The Assize of the Dying
Page 19
He looked round at them suddenly, and frowned at Bill’s dripping condition as though he saw it for the first time. ‘Are you out of your wits, boy? Get inside and get those wet clothes off at once, unless you want pneumonia. Go on, go and ring up the police – tell them I’m waiting here until they come.’
Startled into obedience by the brusqueness of his tone, they turned at once, and set off up the slippery lawns at a rapid walk; and, as they went, by mutual consent they broke into a run. It began merely as a means of reaching the house the sooner, but in a few seconds it had become the running of children let out of school, of creatures newly relieved of a burden and intoxicated by their own lightness; and just as they reached the crest of the rise Bill, finding himself outrunning the girl, checked for a moment to stretch out a hand to her, and she caught at it, and they matched their speeds and went with linked hands out of sight.
The doctor watched them go, and the sight seemed to him infinitely reassuring. When he looked down again at the body of Helen it seemed already to have dwindled and grown more insubstantial.
‘Well, you were always apt,’ he said to her, wryly smiling. ‘You know, don’t you, what the village will say, since they won’t have the details at their disposal – for I’ll be very surprised, Helen, if the police feel it necessary to go to the bother of holding an inquest, just to prove that you fell into an icy-cold stream and not unnaturally died of myocardial failure. Your timing was always excellent. Here it is, the day after the funeral, and the widow in her deep mourning is drawn out of the river. What could be better? Exact to your cue, dead or alive, at least you’ve given them the opportunity of keeping up the legend. Accident? – well, perhaps! they’ll say. Heart failure? – maybe! Poor Mrs Greville, everybody knows how she adored that husband of hers – she died because she couldn’t live without him!’
About the Author
Ellis Peters is a pseudonym of Edith Mary Pargeter (1913–1995), a British author whose Chronicles of Brother Cadfael are credited with popularizing the historical mystery. Cadfael, a Welsh Benedictine monk living at Shrewsbury Abbey during the first half of the twelfth century, has been described as combining the curious mind of a scientist with the bravery of a knight-errant. The character has been adapted for television, and the books drew international attention to Shrewsbury and its history.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1958 by Edith Pargeter
Cover design by Barbara Brown
Illustrations by Karl Kotas
ISBN: 978-1-4804-1779-3
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