
“Trip abroad?”
Leo Argyle sounded very vague. Gwenda said:
“Yes. Don’t you remember you were going to Rome and to Siena.”
“Oh, yes, yes, so I was.”
“You were going to see those documents from the archives that Cardinal Massilini wrote to you about.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Would you like me to make the reservations by air, or would you rather go by train?”
As though coming back from a long way away, Leo looked at her and smiled faintly.
“You seem very anxious to get rid of me, Gwenda,” he said.
“Oh no, darling, no.”
She came quickly across and knelt down by his side.
“I never want you to leave me, never. But—but I think—oh, I think it would be better if you went away from here after—after….”
“After last week?” said Leo. “After Dr. Calgary’s visit?”
“I wish he hadn’t come here,” said Gwenda. “I wish things could have been left as they were.”
“With Jacko unjustly condemned for something he didn’t do?”
“He might have done it,” said Gwenda. “He might have done it any time, and it’s a pure accident, I think, that he didn’t do it.”
“It’s odd,” said Leo, thoughtfully. “I never really could believe he did do it. I mean, of course, I had to give in to the evidence—but it seemed to me so unlikely.”
“Why? He always had a terrible temper, didn’t he?”
“Yes. Oh, yes. He attacked other children. Usually children rather smaller than himself. I never really felt that he would have attacked Rachel.”
“Why not?”
“Because he was afraid of her,” said Leo. “She had great authority, you know. Jacko felt it just like everybody else.”
“But don’t you think,” said Gwenda, “that that was just why—I mean—” She paused.
Leo looked at her questioningly. Something in his glance made the colour come up into her cheeks. She turned away, went over to the fire and knelt down in front of it with her hands to the blaze. “Yes,” she thought to herself, “Rachel had authority all right. So pleased with herself, so sure of herself, so much the queen bee bossing us all. Isn’t that enough to make one want to take a poker, to make one want to strike her down, to silence her once and for all? Rachel was always right, Rachel always knew best, Rachel always got her own way.”
She got up abruptly.
“Leo,” she said. “Couldn’t we—couldn’t we be married quite soon instead of waiting until March?”
Leo looked at her. He was silent for a moment, and then he said:
“No, Gwenda, no. I don’t think that would be a good plan.”
“Why not?”
“I think,” said Leo, “it would be a pity to rush into anything.”
“What do you mean?”
She came across to him. She knelt down again beside him.
“Leo, what do you mean? You must tell me.”
He said:
“My dear, I just think that we mustn’t, as I said, rush into anything.”
“But we will be married in March, as we planned?”
“I hope so … Yes, I hope so.”
“You don’t speak as though you were sure … Leo, don’t you care any more?