Sad cypress - Agatha Christie [18]
Elinor said:
‘I think you’re right. You must give her time. Not see her for a bit, and then – start afresh.’
‘Darling Elinor! You’re the best friend anyone ever had.’ He took her hand suddenly and kissed it. ‘You know, Elinor, I do love you – just as much as ever! Sometimes Mary seems just like a dream. I might wake up from it – and find she wasn’t there…’
Elinor said:
‘If Mary wasn’t there…’
Roddy said with sudden feeling:
‘Sometimes I wish she wasn’t…You and I, Elinor, belong. We do belong, don’t we?’
Slowly she bent her head.
She said:‘Oh, yes – we belong.’
She thought: ‘If Mary wasn’t there…’
Chapter 5
Nurse Hopkins said with emotion:
‘It was a beautiful funeral!’
Nurse O’Brien responded:
‘It was, indeed. And the flowers! Did you ever see such beautiful flowers? A harp of white lilies there was, and a cross of yellow roses. Beautiful.’
Nurse Hopkins sighed and helped herself to buttered teacake. The two nurses were sitting in the Blue Tit Café.
Nurse Hopkins went on:
‘Miss Carlisle is a generous girl. She gave me a nice present, though she’d no call to do so.’
‘She’s a fine generous girl,’ agreed Nurse O’Brien warmly. ‘I do detest stinginess.’
Nurse Hopkins said:
‘Well, it’s a grand fortune she’s inherited.’
Nurse O’Brien said, ‘I wonder…’ and stopped.
Nurse Hopkins said, ‘Yes?’ encouragingly.
‘’Twas strange the way the old lady made no will.’
‘It was wicked,’ Nurse Hopkins said sharply. ‘People ought to be forced to make wills! It only leads to unpleasantness when they don’t.’
‘I’m wondering,’ said Nurse O’Brien, ‘if she had made a will, how she’d have left her money?’
Nurse Hopkins said firmly:
‘I know one thing.’
‘What’s that?’
‘She’d have left a sum of money to Mary – Mary Gerrard.’
‘Yes, indeed, and that’s true,’ agreed the other. She added excitedly, ‘Wasn’t I after telling you that night of the state she was in, poor dear, and the doctor doing his best to calm her down. Miss Elinor was there holding her auntie’s hand and swearing by God Almighty,’ said Nurse O’Brien, her Irish imagination suddenly running away with her, ‘that the lawyer should be sent for and everything done accordingly. “Mary! Mary!” the poor old lady said. “Is it Mary Gerrard you’re meaning?” says Miss Elinor, and straightaway she swore that Mary should have her rights!’
Nurse Hopkins said rather doubtfully:
‘Was it like that?’
Nurse O’Brien replied firmly:
‘That was the way of it, and I’ll tell you this, Nurse Hopkins: In my opinion, if Mrs Welman had lived to make that will, it’s likely there might have been surprises for all! Who knows she mightn’t have left every penny she possessed to Mary Gerrard!’
Nurse Hopkins said dubiously:
‘I don’t think she’d do that. I don’t hold with leaving your money away from your own flesh and blood.’
Nurse O’Brien said oracularly:
‘There’s flesh and blood and flesh and blood.’
Nurse Hopkins responded instantly:
‘Now, what might you mean by that?’
Nurse O’Brien said with dignity:
‘I’m not one to gossip! And I wouldn’t be blackening anyone’s name that’s dead.’
Nurse Hopkins nodded her head slowly and said:
‘That’s right. I agree with you. Least said soonest mended.’
She filled up the teapot.
Nurse O’Brien said:
‘By the way, now, did you find that tube of morphine all right when you got home?’
Nurse Hopkins frowned. She said:
‘No. It beats me to know what can have become of it, but I think it may have been this way: I might have set it down on the edge of the mantelpiece as I often do while I lock the cupboard, and it might have rolled and fallen into the wastepaper basket that was all full of rubbish and that was emptied out into the dustbin just as I left the house.’ She paused. ‘It must be that way, for I don’t see what else could have become of it.’
‘I see,’ said Nurse O’Brien. ‘Well, dear, that must have been it. It’s not as though you’d left your case about anywhere else – only just in the hall at Hunterbury – so it seems to me that what you suggested just now must be so. It’s gone into