Behold Here's Poison by Georgette Heyer Read Free Book Online Page B

with something approaching loathing. 'Do I understand that you took it upon yourself to make this arrangement without a word to anyone?'
    'Yes,' said Randall.
    At this moment a not unwelcome interruption occurred. Mrs Matthews came into the room. She extended a gloved hand towards Randall, and said: 'I saw your car, and so guessed you were here. Janet, too! Quite a little family party, I see. I wonder if you thought to order any fresh cake, Harriet dear? I seem to remember that there was not a great deal yesterday. But I'm sure you did.' She dropped her hand on to her sister-in-law's shoulder for a moment, and pressed it. 'Poor Harriet! Such a sad, sad day. And for me too.'
    'I understood that you had been shopping in town,' said Mrs Lupton.
    Mrs Matthews gave her a look of pained reproach. 'I have been buying mourning, Gertrude, if you can call that shopping.'
    'I do not know what else one can call it,' retorted Mrs Lupton.
    Randall handed Mrs Matthews to a chair. 'How tired you must be!' he said. 'I find there is nothing so fatiguing as choosing clothes.'
    'Oh,' said Mrs Matthews, sinking into the chair, and beginning to draw off her gloves, 'it was not so much choosing, as taking anything that was suitable. One doesn't care what one wears at such a time.'
    'You have a beautiful nature, dear Aunt Zoë. But I feel sure that exquisite taste cannot have erred, shattered though we know you to be.'
    Mrs Matthews fixed her soulful eyes on his face, and replied gravely: 'Not shattered, Randall, but in a mood of—how shall I express it?—melancholy, perhaps, and yet not quite that. Gregory has been much in my thoughts.'
    'Let me beg of you, Zoë, not to make yourself ridiculous by talking in that affected way!' said Mrs Lupton roundly. 'You will find it very hard to convince me for one that Gregory has been in your thoughts, as you call it, for as much as ten seconds.'
    'And I'm sure I don't know why he should be!' added Miss Matthews, a good deal annoyed. 'I lived with Gregory all my life, and what is more he was my brother, and if he was in anyone's thoughts it was in mine, which indeed he was, for I have been sorting all his clothes, wondering whether we should not send most of them to a sale. Though there is an old coat which might very well be given to the gardener, and no doubt Guy would be glad of the new waterproof.'
    'My thoughts were rather different, dear,' said Mrs Matthews. 'I was in Knightsbridge, and found time to slip into the Oratory for a few moments. The peace of it! There was something in the whole atmosphere of the place which I can hardly describe, but which seemed to me just right, somehow.'
    'It must have been the incense,' said Miss Matthews doubtfully. 'Not that I care for it myself, or for joss-sticks either, though my mother used to be very fond of burning them in the drawing-room, I remember. Though why you should go into a Roman Catholic Church I can't imagine.'
    'Nor anyone else,' said Mrs Lupton.
    Janet said large-mindedly: 'I think I can understand what you mean, Aunt Zoë. There's something about those places, though one can't approve of Roman Catholics, of course, but I can quite imagine how you felt.'
    'No, dear, you are too young to understand, mercifully for yourself,' said Mrs Matthews, disdaining this wellmeant support. 'You do not know anything of the dark side of life yet, and pray God you never may!'
    'Oh, mother!' groaned Guy, writhing in acute discomfort.
    'If all this grossly exaggerated talk refers to Gregory's death I can only say that I never listened to such nonsense in my life!' declared Mrs Lupton.
    Randall lifted one long, slender finger. 'Hush, aunt! Aunt Zoë is remembering that she is a widow.'
    'Damn you!' muttered Stella, just behind him.
    'Yes, Randall, I am remembering it,' said Mrs Matthews. 'Now that Gregory has passed on I realise that I am indeed alone in the world.'
    Randall made a gesture towards his scowling cousins. 'Ah, but, aunt, you forget your two inestimable