It’s been so dry lately those fuzzy blossoms would have gone up in a flash. I’ve always known I ought to cut it down, but I never had the heart. It was the only really beautiful thing we had.”
She picked at her pie. “Well, that little old cracker box was bound to go sometime. I’m only thankful the fire started at the front instead of the back. Otherwise we might never have gotten out alive.”
“I’ll bet your mother won’t shed any tears when she finds it’s gone and you got out all right,” said Marion. “She was giving me digs earlier about getting out of here so you and Bobby could move in.”
“I’m not surprised. She’s been working that line with me ever since Aunt Aggie died. I told her I couldn’t possibly manage a place this size even if I were getting money enough out of the estate to keep it up, which I’m sure as heck not. I don’t have any intention of driving you out, Marion. I’ll find something, somehow.”
Her thin shoulders sagged in hopelessness. Her mother’s cousin reached over and laid a hand on her arm.
“Forget it, will you? God knows this ark is big enough for both of us. I’ll be glad of company, if you want the truth. Being alone here at night is getting on my nerves. Besides, you can help with the inventory and stuff. Your mother was bending my ear again today about getting the estate settled.”
“After Papa died?” gasped Gilly.
“Oh no, before she went to the meeting. I bummed a ride down with Sam Neddick to see if your mother could tell me anything about that patent Bain’s been raising the roof over. That was after you ran out on me, Janet,” Marion added parenthetically.
“Elizabeth didn’t know anything about the patent, but she did manage to get in quite a little speech about the dignity of the family and you having to live in that hovel, as she called it. Then she gave me the bum’s rush because she had to get dressed up to put on the dog for that bunch of old hens she hangs out with. I was sort of hoping she’d give me a ride back, but instead I had to hoof it two miles uphill. I was sore as hell at the time, but I sure thanked my lucky stars when I heard about Henry. If I’d hung around a while longer, I might have been the one to find him.”
Janet’s scalp prickled. So Marion had been down at the Druffitts’ before the so-called accident. Maybe she had been the one to find him, and maybe he hadn’t been dead until after she’d found him. She could have pretended to leave when Elizabeth went upstairs, then sneaked around through the hedges to the back door, or simply banged the front door and then walked through the waiting room into the office. If she’d been seen around Queen Street afterward, she could always say she’d stopped to shop or something, and if she was a long time getting back to the Mansion, she could have told Dot she’d simply taken her time walking back because it was so hot out.
Marion must have come down from the attic not long after Janet had dropped her bomb in front of Dot and left the Mansion. Dot would surely have been bursting to tell the news, and Marion would have had to be deaf or crazy not to listen. Why hadn’t she come over to ask Janet about the find then and there? Why hadn’t she brought up the subject at suppertime? She’d been ready enough to talk about other things. Maybe that jar was the one thing she didn’t dare mention.
Who but Marion would have every opportunity to fiddle with the jars in the cellar, and who else would be in more urgent need of knowing which were the good beans and which were the bad? She was the likeliest person to be sharing a meal with Mrs. Treadway when they were served. And who else was scatterbrained enough to have forgotten to take away the second jar once the first had done its deadly job? Except Dot Fewter, of course, and Dot was too feckless and too good-natured to plan a murder in the first place.
But Sam Neddick was Dot’s very particular friend, so if he
She picked at her pie. “Well, that little old cracker box was bound to go sometime. I’m only thankful the fire started at the front instead of the back. Otherwise we might never have gotten out alive.”
“I’ll bet your mother won’t shed any tears when she finds it’s gone and you got out all right,” said Marion. “She was giving me digs earlier about getting out of here so you and Bobby could move in.”
“I’m not surprised. She’s been working that line with me ever since Aunt Aggie died. I told her I couldn’t possibly manage a place this size even if I were getting money enough out of the estate to keep it up, which I’m sure as heck not. I don’t have any intention of driving you out, Marion. I’ll find something, somehow.”
Her thin shoulders sagged in hopelessness. Her mother’s cousin reached over and laid a hand on her arm.
“Forget it, will you? God knows this ark is big enough for both of us. I’ll be glad of company, if you want the truth. Being alone here at night is getting on my nerves. Besides, you can help with the inventory and stuff. Your mother was bending my ear again today about getting the estate settled.”
“After Papa died?” gasped Gilly.
“Oh no, before she went to the meeting. I bummed a ride down with Sam Neddick to see if your mother could tell me anything about that patent Bain’s been raising the roof over. That was after you ran out on me, Janet,” Marion added parenthetically.
“Elizabeth didn’t know anything about the patent, but she did manage to get in quite a little speech about the dignity of the family and you having to live in that hovel, as she called it. Then she gave me the bum’s rush because she had to get dressed up to put on the dog for that bunch of old hens she hangs out with. I was sort of hoping she’d give me a ride back, but instead I had to hoof it two miles uphill. I was sore as hell at the time, but I sure thanked my lucky stars when I heard about Henry. If I’d hung around a while longer, I might have been the one to find him.”
Janet’s scalp prickled. So Marion had been down at the Druffitts’ before the so-called accident. Maybe she had been the one to find him, and maybe he hadn’t been dead until after she’d found him. She could have pretended to leave when Elizabeth went upstairs, then sneaked around through the hedges to the back door, or simply banged the front door and then walked through the waiting room into the office. If she’d been seen around Queen Street afterward, she could always say she’d stopped to shop or something, and if she was a long time getting back to the Mansion, she could have told Dot she’d simply taken her time walking back because it was so hot out.
Marion must have come down from the attic not long after Janet had dropped her bomb in front of Dot and left the Mansion. Dot would surely have been bursting to tell the news, and Marion would have had to be deaf or crazy not to listen. Why hadn’t she come over to ask Janet about the find then and there? Why hadn’t she brought up the subject at suppertime? She’d been ready enough to talk about other things. Maybe that jar was the one thing she didn’t dare mention.
Who but Marion would have every opportunity to fiddle with the jars in the cellar, and who else would be in more urgent need of knowing which were the good beans and which were the bad? She was the likeliest person to be sharing a meal with Mrs. Treadway when they were served. And who else was scatterbrained enough to have forgotten to take away the second jar once the first had done its deadly job? Except Dot Fewter, of course, and Dot was too feckless and too good-natured to plan a murder in the first place.
But Sam Neddick was Dot’s very particular friend, so if he
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