Читать книгу The Man Who Loved Lions - Ethel Lina White - Страница 17

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THE blow was so unexpected that Ann was staggered. She had been prepared for difficulties and even for danger, but not for a bland announcement—"Not at home."

The door was slammed in her face.

"But, Richard," she pleaded, "may I stay up here? I've waited for this reunion for so many years. I've been cut off from every one—and it means everything to me. I—I can't explain. Please, please. I won't make a sound. No one will know I'm here."

"Trust the servants to know," said Isabella. "And trust them to have a perfectly good dirty explanation. At a time like this one can't be too careful. Richard's the heir—and his relatives are in the house."

"Isabella understands," commented Richard. "All sorts of rumours might fly around. I can't risk people saying I was entertaining a pretty lady in the tower-room, while my poor old uncle was passing out alone."

"But Isabella's here," persisted Ann.

"Isabella is such an old friend that she counts as family."

Ann made a last effort.

"The others will be coming to the reunion," she argued. "If I stay up here, I can explain what has happened and send them away."

"Stephen is the only one who is likely to come," said Richard. "Give me your address and I'll ask him to get in touch with you."

The request sounded reasonable but Ann was suspicious. Although all she wanted was to make contact with Stephen, she knew she could not trust any promise made by Richard. In spite of her simplicity, she got the impression that he and Isabella were playing the same game—and one without rules and referee. Something evil was being planned and the reunion was an unwelcome complication.

She realised too that she had ruined her chance of remaining in the tower-room by letting Richard see her desperate eagerness. He and Stephen had always been antagonistic, so he would welcome a chance to score over a rival. Yet although he lauded deceit as a mental accomplishment and despised honesty as a brainless blundering instinct, he had betrayed himself to Ann by his two different voices. When he disguised his natural grating note with honied accents, he practically advertised the fact that he was telling a lie.

Although her instinct was always to charge out into the open and take on more than her fighting weight, she knew that she must use guile, if she were to meet Stephen again. Even while she hated the necessity she plotted rapidly.

"Pretend to go. Then slip back and wait in the downstair lobby. It's dark there."

To her surprise she discovered that she was a natural liar as she looked at Richard with convincingly steady eyes.

"I haven't an address," she told him. "I don't know how long I shall be at my hotel. Will you ask Stephen for his address. I'll ring you up to-morrow and get it. Good-night."

"Yes, do please ring me up. Allow me."

Isabella stood aloof while Richard helped Ann to put on her coat but her glance was scornful as she appraised the quality of the fur. Then to Ann's astonishment Richard drew from his pocket a creased white scarf. As he opened his light coat she noticed, for the first time, that he was wearing shabby evening-clothes.

It was so unusual that he should dress for dinner, in the circumstances, that her suspicions flared up again. But she forgot them as she discovered the source of the perfume which she had connected with a death-chamber. In the buttonhole of Richard's coat was a crushed white hyacinth.

He noticed her stare.

"Picked it up from the greenhouse floor," he explained. "I'm going to see you off the premises. A zoo is not the safest place if you should lose your way in the black-out."

"No," she protested. "I can follow the white stones. Your uncle might want you."

"I'll risk him. He's taking his time about dying. But I might get into trouble with the coroner if I risked you."

Suddenly Ann thought of Stephen—probably pressed for time and steering a correct course to Ganges by the stars. She remembered one occasion when they caught their last train back to London, only through his flair in finding a short-cut to the station.

Fear for his safety made her confess that she had trespassed.

"I wandered round before I reached the tower-room and I found myself by the elephant-house. I heard voices. I don't want to make mischief but one of them sounded drunk. I hope it wasn't a keeper."

She missed the glance which flashed between Richard and Isabella.

"Thanks," said Richard. "I must look into it. I've taken on a heavy responsibility...Come on, Ann. Back in a few minutes, Isabella."

Guided by Richard's fingers around her elbow—and eager to get rid of her escort—Ann ran down the spiral stair. Directly the tower door was closed behind them she stopped with a cry of dismay.

"It's like the catacombs," she said. "Stop while I get out my torch."

Richard laughed as he took her arm and dragged her on.

"You won't need a torch with me," he told her. "I can see in the dark. Besides I know my way about blindfolded...Just trust yourself to me."