She stood quite passive in his embrace, not yielding to it at all, but stiff, as if she was holding herself against the shaking and against him. She said in a faraway voice,
“He didn’t hurt me. He was dead when I came down. They think I hurt him.”
“Eily, what made you come down?”
He felt the beginning of a shudder, and the way she wouldn’t let it come. He was reminded of a creature shamming dead because it was so frightened. Wild things would do that if you got your hands on them, but Eily had nothing to be frightened of with him.
He laid his cheek against her hair.
“What is it? What’s frightening you? I must know, or how can I help you? Tell me, my little dear. You went along to Miss Heron like I told you?”
“Yes-” It was more like a sigh than a word.
“Then why didn’t you stay there? Eily, I told you to stay.”
Her head had been bent so that he couldn’t see her face. She lifted it now and stared up at him.
“You-know-”
“I?”
“You-called me-”
“Eily!”
“You came under the window whistling. I heard you, and I went along to my room. When I looked out of the window you were going round the corner of the house-”
He stopped her.
“Eily, what are you saying?”
She said it again, like a child that repeats a lesson.
“You went by whistling. When I saw you go round the corner of the house I came downstairs. I was going to open one of the windows in the lounge and tell you to go away-but he was there in the hall-he was dead. John, why did you do it?”
He lifted his big hands and put them on her shoulders.
“Why, my little dear, what made you think that of me? Do you think I’d touch you like this if I’d blood on my hands? No, no-don’t you think it! I won’t deny when I heard what Mrs. Bridling had to say that the old Adam got up in me pretty strong, and I thank the Lord I didn’t meet him then. Not but what he deserved a good hammering, for he did, and if I’d met with him, that’s what he’d have got. But not a knife in the back, my dear-don’t you think it! Don’t you let it trouble you, for that’s a thing I couldn’t do, not how ever much my blood was up. I’m not denying I might have struck him and found it hard to be sorry afterwards. The servant of the Lord mustn’t strive, but there’s times when it comes hard-I’m not denying that. But not knives and suchlike, and stabbing a man in the back. You’ve no call to be frightened I’d do anything like that.”
Insensibly his warmth, his voice were reassuring her. When she spoke her tone was more natural.
“Why did you come back?”
“I didn’t, my dear, I didn’t.”
“I heard you.”
He said grimly, “You heard someone whistling my tune. It might be someone who wanted you to come down, but it wasn’t me. After I’d said good-night to you I went right back to Cliff and stayed there. I knew you’d be safe with Miss Heron for the night, and I was coming to fetch you in the morning. Why should I come back?”
“It-wasn’t you?”
“No, my dear.”
He put his arms round her again, and this time she came close to him and put up her face to be kissed. After a little he said,
“Tell me, my dear. You said you saw someone go round the corner of the house, and you thought it was me, and you were going to open one of the windows in the lounge and tell me to go home. Did you open that window?”
“Oh, no, John.” The shudder took her. “He was there in the hall-he was dead.”
He held her warm and close.
“You didn’t go into the lounge?”
She said, “Oh!” and then, “Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I told the Inspector it was because there had been drinks there, and I thought about getting something for Luke. I don’t know if it was true-I don’t really. I just said it, but I don’t know whether I thought about it or not. I couldn’t tell him about seeing you go round the corner of the house and wanting to tell you to go home-I couldn’t tell him that.”
“You should have told him the truth, my dear.”
She had begun to cry, tears flooding up into the dark blue eyes and brimming over.
“You can’t tell what you don’t know. I was too frightened to know why I did it. I did think about the drinks, but I did think about you being there and wanting to get to you. And then it came over me that you’d done it, and I was too frightened to go on. So I went back, and seeing him-like that, dead-” She clung to him, sobbing.
“There, there, my dear, don’t you take on. You’re coming back with me now like I said, and Mrs. Bridling will look after you till we’re married, and then I’ll look after you myself.”
She pulled away from him at that, rubbing at her eyes with the sleeve of her overall.
“Oh, John, I can’t!”
“Eily-”
She shook her head.
“But we’re ever so short-handed. I can’t-not with all these people in the house. Miss Heron’s helping me.” She smiled suddenly and dabbed her eyes again. “She says to call her Jane, because we’re going to be cousins-if I marry you.”
He said indulgently, “Aren’t you going to marry me, Eily?”
Her smile came, and went, and came again.
“Not with all this going on in the house. There’s no need for me to go away now that I can see. I’ll be all right. It was Luke I was afraid of, but he’s dead.”
Her movement as she pulled away from him had left him facing the door and the screen which partly covered it. As he stood he could see the panelling above the door. He should have been able to see an inch or two of the door itself. But there was nothing there- Only two fingers of emptiness. The door was open, and a draught blowing in from the hall. Just when it had opened, or who had opened it, there was nothing to show. Eily and he had been too far away to know or care.
He left her and ran out into the hall. Mildred Taverner was on the stairs.
CHAPTER 22
She was on the fifth or sixth step up. She had both hands on the balustrade and stood there pressed up against it looking down into the hall. It was impossible to say whether she had been going up or coming down. When she saw John Higgins she poked with her long neck and said in a discontented voice,
“It’s quite terribly cold, isn’t it? I’ve been in my room, but it is so very chilly there. Do you suppose there is a fire in the lounge?”
He wondered whether it was she who had opened the door to see if there was a fire in the dining-room. He said gravely,
“Yes, there is a fire in the lounge. Did you think there would be one in the dining-room? Was it you who opened the door just now?”
She was immediately very much flustered. The three separate chains which she wore, one of rather large gold links, one of sky-blue Venetian beads, and one of some kind of brown berry strung upon scarlet thread, all jiggled and clanked. The berries became entangled with each other and mixed up with a very large silver brooch which was rather like a starfish. She came down the stairs, plucking nervously to disentangle them.
“Oh, no. I’ve been up in my room. I didn’t really feel-I mean it’s so very awkward, isn’t it? Such a dreadful thing to have happened-and no knowing who did it. So if you are with anyone, you can’t help thinking ‘Suppose it was him’-or her, or them, as the case might be. So I went up to my room, but when you are alone you can’t help having the feeling that there might be someone under the bed or in the wardrobe, even if you’ve looked there before-or perhaps creeping along the passage with their shoes off.” She shivered, and the chains all clanked again. “So I thought perhaps the lounge. Do you know if there is anyone there?”
He opened the door for her. There was certainly a fire, and a comfortable chair drawn up to it. But Mrs. Bridling, who had been sitting there, had got tired of waiting and gone home. There was Mr. Bridling to see to, and the Sunday dinner to cook.