Agatha Christie Other - 16 - Endless Night by Agatha Christie

Author:Agatha Christie
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery
Published: 2010-06-22T23:00:00+00:00

Endless Night

Chapter 14

That's how our life began at Gipsy's Acre. We didn't find another name for the house. That first evening fixed Gipsy's Acre in our heads.

“We'll call it Gipsy's Acre,” said Ellie, “just to show. A kind of challenge, don't you think? It's our Acre, and to hell with the gipsy's warning.”

She was her old gay self again the next day and soon we were busy getting ourselves settled in, and getting also to know the neighbourhood and the neighbours. Ellie and I walked down to the cottage where the gipsy woman lived. I felt it would be a good thing if we found her digging in her garden. The only time Ellie had seen her before was when she told our fortunes. If Ellie saw she was just an ordinary old woman - digging up potatoes - but we didn't see her. The cottage was shut up. I asked if she were dead but the neighbour I asked shook her head.

“She must have gone away,” she said. “She goes away from time to time, you know. She's a gipsy really. That's why she can't stay in houses. She wanders away and comes back again.” She tapped her forehead. “Not quite right up there.”

Presently she said, trying to mask curiosity, “You've come from the new house up there, haven't you, the one on the top of the hill, that's just been built.”

“That's right,” I said, “we moved in last night.”

“Wonderful looking place it is,” she said. “We've all been up to look at it while it was building. Makes a difference, doesn't it, seeing a house like that where all those gloomy trees used to be.”

She said to Ellie rather shyly, “You're an American lady, aren't you, so we heard?”

“Yes,” said Ellie, “I'm American - or I was, but now I'm married to an Englishman so I'm an Englishwoman.”

“And you've come here to settle down and live, haven't you?”

We said we had.

“Well, I hope you'll like it, I'm sure!” She sounded doubtful.

“Why shouldn't we?”

“Oh well, it's lonely up there, you know. People don't always like living in a lonely place among a lot of trees.”

“Gipsy's Acre,” said Ellie.

“Ah, you know the local name, do you? But the house that was there before was called The Towers. I don't know why. It hadn't got any towers, at least not in my time.”

“I think The Towers is a silly name,” said Ellie. “I think we'll go on calling it Gipsy's Acre.”

“We'll have to tell the post office if so,” I said, “or we shan't get any letters.”

“No, I suppose we shan't.”

“Though when I come to think of it,” I said, “would that matter, Ellie? Wouldn't it be much nicer if we didn't get any letters?”

“It might cause a lot of complications,” said Ellie. “We shouldn't even get our bills.”

“That would be a splendid idea,” I said.

“No, it wouldn't,” said Ellie. “Bailiffs would come in and camp there. Anyway,” she said, “I wouldn't like not to get any letters. I'd want to hear from Greta.

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