Inspector Alleyn 3-Book Collection 4: A Surfeit of Lampreys, Death and the Dancing Footman, Colour Scheme. Ngaio Marsh

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ impressed by the adroit manner in which Nigel Bathgate managed to disentangle cold facts from a welter of Lampresian embroideries. His round red face grew more and more solemn as the story unfolded. He looked in dismay from one to another of the Lampreys and finally, with a significant grimace, jerked his head in the direction of the constable.

      ‘Oh, we’ve given up bothering about him,’ said Frid. ‘At first we talked French but really there’s nothing left to conceal. Aunt Kit told Mr Alleyn about the financial crisis and Daddy had to come clean about the bum.’

      ‘What!’

      ‘My dear Nigel,’ said Lord Charles, ‘there’s a man in possession. Could anything look worse?’

      ‘And as for the twins,’ said Frid, ‘your boy-friend turned them inside out and hung them up to dry.’

      ‘And I m-may t-tell you, Frid,’ said Stephen, ‘that he knows just what we did in the dining-room. You would wipe your painted mouth on the carpet, wouldn’t you?’

      ‘Good Lord!’ Henry ejaculated, and he threw two cushions down in front of the sealed door. ‘Why the devil didn’t we think of that before?’

      ‘Oh,’ said Stephen, ‘he says he didn’t bother to listen. I suppose we all give ourselves away t-too freely for it to be necessary.’

      ‘But what is all this?’ demanded Lord Charles. ‘What did you do in the dining-room?’

      Rather self-consciously his children told him.

      ‘Not very pretty,’ said Lord Charles. ‘What can he think of you?’

      There was a short silence. ‘Not much, I dare say,’ said Henry at last.

      ‘You had better –’ Lord Charles made a small despairing gesture and turned away. Frid spoke rapidly in French. Roberta thought she said that they had not been asked to give an account of the interview.

      ‘But no doubt,’ said Colin, ‘anything that we haven’t told him has been madly divulged by Aunt V. So why be guarded?’

      ‘But,’ Nigel interrupted firmly, ‘where is your Aunt Violet? Where is Lady Wutherwood?’

      ‘Asleep in my bed,’ said Charlot, ‘with a nurse on one side of it and her maid, who is determined not to leave her, on the other. So where Charlie and I are to spend the night is a secret. We don’t know. We’ve also got to bed down somewhere a chauffeur called Giggle, in addition to Mr Grumball.’

      ‘Yes, but look here, this is really serious,’ Nigel began.

      ‘Well, of course it is, Nigel. We know it’s serious. We’re all shaken to our foundations,’ said Frid. ‘That’s partly why we asked you to come.’

      ‘Yes, but you don’t sound –’ Nigel began and then caught sight of Charlot’s face. ‘Oh, my dear,’ he said, ‘I’m so terribly sorry. But you needn’t worry. Alleyn –’

      ‘Nigel,’ said Charlot, ‘what’s he like? You’ve so often talked about your friend and we’ve always thought it would be such fun to meet him. Little did we know how it would come about. Here I’ve been, sitting in my own dining-room, trying to sort of see into him, do you know? I thought I’d got the interview going just my way. And now, when I think it over, I’m not so sure.’

      ‘My dear Imogen,’ said Nigel, ‘I know you’re a genius for diplomacy but honestly, with Alleyn, if I were you, I wouldn’t.’

      ‘He laughed at me,’ said Charlot defensively.

      ‘Are you certain, Mummy,’ said Frid, ‘that it wasn’t sinister laughter? “Heh-heh-heh!”’

      ‘It wasn’t in the least sinister. He giggled.’

      ‘I wish he’d send for me,’ Frid muttered.

      ‘I suppose you think,’ Henry began, ‘that you’re going to have a fat dramatic scene, ending in Alleyn throwing up the case because you’re trop troublante. My dear girl, your histrionic antics –’

      ‘I shan’t go in for any histrionic antics, darling. I shall just be very still and dignified and rather pale and very lovely.’

      ‘Well, if Alleyn isn’t sick, he’s got a stronger stomach than I have.’

      Frid laughed musically. The constable answered a tap on the door.

      ‘This is my entrance cue,’ said Frid. ‘What do you bet?’

      ‘It may be your father or Henry,’ said Charlot.

      ‘Inspector Alleyn,’ said the constable, ‘would be glad if Miss Grey would speak to him.’

      Roberta followed a second constable down the passage to the dining-room door. Her heart thudded disturbingly. She felt that she wanted to yawn. Her mouth was dry and she wondered if, when she spoke, her voice would be cracked. The constable opened the dining-room door, went in, and said: ‘Miss Grey, sir.’

      Roberta, feeling her lack of inches, walked into the dining-room.

      Alleyn and Fox had risen. The constable pulled out a chair at the end of the table. Through a thick mental haze, Roberta became aware of Alleyn’s deep and pleasant voice. ‘I’m so sorry to worry you, Miss Grey. It’s such bad luck that you should find yourself landed in such a disagreeable affair. Do sit down.’

      ‘Thank you,’ said Roberta in a small voice.

      ‘You only arrived yesterday, didn’t you?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘From New Zealand. That’s a long journey. What part of New Zealand do you come from?’

      ‘The South Island. South Canterbury.’

      ‘Then you know the McKenzie Country?’

      The scent of sun-baked tussock, of wind from the tops of snow-mountains, and the memory of an intense blue, visited Roberta’s transplanted heart. ‘Have you been there?’ she asked.

      ‘I was there four years ago.’

      ‘In the McKenzie Country? Tekapo? Pukaki?’

      ‘The sound of the names makes the places vivid again.’ He spoke for a little while of his visit and, like all colonials, Roberta rose to the bait. Her nervousness faded and soon she found herself describing the New Zealand Deepacres, how it stood at the foot of Little Mount Silver, how English trees grew into the fringes of native bush, and how English birdsong, there, was pierced by the colder and deeper notes of bell-birds and mok-e-moks.

      ‘That was Lord Charles’s station?’

      ‘Oh yes. Not ours. We only lived in a small house in a small town. But you see I was so much at Deepacres.’

      ‘It must have been rather a wrench for them leaving such a place.’

      ‘Not СКАЧАТЬ