Read Online She Fell Among Thieves by Dornford Yates - Free Book Online Page A

Rachel’s door…
    The fellow had a girl by the wrists – a housemaid, a nice-looking girl. She was straining away from her captor, whose face was wreathed in a grin.
    When he saw me, he let her go, and she made her escape.
    I shut the door behind her and turned to see the gallant more white in the face than red.
    He was swallowing violently.
    ‘What then?’ he said thickly, and breathed very hard through the nose.
    ‘This,’ said I. ‘Virginia heard what was happening, and now I’m going to ask her what she wants done. If she wants you kicked, I’ll kick you until you pray for death. If she wants your head knocked off, I’m not too bad with my fists and I’ll do what I can. If she asks me not to thrash you, I’ll let you go. But I shouldn’t do this again, because next time I shan’t leave the decision to her.’
    With that, I turned and left him, with a hand to his throat.
    Virginia was not to be seen, but right at the end of the hall a door which had been shut was standing ajar…
    As I pushed it open, I saw her at one of the windows regarding the sunlit fields.
    At once I passed to her side.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I’ve taken no action, of course. Is there anything you would like done?’
    She shook her head. Then, without looking round, she put out a hand.
    I took it naturally.
    ‘I’m sorry, Virginia.’
    Her fingers closed upon mine.
    ‘When will your car be ready?’
    ‘This evening,’ said I.
    ‘Then go tomorrow morning. Let nothing stop you, Richard. Just go – and forget Jezreel.’
    I felt very kindly towards her. She did not know that I knew the risk she was running in giving me such advice.
    Appearances, however, had to be preserved.
    ‘I’m not afraid,’ I said. ‘Besides, he won’t try to get back – in your mother’s house.’
    Virginia shivered.
    Then –
    ‘I want you to go for my sake. If you stay, you’ll make me unhappy. I mayn’t be in love with Gaston; but, at least, at the moment, I care for nobody else.’
    What the false suggestion cost her I cannot tell. But this I do know – few girls would have gone so far to save a comparative stranger from possible harm. Virginia had pledged her jewels, in order to force my hand.
    She had, of course, succeeded. I had to go now. Not that it mattered, because I had meant to be gone. What did matter was that now I could not come back.
    As I put her hand up to my lips, I wondered what Mansel would say…
    Virginia caught her breath – she knew how to act. Then she whipped away her fingers.
    ‘And now for the lanterns,’ she said.
    These were most exquisite things. Each of their seven faces presented a lovely window, glazed with Bohemian glass. The windows were made to open, and each of them had four panes: and each of the panes was presenting some fable of Aesop’s, the detail of which was so fine as to trouble the naked eye.
    They had been made, said Virginia, as a wedding gift to some monarch whose name I forget: and now they served to illumine a seldom-used salon belonging to Vanity Fair. Lest the light they shed was too poor, standing between the windows was a sedan chair. This I had marked and admired the day before. The brocade of its cushions…
    In spite of myself I started.
    The roof of the chair was open, but the blinds of the chair were drawn .
    As we turned to leave the salon, I know that Virginia was speaking, but I do not know what she said.
    To be honest, my brain was recoiling, as a man recoils from a snake.
    ‘Ask Virginia to show you those lanterns.’
    The truth was clear, if startling.
    Though Virginia herself did not know it, she and I had just kept an appointment with Vanity Fair.
     
    I confess that from that time on I counted the hours. I had had enough of Jezreel. For me, the house was haunted, and that by something more dreadful than any ghost. The place was cursed with the spirit of Vanity Fair.
    We are so well accustomed to the safety of modern times that treachery is no longer a household