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

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СКАЧАТЬ if I told you that I feel almost certain this projected marriage will not come off, Lady Laura?”

      Lady Laura sniffed in a melancholy fashion.

      “Well, certainly it would, if I could believe that you were speaking the truth about it, but unfortunately I can’t,” she replied honestly. “I know Arthur better than you do, Garth, and I am sure that when he has once made up his mind he is obstinacy itself. Besides, did you ever see anyone so infatuated?”

      “It was not of any change of mind on Arthur’s part that I was thinking,” said Garth slowly. “I fancy that circumstances will intervene. Perhaps you are right not to let me raise your hopes unduly, dear Lady Laura, for after all it is only a theory of my own.”

      “Ah, I think I am too unhappy to be cheered up by any theories!” Lady Laura said with a sigh.” Still, it is nice to know that anybody thinks there is a chance that it may end in smoke. It is good of you to care, Garth.”

      “Mavis’s mother must be mine too,” he responded, and, moved by a sudden impulse, he stooped and kissed her pale cheek. “I believe the rain has stopped now; I must be starting, or it will be coming on again, and I shall be on your hands for another hour.” He turned to Arthur. “I think now, Hargreave—”

      Mavis held up her hand.

      “Who can this be in the avenue so late? How fast the horse is being driven! Do you think it is running away?”

      With common consent they all moved nearer the window. Sir Arthur flung it open and leaned out. The cool night air, the fresh, sweet scent of the earth after the rain, filled the room, but outside there was not a movement, not the faintest rustle of wind; everything was still with the absolute silence that presages the coming of another storm.

      Plainly now they all heard the sound of which Mavis spoke—the sound of a horse being urged up the avenue at its fullest speed.

      With some instinct of impending calamity Mavis turned pale.

      “What can it be?” she said.

      “The fish for to-morrow’s breakfast miscarried,’’ Arthur said lightly.

      “A messenger in hot haste with a brief for me,” Garth suggested.

      Arthur moved back and shut the window.

      “Probably a message from some of the tradespeople with respect to the arrangements for next week; but I don’t know why we should all stand still to listen to the not unwonted sound of a horse in the drive,” ironically.

      “It is unusual at this time of night,” Mavis said.

      “Well, we shall soon know what it is,” Garth began.

      Hilda laid her hand on her lover’s arm.

      “Arthur, suppose it should be some one come for me?” with a little sob in her throat.

      “Then I shall not let them take you away,” he responded playfully, with a loving glance at the girl’s flushed cheeks.

      Meanwhile the cart had stopped at the front door, thereby disposing of Sir Arthur’s suggestions, and there was a loud, insistent peal at the bell.

      No one spoke; in the silence the sound of a low-voiced altercation in the hall was plainly audible, and just as Sir Arthur, with an indistinct murmur, moved towards the door, it was opened, and Jenkins, looking curiously disturbed appeared.

      “If you please, Sir Arthur,” hesitating and stammering, “could you speak to Mr. Grimes, the butcher?”

      “Grimes, the butcher!” Arthur exclaimed. “Well, it sounded like a butcher driving, I must say. What does he want with me, Jenkins? Something wrong with his accounts?”

      The butler paused.

      “No, I don’t fancy it is anything of that, Sir Arthur. He—he is waiting in the hall if you could speak to him just for a minute.”

      Arthur glanced at him curiously a moment.

      “Oh, I’ll come!” he said in an altered tone. “Garth—”

      Lady Laura put him aside.

      “What is it, Jenkins? Something is wrong, I’m sure. Not Miss Dorothy—”

      A momentary expression of relief crossed Jenkins’ face.

      “Oh, no, my lady, it is nothing of that kind!”

      “Some private affair of Grimes’s, I expect.” Sir Arthur moved forward.

      Lady Laura checked him.

      “Then what is it, Jenkins? Speak out!”

      The man glanced round as if for inspiration.

      “Your ladyship heard that dreadful crash of thunder before the rain began—you saw the lightning?”

      “Yes, yes, certainly I did!” Lady Laura said impatiently.

      “Do you mean that it has struck something?”

      “It struck the Lovers’ Oak, my lady—broke a big branch off.”

      Lady Laura drew a deep breath of relief.

      “Was that all, Jenkins?—There was no one there, was there?” she went on, her fears taking a new direction. “Nobody was hurt?”

      “No, my lady; nobody was hurt,” Jenkins said. “The tree was struck. That was all, my lady.”

      Garth, watching the man closely, saw that his eyes were glancing uneasily, appealingly, at his master, that his face had an odd look.

      “All!” Sir Arthur echoed with a laugh which had something forced in its merriment. “Quite enough, too, I should think, Jenkins! Will the destruction of the Lovers’ Oak mean misfortune to the lovers who have plighted their troth beneath its branches and drunk from the Wishing Well, do you think?”

      “I couldn’t say, I am sure, Sir Arthur.” The man’s stiff lips smiled in an unmirthful fashion at his master’s pleasantry. “Grimes, he came straight away as soon as he heard of it to tell you, Sir Arthur.”

      “Ah, well, I will come and speak to him, then.” At the door Arthur turned with an imperceptible sign to Garth. “We will bring you all the details in a moment, mother.”

      With a murmured apology to Lady Laura, Garth followed Jenkins.

      Chapter XIX

       Table of Contents

      As the door closed behind them, Sir Arthur’s manner changed.

      “Well, Jenkins, out with it! What do all these mysterious signals portend?”

      The butler’s face looked white and scared.

      “If СКАЧАТЬ