Читать книгу A Daughter’s a Daughter - Агата Кристи, Agatha Christie, Detection Club The - Страница 8

Ann arrived back at her flat to be greeted by the faithful Edith in a somewhat cold fashion.

‘A nice bit of plaice I had for your lunch,’ she said, appearing at the kitchen door. ‘And a caramel custard.’

‘I’m so sorry. I had lunch with Dame Laura. I did telephone you in time that I shouldn’t be in, didn’t I?’

‘I hadn’t cooked the plaice,’ admitted Edith grudgingly. She was a tall lean woman with the upright carriage of a grenadier and a pursed-up disapproving mouth.

‘It’s not like you, though, to go chopping and changing. With Miss Sarah, now, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I found those fancy gloves she was looking for after she’d gone and it was too late. Stuffed down behind the sofa they were.’

‘What a pity.’ Ann took the gaily knitted woollen gloves. ‘She got off all right.’

‘And happy to go, I suppose.’

‘Yes, the whole party was very gay.’

‘Mayn’t come back quite so gay. Back on crutches as likely as not.’

‘Oh no, Edith, don’t say that.’

‘Dangerous, these Swiss places. Fracture your arms or your legs and then not set proper. Goes to gangrene under the plaster and that’s the end of you. Awful smell, too.’

‘Well, we’ll hope that won’t happen to Sarah,’ said Ann, well used to Edith’s gloomy pronouncements, which were always uttered with considerable relish.

‘Won’t seem like the same place without Miss Sarah about,’ said Edith. ‘We shan’t know ourselves, we’ll be so quiet.’

‘It will give you a bit of a rest, Edith.’

‘Rest?’ said Edith indignantly. ‘What would I want with a rest? Better wear out than rust out, that’s what my mother used to say to me, and it’s what I’ve always gone by. Now Miss Sarah’s away and she and her friends won’t be popping in and out every minute I can get down to a real good clean. This place needs it.’

‘I’m sure the flat’s beautifully clean, Edith.’

‘That’s what you think. But I know better. All the curtains want to be took down and well shook, and them lustres on the electrics could do with a wash—oh! there’s a hundred and one things need doing.’

Edith’s eyes gleamed with pleasurable anticipation.

‘Get someone in to help you.’

‘What, me? No fear. I like things done the proper way, and it’s not many of these women you can trust to do that nowadays. You’ve got nice things here and nice things should be kept nice. What with cooking and one thing and another I can’t get down to my proper work as I should.’

‘But you do cook beautifully, Edith. You know you do.’

A faintly gratified smile transformed Edith’s habitual expression of profound disapproval.

‘Oh, cooking,’ she said in an off-hand way. ‘There’s nothing to that. It’s not what I call proper work, not by a long way.’

Moving back into the kitchen, she asked:

‘What time will you have your tea?’

‘Oh, not just yet. About half-past four.’

‘If I were you I’d put your feet up and take a nap. Then you’ll be fresh for this evening. Might as well enjoy a bit of peace while you’ve got it.’

Ann laughed. She went into the sitting-room and let Edith settle her comfortably on the sofa.

‘You look after me as though I were a little girl, Edith.’

‘Well, you weren’t much more when I first came to your ma, and you haven’t changed much. Colonel Grant rang up. Said not to forget it was the Mogador Restaurant at eight o’clock. She knows, I said to him. But that’s men all over—fuss, fuss, fuss, and military gentlemen are the worst.’

‘It’s nice of him to think I might be lonely tonight and ask me out.’

Edith said judicially:

‘I’ve nothing against the colonel. Fussy he may be, but he’s the right kind of gentleman.’ She paused and added: ‘On the whole you might do a lot worse than Colonel Grant.’

‘What did you say, Edith?’

Edith returned an unblinking stare.

‘I said as there were worse gentlemen … Oh well, I suppose we shan’t be seeing so much of that Mr Gerry now Miss Sarah’s gone away.’

‘You don’t like him, do you, Edith?’

‘Well, I do and I don’t, if you know what I mean. He’s got a way with him—that you can’t deny. But he’s not the steady sort. My sister’s Marlene married one like that. Never in a job more than six months, he isn’t. And whatever happens it’s never his fault.’

Edith went out of the room and Ann leaned her head back against the cushions and shut her eyes.

The sound of the traffic came faint and muted through the closed window, a pleasant humming sound like far-off bees. On the table near her a bowl of yellow jonquils sent their sweetness into the air.

She felt peaceful and happy. She was going to miss Sarah, but it was rather restful to be by herself for a short time.

What a queer panic she had had this morning …

She wondered what James Grant’s party would consist of this evening.