“He may have told you about my connection with the Marline family.”
“Oh yes, Lawrence tells me most things. That case created a lot of attention at the time, but the outcome was clear right from the start.”
“Lawrence said you called it a stock situation.”
“It was. That dreadful woman. Well, by all accounts she was dreadful.
No one seemed to have a good word to say for her even the nurse, who was so much against the governess. More against her than against the doctor. It was absorbing while it was going on, but, as I say, there have been many others like it. “
“Which made it ” stock”,” I said.
“Yes. Then I knew that Lawrence’s friend Captain Sin clair was connected with the Marlines. He and Lawrence were often on the same ship, and I suppose that gave an added interest. What a charming man he was! I met him once.” She put her hand over mine.
“It was terrible for you. The connection, of course, made it doubly interesting to me.
I shouldn’t have taken so much notice otherwise, I suppose, for it was really a case of the classic murder. “
“I was brought up there and I just cannot believe that Dr. Marline was a murderer.”
She smiled at me.
“People often feel like that. Murderers are not necessarily the ordinary criminal. Something happens … and it is more than they can endure. If you saw the evidence you would realize …” She hesitated.
“I’ve just remembered.
I kept cuttings from the papers to show Lawrence when he came home.
I’ll find them for you sometime. “
She looked guiltily in the direction of the Hysons, her other guests.
I could see that she was wondering if she had neglected them.
After dinner, when we were drinking coffee in the drawing-room, Lawrence said to me: “You seem to get on well with Dorothy.”
“I like her very much.”
“I’m glad. She’s always looked after me.”
“Yes, she has been telling me about it. You two seem to have everything satisfactorily planned.”
“That’s Dorothy. She’s a great manager. It makes life comfortable. I can see she likes you. She takes strong likes and dislikes.”
She came over to us and Lawrence went to talk to the Hysons and Gertie. I heard them speaking of Australia.
Dorothy said to me: “Now that we have met, you must come again. It would be rather nice if you could have a weekend with us at the cottage.”
“I should very much enjoy that.”
“Do you think your friends would mind?”
“Oh no, no. As a matter of fact, I sometimes feel that I’m encroaching on their hospitality. You see, I’m there because I’m Gertie’s friend.
I sometimes think I ought to be making other arrangements. “
“You are not planning to go back to Australia yet?”
“No, not yet. But I think perhaps I have been letting things drift. I feel rather uncertain. When my father died …”
She patted my hand.
“We must talk,” she said.
“Let’s have this weekend. That will give us more time. I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll look out those cuttings about the Marline case, you know. But you’ll find the case was more or less ” shut” as soon as it was ” open”. You’ll see what I mean.”
“I shall look forward to that.”
“Good. I’ll check with Lawrence.” She gave a little roguish smile.
“I think it will fit in with his plans if we make it fairly soon. “
The invitation came next day. Gertie was amused.
“I say, you have made a hit. Lawrence is a darling. What you had to do was conquer Sister Dorothy. A hard nut to crack, that one as the saying goes. But you managed it … first go. I’d say Lawrence will have her approval. So, it is full steam ahead.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why ask when you know? Lawrence is no longer young, and Sister Dorothy has come to the conclusion that it might be a good idea for him to settle down, providing he can find the ” right girl” and that means one of whom Sister Dorothy approves. Well, it seems she approves of you. And I do not think there is any doubt that Lawrence does too.
How could he resist Sister Dorothy’s choice? “
“How ridiculous!” I said.
“I must write and tell James that he must do something quickly. He has a rival.”
“Please do nothing of the sort.”
She burst out laughing.
“I was just joking. But you are beginning to see the daylight … coming out of the dark tunnel. I think he’s too old for you and you don’t want Sister Dorothy managing you for ever after, so don’t rush it. But it’s nice that there’s someone.”
“I wish you’d concern yourself with your own matrimonial affairs.”
She opened her eyes wide.
“Don’t you think I do? I had the idea that you thought I was concerned with nothing else.”
She flung her arms round me.
“Only teasing. I’m glad you’ve got your Lawrence, even with ” Big Sister” in control. He’s nice. I like him. In fact, I wouldn’t be averse to the match. It would keep you here, and I am rather fond of you. I’d hate you to go back down under, even if you would in time be my sister-in-law. I’d rather have you as a friend here than a sister-in-law on the other side of the world.”
“You are ridiculous,” I said.
And she gave me another hug.
But she did make me think about Lawrence. I believed that he was fond of me and it was true what she had said about Dorothy. It was all very interesting, and I suppose everyone likes to feel wanted.
However, it was with pleasurable anticipation that I set out for that weekend at the Emmersons’ cottage.
The cottage was something of a misnomer. It was a house in grounds -not exactly large, but with spacious airy rooms and the gardens were a delight. There was a small cottage more or less adjoining the house and in this lived Tom and Mary Burke, who looked after the house. It was of two storeys and I guessed it had been built at the beginning of the century, for it had a certain Georgian elegance and charm.
I thought it was very pleasant and I was not surprised by Dorothy’s fondness for it. It was run with the efficiency I expected from Dorothy, and I thought once more how fortunate Lawrence was to be in her care, for, even if she were perhaps a little forceful at times, everything was done for his good.
I was sure Lawrence appreciated her.
The house was just outside the small town of Cranston. Dorothy had gone on ahead to make sure everything was in order for my visit. I was given a charming bedroom overlooking the garden, and I prepared to enjoy a very pleasant weekend, telling myself how fortunate I was to have renewed my friendship with Lawrence Emmerson.
I was shown round the house and garden with great pride by the brother and sister, and we spent a pleasant evening gossiping in the garden after dinner. The following morning, I was taken into the village by Dorothy and introduced to some of her acquaintances in the little shops where she was well known. It had all been very friendly, very homely, a glimpse into the ideal country life.
Lawrence had an engagement with a friend nearby which had been arranged before my weekend had been settled upon, and Dorothy whispered to me that it would be a good time for her to show me the cuttings she had told me about.
We found a shady spot in the garden, well away from the little stream which ran through it.
“The insects can be a little troublesome,” she told me.
She settled me in a comfortable chair under an oak tree on the lawn with the newspaper cuttings.
Tea at four, my dear,” she said.
“We’ll have it just here on the lawn.
Plenty of shade there. I shall disappear until then. “
The cuttings had been pasted into a scrapbook and were easy to read, and, as I did so, the past came back to me so vividly that I was there in that house and I felt again the atmosphere of mounting tension and impending danger. Only now I understood it and what it was leading to.
There was an account of the inquest. How vividly I remembered the whispering about that. I could hear Nanny Gilroy’s voice: “I shall hold nothing back. You can’t at times like this.”
And it had been after that inquest that Dr. Marline and Miss Carson had been arrested.
Three weeks after the inquest, the trial had begun.
There were extracts from the opening speech of a Mr. Lamson, QC, in which he outlined what had happened, a great deal of which I was familiar with. Mrs. Marline had suffered a bad accident in the hunting field, through which she had become an invalid confined to a wheelchair. Miss Kitty Carson had come to the house to act as governess to the three girls of the household.
A relationship had begun between the doctor and the governess. This had been discovered by Mrs. Marline when it was revealed that the governess was pregnant. Almost immediately after that had become known, Mrs. Marline had died of an overdose of a pain-killing pill which had been prescribed for her by Dr. Everest.
It all seemed, as Dorothy had said, ‘a clear case of murder’.
I studied the evidence. Nanny Gilroy’s was the most damning, as I had guessed it would be.
Yes, she was aware that there was ‘carrying on’ between the doctor and Miss Carson. So were others; Mrs. Barton and Annie Logan knew it.
“Thank you. Nurse Gilroy. They will give their evidence themselves.”
I pictured her nodding her head, self-righteously, glad because wickedness had been exposed and justice was being done.
“Let us go back to that day. Nurse Gilroy. Tell the court exactly what happened.”
And Nanny Gilroy told her story, how there had been the scene because Miss Adeline had been caught in Mrs. Marline’s bedroom and Mrs. Marline was scolding the girl when Miss Carson came in and said she shouldn’t, and Mrs. Marline was angry and was going to dismiss her. Then Miss Carson had fainted clean away. Annie Logan had examined her and it was clear what was wrong with her. That was, of course, no surprise. They all knew what was going on.
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