cash. Just as long as my Linda gets along happily and successfully in Sanstone. Of course the right school is going to help, and then she and Joy might take some course together, modelling or whatever it is they’ll have set their hearts on by then; and of course knowing the right people helps too, and going to all the parties…’ She returned the envelope to her bag. ‘The secret will be safe with me,’ she said . ‘I don’t go to Rotary lunches or get drunk in pubs.’ And she fastened the bag with a snap and got up to leave. ‘Monday afternoon, perhaps, you could drop the money in at my house?—when you call to invite me to run a stall at the bazaar you’re organising for Lady William. I’ve never been asked even to help there; and though to be honest I don’t think I’ve missed much, still, everybody else goes and I’d like to know Lady William. I believe her children are charming, and the boy’s about three years older than my Linda… One never knows, does one?’ She thought it over for a moment, puzzled. ‘Now what exactly would his title be?’
‘The Honourable,’ said Mrs. Bindell, flat voiced.
‘It’s going to be a great help,’ said Louisa, ‘having you to help me over little things like that.’
Linda and Joy were skipping again, Roy being up at the house ‘key-holing’. He joined them, breathless, and seized up the rope. He addressed his song to Linda.
‘Cod, skate, sturgeon, shark—
Your mother’s on the blackmail lark!
Whale, walrus and sea-cow—
She’s got the feelthy peectures now!’
‘No?’ said Linda.
‘Yes, she has,’ said Roy. He went on skipping.
‘Sea, lake, river, pool—
So you’re going to Hallfield School’
‘No?’ cried Linda and Joy, together this time, excitedly.
‘Yes, you are; and what’s more,’ said Roy, skipping again—
‘Men and horses, hare and hounds—
You’re going to get three thousand pounds,
And go around with Joy and me
And marry the ar-is-toc-racy…’
He stopped skipping altogether and they all rolled about with laughter, hugging one another triumphantly.
‘Well, honestly, can you believe it?’ said Linda, when at last they stopped, exhausted. ‘Grown-ups!’
‘What a flap if any of us so much as cheats a bit at school!’
‘I suppose this means that it really was my mother who shot your father?’
‘Of course it was,’ said Roy. ‘She knew these floozies had been going to his office after hours—all Sanstone knew it. Just hoicked up her skirt and looked like a teen-ager trying to walk like Marilyn Monroe. The police thought some boy-friend or father or someone had been watching, and went in and did for him. Of course they knew nothing about the blackmail.’ He exchanged a suddenly exultant glance with his sister. It might some day be profitable to be the only ones in the world who knew that Mrs. Hartley was a murderess.
Linda saw nothing of the glance. ‘It’s jolly decent of you to take it like this.’
‘Oh, well, we didn’t like him very much, did we, Roy?’
‘We don’t like any grown-ups very much,’ said Roy.
‘And I must say, considering that he was blackmailing her with the Feelthy Peectures after my father died—he did deserve what he got.’
‘M’m. On the other hand,’ said Roy, ‘your father had been blackmailing him with them for years. So it was really only tit for tat.’ And he caught up one end of the rope and Joy caught up the other and Linda flew into the middle; and as they turned and skipped, they all three gaily sang,
‘Tit for tat and knick for knack—
The biter bit the biter back.
Hound hunts fox and fox hunts hound—
Oh, what a merry old merry-go-round!’
4
Blood Brothers
‘And devoted, I hear,’ he says. ‘David and Jonathan,’ he says. ‘In fact you might properly be called,’ he says, with that glitter in his eye, ‘blood brothers?’
Well, he can sneer but it’s true we was pally enough, Fred and me, till Lydia came along. Shared the same
‘The Honourable,’ said Mrs. Bindell, flat voiced.
‘It’s going to be a great help,’ said Louisa, ‘having you to help me over little things like that.’
Linda and Joy were skipping again, Roy being up at the house ‘key-holing’. He joined them, breathless, and seized up the rope. He addressed his song to Linda.
‘Cod, skate, sturgeon, shark—
Your mother’s on the blackmail lark!
Whale, walrus and sea-cow—
She’s got the feelthy peectures now!’
‘No?’ said Linda.
‘Yes, she has,’ said Roy. He went on skipping.
‘Sea, lake, river, pool—
So you’re going to Hallfield School’
‘No?’ cried Linda and Joy, together this time, excitedly.
‘Yes, you are; and what’s more,’ said Roy, skipping again—
‘Men and horses, hare and hounds—
You’re going to get three thousand pounds,
And go around with Joy and me
And marry the ar-is-toc-racy…’
He stopped skipping altogether and they all rolled about with laughter, hugging one another triumphantly.
‘Well, honestly, can you believe it?’ said Linda, when at last they stopped, exhausted. ‘Grown-ups!’
‘What a flap if any of us so much as cheats a bit at school!’
‘I suppose this means that it really was my mother who shot your father?’
‘Of course it was,’ said Roy. ‘She knew these floozies had been going to his office after hours—all Sanstone knew it. Just hoicked up her skirt and looked like a teen-ager trying to walk like Marilyn Monroe. The police thought some boy-friend or father or someone had been watching, and went in and did for him. Of course they knew nothing about the blackmail.’ He exchanged a suddenly exultant glance with his sister. It might some day be profitable to be the only ones in the world who knew that Mrs. Hartley was a murderess.
Linda saw nothing of the glance. ‘It’s jolly decent of you to take it like this.’
‘Oh, well, we didn’t like him very much, did we, Roy?’
‘We don’t like any grown-ups very much,’ said Roy.
‘And I must say, considering that he was blackmailing her with the Feelthy Peectures after my father died—he did deserve what he got.’
‘M’m. On the other hand,’ said Roy, ‘your father had been blackmailing him with them for years. So it was really only tit for tat.’ And he caught up one end of the rope and Joy caught up the other and Linda flew into the middle; and as they turned and skipped, they all three gaily sang,
‘Tit for tat and knick for knack—
The biter bit the biter back.
Hound hunts fox and fox hunts hound—
Oh, what a merry old merry-go-round!’
4
Blood Brothers
‘And devoted, I hear,’ he says. ‘David and Jonathan,’ he says. ‘In fact you might properly be called,’ he says, with that glitter in his eye, ‘blood brothers?’
Well, he can sneer but it’s true we was pally enough, Fred and me, till Lydia came along. Shared the same
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