Patricia Wentworth: Miss Silver Comes To Stay

“And what did you tell him?”

“Oh, just an old sort of dream of mine. No, dream isn’t right, because it was a sort of plan, only I hadn’t any money to do it with, and of course the place didn’t belong to me.”

He was watching her with delight.

“Darling, do I know what you are talking about?”

“Yes-Melling House. It did seem such a pity it should stand empty when there were all those rooms, and people all over the country with nowhere to go-particularly elderly people. After having a home of their own and being the head of a family, it’s so really horrid for them to have to go and live with a daughter-in-law on sufferance. It’s hard on the daughter-in-law too. In fact it’s wrong all round. So I told James I would turn the house into little flats-one room- two rooms-and the big groundfloor rooms a dining-hall and for recreation. He seemed quite interested. I hadn’t liked him so much since I was twenty-one. And then when I thought he was all softened I began to ask him not to harry Catherine the way he was doing, and he was so abominable about her that I lost my temper. I told him just what I thought of him and walked out-and that’s how I came to forget that wretched raincoat.”

There was a pause. Then he said,

“You mean to take the money then?”

She looked surprised.

“Oh, yes. He wanted me to have it-he really did, you know. And there are no near relations. In fact I don’t really know that there are any relations. Catherine and I were both distantly connected-and Catherine’s gone. I should like Melling House to be some good to somebody, and I think it would be nice for the Mayhews.”

This was in such a practical voice that it made him laugh.

“That settles it, of course!”

“Well, they would hate to move, and they would fit in. It’s nice when things fit in all round.” Then, a little more hesitatingly, “You won’t mind, will you? My taking the money, I mean.”

It occurred to him that it was typical of Rietta to be afraid that he might not like her to be enriched. He found himself answering honestly,

“A little.”

“Please don’t. You needn’t. He wasn’t in love with me, or I with him. I think he just thought I’d use it-” she paused for a word, and then said, “sensibly.”

At this moment the door opened and Fancy Bell ran in, checked with graceful abruptness about a yard from the threshold, and said, “Oh, I beg your pardon!”

Rietta said, “Don’t go away. You know Mr. March-”

“But I didn’t know he was here, though I did wonder when you didn’t hear the telephone, because you generally do, and-I’m so sorry, Mr. March-how do you do?”

Randal shook hands with her. She wore her scarlet suit and looked quite distractingly pretty. Her eyes shone, and her colour came and went. She turned back to Rietta, a little breathless.

“So I thought I had better answer it-and it was Carr. And Mr. March being here, I expect you know it’s all out about Mr. Holderness being the one that murdered everyone, and his committing suicide and all. I thought I’d be the first to tell you, but Mr. March being here-”

Rietta said, “Yes, he told me.”

After a momentary disappointment Fancy brightened.

“And Carr’s bringing Elizabeth Moore over to tea, and they’re giving out they’re engaged. He says I’m to call her Elizabeth. He sounded ever so pleased. It’s nice, isn’t it, and makes a sort of change after these murders. I mean, they’re all very well in the newspapers, but when it comes to having them right where you live, and the police in the house-” A wave of perfectly lovely colour swept up to the roots of her hair. “Oh, Mr. March, I didn’t mean to be rude!”

He laughed.

“Don’t worry-I’m off duty.”

“I only meant-Miss Cray, I only meant-well, an engagement does make a nice change, doesn’t it?”

Rietta said quite simply and earnestly,

“Yes, it does.”

Born in Mussoorie, India, in 1878, Patricia Wentworth was the daughter of an English general. Educated in England, she returned to India, where she began to write and was first published. She married, but in 1906 was left a widow with four children, and returned again to England where she resumed her writing, this time to earn a living for herself and her family. She married again in 1920 and lived in Surrey until her death in 1961.

Miss Wentworth’s early works were mainly historical fiction, and her first mystery, published in 1923, was The Astonishing Adventure of Jane Smith. In 1928 she wrote The Case Is Closed and gave birth to her most enduring creation, Miss Maud Silver.