‘What’s his name?’
‘I don’t know. I suppose I did know, but I’ve forgotten… Craddock-Crockett-oh, I can’t tell you, but it doesn’t matter.’
‘Do you know the people he was with?’
She oughtn’t to have gone on about it. Her voice wasn’t steady enough. She got one of those direct looks which seemed to walk in amongst her thoughts and take stock of them no matter whether the door was locked or not. She had a sense of ruthless enquiry.
The deep, rather harsh voice rang in her ears. ‘No, I don’t. Do you?’
The words were not loud, but they buffeted her. She said, ‘No,’ and thought how unconvincing it sounded.
‘You don’t know them?’
‘No, I don’t.’ This time she made herself meet the hard black eyes. She saw them snap.
‘Well, you nearly faint when you see some very ordinary people at the end of a room. If it wasn’t the women who upset you, then it was the man. What about it?’
Anne felt as if she knew nothing-not who she was, or why, or anything. She said, ‘I don’t know.’
Miss Carstairs gave her a look and began to talk about Ada Lushington-her likes, her dislikes, her extraordinary fondness for cats.
‘She’d have a dozen if I let her. As it is, we have four, and that’s three too many. I’ve no objection to one cat provided it’s healthy and not the sort that goes on having kittens whether one wants them or not. But four! I’ve told Ada that it’s three too many, and that she’s got to find homes for the others, or else some day she’ll come in and find there are three cats missing. And what do you think she had the nerve to say to me? You’ll not guess, I assure you. She had the impudence to say that I was fond of the creatures myself, and that if I found homes for them they would be very good ones. Now what do you say to that?’
The young man in the grey suit was gone. He was wiped clear from Anne’s mind. She remembered seeing him, but she couldn’t think why it had upset her. She had never seen him before? She was sure about that? Well then, what was there to worry about? Nothing-or everything in the world-
The deep places that were under her thought stirred and were moved. She came back with a shudder and listened to Miss Carstairs, who was looking at her enquiringly and asking in a very determined voice, ‘Now what do you say to that?’
The colour came into her face with a rush. She said in an eager, fluttering voice, ‘I think she was right.’
Miss Carstairs was very much taken aback.
‘Oh, you do, do you?’ She stared for a long protesting minute, and then said sharply, ‘I don’t believe you heard what I said. Not that it was worth hearing anyway. And now I have to get some ribbon for garters. Can you make garters?’
‘I think so.’
‘You must know if you can. I like my garters smart. We’ll get the ribbon for them this morning, and you can make them this afternoon. We shall want elastic too. I can give you a pair to copy.’
Outside the shop Ross Cranston said goodbye to his friends, who were Mrs Magstock and her sister-in-law Sylvia. He had met them quite by chance, and they had disturbed his mind. Sylvia Magstock was quite a pretty girl, and she was willing enough. The meeting had been a chance one, but he could easily arrange that there should be others. He knew where they were staying-he could ring up later in the day. If only-if only… a sense of having gone too far to draw back came into his mind. It was like seeing something horrible a long way off and knowing that every step you took brought you nearer to it. He shuddered violently, and the picture grew more distinct. It was what he always tried not to remember and found it so difficult to forget-the picture of a girl lying dead at the foot of a dark underground stair.
He shook it violently from his mind and went on his way.
CHAPTER 39
Anne got home at half-past six. When she had taken off her things she came downstairs, to find Lizabet and no Janet. She had gone out to see a friend who had been ill.
‘And if you ask me, I think she’s an idiot to put herself about for people like she does. If you start propping people you can just go on and they get worse instead of better- that’s what I think. But I suppose you approve.’
‘Why do you suppose that?’
‘I wonder why-’ Lizabet had a book on her lap, but she wasn’t reading. ‘Oh, just what’s sauce for the goose might be supposed to be sauce for the-oh, but I mustn’t say that, or you’ll tattle to Janet, and then I shall get into a row, and you’d like that, wouldn’t you?’
Anne came back from a long way off. She said steadily, ‘Look here, Lizabet, you don’t like me, and you don’t like my being here. Well, I’m not going to stay, so you needn’t bother.’
Lizabet screwed up her face.
‘Sez you!’
Anne kept her temper.
‘Well, I’m the one who knows. You don’t like me, but I take it you do like Janet-you’re fond of her. Couldn’t you put up with me for a bit just to please her? I’m looking for a job.’
‘You’ve got one.’
‘It’s not permanent. You must know that. It’s just for the fortnight Miss Lushington will be away. There won’t be any opportunity of our seeing much of each other.’
‘Only in the evenings,’ said Lizabet with a toss of the head.
‘And every morning before you go. It makes me sick to see Janet waiting on you!’
‘She doesn’t.’
Lizabet tossed her head.
‘You wouldn’t notice of course!’
Janet came in just before seven.
‘Poor Magda,’ she said, ’she’s in the most dreadful dumps.’
‘And of course she’s got to unload them on you!’ said Lizabet.
Janet coloured.
‘Oh, well,’ she said in a placatory voice. Then she laughed. ‘I didn’t mean to bring it home with me.’
Still without looking up from her book, Lizabet was heard to murmur, ‘You do rather bring them home with you, darling, don’t you?’
In the morning Anne went back to Miss Carstairs. The evening had convinced her that she must find somewhere else to live. She would talk to Janet about it. Lizabet was tiresome, and it was no good trying to alter her. Talking to her only made her worse. She was quite convinced that she meant mischief of some sort, and everything that she said or did added to this conviction. It’s no good struggling with that sort of thing, you must just keep clear of it, or as clear of it as you can. She wasn’t prepared to give up her friendship with Janet, but there was no need for it to be under Lizabet’s observation. By the time she reached Miss Carstairs’ rooms she had the whole thing nicely settled in her mind.
When Mrs Bobbett opened the door to her, she made her enquiry.
‘Mrs Bobbett, do you know of anything that would suit me? I’m afraid I can’t pay very much, but I’d do my own room, and I’d be very willing to help in any other way I could.’
Mrs Bobbett stood still on the stairs and thought.
‘What sort of room do you want?’
‘Oh, just somewhere to sleep. You see, I don’t know quite what I’m going to do yet, and I mustn’t spend too much. I just want to be sure that it’s all right.’
Mrs Bobbett looked down and looked up again.
‘There’s a room upstairs you could have. It’s small and the roof slopes, and I don’t generally let it and that’s the truth. Sort of a spare room, that’s what it is. I’m next door myself, and when my niece comes up from the country I put her there. If you’d like to see it-’