Dennis Wheatley - To The Devil A Daughter

At a table not far off there were an American couple whom Molly had known for some years. They were elderly people, and did not dance or gamble; so it was certain they would be going home fairly early, and their villa was situated not much more than a mile from hers. Before coming out she had given Johnny ample francs to pay for their evening; so with commendable guile she concealed her disappointment and said to the young couple:

`I'm sure you two will want to dance, and I'm not feeling like sitting up very late to night. I've been overworking

a bit lately and I am paying for it now with a headache; so you must forgive me if I desert you. My friends, the Pilkington’s, are over there and they are sure to be going home soon. I can easily get a lift from them, so as to leave the car for you.'

Her reward was to see Johnny's quick concern, and hear his protest that she would be ruining the first evening of his holiday, which they always spent together; but Molly Fountain was not given to changing her mind once she had made it up, and blowing a kiss from her finger tips to Christina, she left them to join the Americans.

When John was staying with his mother on the Riviera he often got home at unconscionable hours, and like most young people he required a lot of sleep; so it was an accepted thing that he should never be called, but should ring when he woke for Angele to bring him coffee and croissants.

On the following morning he did not wake till nearly eleven. Then, having breakfasted in bed, he dawdled for another hour over his bath and dressing; so it was half past twelve before he came downstairs and joined his mother.

`Well,' she asked, as soon as he had kissed her good morning, `how did things go last night after I left you? I do hope you weren't too terribly bored by my little protégé

'Bored!' His eyebrows shot up in a comical grimace. `Believe me, Mumsie, you're jolly lucky to get me back all in one piece.'

Molly smiled and patted her grey hair. `Making due allowances for your usual exaggeration, I'm rather pleased to learn that she has something that ticks inside her.'

`Something that ticks! Why, the girl's a human bomb. Honestly, this new born lamb of yours this little sister of Saint So and so straight out of a convent is a positive danger to the public.'

`Oh come, Johnny! Mix yourself a Vermouth Cassis, and one for me too. Then put reins upon your imagination, tie it up to the fence, and tell me what happened.'

He walked over to the side table and while mixing the drinks spoke over his shoulder, `Well, to start with, we danced. The fact that she seems to have had very little practical experience of dancing with a man is the one piece of evidence we have to support your theory that she has only just come out of the egg. Otherwise, hold me up, Uncle ! Her sense of timing is not at all bad, so I think she'd be pretty good if she had some practice. But that's not the point. She clung to me as if I was her favourite woolly bear. I got really scared she meant to rape me on the dance floor. And that scent of hers! It played old Harry with my libido.'

`Johnny, don't be disgusting.'

`Don't you pretend to be a little innocent, Mumsie. You know as well as most people what goes on in the world, and how that sort of thing can affect a chap. Anyhow, after we had danced for a bit she said she'd like to try a liqueur brandy. In the next hour she knocked back three doubles and she didn't blink an eyelid.'

`She must have a remarkably good head.'

`I'll say she has.' John brought the drink over to his mother, and went on, `About half an hour after midnight she suggested that I should take her to the Casino to do a spot of gambling. I hedged a bit at first; as on the one hand I would have liked an excuse not to dance with her any more for the time being, while on the other I didn't particularly want to go to the rooms, because you know how it has always been with me. I can make money if I work for it, but I never seem to have any luck at the tables.'

`You had a perfectly good excuse for refusing, as they wouldn't have let you in without your passports; and as she is still under twenty one they wouldn't have let her in anyway.'

He shook his head sadly at her. `Darling, how you do under rate the resourcefulness of your offspring. I'm ten times as good as your pet “Crack”, if you only knew it. I've known that chap Fleury, the under manager, for years. All I had to do was to ask for him and say we'd forgotten to bring our passports. It was a safe bet that he would pass me in, and anyone else who was with me. So, on the basis that if “Paris was worth a Mass” my chastity must be worth a couple of thousand francs, I agreed. By a quarter to one we were in the Casino. And what do you think happened then?'

`How in the world should I know, silly?'

`Well, for the next hour and a half, while I piddled around dropping six milles, little orphan Annie played baccarat with a poker face that could hardly have been equaled had she been born inside the Sporting Club; and at the end of it she walked off with half a million francs.'

`Johnny, she didn't?'

`She did, Mumsie. If I hadn't been so well brought up,

I'd have had it off her in the car on the way home. Just think of it! Five hundred quid, and free of Income Tax.'

Molly nodded. `How lovely for her. One hears a lot about beginner's luck, but I must say I've never heard a better example of it.'

`It must have been mainly that; although the old Canon stood behind her chair all the time, and was tipping her off what to do now and then.'

`What! Her godfather, Canon Copely Syle?' Molly sat up in surprise. `This is the first you've said of him.'

`Sorry. I'm afraid I telescoped the story a bit to give you the exciting denouement about her big win. The Canon was there when we entered the rooms, and came over to us.'

`What did you make of him?'

`I thought he was rather a nice old boy. He's certainly a picturesque one. All black satin front, pink face, and long silvery locks curling down behind his ears like a parson in a Restoration play. He couldn't have made himself pleasanter.'

`I'm glad he didn't spoil her evening. His attitude towards her might have been pretty frigid on meeting her in such a place, after having told her only that morning that he believed her father to be dying.'

`I think he was a bit shocked at first. I happened to catch sight of his face before she saw him, and he was staring at us with a rather worried, annoyed sort of look. But as soon as we got chatting butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, and he never even mentioned her father until just before we were leaving.'

`Was there anything fresh in what he said then?'

`No; he only introduced us to a friend of his who had been playing at another table, for the purpose of telling her that should she change her mind about going home, and want an air passage at short notice, this chap would be able to fix it for her. He was another distinguished looking old boy with grey hair, only the tall and thin type.

With a nice red ribbon across his shirt front he could have walked on to any stage in the role of the French Ambassador, and he wouldn't even have had to change his name for the part. It was the Marquis de Grasse.'

Molly nearly dropped her glass, and her mouth fell open. Then she gave a cry of consternation. `Oh, Johnny! What can be at the bottom of all this? De Grasse is one of the most evil men in France.'

5

Battle of Flowers and Battle of Wits

John knew about his mother's work in the war at least he thought he did. All she had ever told him was that her fluent French had secured her an interesting job as a secretary, and that later she had acted as P.A. to one of the senior officers of a department of the War Office situated in Baker Street. Since the war he had run across several people who had been connected with the same office, and from odd scraps of information they had dropped he had formed a pretty shrewd idea of the activities in which they had been engaged. Those who knew his mother spoke most highly of her, and the association had led him to believe that she too had actively participated in all sorts of cloak and dagger business designed to bring alarm and despondency to the enemy.