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

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СКАЧАТЬ There’s hardly ever a day passes that he doesn’t pop in to ask how Mrs. Marston is, and a nice, civil-spoken young gentleman he is. I don’t think he had any hand in it, though it was funny as his tobacco-pouch should be in the room, as the superintendent says.”

      Nurse Gidden pricked up her ears.

      “Tobacco-pouch! You didn’t tell me about that!”

      “Well, there isn’t much to tell,” Ruth went on, unconsciously colouring her narrative. “Mr. Garth’s tobacco-pouch as Miss Mavis worked for him was found in the small library that night. He might have left it there days before; he said himself he did not know where it was, but he felt sure he hadn’t had it there. He didn’t believe it was his.”

      “Well, if Miss Mavis worked it for him they could see it was his.”

      “Well, they could,” went on Ruth more slowly, feeling the difficulty of her story. “But when they come to look for it in the morning it was gone—somebody had took it away.”

      Charlotte Gidden’s eyes grew more wide open than ever.

      “Well, there has been some nice underhand work going on somewhere!” she exclaimed, drawing a long breath. “Nice dunderheads the police down here must be not to have found something out before now! I believe I should have done a lot better myself. I wonder, Mrs. Marston”—her expression grew more thoughtful, a little frown came between her brows—“I have got a week longer at Plymouth, and then my holidays begin—if you haven’t heard of Mary before then, which I expect you will—but I wonder, if I came to Lockford, if you could give me a shakedown. I fancy if I were here on the spot I must find out where she is.”

      A gleam of interest lighted up Mrs. Marston’s worn face.

      “You can have Mary’s room, and kindly welcome. It is kind of you to think of troubling about my poor girl. I am sure if you can find out anything—” wiping away a tear.

      “Then that is settled,” said Charlotte briskly. “I’m much obliged to you, Mrs. Marston. I’ll come and see what I can do. First of all, I should devote some particular attention to Mr. Garth Davenant.”

      Mrs. Marston roused herself a little and sat up.

      “You needn’t,” she said, excitement gathering in her quavering old tones. “Mr. Garth Davenant wouldn’t have harmed my girl, I know that. The Davenants were always her best friends.”

      “Well, well!” Charlotte said soothingly as she took her leave. “I don’t suppose he has harmed her. I can’t bring myself to think that anybody would; but I shall come and look round, Mrs. Marston.”

      Ruth attended the visitor to the gate.

      “She is breaking up fast,” she said with a backward jerk of her head. “If so be as Mary is well, if she don’t come home soon, she won’t find her mother here.”

      Charlotte did not dissent from this view.

      “It is the anxiety, and I shouldn’t think she has ever been one of the strongest. Who are these people in the pony carriage?”

      Ruth looked up.

      “Why, it is Sir Arthur himself and the young lady—the one as Mary went to nurse! Ain’t she a picture?”

      The keen eyes of Nurse Gidden glanced critically at Hilda’s fair, flushed face as she smiled up into Sir Arthur’s face.

      “Um! Pretty well for that! I wonder whether her hair is that colour naturally? It looks to me as if she had doctored it up a bit. And who pays for her clothes? I suppose she didn’t bring her luggage into the park with her? That grey thing she has got on must have cost a mint of money!”

      “I suppose her ladyship must be giving them to her,” hazarded Ruth Carson; “I have heard they think a lot of her.”

      “One of them does, it is evident,” remarked Charlotte significantly. “What’ll my lady say to that? A girl dropped from nowhere wouldn’t be everybody’s fancy as a daughter-in-law!”

      Ruth Carson raised her hands.

      “Oh, Nurse Gidden, what will you say next? Sir Arthur Hargreave wouldn’t so much as think of the likes of her. Besides, I have heard it whispered that he is in love with his cousin, Miss Dorothy Hargreave.”

      “Oh, have you?” remarked Charlotte in a satirical tone. “Certainly, then, he would not dream of looking at anybody else, more than Mr. Garth Davenant would think of sending Mary off on some of his dirty work and stopping her letters home.” She picked up her skirts and stepped out into the road. “Ah, you are an innocent lot here at Lockford, all of you! Good afternoon, Ruth Carson.”

      Meanwhile, unconscious of the comment they were exciting, Sir Arthur drove his fair model carefully towards the Manor; as they entered the park he checked the ponies and let them walk up the Avenue.

      “I was startled a few minutes ago,” he avowed, “when I saw that nurse in the street. She was standing by the Marstons’ cottage, and for a moment I thought it might be Mary.”

      Hilda’s pretty colour faded, the smile died out of her eyes.

      “Was that the Marstons’ cottage? I did not know,” with a shiver. “And are you positive that it was not Nurse Marston? You could not have seen much of her, and I am sure I should not recognize her myself in different circumstances.”

      Sir Arthur smiled.

      “I dare say you would not, but I have known Mary Marston by sight for years, and though this woman was about the same build I am quite sure it was not Mary. I wish it had been!”

      “So do I!” Hilda said. “I lie awake at night and wonder where she is.”

      “Then you must not do anything of the kind,” said Sir Arthur lightly. “Mary Marston will come back again in her own time, no doubt; people are not made away with nowadays at Hargreave Manor.”

      “Not at the Manor perhaps, but—” Hilda shuddered.

      “Nor anywhere else,” Sir Arthur said, affecting a certainty he was far from feeling. “But I am not going to let you talk about it any more. I want you to come and look at my orchids, will you?”

      He threw the reins to the groom as he sprang out. For a moment he fancied she hesitated and a shade of unwillingness passed over her face; then he told himself that he must have been mistaken as she turned to him with a bright smile.

      “I shall be delighted, though I don’t know much about orchids!”

      Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes looked very bright and restless as Arthur helped her out and led the way across the terrace to the orchid-houses.

      “They are not much to boast of,” he said, with becoming humility. “But we have been fortunate enough to secure one or two good specimens, and I have a first-rate man to look after them. Ah, here he is! Well, Gregory, how are you getting on to-day? I have brought this lady to see what you are doing.”

      “Well, Sir Arthur, I am glad to say we have something to show you to-day,” the man said respectfully as he stood aside to let them pass. “That last one that Mr. Brookes СКАЧАТЬ