Agatha Christie - Endless Night / Бесконечная ночь. Книга для чтения на английском языке

‘Good Lord,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know… Yes, you’re right, I didn’t know it was like that .’

‘I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want to tell you. That was why I was afraid when I said my name – Fenella Goodman. We spell it G-u-t-e-m-a-n, and I thought you might know the name of Guteman so I slurred over it and made it into Goodman.’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’ve seen the name Guteman vaguely. But I don’t think I’d have recognized it even then. Lots of people are called names rather like that.’

‘That’s why,’ she said, ‘I’ve been so hedged around all the time and fenced in, and imprisoned. I’ve had detectives guarding me and young men being vetted before they’re allowed even to speak to me. Whenever I’ve made a friend they’ve had to be quite sure it wasn’t an unsuitable one. You don’t know what a terrible, terrible prisoner’s life it is! But now that’s all over, and if you don’t mind —’

‘Of course I don’t mind,’ I said, ‘we shall have lots of fun. In fact,’ I said, ‘you couldn’t be too rich a girl for me!’

We both laughed. She said: ‘What I like about you is that you can be natural about things. [31] to be natural about things – быть честным, прямым ’

‘Besides,’ I said, ‘I expect you pay a lot of tax on it, don’t you? That’s one of the few nice things about being like me. Any money I make goes into my pocket and nobody can take it away from me.’

‘We’ll have our house,’ said Ellie, ‘our house on Gipsy’s Acre.’ Just for a moment she gave a sudden little shiver.

‘You’re not cold, darling,’ I said. I looked up at the sunshine.

‘No,’ she said.

It was really very hot. We’d been basking. It might almost have been the South of France.

‘No,’ said Ellie, ‘it was just that – that woman, that gipsy that day.’

‘Oh, don’t think of her,’ I said, ‘she was crazy anyway.’

‘Do you think she really thinks there’s a curse on the land?’

‘I think gipsies are like that. You know – always wanting to make a song and dance about some curse or something.’

‘Do you know much about gipsies?’

‘Absolutely nothing,’ I said truthfully. ‘If you don’t want Gipsy’s Acre, Ellie, we’ll buy a house somewhere else. On the top of a mountain in Wales, on the coast of Spain or an Italian hillside, and Santonix can build us a house there just as well.’

‘No,’ said Ellie, ‘that’s how I want it to be. It’s where I first saw you walking up the road, coming round the corner very suddenly, and then you saw me and stopped and stared at me. I’ll never forget that.’

‘Nor will I,’ I said.

‘So that’s where it’s going to be. And your friend Santonix will build it.’

‘I hope he’s still alive,’ I said with an uneasy pang. ‘He was a sick man.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Ellie, ‘he’s alive. I went to see him.’

‘You went to see him?’

‘Yes. When I was in the South of France. He was in a sanatorium there.’

‘Every minute, Ellie, you seem to be more and more amazing. The things you do and manage.’

‘He’s rather a wonderful person I think,’ said Ellie, ‘but rather frightening.’

‘Did he frighten you?’

‘Yes, he frightened me very much for some reason.’

‘Did you talk to him about us?’

‘Yes. Oh yes, I told him all about us and about Gipsy’s Acre and about the house. He told me then that we’d have to take a chance with him. He’s a very ill man. He said he thought he still had the life left in him to go and see the site, to draw the plans, to visualize it and get it all sketched out. He said he wouldn’t mind really if he died before the house was finished, but I told him,’ added Ellie, ‘that he mustn’t die before the house was finished because I wanted him to see us live in it.’

‘What did he say to that?’

‘He asked me if I knew what I was doing marrying you, and I said of course I did.’

‘And then?’

‘He said he wondered if you knew what you were doing.’ ‘I know all right,’ I said.

‘He said “You will always know where you’re going, Miss Guteman.” He said “You’ll be going always where you want to go and because it’s your chosen way.”

‘“But Mike,” he said, “might take the wrong road. He hasn’t grown up enough yet to know where he’s going.”

‘I said,’ said Ellie, ‘“He’ll be quite safe with me.”’

She had superb self-confidence. I was angry though at what Santonix had said. He was like my mother. She always seemed to know more about me than I knew myself.

‘I know where I’m going,’ I said. ‘I’m going the way I want to go and we’re going it together.’

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furlong– британская и американская единица измерения расстояния

Fate up to its dirty work? Or dealing out its golden handshake of good fortune?– На свою беду? Или судьба преподнесла мне счастливый билет?

in a desultory fashion nearby– (зд.) резкими движениями

You smart-Alecks in town– Вы, городские умники

tangled fringe of black hair– (зд.) запутанный край черных волос

nought = nothing

well-wishers– доброжелатели

art nouveau (фр.) – стиль модерн

Sheer waste of money– Пустая трата денег

hushed voice– тихий, приглушенный голос

money isn’t so hot after all– (зд.) деньги не главное

Everything a bit hand-to-mouth– Еле сводить концы с концами

pettifogging middle-class economies– ваше мелкобуржуазное скупердяйство

stock jokes– заготовленные шутки

spinning them a yarn of how ill I’d been– заливая им, что я был болен

driving racket– суматоха движения