The Case Of William Smith by Patricia Wentworth Read Free Book Online Page A

I was not at the time fully recovered, so I thought that I would wait until I could go into the matter with you in person. Katharine has not written again, and I have not her present address. I shall be in town next week and should like to call upon you on Wednesday morning or Thursday afternoon, whichever would be the more convenient to yourself. I could then go into Katharine’s affairs with you and your cousin Brett. After nearly two years of incapacity I should be glad of the opportunity of bringing my trusteeship up to date.
    Yours sincerely,
    J. G. Holden.” ’
    Miss Jones repeated her ‘Well?’
    Eversley opened his hand and let the letter fall.
    ‘What are we going to do?’ he said.
    ‘The money isn’t there?’
    ‘You know it isn’t there. You know we had to borrow it in ’45. If things had looked up, we could have paid it back. We had to borrow it — you know that as well as I do. It was either that or a smash, and we’ve always kept up the income payments — until the other day. I told Brett it was folly to cut them, but he’s so extravagant — he won’t cut out anything himself. If we’d gone on paying Katharine her income, there wouldn’t have been any trouble. It’s this cutting her down that is bringing Holden into it. He’s never done anything before except sign what was put in front of him. Of course all through the war he was serving, and then he had that motor smash and nobody thought he’d ever get up off his bed again — and now he says he’s recovered and wants to go into Katharine’s affairs. What are we going to do?’
    He had the helpless look of a child who has tumbled down and waits for someone to pick him up. She thought, ‘He’s a drifter — he’s drifted into this. When firms drift they smash. They’ve been drifting for years. You can drift on to the rocks, but you don’t drift off them. But even if there was a smash, there would be pickings. In any case I’m too far in — ’ She said,
    ‘You say he’s always signed everything you put in front of him.’
    ‘He won’t now. He’ll want to go into it all. We’ve got to show him figures — he’s got to be convinced. Can’t you put up something that will make him think it’s all right?’
    She raised her eyebrows.
    ‘My dear Cyril, you’re not asking me to fudge the books!’
    She saw him wince at the word. Cyril all over. You had to wrap things up for him — make them sound pretty. A plain word for a plain thing and he panicked.
    ‘Mavis — for heaven’s sake!’
    ‘Well, that’s what you’re asking me to do, isn’t it?’
    He threw out that long, thin hand.
    ‘Don’t you see I’m only asking for time to get the money paid back? Now Sylvia is married, I can sell Evendon and move into something smaller. Brett must stop taking so much out of the firm — I’ve always told him it wouldn’t stand it. We must both cut down and get the money paid back. And Katharine must have her income. It was the merest folly to cut it down. But we must have time — don’t you see, we must have time.’
    She sat there looking at him. He had said, ‘Don’t you see?’ She saw very well. More than he knew — more than he guessed — more than he would have any courage for. She weighed the chances, the probabilities, putting this down on the credit, this on the debit side.
    The silence was more than he could bear. He rushed in on it with nervous speech.
    ‘Brett must marry her. That’s the solution of course. I don’t know why he hasn’t fixed it up before it came to this. A man has got to settle down some time, and I don’t know what more he wants. He’s always admired her — who doesn’t? She’s a charming creature. If he doesn’t take care, someone will get in before him. And if it came to a marriage settlement, and lawyers imported into it — well, as I said to him not long ago, it would be just flat ruin.’
    ‘What did he say?’
    ‘He said he had asked her and she had refused him.’
    Miss