'The oak suite, I suppose?'
'Yes, please, Jolly. Then there will be no stairs.'
Miss Bellever nodded and turned back to the house.
'Christian Gulbrandsen is my stepson,' said Carrie Louise. 'Eric's eldest son. Actually he's two years older than I am. He's one of the trustees of the Institute - the principal trustee. How very annoying that Lewis is away. Christian hardly ever stays longer than one night. He's an immensely busy man. And there are sure to be so many things they would want to discuss.'
Christian Gulbrandsen arrived that afternoon in time for tea. He was a big heavy-featured man, with a slow methodical way of talking. He greeted Carrie Louise with every sign of affection.
'And how is our little Carrie Louise? You do not look a day older. Not a day.'
His hands on her shoulders - he stood smiling down at her. A hand tugged his sleeve.
'Christian!'
'Ah,' he turned - 'it is Mildred? How are you, Mildred?'
'I've not really been at all well lately.'
'That is bad. That is bad.'
There was a strong resemblance between Christian Gulbrandsen and his half-sister Mildred. There was nearly thirty years' difference in age and they might easily have been taken for father and daughter. Mildred herself seemed particularly pleased by his arrival. She was flushed and talkative, and had talked repeatedly during the day of 'my brother,' 'my brother Christian,' 'my brother Mr Gulbrandsen.'
'And how is little Gina?' said Gulbrandsen, turning to that young woman. 'You and your husband are still here, then?'
'Yes. We've quite settled down, haven't we, Wally?'
'Looks like it,' said Wally.
Gulbrandsen's small shrewd eyes seemed to sum up Wally quickly. Wally, as usual, looked sullen and unfriendly.
'So here I am with all the family again,' said Gulbrandsen.
His voice displayed a rather determined geniality - but in actual fact, Miss Marple thought, he was not feeling particularly genial. There was a grim set to his lips and a certain preoccupation in his manner.
Introduced to Miss Marple, he swept a keen look over her as though measuring and appraising this newcomer.
'We'd no idea you were in England, Christian,' said Mrs Serrocold.
'No, I came over rather unexpectedly.'
'It is too bad that Lewis is away. How long can you stay?'
'I meant to go tomorrow. When will Lewis be back?'
'Tomorrow afternoon or evening.'
'It seems then that I must stay another night.'
'If you'd only let us know -'
'My dear Carrie Louise, my arrangements, they were made very suddenly.'
'You will stay to see Lewis?'
'Yes, it is necessary that I see Lewis.'
Miss Bellever said to Miss Marple:
'Mr Gulbrandsen and Mr Serrocold are both trustees of the Gulbrandsen Institute. The others are the Bishop of Cromer and Mr Gilfoy.'
Presumably, then, it was on business concerned with the Gulbrandsen Institute that Christian Gulbrandsen had come to Stonygates. It seemed to be assumed so by Miss Bellever and everyone else. And yet Miss Marple wondered.
Once or twice the old man cast a thoughtful puzzled look at Carrie Louise when he was not aware of it - a look that puzzled Carrie Louise's watching friend. From Carrie Louise he shifted his gaze to the others, examining them one and all with a kind of covert appraisal that seemed distinctly odd.
After tea, Miss Marple withdrew tactfully from the others to the library, but rather to her surprise when she had settled herself with her knitting, Christian Gulbrandsen came in and sat down beside her.
'You are a very old friend, I think, of our dear Carrie Louise?' he said.
'We were at school together in Italy, Mr Gulbrandsen. Many many years ago.'
'Ah yes. And you are fond of her?'
'Yes, indeed,' said Miss Marple warmly.
'So, I think, is everyone. Yes, I truly think that. It should be so. For she is a very dear and enchanting person. Always, since my father married her, I and my brothers have loved her very much. She has been to us like a very dear sister. She was a faithful wife to my father and loyal to all his ideas. She has never thought of herself, but put the welfare of others first.'
'She has always been an idealist,' said Miss Marple.
'An idealist? Yes. Yes, that is so. And therefore it may be that she does not truly appreciate the evil that there is in the world.'
Miss Marple looked at him, surprised. His face was very stern.
'Tell me,' he said. 'How is her health?'
Again Miss Marple felt surprised.
'She seems to me very well - apart from arthritis - or rheumatism.'
'Rheumatism? Yes. And her heart? Her heart is good?'
'As far as I know.' Miss Marple was still more surprised. 'But until yesterday I had not seen her for many years. If you want to know the state of her health, you should ask somebody in the house here. Miss Bellever, for instance.'
'Miss Bellever - Yes, Miss Bellever. Or Mildred?'
'Or, as you say, Mildred.'
Miss Marple was faintly embarrassed.
Christian Gulbrandsen was staring at her very hard.
'There is not between the mother and daughter a very great sympathy, would you say?'
'No, I don't think there is.'
'I agree. It is a pity - her only child, but there it is. Now this Miss Bellever, you think, is really attached to her?'
'Very much so.'
'And Carrie Louise leans on this Miss Bellever?'
'I think so.'
Christian Gulbrandsen was frowning. He spoke as though more to himself than to Miss Marple.
'There is the little Gina - but she is so young. It is difficult -' He broke off. 'Sometimes,' he said simply, 'it is hard to know what is best to be done. I wish very much to act for the best. I am particularly anxious that no harm and no unhappiness should come to that dear lady. But it is not easy - not easy at all.'
Mrs Strete came into the room at that moment.
'Oh, there you are, Christian. We were wondering where you were. Dr Maverick wants to know if you would like to go over anything with him.'
'That is the new young doctor here? No - no, I will wait until Lewis returns.'
'He's waiting in Lewis's study. I'll go and tell him -'
'I will have a word with him myself.'
Gulbrandsen hurried out. Mildred Strete stared after him and then stared at Miss Marple.
'I wonder if anything is wrong. Christian is very unlike himself... Did he say anything -'
'He only asked me about your mother's health.'
'Her health? Why should he ask you about that?'
Mildred spoke sharply, her large square face flushing unbecomingly.
'I really don't know.'
'Mother's health is perfectly good. Surprisingly so for a woman of her age. Much better than mine as far as that goes.' She paused a moment before saying: 'I hope you told him so?'
'I don't really know anything about it,' said Miss Marple. 'He asked me about her heart.'
'Her heart?'
'Yes.'
'There's nothing wrong with mother's heart. Nothing at all!'
'I'm delighted to hear you say so, my dear.'
'What on earth put all these queer ideas into Christian's head?'
'I've no idea,' said Miss Marple.
Chapter 7
The next day passed uneventfully to all appearances, yet to Miss Marple it seemed that there were signs of an inner tension. Christian Gulbrandsen spent his morning with Dr Maverick in going round the Institute and in discussing the general results of the Institute's policy. In the early afternoon Gina took him for a drive, and after that Miss Marple noticed that he induced Miss Bellever to show him something in the gardens. It seemed to her that it was a pretext for ensuring a tкte-а-tкte with that grim woman. And yet, if Christian Gulbrandsen's unexpected visit had only to do with business matters, why this wish for Miss Bellever's company, since the latter dealt only with the domestic side of Stonygates?
But in all this, Miss Marple could tell herself that she was being fanciful. The one really disturbing incident of the day happened about four o'clock. She had brought up her knitting and had gone out in the garden to take a little stroll before tea. Rounding a straggling rhododendron she came upon Edgar Lawson, who was striding along muttering to himself and who nearly ran into her.
He said, 'I beg your pardon,' hastily, but Miss Marple was startled by the queer staring expression of his eyes.
'Aren't you feeling well, Mr Lawson?'
'Well? How should I be feeling well? I've had a shock - a terrible shock.'
'What kind of a shock?'
The young man gave a swift glance past her, and then a sharp uneasy glance to either side. His doing so gave Miss Marple a nervous feeling.
'Shall I tell you?' He looked at her doubtfully. 'I don't know. I don't really know. I've been so spied upon.'
Miss Marple made up her mind. She took him firmly by the arm.
'If we walk down this path... There, now, there are no trees or bushes near. Nobody can overhear.'
'No - no, you're right.' He drew a deep breath, bent his head and almost whispered his next words. 'I've made a discovery. A terrible discovery.'
Edgar Lawson began to shake all over. He was almost weeping.
'To have trusted someone! To have believed... and it was lies - all lies. Lies to keep me from finding out the truth. I can't bear it. It's too wicked. You see, he was the one person I trusted, and now to find out that all the time he's been at the bottom of it all. It's he who's been my enemy! It's he who has been having me followed about and spied upon. But he can't get away with it any more. I shall speak out. I shall tell him I know what he has been doing.'
'Who is "he"?' demanded Miss Marple.
Edgar Lawson drew himself up to his full height. He might have looked pathetic and dignified. But actually he only looked ridiculous.
'I'm speaking of my father.'
'Viscount Montgomery - or do you mean Winston Churchill?'
Edgar threw her a glance of scorn.
'They let me think that - just to keep me from guessing the truth. But I know now. I've got a friend - a real friend. A friend who tells me the truth and lets me know just how I've been deceived. Well, my father will have to reckon with me. I'll throw his lies in his face! I'll challenge him with the truth. We'll see what he's got to say to that.'
And suddenly breaking away, Edgar went off at a run and disappeared in the park.
Her face grave, Miss Marple went back to the house.
'We're all a little mad, dear lady,' Dr Maverick had said.
But it seemed to her that in Edgar's case it went rather further than that.
II
Lewis Serrocold arrived back at six-thirty. He stopped the car at the gates and walked to the house through the park. Looking out of her window, Miss Marple saw Christian Gulbrandsen go out to meet him and the two men, having greeted one another, turned and paced to and fro up and down the terrace.
Miss Marple had been careful to bring her bird glasses with her. At this moment she brought them into action. Was there, or was there not, a flight of siskins by that far clump of trees?
She noted as the glasses swept down before rising that both men were looking seriously disturbed. Miss Marple leant out a little farther. Scraps of conversation floated up to her now and then. If either of the men should look up, it would be quite clear that an enraptured bird watcher had her attention luted on a point far removed from their conversation.
'... how to spare Carrie Louise the knowledge -' Gulbrandsen was saying.
The next time they passed below, Lewis Serrocold was speaking.
'- if it can be kept from her. I agree that it is she who must be considered...'
Other faint snatches came to the listener.
'- Really serious -', '- not justified -', '- too big a responsibility to take -', '- we should, perhaps, take outside advice -'
Finally Miss Marple heard Christian Gulbrandsen say:
'Ach, it grows cold. We must go inside.'
Miss Marple drew her head in through the window with a puzzled expression. What she had heard was too fragmentary to be easily pieced together - but it served to confirm that vague apprehension that had been gradually growing upon her and about which Ruth Van Rydock had been so positive.
Whatever was wrong at Stonygates, it definitely affected Carrie Louise.
III
Dinner that evening was a somewhat constrained meal. Both Gulbrandsen and Lewis were absent-minded and absorbed in their own thoughts. Walter Hudd glowered even more than usual, and for once Gina and Stephen seemed to have little to say either to each other or to the company at large. Conversation was mostly sustained by Dr Maverick, who had a lengthy technical discussion with Mr Baumgarten, one of the Occupational Therapists.
When they moved into the hall after dinner, Christian Gulbrandsen excused himself almost at once. He said he had an important letter to write.
'So if you will forgive me, dear Carrie Louise, I will go now to my room.'
'You have all you want there? Jolly?'
'Yes, yes. Everything. A typewriter, I asked, and one has been put there. Miss Bellever has been most kind and attentive.'
He left the Great Hall by the door on the left which led past the foot of the main staircase and along a corridor, at the end of which was a suite of bedroom and bathroom. When he had gone out Carrie Louise said:
'Not going down to the theatre tonight, Gina?'
The girl shook her head. She went over and sat by the window overlooking the front drive and the court.
Stephen glanced at her, then strolled over to the big grand piano. He sat down at it and strummed very softly - a queer melancholy little tune. The two Occupational Therapists, Mr Baumgarten and Mr Lacy, and Dr Maverick, said goodnight and left. Walter turned on the switch of a reading lamp and with a crackling noise half the lights in the hall went out.
