Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie Read Free Book Online Page A

thing.”
    Roddy asked:
    â€œDoes she want to make a new will?”
    Elinor answered:
    â€œShe didn’t say so.”
    â€œWhat did she—?”
    He stopped in the middle of the question.
    Mary Gerrard was running down the stairs. She crossed the hall and disappeared through the door to the kitchen quarters.
    Elinor said in a harsh voice:
    â€œYes? What is it you wanted to ask?”
    Roddy said vaguely:
    â€œI—what? I’ve forgotten what it was.”
    He was staring at the door through which Mary Gerrard had gone.
    Elinor’s hands closed. She could feel her long, pointed nails biting into the flesh of her palms.
    She thought:
    â€œI can’t bear it—I can’t bear it…it’s not imagination…it’s true… Roddy—Roddy I can’t lose you….”
    And she thought:
    â€œWhat did that man—the doctor— what did he see in my face upstairs? He saw something… Oh, God, how awful life is—to feel as I feel now. Say something, fool. Pull yourself together! ”
    Aloud she said, in her calm voice:
    â€œAbout meals, Roddy. I’m not very hungry. I’ll sit with Aunt Laura and the nurses can both come down.”
    Roddy said in alarm:
    â€œAnd have dinner with me? ”
    Elinor said coldly:
    â€œThey won’t bite you!”
    â€œBut what about you? You must have something. Why don’t we dine first, and let them come down afterwards?”
    Elinor said:
    â€œNo, the other way’s better.” She added wildly, “They’re so touchy, you know.”
    She thought:
    â€œI can’t sit through a meal with him—alone—talking—behaving as usual….”
    She said impatiently:
    â€œOh, do let me arrange things my own way!”

Four
    I t was no mere housemaid who wakened Elinor the following morning. It was Mrs. Bishop in person, rustling in her old-fashioned black, and weeping unashamedly.
    â€œOh, Miss Elinor, she’s gone….”
    â€œWhat?”
    Elinor sat up in bed.
    â€œYour dear aunt. Mrs. Welman. My dear mistress. Passed away in her sleep.”
    â€œAunt Laura? Dead?”
    Elinor stared. She seemed unable to take it in.
    Mrs. Bishop was weeping now with more abandon.
    â€œTo think of it,” she sobbed. “After all these years! Eighteen years I’ve been here. But indeed it doesn’t seem like it….”
    Elinor said slowly:
    â€œSo Aunt Laura died in her sleep—quite peacefully… What a blessing for her!”
    Mrs. Bishop wept.
    â€œSo sudden. The doctor saying he’d call again this morning and everything just as usual.”
    Elinor said rather sharply:
    â€œIt wasn’t exactly sudden. After all, she’s been ill for some time. I’m just so thankful she’s been spared more suffering.”
    Mrs. Bishop said tearfully that there was indeed that to be thankful for. She added:
    â€œWho’ll tell Mr. Roderick?”
    Elinor said:
    â€œI will.”
    She threw on a dressing gown and went along to his door and tapped. His voice answered, saying, “Come in.”
    She entered.
    â€œAunt Laura’s dead, Roddy. She died in her sleep.”
    Roddy, sitting up in bed, drew a deep sigh.
    â€œPoor dear Aunt Laura! Thank God for it, I say. I couldn’t have borne to see her go on lingering in the state she was yesterday.”
    Elinor said mechanically:
    â€œI didn’t know you’d seen her?”
    He nodded rather shamefacedly.
    â€œThe truth is, Elinor, I felt the most awful coward, because I’d funked it! I went along there yesterday evening. The nurse, the fat one, left the room for something—went down with a hot-water bottle, I think—and I slipped in. She didn’t know I was there, of course. I just stood a bit and looked at her. Then, when I heard Mrs. Gamp stumping up the stairs again, I slipped away. But it was—pretty terrible!”
    Elinor nodded.
    â€œYes, it