Miss Waynflete seemed to become a little less sure of herself as she accompanied him to the door. 'I hope you don't think –' she began; then changed the form of the sentence. 'If there is anything else I can do to help you, please, please, let me know.'
'I will. You won't repeat this conversation, will you?'
'Of course not. I shan't say a word to anybody.' Luke hoped that that was true.
'Give my love to Bridget,' said Miss Waynflete. 'She's such a handsome girl, isn't she? And clever too. I — I hope she will be happy.' And, as Luke looked a question, she added, 'Married to Lord Easterfield, I mean. Such a great difference in age.'
'Yes, there is.'
Miss Waynflete sighed. 'You know that I was engaged to him once,' she said unexpectedly.
Luke stared in astonishment. She was nodding her head and smiling rather sadly. 'A long time ago. He was such a promising boy. I had helped him, you know, to educate himself. And I was so proud of his — his spirit and the way he was determined to succeed.' She sighed again. 'My people, of course, were scandalized. Class distinctions in those days were very strong.' She added, after a minute or two, 'I've always followed his career with great interest. My people, I think, were wrong.' Then, with a smile, she nodded a farewell and went back into the house.
Luke tried to collect his thoughts. He had placed Miss Waynflete as definitely 'old.' He realized now that she was probably still under sixty. Lord Easterfield must be well over fifty. She might, perhaps, be a year or two older than he, no more. And he was going to marry Bridget. Bridget, who was twenty-eight. Bridget, who was young and alive!
'Oh, damn,' said Luke. 'Don't let me go on thinking of it. The job. Get on with the job.'
Chapter 14
Miss Church , Amy Gibbs' aunt, was definitely an unpleasant woman. Her sharp nose, shifty eyes and her voluble tongue all alike filled Luke with nausea. He adopted a curt manner with her and found it unexpectedly successful. 'What you've got to do,' he told her, 'is to answer my questions to the best of your ability. If you hold back anything or tamper with the truth, the consequences may be extremely serious to you.'
'Yes, sir. I see. I'm sure I'm only too willing to tell you anything I can. I've never been mixed up with the police –'
'And you don't want to be,' finished Luke. 'Well, if you do as I've told you, there won't be any question of that. I want to know all about your late niece — who her friends were, what money she had, anything she said that might be out of the way. We'll start with her friends. Who were they?'
Mrs. Church leered at him slyly out of the corner of an unpleasant eye. 'You'll be meaning gentlemen, sir?'
'Had she any girlfriends?'
'Well, hardly — not to speak of, sir. Of course, there was girls she'd been in service with, but Amy didn't keep up with them much. You see –'
'She preferred the sterner sex. Go on. Tell me about that.'
'It was Jim Harvey down at the garage she was actually going with, sir. And a nice steady young fellow he was. 'You couldn't do better,' I've said to her many a time.'
Luke cut in, 'And the others?'
Again he got the sly look. 'I expect you're thinking of the gentleman who keeps the curiosity shop? I didn't like it myself, and I tell you that straight, sir! I've always been respectable and I don't hold with carryings on! But with what girls are nowadays, it's no use speaking to them. They go their own way. And often they live to regret it.'
'Did Amy live to regret it?' asked Luke bluntly.
'No, sir, that I do not think.'
'She went to consult Doctor Thomas on the day of her death. That wasn't the reason?'
'No, sir, I'm nearly sure it wasn't. Oh, I'd take my oath on it! Amy had been feeling ill and out of sorts, but it was just a bad cough and cold she had. It wasn't anything of the kind you suggest; I'm sure it wasn't, sir.'
'I'll take your word for that. How far had matters gone between her and Ellsworthy?'
Mrs. Church leered. 'I couldn't exactly say, sir. Amy wasn't one for confiding in me.'
Luke said curtly, 'But they'd gone pretty far?'
Mrs. Church said smoothly, 'The gentleman hasn't got at all a good reputation here, sir. All sorts of goings on. And friends down from town and many queer happenings. Up in the Witches' Meadow in the middle of the night.'
'Did Amy go?'
'She did go once, sir, I believe. Stayed out all night, and his lordship found out about it — she was at the Manor then — and spoke to her pretty sharp, and she sauced him back and her gave her notice for it, which was only to be expected.'
'Did she ever talk to you much about what went on in the places she was in?'
Mrs. Church shook her head. 'Not very much, sir. More interested in her own doings, she was.'
'She was with Major and Mrs. Horton for a while, wasn't she?'
'Nearly a year, sir.'
'Why did she leave?'
'Just to better herself. There was a place going at the Manor and, of course, the wages was better there.'
Luke nodded. 'She was with the Hortons at the time of Mrs. Horton's death?' he asked.
'Yes, sir. She grumbled a lot about that — with two hospital nurses in the house, and all that extra work nurses make and the trays and one thing and another.'
'She wasn't with Mr. Abbot, the lawyer, at all?'
'No, sir. Mr. Abbot has a man and wife do for him. Amy did go to see him once at his office, but I don't know why.'
Luke stored away that small fact as possibly relevant. Since Mrs. Church, however, clearly knew nothing more about it, he did not pursue the subject. 'Any other gentlemen in the town who were friends of hers?'
'Nothing that I'd care to repeat.'
'Come now, Mrs. Church. I want the truth, remember.'
'It wasn't a gentleman, sir; very far from it. Demeaning herself, that's what it was, and so I told her.'
'Do you mind speaking more plainly, Mrs. Church?'
'You'll have heard of the Seven Stars, sir? Not a good-class house, and the landlord, Harry Carter, a low-class fellow and half seas over most of the time.'
'Amy was a friend of his?'
'She went for a walk with him once or twice. I don't believe there was more in it than that. I don't indeed, sir.'
Luke nodded thoughtfully and changed the subject. 'Did you know a small boy, Tommy Pierce?'
'What? Mrs. Pierce's son? Of course I did. Always up to mischief.'
'He ever see much of Amy?'
'Oh, no, sir. Amy would soon send him off with a flea in his ear if he tried any of his tricks on her.'
'Was she happy in her place with Miss Waynflete?'
'She found it a bit dull, sir, and the pay wasn't high. But of course, after she'd been dismissed the way she was from Ashe Manor, it wasn't so easy to get another good place.'
'She could have gone away, I suppose?'
'To London , you mean?'
'Or some other part of the country?'
Mrs. Church shook her head. She said slowly, 'Amy didn't want to leave Wychwood; not as things were.'
