The King and the Corpse by Max Murray

Author:Max Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Galileo Publishing
Published: 2023-10-10T13:40:39+00:00

CHAPTER 10

ETHELDRA MARTHA TRUMAN gritted her teeth and hauled her evening gown over her corsets. Then in the mirror she made a careful inspection of the seams. They seemed to be standing up to the strain quite well. She thought gratefully of Millie Westbrook, the determined little needlewoman at home. She took her powder puff and struck herself viciously several times on the nose with it. Then she took her ermine wrap and her handbag and went down to meet Anthony. The average age of all her garments was at least twelve years and yet somehow she looked singularly well-dressed.

‘Well,’ she said, ‘Have you finished gallivanting after those young women of yours?’

‘The one I saw this afternoon was not exactly young. Lady Meaker; do you remember her?’

‘Anne Meaker? Very well. Her husband was killed in the war before the last,’ she sighed. ‘We have come to reckon women’s ages by the war in which they lost their husbands. It’s very bitter, isn’t it? Anne Meaker was very quiet and very brave about it. Then she went away to grow old by herself.’

‘She seems happy enough.’

‘Perhaps she is. One learns not to expect too much.’ She shook her head. ‘And, of course, when you have learned that, it means that you are old.’

‘I see. I must remember always to expect too much.’

She snorted. ‘From the way you behave I doubt if you’ll ever grow up. What did you suppose Anne Meaker could tell you about this affair?’

‘I didn’t know. But she does know a lot of the people involved; Eve and her father, and even Manetti, so I understand.’

‘Did she tell you anything you didn’t know before?’

‘Not a lot. Manetti seemed to have had some sort of hold over Eve’s father.’

‘I could have told you that myself, but you were so bemused by that girl Avril that I doubt if you’d have heard me.’

‘Of course, you went to see him, didn’t you?’

She scoffed. ‘Oh yes, I went to see him. I climbed that damned hill with the sweat pouring from me like summer rain.’

He laughed at her. ‘You poor old thing. It’s your weight, of course. But I’d no idea you were going to discuss the murder with Mr. Raymond. The reason for your mountaineering was to let him know that his daughter was safe.’

She looked at him coldly. ‘The man was not in the least concerned about his daughter, as you very well knew. You had told him yourself. What you wanted me to do was to pump him.’

‘Pump him! Aunt Etheldra, you pain me.’

She ignored that and sat thinking over her visit.

‘You would think, wouldn’t you, that a man who had been carrying a load of guilt for more than twenty years would show it.’

‘I expect so, yes.’

‘He looks younger than he would have done if he had stayed on with his nose in the ledgers of that bank he worked for. It did not suit him.’

‘Do you suggest his guilty conscience did?’

‘He has not judged himself too harshly, you know, Anthony.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.