Читать книгу Cat Among the Pigeons - Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Mary Westmacott - Страница 20

Three quarters of an hour later Jennifer returned from her tea. She looked round the room and gave a gasp of surprise.

‘Mummy, what have you been doing?’

‘We’ve been unpacking,’ said Mrs Sutcliffe crossly. ‘Now we’re packing things up again. This is Mr O’Connor. My daughter Jennifer.’

‘But why are you packing and unpacking?’

‘Don’t ask me why,’ snapped her mother. ‘There seems to be some idea that your Uncle Bob put something in my luggage to bring home. He didn’t give you anything, I suppose, Jennifer?’

‘Uncle Bob give me anything to bring back? No. Have you been unpacking my things too?’

‘We’ve unpacked everything,’ said Derek O’Connor cheerfully, ‘and we haven’t found a thing and now we’re packing them up again. I think you ought to have a drink of tea or something, Mrs Sutcliffe. Can I order you something? A brandy and soda perhaps?’ He went to the telephone.

‘I wouldn’t mind a good cup of tea,’ said Mrs Sutcliffe.

‘I had a smashing tea,’ said Jennifer. ‘Bread and butter and sandwiches and cake and then the waiter brought me more sandwiches because I asked him if he’d mind and he said he didn’t. It was lovely.’

O’Connor ordered the tea, then he finished packing up Mrs Sutcliffe’s belongings again with a neatness and a dexterity which forced her unwilling admiration.

‘Your mother seems to have trained you to pack very well,’ she said.

‘Oh, I’ve all sorts of handy accomplishments,’ said O’Connor smiling.

His mother was long since dead, and his skill in packing and unpacking had been acquired solely in the service of Colonel Pikeaway.

‘There’s just one thing more, Mrs Sutcliffe. I’d like you to be very careful of yourself.’

‘Careful of myself? In what way?’

‘Well,’ O’Connor left it vague. ‘Revolutions are tricky things. There are a lot of ramifications. Are you staying in London long?’

‘We’re going down to the country tomorrow. My husband will be driving us down.’

‘That’s all right then. But—don’t take any chances. If anything in the least out of the ordinary happens, ring 999 straight away.’

‘Ooh!’ said Jennifer, in high delight. ‘Dial 999. I’ve always wanted to.’

‘Don’t be silly, Jennifer,’ said her mother.