Read Online Poison In The Pen by Patricia Wentworth - Free Book Online Page A

did not feel it strange. The months between were gone and the gap had closed. They were Jason and Valentine, and they were together. They stood like that without moving until he said,
    “So you’ve come. Just as well. I meant what I said about coming up to beat on the front door if you didn’t. Well, now we’d better sit down and talk. The steps will do.”
    He let go of her and they sat, as they had done so many times before. If the moon had been out, they would have seen the slope of the Tilling woods, the Green like an irregular triangle with its bordering of houses, and the trickle of the Till going down through the meadows to join the Lede. There were no lights in any of the houses, but the outline of the Green was visible and the black mass of the church. Nearer still a faint mist brooded above the lake where Doris Pell had drowned.
    Neither of them spoke for a time. Valentine had come here to be angry, to beat herself against the thing in him that could love her and leave her, which could go away but could not stay away. But now that they were here together she could not do it. If he came he came, and if he went he went. There was nothing she could do about it. Only how could she marry Gilbert Earle when she felt as if she were married already to Jason? What was marriage? It wasn’t just the words which Tommy would say over her and Gilbert tomorrow. It wasn’t just the physical bond, the physical sharing. For some people it might be that, but not for her. She felt with a deep inner knowledge that she would never be Gilbert’s wife. And if they had never kissed, never touched, and were never to touch or kiss again, the bond that was between Jason and herself was something that would never change or break.
    Out of the darkness at her side he said,
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I don’t know—”
    He laughed.
    “A bit eleventh-hour, isn’t it?”
    He heard her take her breath.
    “Why did you go away?”
    There was a movement as if his shoulder had lifted and dropped again. The gesture came up out of the past, as dearly familiar as the tough lean body, the dark hair, the slant of his brows, the mobile mouth, the swift change of expression from grave to gay. He said,
    “Needs must when the devil drives.”
    “Jason, why did you go?”
    “My darling sweet, there is only one answer to ‘Why?’ and that is ‘Because.’ ”
    “Meaning you are not going to tell me?”
    He nodded.
    “Got it in one.”
    She said in a low shaken voice,
    “Why did you come back?”
    “About time I did, wasn’t it?”
    After a little she said, “No.” And then, “If you hadn’t come—”
    “You would have married Gilbert and everything would have been all right?”
    She took another of those long sighing breaths.
    “No. There isn’t any way out.”
    In her own mind she thought, “I’m in a trap. I can’t marry Gilbert. I can’t break it off. Not now. Not like this.”
    The church clock began to strike. The twelve strokes fell upon the air with a mellow sound. Jason said,
    “Well, darling, it is your wedding day. What does it feel like?”
    She put the flat of her palm upon the step between them and pushed herself up. She felt as if the weight was too much for her to lift. But she was no sooner on her feet than he pulled her down again.
    “No good running away from it, Val. You know you can’t marry him.”
    Having pulled her down, he let go of her at once.
    Her voice sounded lost as she said,
    “I must.”‘
    “You know perfectly well that you can’t! I’m not doing anything to influence you. I haven’t touched you, I haven’t kissed you, I’m not making any impassioned appeals. I’m just asking you what you expect to happen if you go through with this marriage. Who do you think is going to get anything out of it? If you’re thinking of Gilbert, I can imagine pleasanter things than finding yourself landed with a reluctant girl who is in love with somebody else. If you are thinking of me, I can