Read Online Away Went Love by Mary Burchell - Free Book Online Page A

His chair dropped bade into position with a thud. “Good God, how did you manage that?”
    She nervously passed the tip of her tongue over her lips.
    “Doctor Tamberly, believe me, I wouldn’t have come to you if there had been any other way—”
    “I believe you,” he said, and the dry significance which he gave to that made her flush again. “But that doesn’t explain why you have come to me at all. Why do you need five hundred pounds?”
    This was the moment! Now she had got to make the best story she could.
    “Well, you see, I and a friend—”
    “What friend?”
    “That doesn’t matter,” she said hastily. “I and this—this friend made a terribly unfortunate speculation. We—we made some money at first—then we came down with a crash and—”
    “Do you mean you’ve been betting heavily and can’t pay your debts?”
    “ No !”
    She realized the next moment that her tone was unreasonably shocked and indignant for one who was supposed to have speculated heavily.
    “We—it was stocks and shares.”
    “What do you know about stocks and shares?” he asked curiously. “I shouldn’t have thought they were much in your line.”
    “They—aren’t, exactly.” She felt nervously that he might start testing her knowledge of the stock market at any moment. “He—my friend—did the actual business part of it and—”
    “He fooled you out of your money, in fact. I suppose it was young Fander?”
    “There was no question of fooling me out of my money,” Hope said with emphasis, because it was a relief to be able to deny part of his suggestion categorically. She was horrified to find how unerringly he identified Richard, and she hoped he would not demand a straight answer to an enquiry on that.
    “Very well, then. It was a joint affair. By mutual consent you put your capital into some investment?”
    “Yes.” She was breathing a little more easily now.
    “But you were unfortunate and lost the lot?”
    “Yes.”
    “An expensive lesson, Hope. What makes you think I should pay for it?”
    “Well—Oh!” She saw then that she had not covered the necessity for replacing the money.
    “Exactly,” he said dryly. “Now let’s begin at the beginning again and tell the truth. Most of the money that was lost was put in by young Fander. Is that right?”
    “I didn’t say it was Richard!”
    “You don’t need to,” he said rather roughly. “No one but the man you think you’re in love with would persuade you to go in for something of this sort. Most of the money — perhaps”—he regarded her thoughtfully—“perhaps all of it—was put in by Fander. It’s gone and it’s imperative that the money is replaced. Therefore it’s not his own money. Am I right?”
    She stared back at him in horrid fascination. It seemed to her—perhaps unreasonably—that his deduction was uncannily quick. Anyway, it was impossible to deny that he was right.
    “Doctor Tamberly, will—will you please help us?”
    He picked up his paper knife and balanced it thoughtfully on a paper weight.
    “I really fail to see why I should pay out five hundred pounds for the sake of Richard Fander.”
    “No—but for—for my sake?”
    He glanced at her and frowned.
    “You’re being sentimental, you know, Hope. The fellow deserves to go to jail.”
    “Oh, I know it sounds like that, but you don’t know all the circumstances. He mustn’t go to—to prison. I’d do anything to prevent that.”
    “Anything?”
    “Why—why, yes—I think so.”
    There was a short silence. Then Errol Tamberly tossed down the paper knife and leant back in his chair.
    “Very well. I’ll give you the five hundred pounds—”
    “You will ?”
    “—on two conditions.”
    “Y-yes?”
    “One is that, having handed over the money to Fander, you arrange not to see him again—”
    “But—but I can’t do that! I’m going to marry him.”
    “No. Not if you fall in with this arrangement. The second condition of my handing over the