The Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters

Author:Elizabeth Peters
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780061828614
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-09-24T17:16:27+00:00

6

UNEMOTIONALLY JEAN CONSIDERED THE QUESTION. It should have aroused a cry of disbelief or denial, or, at the least, of horror. Instead it seemed to crystallize a fact she had known, without admitting it, for a long time.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Abruptly Jacqueline sat down.

“Well, thank God for that.”

“For what? That I don’t know?”

“No, no. For accepting the idea. I was afraid you would think me hysterical. I keep forgetting how intelligent you are, under that Alice in Wonderland exterior. You look so blasted young….”

“And I thought I was the one who was imagining things. Jacqueline, I’m not that clumsy, really I’m not. One accident, even two…But three in a row…”

“You honestly don’t remember anything about tonight?” Jacqueline lit another cigarette. The incessant chain-smoking was the only sign of nerves she displayed; her hands were steady and her face showed only alert concentration. “I backed up your claim of ignorance as a matter of policy; obviously you didn’t want anyone to get the idea that you suspect the identity of your attacker. But do you?”

“No, honestly. It could have been anybody. It was a madhouse; I don’t suppose anyone kept track of anyone else…. Oh! You said José—”

Jacqueline shook her head reluctantly.

“Even José. He had left, to go up to the apartment for a minute. I didn’t notice him after that, till he grabbed you away from me and tossed you down and started pushing your ribs around.”

“Away from…. Now it all comes out. Were you the one who dragged me out of the pool?”

“Why do you think I was sitting on the sidelines like a dainty old chaperone?” Jacqueline snapped. “I was watching you; and a heck of a job it was, too, the way everyone was milling around. But in my hastily formed opinion you were safer in a small pool than you would have been in the ocean at Ostia.”

“That is a point,” Jean said slowly. “Jacqueline, you aren’t a dainty old anything, you’re a witch. How long have you had this suspicion?”

“Since Michael mentioned your first ‘accident,’ right after I had seen the scars of the second. I wasn’t sure, of course; how could I be? But I started to get a nasty cold feeling in the pit of my stomach, and when you mentioned going swimming, it occurred to me what a perfect setup that would be for another accident. I couldn’t warn you, I was afraid you would think I had flipped. All I could do was transfer your activities to a place where I thought I could keep an eye on you. When I think how nearly I failed, even then…”

“You saved my life,” Jean said snuffily.

“Yes, well, let’s both sit and cry about it, shall we? Anyhow,” Jacqueline said grimly, “you’d better save your thanks. You aren’t in the clear yet. And you won’t be until we figure out who is doing this, and why.”

“The ‘why’ is pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

“Yes, in a way. In another way—no, curse it! You’re thinking of Albert’s death.

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