At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie Read Free Book Online Page A

was about ten o'clock when she emerged from her room fully equipped: hat, gloves, umbrella - just in case, though it looked fine - handbag - her smartest shopping bag.
    The door next but one on the corridor opened sharply and someone looked out. It was Bess Sedgwick. She withdrew back into the room and closed the door sharply.
    Miss Marple wondered as she went down the stairs. She preferred the stairs to the elevator first thing in the morning. It limbered her up. Her steps grew slower and slower... she stopped.

At Bertram's Hotel
    II
    As Colonel Luscombe strode along the passage from his room, a door at the top of the stairs opened sharply and Lady Sedgwick spoke to him.
    “There you are at last! I've been on the lookout for you - waiting to pounce. Where can we go and talk? This is to say without falling over some old pussy every second.”
    “Well, really, Bess, I'm not quite sure - I think on the mezzanine floor there's a sort of writing room.”
    “You'd better come in here. Quick now, before the chambermaid gets peculiar ideas about us.”
    Rather unwillingly, Colonel Luscombe stepped across the threshold and had the door shut firmly behind him.
    “I'd no idea you would be staying here, Bess. I hadn't the faintest idea of it.”
    “I don't suppose you had.”
    “I mean - I would never have brought Elvira here. I have got Elvira here, you know?”
    “Yes, I saw her with you last night.”
    “But I really didn't know that you were here. It seemed such an unlikely place for you.”
    “I don't see why,” said Bess Sedgwick coldly. “It's far and away the most comfortable hotel in London. Why shouldn't I stay here?”
    “You must understand that I hadn't any idea of... I mean -”
    She looked at him and laughed. She was dressed ready to go out in a well-cut dark suit and a shirt of bright emerald green. She looked gay and very much alive. Beside her, Colonel Luscombe looked rather old and faded.
    “Darling Derek, don't look so worried. I'm not accusing you of trying to stage a mother and daughter sentimental meeting. It's just one of those things that happen; where people meet each other in unsuspected places. But you must get Elvira out of here, Derek. You must get her out of here at once - today.”
    “Oh, she's going. I mean, I only brought her here just for a couple of nights. Do a show - that sort of thing. She's going down to the Melfords tomorrow.”
    “Poor girl, that'll be boring for her.”
    Luscombe looked at her with concern. “Do you think she will be very bored?”
    Bess took pity on him.
    “Probably not after duress in Italy. She might even think it wildly thrilling.”
    Luscombe took his courage in both hands.
    “Look here, Bess, I was startled to find you here, but don't you think it - well, you know, it might be meant in a way. I mean that it might be an opportunity - I don't think you really know how - well, how the girl might feel.”
    “What are you trying to say, Derek?”
    “Well, you are her mother, you know.”
    “Of course I'm her mother. She's my daughter. And what good has that fact ever been to either of us, or ever will be?”
    “You can't be sure. I think - I think she feels it.”
    “What gives you that idea?” said Bess Sedgwick sharply.
    “Something she said yesterday. She asked where you were, what you were doing.”
    Bess Sedgwick walked across the room to the window. She stood there a moment tapping on the pane.
    “You're so nice, Derek,” she said. “You have such nice ideas. But they don't work, my poor angel. That's what you've got to say to yourself. They don't work and they might be dangerous.”
    “Oh, come now, Bess. Dangerous?”
    “Yes, yes, yes. Dangerous. I'm dangerous. I've always been dangerous.”
    “When I think of some of the things you've done,” said Colonel Luscombe.
    “That's my own business,” said Bess Sedgwick. “Running into danger has become a kind of habit with me. No, I wouldn't say habit. More an addiction. Like a drug. Like