E.M. Channon Collection: Three Golden Age Mysteries by E.M. Channon

Author:E.M. Channon [Channon, E.M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2018-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter XII

The Second Time of Asking

THE rumour was gaining ground in the village; and Sylvia knew it. She saw Dr. Mackay at the Lacons’, patient, skilful, unwearyingly kind, treated with respect and attention by the London specialist who came down in consultation; she saw poor little Lois clinging to him, as to a rock, in her misery of anxiety. Leaving them, Sylvia went to call on humbler friends in the village; and instantly all was changed. Jimmy Baker had a toothache that was worrying him ever so—his face was all swollen out to that: but take that tooth to the doctor—oh, no, miss! It would probably get better of itself; Mrs. Baker would not trouble the doctor. The village nurse was insistent that Dr. Mackay must look at old Mrs. Peters’ leg; it was beyond her skill; it could not be safely left any longer without expert attention. But, no! Mrs. Peters’ leg had been worse than this before; she was quite satisfied with what Nurse was doing for it. Had Tommy Trant finished that cough-mixture? Well, no, miss. It didn’t seem to do it any good; his mother had poured it away like. No, she thought she wouldn’t go and ask for a bottle of a different kind.

Sylvia, exceedingly troubled, went to her old friend at the Hall. But Lady Braden was wise in her generation; she did not even wait for the subject to be broached.

‘I’ve sent for the doctor!’ she announced, without preliminary.

‘Oh, Lady Braden, I am sorry. I had no idea that you were ill!’

‘Never better, thank the Lord!’ said Lady Braden briskly; and indeed, though she had always looked both smaller and older since the death of Philip, she seemed in wonderfully good fettle for an old lady of her age.

‘But I thought you said…’

‘I said I had sent for Dr. Mackay. So I have!’

‘But then who…?’

‘Child, haven’t you eyes in your head? There’s something working against the man here; and I propose to let everybody see that I, at least, don’t believe a word of it!’

‘Then you have seen it too!’ Sylvia exclaimed, enormously relieved to be free of the difficult task of broaching such a delicate subject.

‘Oh, you’re not quite blind, then!’ Lady Braden looked at her sharply. ‘See it! What am I to think when old Dorothy Arkwright, whom I’ve led by the nose ever since we were at school together, calls in a man from ten miles off? I’ve been singing our man’s praises ever since she came home, and I thought it was all settled. Throckley Manor ought to have been a tidy little income to Mackay, seeing how she’s always fancying herself at the point of death.’

‘Did she… say anything to you about it?’

‘It was I who said things!’ Lady Braden answered grimly. ‘I had the carriage out, and went over at once; but I could get no sense out of her—Dorothy never had any brains! A lot of vague prattle about “she’s heard things against him,” and “people

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