Read Online Who Pays the Piper? by Patricia Wentworth - Free Book Online

cousin.”
    She had known what was coming before it came, but the shock was no less for that. A car on a straight road and another car coming right at it—the inevitable head-on collision. You know just when it will come and where. There is nothing to do but to wait for the crash. It was like that. At first just the hint of danger, then danger looming, coming nearer, nearer. Then the words, “I should not prosecute my wife’s cousin.”
    Susan walked to a chair and sat down. She closed her eyes and steadied herself as best she could to fight for everything that mattered to her in the world—Cathy, Bill, their little house, Aunt Milly, friends, the place they had lived in not only for her lifetime and Cathy’s but for all those generations that had gone before—men and women who had taken their name from King’s Bourne, lived out their lives there, and were remembered by cross and slab, by effigy and brass, in the churchyard and in the church under the hill—not many wise, not many noble, but a race of honourable people, faithful in their obligations, gallant in stress, kindly and upright. She had to fight for them, and she went into the battle shocked and dazed, her heart betraying her, because how can you think clearly or know what you should do when you love two people and they pull different ways?
    Lucas Dale had never admired her so much as when she lifted eyes that were dark with pain to his and said,
    â€œWill you sit down? I can’t stand any longer, and we must talk.”
    He moved the chair in which Cathy had sat, leaned back in it, and spoke more gently,
    â€œIt rests with you.”
    It was some time before she said anything. When she did her voice was steady.
    â€œYou have said that you care for me. I think you do. I am very grateful. I shall be grateful to you every day of my life if you will be generous about this.”
    â€œI don’t see it that way, Susan. You mayn’t think I’ve got a code, but I have. I won’t break it. If this is a family affair it can be settled in the family. If it isn’t it’s a case for the police. It’s for you to say whether it’s a family affair or not.”
    She took that blow, and came back with a pathetic courage.
    â€œPlease, will you let me tell you about Cathy? She isn’t strong—she hasn’t ever really been strong. About four years ago she had a very bad illness. She very nearly died. They said then that she mustn’t ever have any strain or shock. If there were a case and she had to go into court, I think it would kill her. There must be some mistake, and it would come out in the end, but I don’t think Cathy would ever get over it. Mr. Dale—if you care for me at all——”
    He said harshly, “That’s not fair.” And then, “I want you to listen to me. You say if I care for you I’ll break through my code. If I was that sort of man I wouldn’t be worth caring for you at all. If I’d no more stuffing in me than that, do you think I’d ever have got where I am? Do you know what I was? A charity boy—no father, no mother, no name. You don’t get from that to where I am now by being soft, nor by giving up because a thing’s hard to get. The harder it’s been, the harder I’ve had to try, but what I’ve wanted I’ve got, all through. Don’t you think that you can turn me, Susan. No one ever has, and no one ever will—not when I’ve set my mind on a thing. What I want I get, and what I get I keep.”
    There was a pause on that. The room was very still. His last words said themselves over and over in Susan’s mind. She broke from them at last. Some colour came to her cheeks. She said in a stronger voice,
    â€œIt’s not possible—none of it. Cathy couldn’t do a thing like that.”
    â€œWho did it then? The pearls were in her bag. She begged you not to open it. Why did