Chapter Twenty-one

Miss Silver employed her strongest comment.

‘Dear me!’

Adriana Ford regarded her with a touch of impatience.

‘When I walked down on them they all got the fright of their lives. Sam went the colour of melted tallow.’

‘Pray, what made him think the drowned person was yourself?’

‘She was wearing my coat.’

‘But if it was dark – I gather it must have been, since your guests had left-’

Adriana said impatiently,

‘He had a torch, a wretched weak little thing, but enough to show up the pattern of the coat. I have had it for some time, and it is – pretty noticeable – big squares of black and white with an emerald strip running across them. Quite unmistakable, and everyone knows it. Sam will have seen me in it for years.’

‘And how did Miss Preston come to be wearing it?’

‘It was hanging in the cloakroom, just by the garden door.’ She hesitated for a moment, and then went on. ‘I don’t know why she went out, but her dress was thin – she would have needed a wrap. And in a way, I suppose, she thought of the coat as her own. You see, I had half given it to her.’

Miss Silver looked at her in a questioning manner.

‘Half?’

Adriana moved impatiently.

‘Meriel made a fuss. She had set her heart on the coat. But it was too marked – I couldn’t have people saying I let her go about in my cast-offs. It’s just the sort of thing she might make a handle of herself! It wouldn’t have done. But she threw a scene, so I thought the best way was to hang it downstairs, wear it a few times more myself, and just let Mabel take it away with her when she went. I didn’t want Meriel to upset her – she was rather easily upset.’

Miss Silver asked another question.

‘Had you worn the coat lately yourself?’

Adriana looked away.

‘The day before.’

‘You mean the day before Miss Preston was drowned?’

‘Yes.’

‘Who saw you in it?’

Adriana’s hand lifted and fell.

‘Everyone,’ she said.

‘You mean everyone in the house?’

‘Oh, yes. You see I went for a turn in the garden just before lunch, and it was so fine that I went on into the village. I’ve been walking a little farther every day. It’s only about a quarter of a mile, really.’

‘Did you meet anyone you knew?’

Adriana laughed without amusement.

‘I could hardly go into the village without doing that! Why are you asking me all this?’ Her voice had risen suddenly.

‘Because I think the answers may be interesting.’

Their eyes met. Miss Silver’s were kind and steady. It was Adriana who turned her head.

‘Oh, very well, then – here you are. The Vicar passed me on his bicycle, and I saw his wife and her cousin Ellie Page in their front garden. Ellie Page has a class for children – my little niece Stella goes to it. I stopped and said a few words to them. Whilst I was doing so Esmé Trent went by – I imagine on her way to catch the bus into Ledbury, as she seems to spend most of her time there, and she was made up to the nines. She is a young widow with a little boy whom she neglects, and there is no love lost between her and Ellie Page.’

‘Is the little boy in Miss Page’s class?’

‘Oh, yes. Anything to get him off his mother’s hands! By the way, you had better not mention her to Edna.’

‘Indeed?’

Adriana nodded.

‘I gather that Geoffrey and she have been seen together often enough to prompt the usual kind friend to let Edna know. Very stupid, and it probably means nothing at all, but Edna has no philosophy where Geoffrey is concerned. She’s a fool of course, because he’s like that and she’ll never change him so she had much better make the best of it.’

‘Did you see anyone else?’

‘Old Mrs Potts was calling her cat in. Her husband is the sexton. I think that was all… Oh, Mary Robertson was in the lodge garden as I came back. She is the head gardener’s daughter. She and Sam Bolton are courting, and she was with him when he found poor Mabel. She had to give evidence at the inquest, and her father is furious because he doesn’t approve of the affair with Sam.’

Miss Silver gave the slight cough with which she was accustomed to lend emphasis to a remark.

‘The inquest has taken place?’

‘Yesterday. The funeral was this morning.’

‘And the verdict?’

‘Accidental death.’ There was a pause, after which she continued in rather a strained manner. ‘She had had a good many drinks. The idea is that she wasn’t any too steady, and that she tripped over the parapet and fell into the pool.’

‘Was there any sign that she had struggled or tried to save herself?’

‘The Coroner wanted to know about that, but you see Sam had got her out of the pool. The moss and plants on the edge were all dragged and crushed, and there was no telling whether she had done any of it herself.’

‘She was drowned?’

‘Yes.’

‘Were there any bruises?’

‘They didn’t say so.’

‘There was no suggestion that it could have been anything but an accident?’

Adriana made a sharp movement.

‘Who in the world would want to kill Mabel Preston?’

Miss Silver’s look was stern and compassionate.

‘Miss Preston was bareheaded? Miss Ford – what shade was her hair?’

All the natural colour left Adriana’s face. She said in a cold, flat voice,

‘It used to be fair – but this time – she had copied the colour of mine.’

Chapter Twenty-two

A gong sounded, and they went down to lunch. The family was introduced – Geoffrey Ford and Mrs Geoffrey; the dark girl Miss Silver had seen crossing the hall; Miss Janet Johnstone and the little girl Stella. Star Somers, it appeared, was up in London on business – ‘She is just over from America and has so much to attend to.’ A rather daring flight on the part of Adriana, because everyone in the room except Miss Silver knew perfectly well that Star’s ‘business’ was to avoid being dragooned into attending poor Mabel Preston’s funeral. Simmons, serving the meal with dignity, had heard her say as much in the high, sweet voice which carried so -’No, darling, I won’t, and that’s flat! I haven’t any black down here, and if you are going to suggest that I trail round in some archaic garment of Edna’s you have just got to think again. I will admire you all doing your noble duty, but you know, actually, I have got to see Rothstein, just in case anything goes wrong about the New York production – I mean, no one can be quite certain about how soon Aubrey will be able to play.’

Miss Silver found herself with quite enough people to study. Whilst conversing in her usual amiable and fluent manner she was able to observe a number of points of interest. Mr Geoffrey Ford made himself very agreeable. From what she had heard of him, and from his general air of handsome well-being, she concluded that this was his usual manner. It went smoothly and well, but just once or twice it occurred to her that the pace was a little forced, and the pleasant laugh a shade too frequent. There had, after all, been a funeral from the house that morning. He drank whisky and water, and filled his glass a second time. Mrs Geoffrey on her right was still in the old black coat and skirt she had worn for the ceremony. It hung on her, suggesting that she had lost weight, and it could never have been either smart or becoming. With a dingy grey blouse, it reduced eyes, hair, and skin to a colourless uniformity. The eyes looked as if they had not slept, and the lids were reddened. There are women who always weep at a wedding or a funeral, but they are of an easier and more emotional type than Edna Ford.

On her other side Meriel’s scarlet jumper struck a defiant note. It emphasized the dark clustering hair, the smouldering eyes, the ivory pallor. She had used a jarring shade of lipstick with the most discordant effect. Miss Silver could readily believe in the selfishness and temper which would make a scene if things did not go just as she wished. She sat helping herself from every dish and leaving most of what she took upon her plate. Sitting beside her, she was aware of resentment and a fretting impatience to have the meal and her proximity done with.