Annie Haynes Premium Collection – 8 Murder Mysteries in One Volume. Annie Haynes

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СКАЧАТЬ the door of the housekeeper’s room, blushing as she caught the sound of voices and saw a man standing with his back to her when she entered.

      “I’ve come with a message from the nurse to her ladyship. Could you send it to her, do you think, Mrs. Parkyns?” holding it out.

      The housekeeper looked important.

      “Well, I think I might take it on myself, seeing it is marked ‘Immediate.’ You wait a minute, Minnie. I will speak to Mr. Jenkins.”

      She bustled off and Minnie was left tête-à-tête with her sweetheart.

      Mr. Gregory was distinctly inclined to make the most of his opportunity; he caught hold of Minnie round the waist with both hands before the girl had time to raise any objection.

      “Well, and what have you been doing with yourself all day, Minnie?” he said. “Not talking to Mr. Thomas Greyson, I hope?”

      Minnie raised her eyes reproachfully.

      “Jim, how can you? As if I should! I have been sitting with the poor young lady they found in the park last night for the biggest part of the day.”

      Gregory held her from him at arm’s length.

      “That’s why your eyes look heavy,” he declared. “I can’t have you put upon. What is the good of that fine nursing madam that I saw talking for a good half-hour to Mr. Garth Davenant in the avenue this afternoon if she can’t look after the lady herself?”

      “Oh, I haven’t had anything to do since Nurse Marston came—” Minnie was beginning.

      Gregory interrupted her, his eyes regarding her keenly from beneath his narrowed lids.

      “Nurse—what did you say her name was—Marston?”

      “Yes, Marston. She is Mrs. Marston’s daughter down at Lockford. Do you know her, Jim? She has been in London.”

      “Not that I know of,” he said carelessly. “Mr. Garth seemed pretty thick with her this afternoon, to my way of thinking. That note you gave Mrs. Parkyns was from her, wasn’t it?”

      “Yes. She wants to see her ladyship most particular to-night,” said Minnie, forgetting her promise. “Something about the young lady—”

      Jim glanced obliquely at her a moment.

      “What about her? She doesn’t know anything of her, this Nurse Marston, does she?”

      “She thinks she does, but I don’t know what. She said she wouldn’t tell anyone but her ladyship,” Minnie said carelessly; then in an altered tone, “There! She charged me I wasn’t to say a word to anybody and here I am telling you all about it!”

      “Don’t you fret yourself, I shan’t say anything. For the matter of that, telling you is the same thing as telling me, for ain’t you and me going to be one, Minnie?” responded Mr. Gregory, his clasp growing tighter. “I have got something better than that to talk about to-night. There’s a little cottage down against the common at Lockford to let. How’d that do—Ah, Mrs. Parkyns, you do come into the room quiet! I never so much as heard a step!”

      The housekeeper laughed meaningly.

      “Ay, maybe I am a bit too quiet for some folks! Bless me, Minnie, there’s no need to put yourself about!” for the girl had sprung away from Gregory and thrown up her hands to her flaming face. “We have all of us been young once, my lass. Where are you off to now, may I ask?”

      “There’s some lace to be put on Miss Mavis’s gown for to-morrow,” faltered Minnie. “I—I must be off, Mrs. Parkyns.”

      “And her ladyship’s message to the nurse?” remarked the housekeeper, chuckling at the girl’s confusion. “There, if I don’t believe you have forgot all about it! What can you be thinking of, I wonder!” with a laugh at Gregory. “Her ladyship says if Nurse Marston’s business is very important she is to come to her in the small library when all the guests are gone. She does not think they will be very late to-night.”

      “The small library? I haven’t seen that, I think,” Gregory remarked, moving a little nearer the girl but keeping his eyes on the housekeeper.

      “Well, I dare say you haven’t,” she remarked a trifle condescendingly. “It hasn’t been, so to speak, in general use, though it has been kept aired, since Sir Noel died. He always sat there in the morning when he was indoors. It is that small room that opens into the conservatory to the right of the drawing-room.”

      “Oh, ah, I think I have seen it,” Jim said absently, edging nearer the door through which Minnie had already vanished. “I’ll be pleased to do what I can for you at any time, Mrs. Parkyns; but if there is nothing more tonight—”

      “I should be sorry to keep you if there was,” the housekeeper said with a significant laugh. “You are to let us have the cattleya for the table to-morrow night, Sir Arthur said.”

      “Very good, m’m,” and Jim made his escape without, more ado.

      In the wide stone-flagged passage outside he caught a glimpse of Minnie’s black skirt as she hurried round the corner, and gave chase at once.

      “Why, Minnie,” he said reproachfully as he came up with her, “you are never going off like this without a word? I want to talk to you about that Cottage; but I haven’t finished with Mrs. Parkyns yet. However, you come round while they are at dinner and I will tell you all about it.”

      Minnie looked frightened.

      “I don’t know as I dare. It would be as much as my place is worth if her ladyship or Mrs. Parkyns got to hear of it.”

      “You won’t need to keep the place much longer if we settle on the cottage,” Jim reminded her. “You must come, Minnie; there’s the dearest little sitting-room and the regular picture of a kitchen.”

      Minnie hesitated, but the wish to hear more of her future home overcame her scruples.

      “Well, just this once,” she conceded. “You won’t keep me long, Jim?”

      A light gleamed in the man’s eyes.

      “Not a minute longer than you want to stop, Minnie. Now I must go back to Mrs. Parkyns.”

      Minnie’s face was still flushed as she walked slowly up the backstairs; half-way down the corridor leading to the sick-room one of the other maids ran after her.

      “This parcel has just come up from Lockford for Nurse Marston; will you give it to her, Minnie?”

      Minnie took it and tapped at the pink-room door.

      “Her ladyship will see you in the small library when the guests have gone, nurse,” she announced. “This has come for you.”

      Nurse Marston stepped into the passage, pulling the door to behind her.

      “Ah, my things for the night!” she said as she took the parcel from the girl’s hands. “Mother said she would send them; but I don’t think I shall go to bed, though they have given me this room,” nodding to the door of that next the one СКАЧАТЬ