“I’m not hiding anything-really.”
Miss Silver’s smile came out.
“Thank you, my dear. I shall be very glad if you will trust me. Concealments are of no real benefit. The innocent cannot gain by them, nor can the guilty. There is no worse punishment than seeming impunity in crime. That is why I said that truth is best. If you are wondering why I wished to speak to you-it is about Miss Mercer.” She saw all the muscles of Julia’s face go taut, and added, “You see, I heard what she said.”
Julia’s lips were stiff. She had to force them to move. She said,
“What did you hear?”
“I heard her say, ‘What have I done-what have I done?’ ”
“She was asleep-she was dreaming-she was talking in her sleep.”
Miss Silver made a slight inclination of the head.
“Is she in the habit of walking in her sleep?”
“I think she used to-after her father died.”
“Was his death a sudden one?”
Julia nodded.
“Yes-a car accident-at night. It was a great shock.”
“And under similar conditions of grief and shock the sleepwalking has returned. But perhaps I should not have mentioned grief. Perhaps there is no personal grief on Mrs. Latter’s account. You can inform me as to that, can you not? Or, shall I say, you can confirm my impression that Miss Mercer felt no affection for Mrs. Latter?”
Julia’s wide, sad gaze did not falter. She said,
“No. None of us did.”
Miss Silver coughed.
“Then it was shock that brought about a recurrence of the sleep-walking. When I first came out of my room you were following her down the stairs. When you caught her up and stopped her she had her face turned in the direction of this room. It would have been interesting to see what she would have done if she had entered it. As it was, your touch broke the thread of her thought. I withdrew into my room and watched you both come back and enter hers. I reached the door in time to hear her say, ‘What have I done?’ ”
After her last words Julia had turned away. There was a ruined vase of roses on the mantelpiece. The room had not been done since Wednesday, nor the flowers changed. There was a scatter of crimson petals on the shelf. Julia swept them together, and as she did so remembered how she had seen Minnie stand just here where she was standing when she looked into the room on Wednesday night. In her mind she could see her as plainly as if it was all happening again- Minnie half turned from the room, bending a little as if she were too tired to stand upright, picking up the fallen petals one at a time in a small trembling hand-With an abrupt movement Julia broke the picture. The rose-leaves fell to the hearth in a crimson pool as she swung round crying,
“She didn’t do it!”
Miss Silver had been watching her closely.
“If you were quite sure about that, there would be no need for you to feel so much concern.”
Julia drew a stormy breath.
“I am sure! Anyone who knew her would be sure!” She checked herself and went on in a different tone. “Miss Silver, there are things people can do, and things they can’t. When you know someone, you know what it would be possible for them to do. It wouldn’t be possible for Minnie to kill anyone. You can’t kill unless there’s something that lets you. People either have that something, or they haven’t. Anyone with a hot temper could kill, I suppose, if the provocation was enough to break through a normal self-control. I’ve got a temper myself. As a rule I’ve got hold of it-I’ve always known I mustn’t let go. I suppose if I did, I might-kill. But Minnie hasn’t got a temper. I’ve known her all my life, and I’ve never seen her angry. There’s no wild beast in her to get loose like there is in me. Then the other sort of killing, the slow, cold-blooded sort-she couldn’t do that any more than I could. None of us could. You see, you don’t know her. She’s one of the people who is born unselfish-she just doesn’t think about herself at all. She’s always been the same ever since I can remember. She’s kind, and patient, and gentle, and really, truly good. She never had a hard word even for Lois. She’d have been fond of her if it had been humanly possible, because it’s her nature to be fond of people. You see, she’s good. She could no more poison anyone than she could suddenly turn into a hyena. It’s just one of those things that are right off the map.”
Miss Silver smiled disarmingly.
“She has a very good friend, my dear,” she said.
CHAPTER 28
Julia went out of the room and up the stairs again. She had just reached the landing, when the door of Lois’ bedroom opened and Ellie came running out. Julia gazed at her in amazement. There was a pink flush in her cheeks and her eyes were blue and shining. It was quite obvious that she was running because she couldn’t wait to walk. She ran right up to Julia and caught at her with both her hands.
“Oh, Julia-isn’t it marvellous! Jimmy says I can have Ronnie here as soon as all this is over! Isn’t he an angel! I hugged him-I feel as if I could hug everyone I meet! I’ve just been through to Matron on Lois’ extension. Those policemen never give one a chance of getting near the telephone in the study, and I felt I couldn’t possibly wait, so I rang up and told her, and she said it wouldn’t be worth sending Ronnie down to Brighton unless he was going to stay there. She sounded grim and said it was putting out all the arrangements-and I suppose I let her see just how much I cared about that, because she got a lot grimmer and began to talk exactly as if I was a V.A.D. again. I very nearly said to her, ‘Well, you know I’m not, and I hope I’m never going to be any more,’ only I thought it wouldn’t exactly oil the wheels, so I didn’t. I just said things like ‘Oh,’ and ‘No,’ and ‘That’s very kind of you, Matron,’ until she simmered down and said oh, well, she supposed they would have to manage.”
She let go and threw her arms round Julia’s neck.
“Darling, isn’t it marvellous!”
Time had swung back. This was the old Ellie with the quick blood in her cheeks, light in her eyes, every bit of her quivering with life. Julia had a moment of giddiness. You can swing too fast and too far to keep your balance. Ellie must have lost hers. She stepped back and said in a ringing voice,
“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, isn’t it?”
Someone was coming up the stairs behind Julia. She could just hear the sound of quiet footsteps. She said “Ellie-” in a warning voice, but it wasn’t any good. Ellie stamped her foot and cried,
“I don’t care! Lois wouldn’t have had him here-ever!”
Then she saw Miss Silver coming up behind Julia. She stood for a moment, her colour bright, her eyes wide, but before Miss Silver reached the landing she turned, ran into the room she shared with Julia, and shut the door.
Miss Silver coughed reprovingly.
“That was not very wise.”
Julia said, “No.” And then, “She wasn’t thinking about being wise, you know. She was just being natural. She hasn’t got anything to hide. She has just heard that she can have her husband here, and it has put everything else out of her head. She has been very unhappy about him. It just hasn’t occurred to her that she mustn’t let anyone see that she is happy because he can come here now.”
Miss Silver said thoughtfully,
“Wisdom is to be commended as well as harmlessness. There is scriptural warrant for that, you know, Miss Julia.” She crossed the landing to her own room and entered it.
Julia followed Ellie. She found her rubbing cream into her face. She began to talk at once.