The Mirror Crack'd - Agatha Christie [86]
‘Come for your tray,’ she said. ‘Has anything happened? You’re looking rather upset, aren’t you?’
‘I feel so helpless,’ said Miss Marple. ‘Old and helpless.’
‘Don’t worry,’ said Cherry, picking up the tray. ‘You’re very far from helpless. You don’t know the things I hear about you in this place! Why practically everybody in the Development knows about you now. All sorts of extraordinary things you’ve done. They don’t think of you as the old and helpless kind. It’s she puts it into your head.’
‘She?’
Cherry gave a vigorous nod of her head backwards towards the door behind her.
‘Pussy, pussy,’ she said. ‘Your Miss Knight. Don’t you let her get you down.’
‘She’s very kind,’ said Miss Marple, ‘really very kind,’ she added, in the tone of one who convinces herself.
‘Care killed the cat, they say,’ said Cherry. ‘You don’t want kindness rubbed into your skin, so to speak, do you?’
‘Oh, well,’ said Miss Marple sighing, ‘I suppose we all have our troubles.’
‘I should say we do,’ said Cherry. ‘I oughtn’t to complain but I feel sometimes that if I live next door to Mrs Hartwell any longer there’s going to be a regrettable incident. Sour-faced old cat, always gossiping and complaining. Jim’s pretty fed up too. He had a first-class row with her last night. Just because we had The Messiah on a bit loud! You can’t object to The Messiah, can you? I mean, it’s religious.’
‘Did she object?’
‘She created something terrible,’ said Cherry. ‘Banged on the wall and shouted and one thing and another.’
‘Do you have to have your music turned on so loud?’ asked Miss Marple.
‘Jim likes it that way,’ said Cherry. ‘He says you don’t get the tone unless you have full volume.’
‘It might,’ suggested Miss Marple, ‘be a little trying for anyone if they weren’t musical.’
‘It’s these houses being semi-detached,’ said Cherry. ‘Thin as anything, the walls. I’m not so keen really on all this new building, when you come to think of it. It looks all very prissy and nice but you can’t express your personality without somebody being down on you like a ton of bricks.’
Miss Marple smiled at her.
‘You’ve got a lot of personality to express, Cherry,’ she said.
‘D’you think so?’ Cherry was pleased and she laughed. ‘I wonder,’ she began. Suddenly she looked embarrassed. She put down the tray and came back to the bed.
‘I wonder if you’d think it cheek if I asked you something? I mean — you’ve only got to say “out of the question” and that’s that.’
‘Something you want me to do?’
‘Not quite. It’s those rooms over the kitchen. They’re never used nowadays, are they?’
‘No.’
‘Used to be a gardener and wife there once, so I heard. But that’s old stuff. What I wondered — what Jim and I wondered — is if we could have them. Come and live here, I mean.’
Miss Marple stared at her in astonishment.
‘But your beautiful new house in the Development?’
‘We’re both fed up with it. We like gadgets, but you can have gadgets anywhere — get them on HP and there would be a nice lot of room here, especially if Jim could have the room over the stables. He’d fix it up like new, and he could have all his construction models there, and wouldn’t have to clear them away all the time. And if we had our stereogram there too, you’d hardly hear it.’
‘Are you really serious about this, Cherry?’
‘Yes, I am. Jim and I, we’ve talked about it a lot. Jim could fix things for you any time — you know, plumbing or a bit of carpentry, and I’d look after you every bit as well as your Miss Knight does. I know you think I’m a bit slap-dash — but I’d try and take trouble with the beds and the washing-up — and I’m getting quite a dab hand at cooking. Did Beef Stroganoff last night, it’s quite easy, really.’
Miss Marple contemplated her.
Cherry was looking like an eager kitten — vitality and joy of life radiated from her. Miss Marple thought once more of faithful Florence. Faithful Florence would, of course, keep the house far better. (Miss Marple put no