Postern of Fate (Tommy and Tuppence Series) - Agatha Christie [34]
‘Well, I think it’s a nice place.’
‘What do you mean by nice?’
‘Well, it’s a good word really. It’s a word one usually despises, but I don’t know why one should. I suppose a place that’s nice is a place where things don’t happen and you don’t want them to happen. You’re glad they don’t.’
‘Ah. That’s because of our age, I suppose.’
‘No, I don’t think it’s because of that. It’s because it’s nice to know there are places where things don’t happen. Though I must say something nearly happened today.’
‘What do you mean by nearly happened? Have you been doing anything silly, Tuppence?’
‘No, of course I haven’t.’
‘Then what do you mean?’
‘I mean that pane of glass at the top of the greenhouse, you know, it was trembling the other day a bit, had the twitches. Well it practically came down on my head. Might have cut me to bits.’
‘It doesn’t seem to have cut you to bits,’ said Tommy, looking at her.
‘No. I was lucky. But still, it made me jump rather.’
‘Oh, we’ll have to get our old boy who comes and does things, what’s-his-name? Isaac, isn’t it? Have to get him to look at some of the other panes–I mean, we don’t want you being done in, Tuppence.’
‘Well, I suppose when you buy an old house there’s always something wrong with it.’
‘Do you think there’s something wrong with this house, Tuppence?’
‘What on earth do you mean by wrong with this house?’
‘Well, because I heard something rather queer about it today.’
‘What–queer about this house?’
‘Yes.’
‘Really, Tommy, that seems impossible,’ said Tuppence.
‘Why does it seem impossible? Because it looks so nice and innocent? Well painted and done up?’
‘No. Well painted and done up and looking innocent, that’s all due to us. It looked rather shabby and decayed when we bought it.’
‘Well, of course, that’s why it was cheap.’
‘You look peculiar, Tommy,’ said Tuppence. ‘What is it?’
‘Well, it was old Moustachio-Monty, you know.’
‘Oh, dear old boy, yes. Did he send his love to me?’
‘Yes, he certainly did. He told me to make you take care of yourself, and me to take care of you.’
‘He always says that. Though why I should take care of myself here I don’t know.’
‘Well, it seems it’s the sort of place you might have to take care of yourself.’
‘Now what on earth do you mean by that, Tommy?’
‘Tuppence, what would you think if I said that he suggested or hinted, whatever way you like, that we were here not as old retired has-beens but as people on active service? That we were once more, as in the N or M days, on duty here. Sent here by the forces of security and order to discover something. To find out what was wrong with this place.’
‘Well, I don’t know if you’re dreaming, Tommy, or if it was old Moustachio-Monty who was, if it was he who suggested it.’
‘Well, he did. He seemed to think that we were definitely here on some kind of mission, to find something.’
‘To find something? What sort of thing?’
‘Something that might be hidden in this house.’
‘Something that might be hidden in this house! Tommy, are you mad, or was he mad?’
‘Well, I rather thought he might be mad, but I’m not so sure.’
‘What could there be to find in this house?’
‘Something that I suppose was once hidden here.’
‘Buried treasure, are you talking about? Russian crown jewels hidden in the basement, that sort of thing?’
‘No. Not treasure. Something that would be dangerous to someone.’
‘Well, that’s very odd,’ said Tuppence.
‘Why, have you found something?’
‘No, of course I haven’t found anything. But it seems there was a scandal about this place donkey’s years ago. I don’t mean anyone actually remembers, but it’s the sort of thing that your grandmother told you, or the servants gossiped about. Actually, Beatrice has a friend who seemed to know something about it. And Mary Jordan was mixed up in it. It was all very hush-hush.’
‘Are you imagining things, Tuppence? Have you gone back to the glorious days of our youth, to the time when someone gave a girl on the Lusitania something secret, the days when we had adventure, when we tracked down the enigmatic