Taken at the Flood - Agatha Christie [33]
Rowley winced and turned away. He sat down in a chair and stared at Lord Edward Trenton instead.
In the dining-room Frances said to her husband:
‘I wonder what Rowley wants?’
Jeremy said wearily:
‘Probably fallen foul of some Government regulation. No farmer understands more than a quarter of these forms they have to fill up. Rowley’s a conscientious fellow. He gets worried.’
‘He’s nice,’ said Frances, ‘but terribly slow. I have a feeling, you know, that things aren’t going too well between him and Lynn.’
Jeremy murmured vacantly:
‘Lynn — oh, yes, of course. Forgive me, I — I don’t seem able to concentrate. The strain — ’
Frances said swiftly:
‘Don’t think about it. It’s going to be all right, I tell you.’
‘You frighten me sometimes, Frances. You’re so terribly reckless. You don’t realize — ’
‘I realize everything. I’m not afraid. Really, you know, Jeremy, I’m rather enjoying myself — ’
‘That, my dear,’ said Jeremy, ‘is just what causes me such anxiety.’
She smiled.
‘Come,’ she said. ‘You mustn’t keep that bucolic young man waiting too long. Go and help him to fill up form eleven hundred and ninety-nine, or whatever it is.’
But as they came out of the dining-room the front door banged shut. Edna came to tell them that Mr Rowley had said he wouldn’t wait and that it was nothing that really mattered.
Chapter 13
On that particular Tuesday afternoon, Lynn Marchmont had gone for a long walk. Conscious of a growing restlessness and dissatisfaction with herself, she felt the need for thinking things out.
She had not seen Rowley for some days. After their somewhat stormy parting on the morning she had asked him to lend her five hundred pounds they had met as usual. Lynn realized that her demand had been unreasonable and that Rowley had been well within his rights in turning it down. Nevertheless reasonableness has never been a quality that appeals to lovers. Outwardly things were the same between her and Rowley, inwardly she was not so sure. The last few days she had found unbearably monotonous, yet hardly liked to acknowledge to herself that David Hunter’s sudden departure to London with his sister might have something to do with their monotony. David, she admitted ruefully, was an exciting person…
As for her relations, at the moment she found them all unbearably trying. Her mother was in the best of spirits and had annoyed Lynn at lunch that day by announcing that she was going to try and find a second gardener. ‘Old Tom really can’t keep up with things here.’
‘But, darling, we can’t afford it,’ Lynn had exclaimed.
‘Nonsense, I really think, Lynn, that Gordon would be terribly upset if he could see how the garden has gone down. He was so particular always about the border, and the grass being kept mown, and the paths in good order — and just look at it now. I feel Gordon would want it put in order again.’
‘Even if we have to borrow money from his widow to do it.’
‘I told you, Lynn, Rosaleen couldn’t have been nicer about it. I really think she quite saw my point of view. I have a nice balance at the bank after paying all the bills. And I really think a second gardener would be an economy. Think of the extra vegetables we could grow.’
‘We could buy a lot of extra vegetables for a good deal less than another three pounds a week.’
‘I think we could get someone for less than that, dear. There are men coming out of the Services now who want jobs. The paper says so.’
Lynn said dryly: ‘I doubt if you’ll find them in Warmsley Vale — or in Warmsley Heath.’
But although the matter was left like that, the tendency of her mother to count on Rosaleen as a regular source of support haunted Lynn. It revived the memory of David’s sneering words.