The Girl in the Cellar

CHAPTER 29

Miss Silver got the letter with her breakfast next day. It was the second in a pile of letters. She opened it first. She read:

Dear Miss Silver,

I am writing to tell you that I had to come away. I couldn’t help it. When I see you I will tell you, but I don’t know when that will be. I’ve got to get work before I do anything else. I thought I must write to you because of Jim. I meant to write to him, but I couldn’t. He will be so very angry with me for coming away, and I don’t know whether I could tell him why. I must think it well over first. But if you see him, or if he comes to you, will you please tell him not to worry. He was so very good to me-as you were. It would be a bad return if I did anything that would make things difficult for him. I will send you an address when I have got one. This is only temporary. Dear Miss Silver, I feel so grateful to you. I can’t explain, but please, please do believe that I don’t mean to be ungrateful, and that I am all right.

The letter was signed ‘Anne’.

Miss Silver read it through twice, then she left the breakfast-table, went into her sitting-room, and rang up Jim Fancourt.

‘Mr Fancourt-’

‘Yes-who is it?’

‘It is Miss Silver. I have a letter from Anne.’

She read it aloud to him, and he received it in silence. After a moment she said, ‘Mr Fancourt, are you there?’

She got an angry laugh.

‘Oh, yes, I’m here-and a lot of use that seems to be! She says she writes from London?’

‘Yes.’

‘Why does she not write to me?’

Miss Silver looked at the letter again. She said, ‘I think there has been trouble with your aunt.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘It is an impression.’

‘Something must have caused it.’

‘Yes. She says she had to come away, she could not help it. Then what she says of you-“He will be so very angry with me for coming away, and I don’t know whether I could tell him why. I must think it well over first.” ’ She read on to the end of the letter, and then returned to the sentence which said, ‘It would be a bad return if I did anything that would make things more difficult for him.’

‘That appears to me to be her motive-not to make things difficult for you.’

‘Damned little fool!’

Miss Silver turned a deaf ear. She could not approve of ‘language’, but she could ignore it. She said, ‘I will send you a copy of this letter. It will, I think, be a satisfaction to you to have it, and I will let you know at once when I hear from her again.’

When Jim received the letter he read it through more than enough times to know it by heart. She said, ‘I meant to write to him but I couldn’t.’ Why on earth couldn’t she? She could tell him anything-anything. Why could she tell Miss Silver what she couldn’t tell him? He went on reading. ‘He will be so very angry with me for coming away, and I don’t think I can tell him why. I must think it well over first.’ And what did she mean by that? What had she got to think over? ‘Will you please tell him not to worry.’ Not to worry-‘He was so very good to me. It would be a bad return if I did anything that would make things difficult for him.’ What was at the back of all this? And she had left her bag with the money in it. That was the real puzzle. You can’t get anywhere without money, but she had got to London. How? How had she gone? He could imagine ways, but they infuriated him. And where was she now? In London? She might be, or she might not.

He rang Miss Silver up.

‘Jim Fancourt speaking. You haven’t heard any more?’

‘No, Mr Fancourt. I will let you know as soon as I do.’

‘You think you will hear?’

‘I am sure I shall.’

Her quiet, firm voice was reassuring. He said, ‘I don’t know where to look for her-I don’t know what to do.’

Miss Silver said, ‘There is nothing you can do except wait.’

‘That’s the damnable thing.’

‘I will ring you up as soon as I hear anything.’