Read Online Ladies’ Bane by Patricia Wentworth - Free Book Online
Authors: Patricia Wentworth
Tags: detective
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scolding.”
Jacqueline Delauny looked offended.
“Margot is never scolded. The appeal is always to her reason.”
“Has she got any reason to appeal to? I shouldn’t have thought she had. Of course it’s not my business, except in so far as it affects Allegra-and I don’t think anyone would say that she is in a fit state of health for rough practical joking. But to come back to where I started-why doesn’t Geoffrey send her to school?”
Jacqueline Delauny had gone over to the window. Standing there with her back to Ione, she said in an expressionless voice,
“They won’t keep her.”
CHAPTER 9
Geoffrey Trent came whistling along the passage.
“Are you ready? Allegra has just gone down, and there’s a fire in the drawing-room. I hope you won’t find it too warm, but she feels the cold a good deal.”
Allegra had been like any other country girl, in and out of the house all day and healthily impervious to the weather, Ione had the thought in her mind as she followed Geoffrey to the drawing-room where some winter sunshine straggled in and quite a large wood fire smouldered upon the hearth.
At the first glance Ione found herself convicted of worrying about nothing. Allegra had colour in her cheeks and brightness in her eyes. She ran to kiss Ione, and keeping hold of her hand, took her to the big sofa beside the fire, talking all the time.
“You slept all right? I was simply dead, or I’d have come to see you. I get so tired at night. Not always, you know, but just sometimes, and then there’s nothing for it but to go to bed and sleep. The beds themselves are all terribly old, but those Americans who were here had the most lovely spring mattresses put in everywhere. After all, you couldn’t expect mattresses to go for hundreds of years, even if they were made from the best goose feathers like Miss Falconer says they were. Did Geoffrey tell you about her? He wants to buy the house, you know, but she won’t make up her mind. And nor will Mr. Sanderson-I can’t think why. Anyone would imagine that it wasn’t my own money. And it’s quite insulting the way he goes on making difficulties-as if I was a perfect fool and Geoffrey couldn’t be trusted to look after my interests!” She took a quick shallow breath, and Ione managed to say,
“Lawyers are like that. They don’t mean to be insulting-it’s just their way.”
Allegra was off again. Nothing could be less like the silent shadowy girl of yesterday. But Ione’s initial relief was passing into an even more acute anxiety. The colour in the thin cheeks was too bright. Allegra’s tongue had never raced at this unnatural speed. And those glances going here and there, but never resting, never meeting Ione’s-
Then quite suddenly their eyes did meet, accidentally as it seemed, and so briefly that for the moment Ione merely knew that she had received a tingling shock. There was no time for thought before the lashes came down and the head was turned. The realization of what she had seen came unwillingly and slowly. The pupils in those over-bright eyes were too small. They were much, much, much too small.
Allegra went on with that rapid talk. Ione was grateful for it-there was no need for her to say anything. She had disturbing thoughts. The sofa on which they were sitting stood with its back to the windows through which those gleams of sunlight brightened only to fade again. There was a fire-screen between Allegra and the not very brightly burning logs upon the hearth. There was, in fact, no natural cause for those contracted pupils. But there was an unnatural and most frightening one. One of Ione’s impulses came surging up, and no matter what she said to herself about it afterwards, you don’t begin to be tactful with your own only sister just because she has got married and you haven’t seen her for the best part of two years-at least not all in a moment, and when you have just had a most horrid shock. The impulse took charge. She leaned
Jacqueline Delauny looked offended.
“Margot is never scolded. The appeal is always to her reason.”
“Has she got any reason to appeal to? I shouldn’t have thought she had. Of course it’s not my business, except in so far as it affects Allegra-and I don’t think anyone would say that she is in a fit state of health for rough practical joking. But to come back to where I started-why doesn’t Geoffrey send her to school?”
Jacqueline Delauny had gone over to the window. Standing there with her back to Ione, she said in an expressionless voice,
“They won’t keep her.”
CHAPTER 9
Geoffrey Trent came whistling along the passage.
“Are you ready? Allegra has just gone down, and there’s a fire in the drawing-room. I hope you won’t find it too warm, but she feels the cold a good deal.”
Allegra had been like any other country girl, in and out of the house all day and healthily impervious to the weather, Ione had the thought in her mind as she followed Geoffrey to the drawing-room where some winter sunshine straggled in and quite a large wood fire smouldered upon the hearth.
At the first glance Ione found herself convicted of worrying about nothing. Allegra had colour in her cheeks and brightness in her eyes. She ran to kiss Ione, and keeping hold of her hand, took her to the big sofa beside the fire, talking all the time.
“You slept all right? I was simply dead, or I’d have come to see you. I get so tired at night. Not always, you know, but just sometimes, and then there’s nothing for it but to go to bed and sleep. The beds themselves are all terribly old, but those Americans who were here had the most lovely spring mattresses put in everywhere. After all, you couldn’t expect mattresses to go for hundreds of years, even if they were made from the best goose feathers like Miss Falconer says they were. Did Geoffrey tell you about her? He wants to buy the house, you know, but she won’t make up her mind. And nor will Mr. Sanderson-I can’t think why. Anyone would imagine that it wasn’t my own money. And it’s quite insulting the way he goes on making difficulties-as if I was a perfect fool and Geoffrey couldn’t be trusted to look after my interests!” She took a quick shallow breath, and Ione managed to say,
“Lawyers are like that. They don’t mean to be insulting-it’s just their way.”
Allegra was off again. Nothing could be less like the silent shadowy girl of yesterday. But Ione’s initial relief was passing into an even more acute anxiety. The colour in the thin cheeks was too bright. Allegra’s tongue had never raced at this unnatural speed. And those glances going here and there, but never resting, never meeting Ione’s-
Then quite suddenly their eyes did meet, accidentally as it seemed, and so briefly that for the moment Ione merely knew that she had received a tingling shock. There was no time for thought before the lashes came down and the head was turned. The realization of what she had seen came unwillingly and slowly. The pupils in those over-bright eyes were too small. They were much, much, much too small.
Allegra went on with that rapid talk. Ione was grateful for it-there was no need for her to say anything. She had disturbing thoughts. The sofa on which they were sitting stood with its back to the windows through which those gleams of sunlight brightened only to fade again. There was a fire-screen between Allegra and the not very brightly burning logs upon the hearth. There was, in fact, no natural cause for those contracted pupils. But there was an unnatural and most frightening one. One of Ione’s impulses came surging up, and no matter what she said to herself about it afterwards, you don’t begin to be tactful with your own only sister just because she has got married and you haven’t seen her for the best part of two years-at least not all in a moment, and when you have just had a most horrid shock. The impulse took charge. She leaned
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