Postern of Fate Read online

  'Walking round the churchyard,' said Tuppence, 'it seemed to me there were a great many Parkinsons buried there.'

  'Yes, yes indeed. There've always been big contingents of Parkinsons in this part of the world, though of course I don't remember any of them myself, but you do, I think, Mrs Lupton.'

  Mrs Lupton, an elderly lady who was supporting herself on two sticks, looked pleased.

  'Yes, yes,' she said. 'I remember when Mrs Parkinson was alive - you know, old Mrs Parkinson, the Mrs Parkinson who lived in the Manor House, wonderful old lady she was. Quite wonderful.'

  'And there were some Somers I saw, and the Chattertons.'

  'Ah, I see you're getting up well with our local geography of the past.'

  'I think I heard something about a Jordan - Annie or Mary Jordan, was it?'

  Tuppence looked round her in an enquiring fashion. The name of Jordan seemed to cause no particular interest.

  'Somebody had a cook called Jordan, I think. Mrs Blackwell. Susan Jordan I think it was. She only stayed six months, I think. Quite unsatisfactory in many ways.'

  'Was that a long time ago?'

  'Oh no. Just about eight or ten years ago I think. Not more than that.'

  'Are there any Parkinsons living here now?'

  'Oh no. They're all gone long ago. One of them married a first cousin and went to live in Kenya, I believe.'

  'I wonder,' said Tuppence, managing to attach herself to Mrs Lupton, who she knew had something to do with the local children's hospital, 'I wonder if you want any extra children's books. They're all old ones, I mean. I got them in an odd lot when we were bidding for some of the furniture that was for sale in our house.'

  'Well, that's very kind of you, I'm sure, Mrs Beresford. Of course we do have some very good ones, given to us you know. Special editions for children nowadays. One does feel it's a pity they should have to read all those old-fashioned books.'

  'Oh, do you think so?' said Tuppence. 'I loved the books that I had as a child. Some of them,' she said, 'had been my grandmother's when she was a child. I believe I liked those best of all. I shall never forget reading Treasure Island, and Mrs Molesworth's Four Winds Farm and some of Stanley Weyman's.'

  She looked round her enquiringly - then, resigning herself, she looked at her wrist-watch, exclaimed at finding how late it was and took her leave.

  Tuppence, having got home, put the car away in the garage and walked round the house to the front door. The door was open, so she walked in. Albert then came from the back premises and bowed to greet her.

  'Like some tea, madam? You must be very tired.'

  'I don't think so,' said Tuppence. 'I've had tea. They gave me tea down at the Institute. Quite good cake, but very nasty buns.'

  'Buns is difficult. Buns is nearly as difficult as doughnuts. Ah,' he sighed. 'Lovely doughnuts Amy used to make.'

  'I know. Nobody's were like them,' said Tuppence.

  Amy had been Albert's wife, now some years deceased. In Tuppence's opinion, Amy had made wonderful treacle tart but had never been very good with doughnuts.

  'I think doughnuts are dreadfully difficult,' said Tuppence, 'I've never been able to do them myself.'

  'Well, it's a knack.'

  'Where's Mr Beresford? Is he out?'

  'Oh no, he's upstairs. In that room. You know. The book-room or whatever you like to call it. I can't get out of the way of calling it the attic still, myself.'

  'What's he doing up there?' asked Tuppence, slightly surprised.

  'Well, he's still looking at the books, I think. I suppose he's still arranging them, getting them finished as you might say.'

  'Still seems to me very surprising,' said Tuppence. 'He's really been very rude to us about those books.'

  'Ah well,' said Albert, 'gentlemen are like that, aren't they? They likes big books mostly, you know, don't they? Something scientific that they can get their tooth into.'

  'I shall go up and rout him out,' said Tuppence. 'Where's Hannibal?'

  'I think he's up there with the master.'

  But at that moment Hannibal made his appearance. Having barked with the ferocious fury he considered necessary for a good guard dog, he had correctly assumed that it was his beloved mistress who had returned and not someone who had come to steal the teaspoons or to assault his master and mistress. He came wriggling down the stairs, his pink tongue hanging out, his tail wagging.

  'Ah,' said Tuppence, 'pleased to see your mother?'

  Hannibal said he was very pleased to see his mother. He leapt upon her with such force that he nearly knocked her to the ground.

  'Gently,' said Tuppence, 'gently. You don't want to kill me, do you?'

  Hannibal made it clear that the only thing he wanted to do was to eat her because he loved her so much.

  'Where's Master? Where's Father? Is he upstairs?'

  Hannibal understood. He ran up a flight, turned his head over his shoulder and waited for Tuppence to join him.

  'Well, I never,' said Tuppence as, slightly out of breath, she entered the book-room, to see Tommy astride a pair of steps, taking books in and out. 'Whatever are you doing? I thought you were going to take Hannibal for a walk.'

  'We have been for a walk,' said Tommy. 'We went to the churchyard.'

  'Why on earth did you take Hannibal into the churchyard? I'm sure they wouldn't like dogs there.'

  'He was on the lead,' said Tommy, 'and anyway I didn't take him. He took me. He seemed to like the churchyard.'

  'I hope he hasn't got a thing about it,' said Tuppence. 'You know what Hannibal is like. He likes arranging a routine always. If he's going to have a routine of going to the churchyard every day, it will really be very difficult for us.'

  'He's really been very intelligent about the whole thing,' said Tommy.

  'When you say he's intelligent, you just mean he's self-willed,' said Tuppence.

  Hannibal turned his head and came and rubbed his nose against the calf of her leg.

  'He's telling you,' said Tommy, 'that he is a very clever dog. Cleverer than you or I have been so far.'

  'And what do you mean by that?' asked Tuppence.

  'Have you been enjoying yourself?' asked Tommy, changing the subject.

  'Well I wouldn't go as far as that,' said Tuppence. 'People were very kind to me and nice to me and I think soon I shan't get them mixed up so much as I do at present. It's awfully difficult at first you know because people look rather alike and wear the same sort of clothes and you don't know at first which is which. I mean unless somebody is very beautiful or very ugly. And that doesn't seem to happen so noticeably in the country, does it?'

  'I'm telling you,' said Tommy, 'that Hannibal and I have been extremely clever.'

  'I thought you said it was Hannibal.'

  Tommy reached out his hand and took a book from the shelf in front of him.

  'Kidnapped,' he remarked. 'Oh yes, another Robert Louis Stevenson. Somebody must have been very fond of Robert Louis Stevenson. The Black Arrow, Kidnapped, Catriona and two others, I think. All given to Alexander Parkinson by a fond grandmother and one from a generous aunt.'

  'Well,' said Tuppence, 'what about it?'

  'And I've found his grave,' said Tommy.

  'Found what?'

  'Well, Hannibal did. It's right in the corner against one of the small doors into the church. I suppose it's the door to the vestry, something like that. It's very rubbed and not well kept up, but that's it. He was fourteen when he died. Alexander Richard Parkinson. Hannibal was nosing about there. I got him away from it and managed to make out the inscription, in spite of its being so rubbed.'

  'Fourteen,' said Tuppence. 'Poor little boy.'

  'Yes,' said Tommy, 'it's sad and -'

  'You've got something in your head,' said Tuppence. 'I don't understand.'

  'Well, I wondered. I suppose, Tuppence, you've infected me. That's the worst of you. When you get keen on something, you don't go on with it by yourself, you get somebody else to take an intere
st in it too.'

  'I don't quite know what you mean,' said Tuppence.

  'I wondered if it was a case of cause and effect.'

  'What do you mean, Tommy?'

  'I was wondering about Alexander Parkinson who took a lot of trouble, though no doubt he enjoyed himself doing it, making a kind of code, a secret message in a book. "Mary Jordan did not die naturally." Supposing that was true? Supposing Mary Jordan, whoever she was, didn't die naturally? Well then, don't you see, perhaps the next thing that happened was that Alexander Parkinson died.'

  'You don't mean - you don't think -'

  'Well, one wonders,' said Tommy. 'It started me wondering - fourteen years old. There was no mention of what he died of. I suppose there wouldn't be on a gravestone. There was just a text: In thy presence is the fullness of joy. Something like that. But - it might have been because he knew something that was dangerous to somebody else. And so - and so - he died.'

  'You mean he was killed? You're just imagining things,' said Tuppence.

  'Well, you started it. Imagining things, or wondering. It's much the same thing, isn't it?'

  'We shall go on wondering, I suppose,' said Tuppence, 'and we shan't be able to find out anything because it was all such years and years and years ago.'

  They looked at each other.

  'Round about the time we were trying to investigate the Jane Finn business,' said Tommy.

  They looked at each other again; their minds going back to the past.

  Chapter 6

  PROBLEMS

  Moving house is often thought of beforehand as an agreeable exercise which the movers are going to enjoy, but it does not always turn out as expected.

  Relations have to be reopened or adjusted with electricians, with builders, with carpenters, with painters, with wallpaperers, with providers of refrigerators, gas stoves, electric appliances, with upholsterers, makers of curtains, hangers-up of curtains, those who lay linoleum, those who supply carpets. Every day has not only its appointed task but usually something between four and twelve extra callers, either long expected or those whose coming was quite forgotten.

  But there were moments when Tuppence with sighs of relief announced various finalities in different fields.

  'I really think our kitchen is almost perfect by now,' she said. 'Only I can't find the proper kind of flour bin yet.'

  'Oh,' said Tommy, 'does it matter very much?'

  'Well, it does rather. I mean, you buy flour very often in three-pound bags and it won't go into these kind of containers. They're all so dainty. You know, one has a pretty rose on it and the other's got a sunflower and they'll not take more than a pound. It's all so silly.'

  At intervals, Tuppence made other suggestions.

  'The Laurels,' she said. 'Silly name for a house, I think. I don't see why it's called The Laurels. It hasn't got any laurels. They could have called it The Plane Trees much better. Plane trees are very nice,' said Tuppence.

  'Before The Laurels it was called Long Scofield, so they told me,' said Tommy.

  'That name doesn't seem to mean anything either,' said Tuppence. 'What is a Scofield, and who lived in it then?'

  'I think it was the Waddingtons.'

  'One gets so mixed,' said Tuppence. 'Waddingtons and then the Joneses, the people who sold it to us. And before that the Blackmores? And once, I suppose, the Parkinsons. Lots of Parkinsons. I'm always running into more Parkinsons.'

  'What way do you mean?'

  'Well, I suppose it's that I'm always asking,' said Tuppence. 'I mean, if I could find out something about the Parkinsons, we could get on with our - well, with our problem.'

  'That's what one always seems to call everything nowadays. The problem of Mary Jordan, is that it?'

  'Well, it's not just that. There's the problem of the Parkinsons and the problem of Mary Jordan and there must be a lot of other problems too. Mary Jordan didn't die naturally, then the next thing the message said was, "It was one of us." Now did that mean one of the Parkinson family or did it mean just someone who lived in the house? Say there were two to three Parkinsons and some older Parkinsons, and people with different names but who were aunts to the Parkinsons or nephews and nieces of the Parkinsons, and I suppose something like a housemaid and a parlour maid and a cook and perhaps a governess and perhaps - well, not an au pair girl, it would be too long ago for an au pair girl - but "one of us" must mean a householdful. Households were fuller then than they are now. Well, Mary Jordan could have been a housemaid or a parlour maid or even the cook. And why should someone want her to die, and not die naturally? I mean, somebody must have wanted her to die or else her death would have been natural, wouldn't it? - I'm going to another coffee morning the day after tomorrow,' said Tuppence.

  'You seem to be always going to coffee mornings.'

  'Well, it's a very good way of getting to know one's neighbours and the people who live in the same village. After all, it's not very big, this village. And people are always talking about their old aunts or people they knew. I shall try and start on Mrs Griffin, who was evidently a great character in the neighbourhood. I should say she ruled everyone with a rod of iron. You know. She bullied the vicar and she bullied the doctor and I think she bullied the district nurse and all the rest of it.'

  'Wouldn't the district nurse be helpful?'

  'I don't think so. She's dead. I mean, the one who would have been here in the Parkinsons' time is dead, and the one who is here now hasn't been here very long. No sort of interest in the place. I don't think she even knew a Parkinson.'

  'I wish,' said Tommy desperately, 'oh, how I wish that we could forget all the Parkinsons.'

  'You mean, then we shouldn't have a problem?'

  'Oh dear,' said Tommy. 'Problems again.'

  'It's Beatrice,' said Tuppence.

  'What's Beatrice?'

  'Who introduced problems. Really, it's Elizabeth. The cleaning help we had before Beatrice! She was always coming to me and saying, "Oh madam, could I speak to you a minute? You see, I've got a problem," and then Beatrice began coming on Thursdays and she must have caught it, I suppose. So she has problems too. It's just a way of saying something - but you always call it a problem.'

  'All right,' said Tommy. 'We'll admit that's so. You've got a problem - I've got a problem - We've both got problems.'

  He sighed, and departed.

  Tuppence came down the stairs slowly, shaking her head. Hannibal came up to her hopefully, wagging his tail and wriggling in hopes of favours to come.

  'No, Hannibal,' said Tuppence. 'You've had a walk. You've had your morning walk.'

  Hannibal intimated that she was quite mistaken, he hadn't had a walk.

  'You are one of the worst liars among dogs I have ever known,' said Tuppence. 'You've been for a walk with Father.'

  Hannibal made his second attempt, which was to endeavour to show by various dog attitudes that any dog could have a second walk if only he had an owner who could see things in that light. Disappointed in this effort, he went down the stairs and proceeded to bark loudly and make every pretence of being about to make a sharp snap bite at a tousled-haired girl who was wielding a Hoover. He did not like the Hoover, and he objected to Tuppence having a lengthy conversation with Beatrice.

  'Oh, don't let him bite me,' said Beatrice.

  'He won't bite you,' said Tuppence. 'He only pretends he's going to.'

  'Well, I think he'll really do it one day,' said Beatrice. 'By the way, madam, I wonder if I could speak to you for a moment.'

  'Oh,' said Tuppence. 'You mean -'

  'Well, you see, madam, I've got a problem.'

  'I thought that was it,' said Tuppence. 'What sort of problem is it? And, by the way, do you know any family here or anyone who lived here at one time called Jordan?'

  'Jordan now. Well, I can't really say. There was the Johnsons, of course, and there was - ah yes, one of the constables was a Johnson. And so was one of the postmen. George Johnson. He was a friend of mine.' She giggled. />
  'You never heard of a Mary Jordan who died?'

  Beatrice merely looked bewildered - she shook her head and went back to the assault.

  'About this problem, madam?'

  'Oh yes, your problem.'

  'I hope you don't mind my asking you, madam, but it's put me in a very queer position, you see, and I don't like -'

  'Well, if you can tell me quickly,' said Tuppence. 'I've got to go out to a coffee morning.'