“Why should he?”

Rafe looked at the tortoiseshell cat.

“She saw Cissie before Miss Cole saw you. Cissie cried and told her all about it. She’d been up with some sewing.”

Dale broke in sharply.

“How do you know?”

“I saw her going away. Pell saw her too. She was still crying. He might have thought that Lisle had worked on you to dismiss him. I don’t say he did, but he might have.”

Dale moved impatiently.

“He’d been here long enough to know that I run my own show! I don’t believe a word of it, and so I told Evans just now! You know how these fellows are. He’s got a lift in the world, and Pell’s got the boot, so he thinks he can put anything on to him. They’re all alike. Any damned thing that goes wrong for the next six months will be Pell’s fault. I’ve told Evans I don’t want to hear another word about it!”

The tortoiseshell cat had the kitten by one ear. She licked its face, and cuffed it when it wriggled. Rafe said in a meditative tone,

“Pell was a size too large for his boots. That sort doesn’t take kindly to being sacked. Murder’s been done for less than that. And you couldn’t prove it against him – nobody could – because any of us could have done it just as easily as Pell. Have you thought about that?” He did not wait for an answer, but gave a sudden laugh. “Anyone who was fool enough could have done it, which is very incriminating for Pell. Any man who would chuck away a job for Cissie Cole must be a bigger fool than most of us – so if it’s got to be anyone, let us by all means make it Pell.”

With a squawk the kitten twisted itself free and fled, back arched, tail in a double kink. The mother got up, stretched herself, and came over to Rafe. She rubbed against him, purring. He bent and scratched her behind the ear.

Chapter 14

THEY were having coffee on the side lawn after lunch, when Dale plunged a hand into his pocket, brought out a small parcel, and tossed it into Lisle’s lap. She looked up, surprised and just a little startled.

“What is it?”

He watched her, very much at his ease in a long chair, at peace with all the world, smiling.

“Open it and see. I’ve brought you a present.”

The colour came up into her face. Why hadn’t he given it to her when they were alone? Now she had to open it under Alicia’s eye. Not that Alicia was looking at her or at anyone else. She lay in a wicker chair with her feet up watching the faint smoke of her cigarette tremble and fade against the blue of the sky. It was a very perfect afternoon, dead still and hot, with a haze on the sea like the ghost of all the cigarettes that had ever been smoked. On the one side Tane Head and the moors behind it bounded the view. On the other a great cedar swept down in ledges of shade. Lisle sat where the shadow darkened her hair and made a flecked pattern across the green of her dress, but the others basked in the sun.

“Salamanders – aren’t we?” said Rafe. He sat cross-legged amongst cushions, his back against Alicia’s foot-rest. “The more we bake, the better we like it. The motto is ‘Be prepared’, because you never know your luck. Personally, of course, I’m expecting a harp and a halo – but then I’ve got an absolutely snowy conscience compared to Dale and Alicia. My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure – a nice quotation from a poem about the late Galahad by the late Lord Tennyson.”

Lisle’s fingers slipped on the knot of her parcel. That funny little woman in the train had quoted Tennyson. She wished Rafe wouldn’t. Miss Maud Silver – Private Investigations… There wasn’t anything to investigate.

Alicia knocked the ash from her cigarette and said sweetly,

“Bit of a plaster saint – aren’t you, Rafe?”

“Not plaster, darling – it’s terribly brittle and unreliable. Pure gold – that’s me.”

Dale was watching his wife. She had very pretty hands – very pretty, and white, and slender, but not clever at things like knots. But the string was off now, and the stiff outer paper with it. A layer of tissue paper came next, and then a jeweller’s box fastened with a rubber band. He smiled at her encouragingly.

“Come along – open it.”

A strange reluctance possessed Lisle. Dale so seldom gave her a present. He took the eminently reasonable, common-sense view that she had more money than he had, and could buy anything she wanted for herself. This was actually the very first thing he had given her since their marriage. She had felt warmed and touched, but she would have liked to have opened it when they were alone. Her fair skin flushed as she lifted the lid and saw what lay beneath, a piece of rock crystal carved into a grotesque shape. She stared at it, trying to make out what it was… Some kind of a squat figure with a face half animal, half human, peering out between leaves – a clawlike hand that clutched a round glistening fruit.

She bent forward. In the sun the crystal went bright and blank. It had no contours. It was just brightness, catching the sun and reflecting it. It dazzled her, and she drew back into the shade. At once the face peered at her again between those crowding leaves.

“Don’t you like it?” said Dale impatiently.

She looked at him in a puzzled way.

“What is it?”

“Chinese – rock crystal. I thought you’d like it.” His tone hardened. “I’m sorry if you don’t.”

Something in Lisle quivered. How could she have been so stupid? She ought to have thanked him at once. If they had been alone, she could have flung her arms round his neck. Why did he have to give it to her in front of Rafe and Alicia? She said as quickly and warmly as possible,

“Oh, but I do. I was trying to make out what it was – that’s all. It’s – it’s marvellous.”

Alicia blew a smoke ring. She watched it widen out and laughed.

“Dale – darling! What do you expect? You give her a jeweller’s box, and when she opens it, instead of diamonds there’s just a piece of carved rock crystal.” She laughed again. “You’ve a lot of learn – hasn’t he, Lisle?”

Lisle flushed to the roots of her hair, but before she could speak Rafe had entered the fray.

“A bit crude, aren’t you, darling? Women are of course. To the artist’s eye – meaning Dale’s and mine – a Chinese carving is worth a pot of diamonds, to say nothing of the fact that Lisle ought never in this world to put a diamond anywhere near her. Pearls of course. Emeralds – sapphires – yes, I’d let her have sapphires. Chrysoprase – and a very pale topaz set in very pale gold. But diamonds – not on your life.”

Alicia blew another ring.

“If women wore jewellery because it was becoming, jewellers would die of starvation. Look at the old hags bristling with diamonds at any big show. Did you ever know one who wouldn’t wear them if she had a chance?” She sat up and held out her hand. “Here, let’s have a look at the substitute.”

Rafe took the crystal from Lisle and passed it on.

“Clever,” he said, looking at it on Alicia’s brown palm. “Rather like something looking at you out of water, isn’t it? There one minute, and the next you’re wondering whether you’ve really seen it. Where did you get it, Dale?”

Dale bent forward to look too.

“It was in a second-hand shop in the Fulham Road, in a tray with a lot of other things, mostly junk. I thought Lisle would like it.”

He was talking about her as if she wasn’t there. She felt young and inexpert. She ought to be able to say, “I love it,” but she couldn’t. The sly, peering face made her flesh creep.

Alicia balanced the crystal and blew smoke at it.

“Elusive little devil, isn’t he?” she said. “Reminds me of the Cheshire Cat’s grin.”

“Keep it if you like,” said Dale. “Lisle doesn’t care about it.”

Alicia looked at him steadily for a moment. Then she laughed and looked away.

“Do you know, I rather like having my presents chosen for me, not for somebody else. And if you’re doing any choosing, I’ve no objection to diamonds. Hi, Lisle – catch!”