Choice of Evils by E.X. Ferrars Read Free Book Online

was standing, the centre of a little group of admirers, and for the time being it was hardly possible to discuss the question of how Andrew was to return to the Dolphin.
    Presently, however, the crowd began to thin and Amory turned to Andrew.
    ‘Can I drive you back to your hotel?’ he offered. ‘I think we could decently leave now.’
    ‘That's very kind of you.’ Andrew replied. 'Thank you, I'd be grateful for it.’
    ‘We must round up Rachel,’ Amory said. ‘Where is she?’
    Peter looked round, shook his head and said, ‘Gone to the loo.’
    She was certainly not in the bar.
    Mina Todhunter came up to the group, then put an arm round Amory's shoulders and said, ‘Poor Simon, I believe you suffered horribly this evening, but you did very well. I'm off now. What about tomorrow? Same as usual?’
    ‘Yes, why not?’ Amory said.
    ‘I thought as you'd guests you might want to change things.’
    ‘If it seems desirable, I'll phone you.’
    ‘Well, good night. Good night. Professor.’ She shook hands heartily with Andrew and made for the door.
    ‘We ought to have got her to take a look into the ladies’ loo to see if Rachel's there,’ Peter said. ‘As a matter of fact, I haven't noticed her anywhere around for some time.’
    ‘Perhaps she isn't well,’ Amory said. ‘I'll get one of the girls to take a look inside to see if she's there.’
    He spoke to one of the young women who had been dispensing the coffee. She went out and returned in a minute or two, saying that there was no one in the ladies’ lavatory.
    ‘Where is she then?’ Amory said, looking round the room once more.
    ‘Perhaps she's waiting in the car,’ Peter suggested.
    ‘It's locked and I've got the key,’ Amory said.
    ‘Then she must have taken it into her head to walk home,’ Peter said. ‘Andrew was only saying a little while ago that it isn't far.’
    ‘If she was going to do that, she might have told us,’ Amory said. ‘However, I suppose you're right, and there's no point in waiting for her here. Let's go, shall we?’
    The three men made their way out to the Rolls. They saw Edward Clarke getting into his Vauxhall and waved good night to him. The drive down to the Dolphin took only a few minutes. Andrew thanked Amory for his evening's entertainment and as he drove off, went into the hotel, acquired his room-key and went up to his room.
    He was surprisingly tired. The day that had been intended as the beginning of a rest had turned out quite demanding. But tomorrow, he thought, in spite of perhaps going for a walk on the cliffs with Peter, which he would enjoy, he would be careful to take it quietly. He thoughtthat he would look in at Mina Todhunter's bookshop and buy a copy of
Death Come Quickly
, and spend as much of the afternoon as he did not spend asleep in reading it.
    But then he remembered that in the evening there would be a performance of
The Duchess of Malfi.
Peter would almost certainly drag him off to see it. If that woman whom he had seen briefly in the greenroom at the Pegasus Theatre, infuriating Amory, had actually more talent than he would have guessed from her performance there, it might give him a great deal of pleasure to see it. While he undressed he tried to remember some lines from it, but to his intense annoyance found himself only muttering:
    ‘Among them was a bishop who
Had lately been appointed to
The balmy isle of Rum-ti-Foo
And Peter was his name …’
    He could not clear his mind of this until he had been in bed for a while and sleep overcame it.

CHAPTER 3
    Next morning Andrew had his breakfast brought to his room. He had coffee and toast and marmalade, then he cut a slice of the cheese that he had bought the day before and when he had eaten it had a shower, shaved and dressed.
    It was half past nine by then and a fine morning. The sky was cloudless, and the sea, as he could see from his window, was calm and glistening. He did not think much about the evening before, except that he resolved