Julian laughed.
'But I do love listening to you, Julian. Tell me the story again about the old vicar who preached about Ahasuerus.'
'You know that by heart, Bunch.'
'Just tell it me again. Please.'
Her husband complied.
'It was old Scrymgour. Somebody looked into his church one day. He was leaning out of the pulpit and preaching fervently to a couple of old charwomen. He was shaking his finger at them and saying, "Aha! I know what you are thinking. You think that the Great Ahasuerus of the First Lesson was Artaxerxes the Second. But he wasn't!" And then with enormous triumph, "He was Artaxerxes the Third."'
It had never struck Julian Hermon as a particularly funny story himself, but it never failed to amuse Bunch.
Her clear laugh floated out.
'The old pet!' she exclaimed. 'I think you'll be exactly like that some day, Julian.'
Julian looked rather uneasy.
'I know,' he said with humility. 'I do feel very strongly that I can't always get the proper simple approach.'
'I shouldn't worry,' said Bunch, rising and beginning to pile the breakfast plates on a tray. 'Mrs Butt told me yesterday that Butt, who never went to church and used to be practically the local atheist, comes every Sunday now on purpose to hear you preach.'
She went on, with a very fair imitation of Mrs Butt's super-refined voice:
'"And Butt was saying only the other day, Madam, to Mr Timkins from Little Worsdale, that we'd got real culture here in Chipping Cleghorn. Not like Mr Goss, at Little Worsdale, who talks to the congregation as though they were children who hadn't had any education. Real culture, Butt said, that's what we've got. Our Vicar's a highly educated gentleman—Oxford, not Milchester, and he gives us the full benefit of his education. All about the Romans and the Greeks he knows, and the Babylonians and the Assyrians, too. And even the Vicarage cat, Butt says, is called after an Assyrian king!" So there's glory for you,' finished Bunch triumphantly. 'Goodness, I must get on with things or I shall never get done. Come along, Tiglath Pileser, you shall have the herring bones.'
Opening the door and holding it dexterously ajar with her foot, she shot through with the loaded tray, singing in a loud and not particularly tuneful voice, her own version of a sporting song.
'It's a fine murdering day, (sang Bunch)
And as balmy as May
And the sleuths from the village are gone.'
A rattle of crockery being dumped in the sink drowned the next lines, but as the Rev. Julian Harmon left the house, he heard the final triumphant assertion:
'And we'll all go a'murdering today!'
Chapter 2. Breakfast at Little Paddocks
At Little Paddocks also, breakfast was in progress.
Miss Blacklock, a woman of sixty odd, the owner of the house, sat at the head of the table. She wore country tweeds—and with them, rather incongruously, a choker necklace of large false pearls. She was reading Lane Norcott in the Daily Mail. Julia Simmons was languidly glancing through the Telegraph. Patrick Simmons was checking up on the crossword in The Times. Miss Dora Bunner was giving her attention wholeheartedly to the local weekly paper.
Miss Blacklock gave a subdued chuckle, Patrick muttered: 'Adherent—not adhesive —that's where I went wrong.'
Suddenly a loud cluck, like a startled hen, came from Miss Bunner.
'Letty—Letty—have you seen this? Whatever can it mean?'
'What's the matter, Dora?'
'The most extraordinary advertisement. It says Little Paddocks quite distinctly. But whatever can it mean?'
'If you'd let me see, Dora dear—'
Miss Bunner obediently surrendered the paper into Miss Blacklock's outstretched hand, pointing to the item with a tremulous forefinger.
'Just look, Letty.'
Miss Blacklock looked. Her eyebrows went up. She threw a quick scrutinizing glance round the table. Then she read the advertisement out loud.
'A murder is announced and will take place on Friday,
October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.
Friends please accept this, the only intimation.'
Then she said sharply: 'Patrick, is this your idea?'
Her eyes rested searchingly on the handsome devil-may-care face of the young man at the other end of the table.
Patrick Simmons' disclaimer came quickly.
'No, indeed, Aunt Letty. Whatever put that idea into your head? Why should I know anything about it?'
'I wouldn't put it past you,' said Miss Blacklock grimly. 'I thought it might be your idea of a joke.'
'A joke? Nothing of the kind.'
'And you, Julia?'
Julia, looking bored, said: 'Of course not.'
Miss Bunner murmured: 'Do you think Mrs Haymes—' and looked at an empty place where someone had breakfasted earlier.
'Oh, I don't think our Phillipa would try and be funny,' said Patrick. 'She's a serious girl, she is.'
'But what's the idea, anyway?' said Julia, yawning. 'What does it mean?'
Miss Blacklock said slowly, 'I suppose—it's some silly sort of hoax.'
'But why?' Dora Bunner exclaimed. 'What's the point of it? It seems a very stupid sort of joke. And in very bad taste.'
Her flabby cheeks quivered indignantly, and her short-sighted eyes sparkled with indignation.
Miss Blacklock smiled at her.
'Don't work yourself up over it, Bunny,' she said. 'It's just somebody's idea of humour, but I wish I knew whose.'
'It says today,' pointed out Miss Bunner. 'Today at6.30 p.m. What do you think is going to happen?'
'Death!' said Patrick in sepulchral tones. 'Delicious death.'
'Be quiet, Patrick,' said Miss Blacklock as Miss Bunner gave a little yelp.
'I only meant the special cake that Mitzi makes,' said Patrick apologetically. 'You know we always call it delicious death.'
Miss Blacklock smiled a little absent-mindedly.
Miss Bunner persisted: 'But Letty, what do you really think—?'
Her friend cut across the words with reassuring cheerfulness.
'I know one thing that will happen at 6.30,' she said dryly. 'We'll have half the village up here, agog with curiosity. I'd better make sure we've got some sherry in the house.'
***
'You are worried, aren't you Lotty?'
Miss Blacklock started. She had been sitting at her writing-table, absent-mindedly drawing little fishes on the blotting paper. She looked up into the anxious face of her old friend.
She was not quite sure what to say to Dora Bunner. Bunny, she knew, mustn't be worried or upset. She was silent for a moment or two, thinking.
She and Dora Bunner had been at school together. Dora then had been a pretty, fair-haired, blue-eyed rather stupid girl. Her being stupid hadn't mattered, because her gaiety and high spirits and her prettiness had made her an agreeable companion. She ought, her friend thought, to have married some nice Army officer, or a country solicitor. She had so many good qualities—affection, devotion, loyalty. But life had been unkind to Dora Bunner. She had had to earn her living. She had been painstaking but never competent at anything she undertook.
The two friends had lost sight of each other. But six months ago a letter had come to Miss Blacklock, a rambling, pathetic letter. Dora's health had given way. She was living in one room, trying to subsist on her old age pension. She endeavoured to do needlework, but her fingers were stiff with rheumatism. She mentioned their schooldays—since then life had driven them apart—but could—possibly—her old friend help?
Miss Blacklock had responded impulsively. Poor Dora, poor pretty silly fluffy Dora. She had swooped down upon Dora, had carried her off, had installed her at Little Paddocks with the comforting fiction that 'the housework is getting too much for me. I need someone to help me run the house.' It was not for long—the doctor had told her that—but sometimes she found poor old Dora a sad trial. She muddled everything, upset the temperamental foreign 'help', miscounte
d the laundry, lost bills and letters—and sometimes reduced the competent Miss Blacklock to an agony of exasperation. Poor old muddle-headed Dora, so loyal, so anxious to help, so pleased and proud to think she was of assistance—and, alas, so completely unreliable.
She said sharply:
'Don't, Dora. You know I asked you—'
'Oh,' Miss Bunner looked guilty. 'I know. I forgot. But—but you are, aren't you?'
'Worried? No. At least,' she added truthfully, 'not exactly. You mean about that silly notice in the Gazette?'
'Yes—even if it's a joke, it seems to me it's a—a spiteful sort of joke.'
'Spiteful?'
'Yes. It seems to me there's spite there somewhere. I mean—it's not a nice kind of joke.'
Miss Blacklock looked at her friend. The mild eyes, the long obstinate mouth, the slightly upturned nose. Poor Dora, so maddening, so muddle-headed, so devoted and such a problem. A dear fussy old idiot and yet, in a queer way, with an instinctive sense of value.
'I think you're right, Dora,' said Miss Blacklock. 'It's not a nice joke.'
'I don't like it at all,' said Dora Bunner with unsuspected vigour. 'It frightens me.' She added, suddenly: 'And it frightens you, Letitia.'
'Nonsense,' said Miss Blacklock with spirit.
'It's dangerous. I'm sure it is. Like those people who send you bombs done up in parcels.'
'My dear, it's just some silly idiot trying to be funny.'
'But it isn't funny.'
It wasn't really very funny?Miss Blacklock's face betrayed her thoughts, and Dora cried triumphantly, 'You see. You think so, too!'
'But Dora, my dear—'
She broke off. Through the door there surged a tempestuous young woman with a well-developed bosom heaving under a tight jersey. She had on a dirndl skirt of a bright colour and had greasy dark plaits wound round and round her head. Her eyes were dark and flashing.
She said gustily:
'I can speak to you, yes, please, no?'
Miss Blacklock sighed.
'Of course, Mitzi, what is it?'
Sometimes she thought it would be preferable to do the entire work of the house as well as the cooking rather than be bothered with the eternal nerve storms of her refugee 'lady help'.
'I tell you at once—it is in order, I hope? I give you my notices and I go —I go at once!'
'For what reason? Has somebody upset you?'
'Yes, I am upset,' said Mitzi dramatically. 'I do not wish to die! Already in Europe I escape. My family they all die—they are all killed—my mother, my little brother, my so sweet little niece—all, all they are killed. But me I run away—I hide. I get to England. I work. I do work that never-never would I do in my own country—I—'
'I know all that,' said Miss Blacklock crisply. It was, indeed, a constant refrain on Mitzi's lips. 'But why do you want to leave now?'
'Because again they come to kill me!'
'Who do?'
'My enemies. The Nazis! Or perhaps this time it is the Bolsheviks. They find out I am here. They come to kill me. I have read it—yes—it is in the newspaper!'
'Oh, you mean in the Gazette?'
'Here, it is written here.' Mitzi produced the Gazette from where she had been holding it behind her back. 'See—here it says a murder. At Little Paddocks. That is here, is it not? This evening at 6.30. Ah! I do not wait to be murdered—no.'
'But why should this apply to you? It's—we think it is a joke.'
'A joke? It is not a joke to murder someone.'
'No, of course not. But my dear child, if anyone wanted to murder you, they wouldn't advertise the fact in the paper, would they?'
'You do not think they would?' Mitzi seemed a little shaken. 'You think, perhaps, they do not mean to murder anyone at all? Perhaps it is you they mean to murder, Miss Blacklock.'
'I certainly can't believe anyone wants to murder me,' said Miss Blacklock lightly. 'And really, Mitzi, I don't see why anyone should want to murder you. After all, why should they?'
'Because they are bad peoples?Very bad peoples. I tell you, my mother, my little brother, my so sweet niece?'
'Yes, yes.' Miss Blacklock stemmed the flow, adroitly. 'But I cannot really believe anyone wants to murder you, Mitzi. Of course, if you want to go off like this at a moment's notice, I can't possibly stop you. But I think you will be very silly if you do.'
She added firmly, as Mitzi looked doubtful:
'We'll have that beef the butcher sent stewed for lunch. It looks very tough.'
'I make you a goulash, a special goulash.'
'If you prefer to call it that, certainly. And perhaps you could use up that rather hard bit of cheese in making some cheese straws. I think some people may come in this evening for drinks.'
'This evening? What do you mean, this evening?'
'At half-past six.'
'But that is the time in the paper? Who should come then? Why should they come?'
'They're coming to the funeral,' said Miss Blacklock with a twinkle. 'That'll do now, Mitzi. I'm busy. Shut the door after you,' she added firmly.
'And that's settled her for the moment,' she said as the door closed behind a puzzled-looking Mitzi.
'You are so efficient, Letty,' said Miss Bunner admiringly.
Chapter 3. At 6.30 p.m.
'Well, here we are, all set,' said Miss Blacklock. She looked round the double drawing-room with an appraising eye. The rose-patterned chintzes—the two bowls of bronze chrysanthemums, the small vase of violets and the silver cigarette-box on a table by the wall, the tray of drinks on the centre table.
Little Paddocks was a medium-sized house built in the early Victorian style. It had a long shallow veranda and green shuttered windows. The long, narrow drawing-room which lost a good deal of light owing to the veranda roof had originally had double doors at one end leading into a small room with a bay window. A former generation had removed the double doors and replaced them with portieres of velvet. Miss Blacklock had dispensed with the portieres so that the two rooms had become definitely one. There was a fireplace each end, but neither fire was lit although a gentle warmth pervaded the room.
'You've had the central heating lit,' said Patrick.
Miss Blacklock nodded.
'It's been so misty and damp lately. The whole house felt clammy. I got Evans to light it before he went.'
'The precious precious coke?' said Patrick mockingly.
'As you say, the precious coke. But otherwise there would have been the even more precious coal. You know the Fuel Office won't even let us have the little bit that's due to us each week—not unless we can say definitely that we haven't got any other means of cooking.'
'I suppose there was once heaps of coke and coal for everybody?' said Julia with the interest of one hearing about an unknown country.
'Yes, and cheap, too.'
'And anyone could go and buy as much as they wanted, without filling in anything, and there wasn't any shortage? There was lots of it there?'
'All kinds and qualities—and not all stones and slates like what we get nowadays.'
'It must have been a wonderful world,' said Julia, with awe in her voice.
Miss Blacklock smiled. 'Looking back on it, I certainly think so. But then I'm an old woman. It's natural for me to prefer my own times. But you young things oughtn't to think so.'
'I needn't have had a job then,' said Julia. 'I could just have stayed at home and done the flowers, and written notes?Why did one write notes and who were they to?'
'All the people that you now ring up on the telephone,' said Miss Blacklock with a twinkle. 'I don't believe you even know how to write, Julia.'
'Not in the style of that delicious "Complete Letter Writer" I found the other day. Heavenly! It told you the correct way of refusing a proposal of marriage from a widower.'
'I doubt if you would have enjoyed staying at home as much as you think,' said Miss Blacklock. 'There were duties, you know.' Her voice was dry. 'However, I don't really know
much about it. Bunny and I,' she smiled affectionately at Dora Bunner, 'went into the labour market early.'
'Oh, we did, we did indeed,' agreed Miss Bunner. 'Those naughty, naughty children. I'll never forget them. Of course, Letty was clever. She was a business woman, secretary to a big financier.'
The door opened and Phillipa Haymes came in. She was tall and fair and placid-looking. She looked round the room in surprise.
'Hallo,' she said. 'Is it a party? Nobody told me.'
'Of course,' cried Patrick. 'Our Phillipa doesn't know. The only woman in Chipping Cleghorn who doesn't, I bet.'
Phillipa looked at him inquiringly.
'Here you behold,' said Patrick dramatically, waving a hand, 'the scene of a murder!'
Phillipa Haymes looked faintly puzzled.
'Here,' Patrick indicated the two big bowls of chrysanthemums, 'are the funeral wreaths and these dishes of cheese straws and olives represent the funeral baked meats.'
Phillipa looked inquiringly at Miss Blacklock.
'Is it a joke?' she asked. 'I'm always terribly stupid at seeing jokes.'
'It's a very nasty joke,' said Dora Bunner with energy. 'I don't like it at all.'
'Show her the advertisement,' said Miss Blacklock. 'I must go and shut up the ducks. It's dark. They'll be in by now.'
'Let me do it,' said Phillipa.
'Certainly not, my dear. You've finished your day's work.'
'I'll do it, Aunt Letty,' offered Patrick.
'No, you won't,' said Miss Blacklock with energy. 'Last time you didn't latch the door properly.'
'I'll do it, Letty dear,' cried Miss Bunner. 'Indeed, I should love to. I'll just slip on my goloshes—and now where did I put my cardigan?'
But Miss Blacklock, with a smile, had already left the room.
'It's no good, Bunny,' said Patrick. 'Aunt Letty's so efficient that she can never bear anybody else to do things for her. She really much prefers to do everything herself.'
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