Towards Zero - Agatha Christie [40]
“Including Kay?”
“Kay,” said Nevile, “will be sensible.”
“What do you mean by sensible?”
“Simply this. I shall go to her and tell her the truth. Fling myself on her generosity. Tell her, what is true, that you are the only woman I ever loved.”
“You loved Kay when you married her.”
“My marriage to Kay was the biggest mistake I ever made. I—”
He stopped. Kay had come out of the drawing room window. She walked towards them, and before the fury in her eyes even Nevile shrank a little.
“Sorry to interrupt this touching scene,” said Kay. “But I think it’s about time I did.”
Audrey moved away. “I’ll leave you alone,” she said.
Her face and voice were colourless.
“That’s right,” said Kay. “You’ve done all the mischief you wanted to do, haven’t you? I’ll deal with you later. Just now I’d rather have it out with Nevile.”
“Look here, Kay, Audrey has absolutely nothing to do with this. It’s not her fault. Blame me if you like—”
“And I do like,” said Kay. Her eyes blazed at Nevile. “What sort of man do you think you are?”
“A pretty poor sort of man,” said Nevile bitterly.
“You leave your wife, come bullheaded after me, get your wife to give you a divorce. Crazy about me one minute, tired of me the next! Now I suppose you want to go back to that whey-faced, mewling, double-crossing little cat—”
“Stop that, Kay!”
“Well, what do you want?”
Nevile was very white. He said:
“I’m every kind of a worm you like to call me. But it’s no good, Kay. I can’t go on. I think—really—I must have loved Audrey all the time. My love for you was—was a kind of madness. But it’s no good, my dear—you and I don’t belong. I shouldn’t be able to make you happy in the long run. Believe me, Kay, it’s better to cut our losses. Let’s try and part friends. Be generous.”
Kay said in a deceptively quiet voice:
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
Nevile did not look at her. His chin took on a dogged angle.
“We can get a divorce. You can divorce me for desertion.”
“Not for some time. You’ll have to wait for it.”
“I’ll wait,” said Nevile.
“And then, after three years or whatever it is, you’ll ask dear sweet Audrey to marry you all over again?”
“If she’ll have me.”
“She’ll have you all right!” said Kay viciously. “And where do I come in?”
“You’ll be free to find a better man than I am. Naturally I shall see you’re well provided for—”
“Cut out the bribes!” Her voice rose, as she lost control of herself. “Listen to me, Nevile. You can’t do this thing to me! I’ll not divorce you. I married you because I loved you. I know when you started turning against me. It was after I let you know I followed you to Estoril. You wanted to think it was all Fate. It’s upset your vanity to think it was me. Well, I’m not ashamed of what I did. You fell in love with me and married me and I’m not going to let you go back to that sly little cat who’s got her hooks into you again. She meant this to happen—but she’s not going to bring it off! I’ll kill you first. Do you hear? I’ll kill you. I’ll kill her too. I’ll see you both dead. I’ll—”
Nevile took a step forward and caught her by the arm.
“Shut up, Kay. For goodness’ sake. You can’t make this kind of scene here.”
“Can’t I? You’ll see. I’ll—”
Hurstall stepped out on the terrace. His face was quite impassive.
“Tea is served in the drawing room,” he announced.
Kay and Nevile walked slowly towards the drawing room window.
Hurstall stood aside to let them pass in.
Up in the sky the clouds were gathering.
XI
The rain started falling at a quarter to seven. Nevile watched it from the window of his bedroom. He had no further conversation with Kay. They had avoided each other after tea.
Dinner that evening was a stilted difficult meal. Nevile was sunk in abstraction; Kay’s face had an unusual amount of makeup for her; Audrey sat like a frozen ghost. Mary Aldin did her best to keep some kind of a conversation going and was slightly annoyed with Thomas Royde for not playing up to her better.
Hurstall was nervous and his hands trembled as he handed the vegetables.