The Miss Silver Mysteries Volume Two by Patricia Wentworth

Author:Patricia Wentworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2018-04-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

THE CURTAINS WERE DRAWN in Miss Fane’s study. They were of a handsome golden brown damask, a shade lighter than the woodwork. In combination with the glowing fire—the police are always handy with a fire—they made the room a good many degrees less bleak. Light came from a bowl in the ceiling. It showed Superintendent March, pleasant but official, at the writing-table, and Carey Desborough facing him across it in as easy an attitude as a hard and upright chair allowed. March had just said,

“I believe you and Miss Lyle were engaged.” The statement was a little disingenuous. Or perhaps that is putting it too politely, since he believed no such thing. He merely wished to observe Mr. Desborough’s reactions. They were displayed in a lifted eyebrow and a faint stiffening of manner as he replied to what he chose to regard as a question. “Oh, no—that’s a mistake. There was no engagement.” The Superintendent wondered whether this was a quibble. He said,

“You would prefer to call it an understanding?” This time Mr. Desborough frowned. The expression suited him very well. A fine looking young fellow, if you liked them on the dark and gloomy side. This was of course not the moment to be wreathed in smiles.

Carey said, “I don’t know where you got your information. We were not engaged, and we had no understanding. We were merely friends.”

March moved some papers which lay at his right hand, bringing one of them to the top and leaving it there.

“My information comes from Miss Fane. She tells me that there was an understanding, and that the engagement would have been announced very shortly.”

Carey nodded.

“I thought so. It’s what she wanted, and when she wants anything she makes up her mind she’s going to get it. But in this case she was all out. We were just friends.”

“You knew that she had this idea?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Did you do anything to disabuse her of it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

The eyebrow went up again.

“Not a very easy thing to do. As a matter of fact I told Tanis she ought to do it.”

“And what did Miss Lyle say to that?”

“She didn’t want to at first, but afterwards she said she would.”

“Why didn’t she want to?”

Carey frowned. He was aware of delicate ground under his feet. He wanted to tell the truth. But how do you convey the truth about a very complicated situation to someone who knows nothing about it, without embarking on a three-volume novel? You have to eliminate, but what you eliminate is part of the truth. What he wanted to do was to eliminate Laura. Yet as far as he was concerned the whole situation pivoted on Laura. He did the best he could, saying after no more than a momentary pause,

“Miss Fane was very keen on our marrying. She hated the idea of a film career. She wanted her to settle down here and have a family. Tanis was dependent on her. She didn’t want to offend her, but she definitely didn’t want to marry me or anyone else.

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