The Man in the Brown Suit - Agatha Christie [66]
‘They’re probably short of food just today,’ he explained consolingly. ‘That man’s wife has gone into Bulawayo for stores. So it will be all right. And anyway, you know, the world’s full of starving cats.’
‘Don’t–don’t,’ I said fiercely.
‘I’m teaching you to realize life as it is. I’m teaching you to be hard and ruthless–like I am. That’s the secret of strength–and the secret of success.’
‘I’d sooner be dead than hard,’ I said passionately.
We got into the car and started off. I pulled myself together again slowly. Suddenly, to my intense astonishment, he took my hand in his.
‘Anne,’ he said gently, ‘I want you. Will you marry me?’
I was utterly taken aback.
‘Oh, no,’ I stammered. ‘I can’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘I don’t care for you in that way. I’ve never thought of you like that.’
‘I see. Is that the only reason?’
I had to be honest. I owed it him.
‘No,’ I said, ‘it is not. You see–I–care for someone else.’
‘I see,’ he said again. ‘And was that true at the beginning–when I first saw you–on the Kilmorden?’
‘No,’ I whispered. ‘It was–since then.’
‘I see,’ he said for the third time, but this time there was a purposeful ring in his voice that made me turn and look at him. His face was grimmer than I had ever seen it.
‘What–what do you mean?’ I faltered.
He looked at me, inscrutable, dominating.
‘Only–that I know now what I have to do.’
His words sent a shiver through me. There was a determination behind them that I did not understand–and it frightened me.
We neither of us said any more until we got back to the hotel. I went straight up to Suzanne. She was lying on her bed reading, and did not look in the least as though she had a headache.
‘Here reposes the perfect gooseberry,’ she remarked. ‘Alias the tactful chaperone. Why, Anne dear, what’s the matter?’
For I had burst into a flood of tears.
I told her about the cats–I felt it wasn’t fair to tell her about Colonel Race. But Suzanne is very sharp. I think she saw that there was something more behind.
‘You haven’t caught a chill, have you, Anne? Sounds absurd even to suggest such things in this heat, but you keep on shivering.’
‘It’s nothing,’ I said. ‘Nerves–or someone walking over my grave. I keep feeling something dreadful’s going to happen.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Suzanne, with decision. ‘Let’s talk of something interesting. Anne, about those diamonds–’
‘What about them?’
‘I’m not sure they’re safe with me. It was all right before, no one could think they’d be amongst my things. But now that everyone knows we’re such friends, you and I, I’ll be under suspicion too.’
‘Nobody knows they’re in a roll of films, though,’ I argued. ‘It’s a splendid hiding-place and I really don’t think we could better it.’
She agreed doubtfully, but said we would discuss it again when we got to the Falls.
Our train went at nine o’clock. Sir Eustace’s temper was still far from good, and Miss Pettigrew looked subdued. Colonel Race was completely himself. I felt that I had dreamed the whole conversation on the way back.
I slept heavily that night on my hard bunk, struggling with ill-defined, menacing dreams. I awoke with a headache and went out on the observation platform of the car. It was fresh and lovely, and everywhere, as far as one could see, were the undulating wooded hills. I loved it–loved it more than any place I had ever seen. I wished then that I could have a little hut somewhere in the heart of the scrub and live there always–always…
Just before half-past two, Colonel Race called me out from the ‘office’ and pointed to a bouquet-shaped white mist that hovered over one portion of the bush.
‘The spray from the Falls,’ he said. ‘We are nearly there.’
I was still wrapped in that strange dream feeling of exaltation that had succeeded my troubled night. Very strongly implanted in me was the feeling that I had come home…Home! And yet I had never been here before–or had I in dreams?
We walked from the train to the hotel, a big white building closely wired against mosquitoes. There were no roads, no houses. We went out on