Endless Night by Agatha Christie Page B

don’t need to,” I said, “no need to tell me anything.”
    â€œYes, but I must. I ought to have told you long ago but I didn’t want to because—because I thought it might drive you away. But it explains in a way, about Gipsy’s Acre.”
    â€œYou bought it?” I said. “But how did you buy it?”
    â€œThrough lawyers,” she said, “the usual way. It’s a perfectly good investment, you know. The land will appreciate. My lawyers were quite happy about it.”
    It was odd suddenly to hear Ellie, the gentle and timid Ellie,speaking with such knowledge and confidence of the business world of buying and selling.
    â€œYou bought it for us?”
    â€œYes. I went to a lawyer of my own, not the family one. I told him what I wanted to do, I got him to look into it, I got everything set up and in train. There were two other people after it but they were not really desperate and they wouldn’t go very high. The important thing was that the whole thing had to be set up and arranged ready for me to sign as soon as I came of age. It’s signed and finished.”
    â€œBut you must have made some deposit or something beforehand. Had you enough money to do that?”
    â€œNo,” said Ellie, “no, I hadn’t control of much money beforehand, but of course there are people who will advance you money. And if you go to a new firm of legal advisers, they will want you to go on employing them for business deals once you’ve come into what money you’re going to have so they’re willing to take the risk that you might drop down dead before your birthday comes.”
    â€œYou sound so businesslike,” I said, “you take my breath away!”
    â€œNever mind business,” said Ellie, “I’ve got to get back to what I’m telling you. In a way I’ve told it you already, but I don’t suppose really you realize it.”
    â€œI don’t want to know,” I said. My voice rose, I was almost shouting. “Don’t tell me anything. I don’t want to know anything about what you’ve done or who you’ve been fond of or what has happened to you.”
    â€œIt’s nothing of that kind,” she said. “I didn’t realize that that was what you were fearing it might be. No, there’s nothing of thatkind. No sex secrets. There’s nobody but you. The thing is that I’m—well—I’m rich.”
    â€œI know that,” I said, “you’ve told me already.”
    â€œYes,” said Ellie with a faint smile, “and you said to me, ‘poor little rich girl.’ But in a way it’s more than that. My grandfather, you see, was enormously rich. Oil. Mostly oil. And other things. The wives he paid alimony to are dead, there was only my father and myself left because his two other sons were killed. One in Korea and one in a car accident. And so it was all left in a great big huge trust and when my father died suddenly, it all came to me. My father had made provision for my stepmother before, so she didn’t get anything more. It was all mine. I’m—actually one of the richest women in America, Mike.”
    â€œGood Lord,” I said. “I didn’t know…Yes, you’re right, I didn’t know it was like that. ”
    â€œI 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.”
    â€œYes,” 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.”
    â€œThat’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