Miss Silver said gravely,
“What is worrying you?”
As so often happens, the mere fact of having spoken of what was weighing on her had already brought relief. Clarice said,
“Oh, it’s nothing really. It’s just that I haven’t had anyone to talk to. But if you are mixed up with the police-”
Miss Silver coughed.
“I have no official connection with them.”
Clarice gave her a shrewd glance.
“Well, I don’t know about that. Not, of course, that there is anything for the police to worry about. It’s just I don’t know such a lot about the law, and the way I am placed it seems as if I might find myself in trouble if I talked, and I might find myself in trouble if I held my tongue. I mean, I’ve got my living to earn, and it doesn’t do for a nurse to get a name for repeating things, if you see what I mean.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
Clarice helped herself to one of the fancy cakes.
“Yes-I think I do. But you’re not to go to the police. You see, it might be a good thing if someone else knew, and as far as I can see, I’m the only one-” She paused for quite a long time, and then said, “now. You think of awfully silly things when you wake up suddenly in the night, don’t you? And that’s when it comes over me that I’m the only one left. I’ve thought about telling Edward, but I just can’t get hold of him. He’s up to his neck in this new job, and when he isn’t, that girl Susan just sticks to him like a leech.”
Miss Silver poured herself out another cup of tea. The girl was in a state of nervous tension. She was crumbling her cake, lifting a piece of sugar icing half way to her mouth and dropping it, pulling her cup towards her and pushing it away again. It was a pity to let a good cup of tea grow cold. When she had sipped from her own she said,
“And who is Edward?”
Clarice began to tell her all about Edward Random and Greenings, and Mr. Random’s two wills, and going down to nurse Miss Ora Blake. Only she changed some of the names. Greenings became Greenways, and Random-Rivers, but for the rest she used only Christian names and let the surnames go.
“And you see, I was there when he made that will the week before he died. I don’t mean I was in the room, because I wasn’t. But the night before, he called out, and when I went in, there he was, sitting up in bed and saying he had seen Edward in a dream-that was the nephew who was supposed to be dead. He said he had seen him, and Edward had told him he wasn’t dead. ‘So I’ll have to do something about my will, ’ he said. ‘As it is, it all goes to my brother Arnold, and if Edward is alive, that isn’t right.’ Well, I told him he had been dreaming, and he said there were true dreams, and this was one of them. Next day he was pretty well able to be up and dressed and down in his study. I had the afternoon off, and when I came back he told me he had made this will and called in two of the gardeners to witness it. ‘So that’s done, ’ he said, ‘and I can die happy.’ He didn’t tell me where he had put the will, and a week later he was dead.”
“And the nephew came home?”
“Six months afterwards. I had gone to Canada with a patient, and I was there for the best part of a year. That was just after I saw you. I didn’t hear anything about what had happened until I got back again. Then I met a friend of Edward’s, and he said he had turned up all right and was doing some kind of a land agent’s course-said he’d changed a lot, and no one knew what had happened, or where he had been. And he said Edward was awfully hard up because his uncle Arnold Ran-Rivers had come in for all the money and everything. So I thought I’d go down to Greenings and find out what about it, and I wrote to the doctor there to see if he could get me a case.”
The change from Greenways to Greenings did not escape Miss Silver. The name had slipped out so easily as to convince her that it was the real one. Since it was a name with which she was familiar, her attention was naturally arrested. The daughter and son-in-law of an old friend had recently gone to live at Greenings, and she herself had been most kindly pressed to visit them.
“Yes?”
Clarice had warmed to her story. This dowdy little person in her family album clothes was surprisingly easy to talk to. She poured it all out-getting to Greenways-she had very nearly said Greenings-and finding that Edward was just coming down to take up a job he had been offered. “And of course I want to talk to him-after all, it is in his own interest. But I simply never see him alone. That girl Susan I told you about, she just clings! She is in love with him of course-it simply sticks out all over her! But men never see that sort of thing. Edward doesn’t think about anyone but me-at least he wouldn’t if I ever got a chance.”
Miss Silver gave a slight hortatory cough.
“You are not asking my advice on how to secure this young man’s affections?”
Clarice’s colour brightened.
“Oh, no-no-of course not! There isn’t any need for that!” She gave her pretty, silly laugh. “It’s just Susan being so aggravating! Why, the other evening when Edward and I were going to the cinema she positively insisted on coming too! Do you know, she simply never let us have a word together, and I had to talk to that awful gawky boy of the doctor’s! And you see, I’ve simply got to have it all out with Edward, only I’d like to know a little more about how I stand before I tell him his uncle made another will.”
“He does not know?”
“He hasn’t an idea.” She paused and looked about her.
It was not very early, and the tea-shop was emptying. They were in one of the far corners, Miss Silver facing the room, and she with her back to it. The tables on either side of them had been cleared, and for all practical purposes they were as much alone as if they had been in a private room. She looked at Miss Silver.
“That’s where I don’t know how I stand. He’ll be very grateful and all that-bound to be, don’t you think? It’s an old place, and there’s a lot of money. I mean, I would be practically giving them to him, wouldn’t I? But I would rather want to know where I was before I did anything about it. A girl has to think of herself, hasn’t she? Of course it mightn’t be such a bad thing anyhow, with this new job of his. There’s quite a good house-only the old agent wants to stay on in it, so I really don’t know.”
Miss Silver looked at her across the table. She was accustomed to confidences, and she had listened to some strange ones. A pretty girl-without family or backing-brought up to think that she must fight for her own hand-self-centred and more than a little ill-bred-anxious to marry and be settled, anxious to secure her future-ready to use the knowledge she had acquired in any way which would contribute to this end. She said gravely,
“You say that the uncle did make a second will?”
“Oh, yes-he told me he had.”
“And that it was not proved?”
“Oh, no-his brother Arnold came in for everything.”
“And he has done nothing for his nephew?”
“Nothing at all. Everyone says what a shame it is.”
“Then I think you have a plain duty. You should see the family solicitor, tell him what you know, and furnish him with the names of the witnesses. I think you mentioned that they were gardeners on the estate.”
Clarice’s colour changed.
“That’s just it! That’s why I wanted to talk to someone! Billy Stokes-he was one of them. Well, he went to sea and was drowned-washed overboard in a storm.”
“And the other?”
She had not eaten more than half of her sugar cake. She looked down at it now. Crumbling the pink and white icing. Frowning.
“William-he was still there. I spoke to him about the will. He remembered signing it. I said not to talk to anyone until I had made up my mind what was the best thing to do. He wasn’t drunk but he had been drinking-he does-I mean, he did. He said there might be money in it-for both of us. And I said, ”Now don’t you do anything silly!‘ That was last Thursday, and on Saturday morning the daily woman where I am came running in and said he had been found drowned in the watersplash just beyond the village”