The Seven Dials Mystery - Agatha Christie [59]
‘No one at all.’
‘But previously you thought you heard someone moving about down here?’
‘Yes.’
‘And then, after trying the window, you switched off the light again and locked the door?’
Jimmy nodded.
Superintendent Battle looked slowly around him. His glance was arrested by a big screen of Spanish leather which stood near one of the bookcases.
Brusquely he strode across the room and looked behind it.
He uttered a sharp ejaculation, which brought the three young people quickly to his side.
Huddled on the foor, in a dead faint, lay the Countess Radzky.
Chapter 22
The Countess Radzky’s Story
The Countess’s return to consciousness was very different from that of Jimmy Thesiger. It was more prolonged and infinitely more artistic.
Artistic was Bundle’s word. She had been zealous in her ministrations–largely consisting of the application of cold water–and the Countess had instantly responded, passing a white, bewildered hand across her brow and murmuring faintly.
It was at this point that Bill, at last relieved from his duties with telephone and doctors, had come bustling into the room and had instantly proceeded to make (in Bundle’s opinion) a most regrettable idiot of himself.
He had hung over the Countess with a concerned and anxious face and had addressed a series of singularly idiotic remarks to her:
‘I say, Countess. It’s all right. It’s really all right. Don’t try to talk. It’s bad for you. Just lie still. You’ll be all right in a minute. It’ll all come back to you. Don’t say anything till you’re quite all right. Take your time. Just lie still and close your eyes. You’ll remember everything in a minute. Have another sip of water. Have some brandy. That’s the stuff. Don’t you think, Bundle, that some brandy…?’
‘For God’s sake, Bill, leave her alone,’ said Bundle crossly. ‘She’ll be all right.’
And with an expert hand she flipped a good deal of cold water on to the exquisite make-up of the Countess’s face.
The Countess flinched and sat up. She looked considerably more wide awake.
‘Ah!’ she murmured. ‘I am here. Yes, I am here.’
‘Take you time,’ said Bill. ‘Don’t talk till you feel quite all right again.’
The Countess drew the folds of a very transparent negligée closer around her.
‘It is coming back to me,’ she murmured. ‘Yes, it is coming back.’
She looked at the little crowd grouped around her. Perhaps something in the attentive faces struck her as unsympathetic. In any case she smiled deliberately up at the one face which clearly displayed a very opposite emotion.
‘Ah, my big Englishman,’ she said very softly, ‘do not distress yourself. All is well with me.’
‘Oh! I say, but are you sure?’ demanded Bill anxiously.
‘Quite sure.’ She smiled at him reassuringly. ‘We Hungarians, we have nerves of steel.’
A look of intense relief passed over Bill’s face. A fatuous look settled down there instead–a look which made Bundle earnestly long to kick him.
‘Have some water,’ she said coldly.
The Countess refused water. Jimmy, kindlier to beauty in distress, suggested a cocktail. The Countess reacted favourably to this suggestion. When she had swallowed it, she looked round once more, this time with a livelier eye.
‘Tell me, what has happened?’ she demanded briskly.
‘We were hoping you might be able to tell us that,’ said Superintendent Battle.
The Countess looked at him sharply. She seemed to become aware of the big, quiet man for the first time.
‘I went to your room,’ said Bundle. ‘The bed hadn’t been slept in and you weren’t there.’
She paused–looking accusingly at the Countess. The latter closed her eyes and nodded her head slowly.
‘Yes, yes, I remember it all now. Oh, it was horrible!’ She shuddered. ‘Do you want me to tell you?’
Superintendent Battle said, ‘If you please’ at the same moment that Bill said, ‘Not if you don’t feel up to it.’
The Countess looked from one to the other, but the quiet, masterful eye of Superintendent Battle won the game.
‘I could not sleep,’ began the Countess. ‘The house–it oppressed me. I was all, as you say, on wires, the cat on the hot bricks.