Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [25]
‘That sounds very uncomfortable,’ said Tuppence. ‘I mean, to land in the monkey puzzle.’
‘Ah well, she could stop herself a bit before that. Very serious, she was. She used to do that by the hour–three or four hours I’ve watched her. I was doing the Christmas rose bed very often, you know, and the pampas grass, and I’d see her going down. I didn’t speak to her because she didn’t like being spoken to. She wanted to go on with what she was doing or what she thought she was doing.’
‘What did she think she was doing?’ said Tuppence, beginning suddenly to get more interested in Miss Pamela than she had been in Miss Jenny.
‘Well, I don’t know. She used to say sometimes she was a princess, you know, escaping, or Mary, Queen of What-is-it–do I mean Ireland or Scotland?’
‘Mary Queen of Scots,’ suggested Tuppence.
‘Yes, that’s right. She went away or something, or escaped. Went into a castle. Lock something it was called. Not a real lock, you know, a piece of water, it was.’
‘Ah yes, I see. And Pamela thought she was Mary Queen of Scots escaping from her enemies?’
‘That’s right. Going to throw herself into England on Queen Elizabeth’s mercy, she said, but I don’t think as Queen Elizabeth was very merciful.’
‘Well,’ said Tuppence, masking any disappointment she felt, ‘it’s all very interesting, I’m sure. Who were these people, did you say?’
‘Oh, they were the Listers, they were.’
‘Did you ever know a Mary Jordan?’
‘Ah, I know who you mean. No, she was before my time a bit, I think. You mean the German spy girl, don’t you?’
‘Everyone seems to know about her here,’ said Tuppence.
‘Yes. They called her the Frow Line, or something. Sounds like a railway.’
‘It does rather,’ said Tuppence.
Isaac suddenly laughed. ‘Ha, ha, ha,’ he said. ‘If it was a railway, a line, a railway line, oh, it didn’t run straight, did it? No, indeed.’ He laughed again.
‘What a splendid joke,’ said Tuppence kindly.
Isaac laughed again.
‘It’s about time,’ he said, ‘you thought of putting some vegetables in, isn’t it? You know, if you want to get your broad beans on in good time you ought to put ’em in and prepare for the peas. And what about some early lettuce? Tom Thumbs now? Beautiful lettuce, those, small but crisp as anything.’
‘I suppose you’ve done a lot of gardening work round here. I don’t mean just this house, but a lot of places.’
‘Ah yes, I’ve done odd jobbing, you know. I used to come along to most of the houses. Some of the gardeners they had weren’t any good at all and I’d usually come in and help at certain times or other. Had a bit of an accident here once, you know. Mistake about vegetables. Before my time–but I heard about it.’
‘Something about foxglove leaves, wasn’t it?’ said Tuppence.
‘Ah, fancy you having heard of that already. That was a long time ago, too. Yes, several was taken ill with it. One of them died. At least so I heard. That was only hearsay. Old pal of mine told me that.’
‘I think it was the Frow Line,’ said Tuppence.
‘What, the Frow Line as died? Well, I never heard that.’
‘Well, perhaps I’m wrong,’ said Tuppence. ‘Supposing you take Truelove,’ she said, ‘or whatever this thing’s called, and put it on the hill in the place where that child, Pamela, used to take it down the hill–if the hill is still there.’
‘Well, of course the hill is still there. What do you think? It’s all grass still, but be careful now. I don’t know how much of Truelove is rusted away. I’ll have a bit of a clean-up on it first, shall I?’
‘That’s right,’ said Tuppence, ‘and then you can think of a list of vegetables that we ought to be getting on with.’
‘Ah well, I’ll be careful you don’t get foxglove and spinach planted together. Shouldn’t like to