Джорджетт Хейер - Duplicate Death

"Wretched brat!" said Mr. Kane, grinning reminiscently.

Timothy escorted the Chief Inspector to his front door, and returned to find his half-brother filling a pipe. "What brings you up to town, Jim?" he enquired.

"Business, primarily. Also that!" Mr. Kane jerked his head towards the newspaper. "Are you really mixed up in this, Timothy?"

"I don't think so. I was present, however. Rather a mess, one way and another."

Mr. Kane grunted, and struck a match. "I should have thought we'd had enough murders in the family, I must say.

"Too true. Not that this one can be said to be in the family."

Pressing the glowing tobacco down into the bowl of his pipe with his thumb, Jim Kane glanced shrewdly across at his young relative. "Got more than a casual interest in it, haven't you?" he asked.

"Yes," responded Timothy coolly. "I have. The girl I propose to marry is, like myself, one of those who might have committed the murder."

Mr. James Kane was still busy with his pipe. Puffs of smoke arose from it. "So that's serious, is it? I heard something about it from Mother."

"Did she tell you it was your duty to come and reason with me?" asked Timothy, unscrewing another bottle of beer. "Beulah didn't go big with her at all, I'm afraid."

Jim accepted the glass that was handed to him, and set it down on the mantelshelf behind him. "No, she didn't. Far from it, but don't run away with the idea that I swallow all Mother says without a tablespoonful of salt, because I know Mother rather better than you do, and that isn't one of the errors I fall into! All the same, are you quite sure you aren't making a mistake, old son?"

"Quite sure," said Timothy.

These simple words made it difficult to continue the conversation, but Jim tried his best. "Silly question to have asked you. What I mean is, don't go and do something you'll regret for the rest of your life!"

"All right, I won't."

Mr. Kane recruited his forces with a drink. "If you will have it in plain English, don't make a mesalliance, Timothy! God knows I don't want to barge into your affairs, but, even allowing for Mother's exaggerations, this tie-up doesn't look like the right sort of marriage for you at all! I daresay I sound damned offensive, but do think it over carefully before you do anything rash! Setting aside your own future, you ought to consider Mother, and your Father a bit!"

"I don't think Father will worry much," said Timothy. "He doesn't, you know. As a matter of fact, I've always thought he had more interest in you than in me. Of course, I quite see that it's disappointing for Mamma.

What with you marrying your great-aunt's companion, and me marrying Mrs. Haddington's secretary - !"

"Look here!" exclaimed Jim. "Pat may have been Aunt Emily's companion, but she comes of a good family, and she's got hordes of relations, all out of the right drawer, let me tell you!"

"That's where I score over you," said Timothy.

"Listen, Timothy!"

"Listen, Jim!" interrupted Timothy. "I love you very much, I love your well-born wife, I even love your extremely exhausting brats! You're the hell of a nice chap, and I wish you hadn't lost your leg, but -"

"Go to the devil!" said Jim rudely.

"You've taken the words out of my mouth, brother," said Timothy. "Have some more beer!"

"Blast you!" said Jim.

Timothy refilled his glass. "What kind of an impressionable ass do you take me for, Jim? Facetiousness apart?"

"I don't. I should have said you were pretty hardboiled, but you seem to have taken a header this time."

"I have, but if Mamma gave you the idea that I've fallen for a cross between a film-star and an adventurers, get rid of it! So far, I've failed to get my intended to name the day; and although I happen to admire her appearance I'm well aware that she wouldn't stand an earthly in any Beauty Competition."

"Oh!" said Jim, rather blankly. "It's like that, is it?" He lowered himself into one of the armchairs, and leaned forward to tickle Melchizedek under one ear. "I see."

"I hoped you might. You fell for a lot of Lovelies before you took a similar header over Pat, who wasn't a patch on any of them as far as looks went. So, if you've finished coming the elder brother, we can go on from there. If not, we'll discuss the weather."

"All right," Jim said. "Go on from there!"

"There isn't really very much to tell you," Timothy said reflectively. "I can set your mind at rest on one point. In spite of her often atrocious manners, she is indisputably a lady. No, blast it, she isn't! She's a gentlewoman! As far as her background goes, I only know that her mother was an Italian, and her father was an English artist. Since I've never heard of him, and since he demonstrably left his daughter without a penny, I deduce that he was a very poor artist. But since he seems to have supported a wife and a child in moderate comfort I also deduce that he had some private means - possibly an allowance from his family, which died with him. I do know that when her mother died, Beulah went to live with an uncle and aunt, on her father's side of the family. For some reason, undivulged, she broke with them; and has been earning her own living ever since."

"Hasn't she told you why she broke with them?"

"No." Timothy stirred the fire with one foot, and watched the flames leap up. He glanced down at his half brother. "I'm being very frank about this, Jim."

"Yes, all right! Go on!"

"I'd a lot rather not, but I've a pretty good idea of what Mamma probably told you, and you'd better have the true picture presented to you. At some time or other, Beulah took a knock. I don't know what it was, but it put a crust on her, She's scared white of something, and tries to hide it under a general air of belligerence. Seems to have taken Mamma in all right. Told you Beulah was an adventuress, didn't she?"

"Well, I don't know that she actually said -"

"Cut it out! We both know Mamma! If Beulah's out to entrap me and my money and my prospective title, she's going to work in a weird way to achieve her ends! She knows damned well I'd get a special licence and marry her tomorrow, if she'd consent. All she does is to try to choke me off."

"Any idea why?"

Timothy shrugged. "Oh, same line of talk you've been handing out! New style in adventuresses!"

"You needn't keep on harping on that theme: she obviously isn't an adventuress. I never thought she was: you aren't nearly a big enough catch for an adventuress! But what I do think, Timothy, little though you may like it, is that she doesn't sound the girl your fond relations would wish you to marry."

"My fond relations -"

"Yes, I know! We can all of us go to hell. I'll take that as read. You've been perfectly frank with me, and I'll be equally frank with you. I don't like the sound of this carefully shrouded background. Without wanting to hand out a lot of drip about Perfect Love and Perfect Trust, I do strongly advise you not to plunge into matrimony with a girl who conceals her past and her family from you!"

Timothy was silent for a moment; then he said abruptly: "I'd like you to meet her. Are you going home today, or are you staying in town?"

"I've got a room at the club. So likely I'd bolt for home in the middle of this imbroglio you've got yourself into, isn't it?"

A smile of considerable affection was bestowed upon him. "You great fool, what do you think you can do?" asked Timothy.

"I can run down to Berkshire, and dissuade Mother from taking the first train up to town!" said Jim grimly.

"If ever I spoke of you in opprobrious terms, I take them all back!" said Timothy. "You're a tower of strength, Jim!"

"Get out!" said his ungrateful half-brother. "You said this Beulah of yours was implicated in the murder: were you serious?"

"She knew Seaton-Carew, she disliked him, she had the opportunity to murder him. She's implicated to that extent. Like several others, including me."