Danger Point

Chapter 26

THE mist was still there when she came down next morning. Dale had breakfasted and gone. Alicia was smoking and sipping orange juice. She waved her cigarette in a greeting which left a queer scrawl hanging in the air between them and said in her sweetest voice,

“Dale says he’s broken it to you that we are to be bosom friends. He’s horribly afraid of a breath of scandal, isn’t he? I don’t mind about it myself, but men are such prudes, and, as I told the handsome policeman, Dale is too feudal. He actually minds what all the Coles, and Crisps, and Coopers say in the village. Do you?”

Lisle was pouring herself out a cup of coffee. She said without looking round,

“I don’t know.”

“And just what do you mean by that, my dear?”

Lisle set the coffee-pot down.

“I shouldn’t like the village to say things about Dale, or to think them either. If they were true it would hurt us all, and if they weren’t it would be silly to let people go on thinking they were.” She turned round as she spoke with her cup in her hand and went to the table.

Alicia laughed.

“How pure that sounds! Well, when do we give an exhibition performance of friendship? What about walking down into the village presently with our arms entwined? We can invent something to do when we get there.”

As she spoke, Rafe wandered in, and she broke off to say,

“Hullo! Why aren’t you earning your living?”

He went over to the side table and began to lift covers.

“Scrambled eggs – I wonder. Bacon – I don’t think. What did you say, darling?”

“I said, ‘Why are you not working?’ ”

He waved his right hand in her direction.

“I still have a strained thumb, and if you’ve any idea of pointing out that it is all imagination, I come back at you with ‘If I imagine my thumb is strained, I shall also imagine that I can’t draw with it.’ Vantage to me!”

Alicia blew out a delicate cloud of smoke.

“Do you draw with your thumb?”

“Try drawing without it, darling. Game and set! A kipper – I thought I smelt a kipper. Lisle, what are you having – coffee? That’s your American blood.” He brought his kipper to the table and sat down beside her. “Good Queen Bess breakfasted off a baron of beef and several bumpers of beer. It’s a degenerate age. You are continental – pick your continent. Alicia is definitely decadent – there’s something sinister about nicotine and orange juice. I am supporting the herring industry. What is everyone going to do today?”

Alicia stubbed out her cigarette on the edge of his plate.

“Try nicotine and kipper – that’s decadent if you like! Lisle and I are walking down into the village all wreathed in friendship.”

Lisle looked up.

“I’m afraid I can’t this morning.”

“Oh?” Alicia stared. “And why not?”

“I’ve got to go into Ledlington.”

Alicia laughed.

“Dale’s taken the car,” she said.

“Oh-” It was no more than an escaping breath. A feeling of panic invaded her. Suppose Alicia were to offer to drive her into Ledlington. She would have to go – she must telephone to Miss Silver. Suppose Alicia didn’t offer. William Crisp had a car which he hired out – she might take that. But then everyone in the village would wonder why she had to hire.

“I think I’m bored with Ledlington,” said Alicia. “We can show ourselves there another day. We had better start with the village.”

“Obliging creature, aren’t you?” said Rafe. “Everyone seems to forget that I possess a car. Lisle and I will go to Ledlington, and you can walk into the village all by yourself. What time do you want to start, honey-sweet?” Alicia’s colour flared.

“That’s a perfectly ridiculous name! If I were Dale-”

Rafe burst out laughing.

“You’d eat a proper breakfast. I don’t mind betting he went right through everything.” He turned to Lisle. “Well, when do we start?”

She looked at him gratefully.

“Could it be rather soon?”

“It could.”

“Are you going to buy a new car?” said Alicia in a taunting voice.

“I don’t know – I might. It’s difficult not having one-”

“Oh, Rafe’s at your disposal – whilst he’s got a sprained thumb.”

Rafe got up to put away his plate. He came back reciting, “ ‘Let me malinger and I’ll dare, e’en that to drive for thee -’ To Anthea who may command him in anything!”

Alicia broke into sudden laughter.

“Are you trying to make Lisle believe you’re fond of her? What a hope!”

Rafe smiled.

“She’s a credulous creature – she might be taken in. You had better warn her – I can see you are going to anyhow.” He turned a laughing look on Lisle. “I’m not a prophet in my own country. Alicia is just going to tell you that I’ve never been fond of anyone in my life. I’m a philanderer, a specialist in flirtation, an unreliable poacher on other people’s preserves. I rob henroosts and don’t even want to eat the eggs. I throw them away because I like breaking things. It is well known that I have no heart. In fact, You Have Been Warned.”

Lisle made herself smile too. Beneath the chaff there ran a swift, secret current. She didn’t know what it was, but it made her afraid.

She said as lightly as she could, “Would that be true?” and Alicia laughed again.

“Of course it’s true. He’s a cold fish. No, fish isn’t the right creature – I believe they are quite affectionate.”

“Try serpent,” said Rafe in an interested voice. “I rather fancy that. ‘He sleeked his soul in a serpent’s skin, and buttoned it up and buttoned it in.’ Strictly original and impromptu effort by Rafe Jerningham. And what she really means, honey-sweet, is, don’t trust me an inch, because I might take an ell, and on no account let me drive you into Ledlington, because it interferes with her own plans for this morning.”

“I’ll go and get ready,” said Lisle.

The mist was drawing up as they came on to the Ledlington road. Warmth came through it, and a veiled sunlight prophesying heat. She said suddenly,

“Why does Alicia say that sort of thing?”

Rafe flashed her a quick, enigmatic look.

“Don’t you know?”

“No, I don’t think I do. She sounded angry.”

“Oh, yes, she was angry.”

“Why?”

His shoulder lifted.

“Why is anybody angry?”

She left it at that. No knowing where that current would take you if you ventured in too far. She drew back and sat in silence all the way into Ledlington. After a little she found the silence restful.

“Where do you want to go?”

They were amongst houses now, straggling outposts of the town, raw and new, with brightly coloured tiles, unfinished gardens, vivid window curtains, and names like My’ome, Maryzone, and Wyshcumtru.

“Oh, the High Street – Ashley’s. I shan’t be long.”

She heard him laugh.

“When every woman lies! I’ll expect you when I see you. Shall I have time to get my hair cut?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Several times over, I expect! Don’t hurry.”

Lisle went up to the ladies’ rest room. Ashley’s did their customers very well. They catered for women who came in from the country round and made a day of it, shopping in the morning and paying visits in the afternoon. You could have your hair shampooed and waved, you could take a facial treatment, you could rest in a comfortable armchair and look through the latest magazines, you could ring up your friends from a telephone box which ensured privacy.

It was the telephone box which had brought Lisle to Ashley’s. She entered it, took care to shut the door, and asked for a London number. Ledlington has not arrived at automatic telephones. The frequently expressed view is that it has no desire to be bothered with them.

Lisle, waiting for her call, was glad to see how empty the rest-room was. A vague attendant just visible through the archway into the dressing-room was polishing a mirror over one of the wash-basins. There was no one else in sight.

The voice of the telephone operator said, “Here you are,” and with a little click the prim, reliable voice of Miss Maud Silver took its place.

“Hullo!”

Queer how the one word took Lisle back to the train and a dumpy figure in drab shantung and a brown hat with a bunch of mignonette and pansies. She had no need to ask who was on the line.

“Miss Silver – Lisle Jerningham speaking. I can’t come up and see you today. I’ve had to change my plans.”

There was the sound of a faint cough.

“Dear me – that’s a pity – really a great pity. You are sure you cannot manage to come?”

Lisle said, “Quite sure,” not knowing how the words sounded to Miss Silver’s ears.

The prim, reliable voice said, “Dear me!” again. And then, “Could you come up tomorrow?”

Lisle wanted to say yes so much that she began to shake. She wanted to say yes, and she mustn’t. She must say no. She said it in a failing voice, and then she said good-bye and hung up the receiver before she could be tempted to say anything more. Then she went quickly back to the car and sat there to wait for Rafe. She had to wait some time.

When he came, her heart knocked suddenly against her side. She thought something had happened, and then wondered what had put the thought into her mind, because he smiled and looked just as usual. But when they were clear of the High Street and drawing away from the town he said in a conversational tone,

“They’ve got Pell.”

Why should that make her heart knock? But it did. She said,

“How do you know?”

“I met March. They’re having the inquest tomorrow.”

Lisle leaned back and closed her eyes. The mist was gone. The wet road dazzled her under the sun. Her heart beat. She said,

“Did he do it -Pell? Did he push Cissie over the cliff?”

Rafe put his foot down on the accelerator. The new houses streamed away on either side and were gone. The green fields streamed away. He said in his casual voice,

“That’ll be for a jury to say. He swears he didn’t.”