The Girl in the Cellar

CHAPTER 32

Jim Fancourt walked into Miss Silver’s sitting-room. He could hardly wait for Emma Meadows to shut the door behind him, or for Miss Silver to shake hands, before he said, ‘I’ve been thinking-’

Miss Silver gave a faint reproving cough.

‘Will you not sit down?’

‘Thank you, I’d rather stand.’

Miss Silver seated herself. She took her knitting-bag from the small table beside her chair and began to knit. Jim Fancourt stood before the hearth. When she had knitted about a row and a half, he came out with something between a groan and a cough.

‘You haven’t heard any more?’

Miss Silver was not prepared to tell an untruth. She said, ‘I have heard something, but not from Anne herself.’

He had been turned half away from her, looking down into the fire. He was round in a flash.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Just what I said, Mr Fancourt. I have some news of Anne, but not from herself. I rang up your rooms, but you had already left. I felt sure that you would be very much relieved to have such satisfactory news.’

He didn’t know how dreadfully afraid he had been until she said that Anne was safe. He didn’t know how much his face gave away. He had to hear it again, to have it underlined.

‘Where is she?’

‘I do not think that I can tell you that. She is with the cousin of a girl whom I was able to help-a very nice steady person. She is quite safe, Mr Fancourt. You may be perfectly sure of that.’

‘You won’t tell me where she is?’

Miss Silver laid down her knitting.

‘I can make allowances for your impatience, but I will ask you to consider the circumstances. At the present moment Anne’s desire is to be left alone. She is perfectly safe, and you will do well to have regard to her wishes.’

He bit his lip.

‘That is all very well-’

‘Yes, I think that it is. I think that you will achieve more by giving her a little time to, shall we say, miss you.’

‘Do you think she will?’

‘I think so, if you do not alarm her by trying to force a decision upon her before she is prepared to make one.’

‘What decision do you mean?’

‘Think for a minute, Mr Fancourt. Anne is not your wife- that has become quite clear.’

‘I never said she was.’

‘No. But with her memory gone, and in your absence, she was presented to your family in that light. Then you arrived, and I suppose that was a shock to her.’

‘I suppose it was.’

They were both talking so seriously that to neither of them did it seem at all strange that it should be put like that. Miss Silver leaned forward.

‘Do you not see, Mr Fancourt, how it was? I do not know what your feelings were for the poor girl who was murdered. I do not know whether the form of marriage you went through with her would have held water. But all that is now beside the point. I think you must see that Anne will need a little time to think before any decision is taken as to your relationship. She is in the position of having no past. I do not think that she can decide upon her future until she knows what that past may have been. The best thing for her, and the thing most likely to clear up her thoughts, is a period of rest. What she needs is a time when nothing happens, a time in which she can feel secure and, if it works out that way, regain her memory.’

‘Yes-yes, I can see that. But she’ll need money. Will you see that she has what she wants? I’ll give you a cheque. Will fifty pounds be all right?’

‘Yes, Mr Fancourt.’

‘Couldn’t you tell me where she is?’

She smiled.

‘I think it will be better if I do not.’

He leaned forward and took her hands. His were hard and strong, but she felt them tremble.

‘If I say I won’t see her-I won’t go near her-’

‘Do you think you could really keep to that?’

He said, ‘I don’t know. I suppose I couldn’t, but I would try.’

Miss Silver looked at him with a great degree of kindness. She said, ‘Let it alone for a little, Mr Fancourt. It will be better that way.’