31 The Alington Inheritance by Patricia Wentworth

Author:Patricia Wentworth [Wentworth, Patricia]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* The Listening Eye

TWENTY-FIVE

JENNY LED THE way to the sitting-room. Under her bright look of welcome there was something disturbed. Miss Silver wondered whether she had known the dead girl well. Two girls of very much the same age, living next door to one another – no, the dead girl was three or four years older, but that was no great matter. It would be natural enough for them to be friends. In any case the shock of this sudden and tragic death would be bound to affect a sensitive girl.

Miss Silver had remained standing. She turned as the door opened and Miss Danesworth came in.

‘My dear Miss Silver, I am so pleased to see you!’ she said.

Miss Silver smiled and responded.

‘But I must tell you that I am here on business.’

‘This Mottingley case – it’s dreadful, isn’t it? I met the boy in the summer. I can’t believe that he would commit a brutal murder. He always seemed such a quiet lad – gentle and rather repressed. But do sit down, won’t you?’

Miss Silver seated herself. She said,

‘You interest me very much. I should make it clear at once that I am here on behalf of the Mottingleys. They have engaged me to go over the case, and to see what can be said for the young man who is accused.’

Miss Danesworth was silent for a moment. Then she said,

‘I don’t know that you ought to ask me about it, for if ever I disliked a girl in my life it was that unfortunate girl who was murdered.’

Miss Silver looked at her gravely.

‘Miss Danesworth, will you give your own account of what happened as far as the circumstances are known to you? I am not asking you for a weighed and balanced account. I want simply to know how the whole thing seemed to you. I am not asking you to be fair, or to weigh your words. I want to know just how the affair struck you at that time. Will you do that for me?’

Miss Danesworth met Miss Silver’s eyes, and experienced what so many people had experienced in similar circumstances. She felt a great many things that she could not have put into words. The truth – that was what mattered, and it was the only thing that did matter. The conventions did not matter. The only thing that mattered was the truth. She said,

‘Yes, I’ll tell you the truth as far as I know it. But I don’t know very much—’ She paused for a moment and then went on. ‘I have a nephew staying with me. His name is Richard Forbes. He is in love with the girl who let you in. She is Jenny Forbes, and she is a very distant cousin of his. They are not engaged, and there is nothing given out. I know that you will be very discreet – they have only known each other for ten days. I don’t ask any questions, but I can see how things are with them.

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