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

Jones considered that carefully. She couldn’t decide whether she wanted Brett Eversley to marry Katharine. She disliked Katharine very much — it might serve her right. On the other hand, once you started anything you couldn’t always tell where it was going to stop. Perhaps better to play for time.
    Cyril couldn’t get the word off his tongue.
    ‘Time — that’s what we want — time. If we can satisfy Holden and get time to pay the money back we’ll be all right. Can’t you think of something we can do?’
    She said, ‘I could.’
    ‘Mavis!’
    ‘What do I get out of it?’
    The words came across the table like a pistol-shot. He said her name again in a shocked tone, and she smiled.
    ‘Look here, Cyril, if I do this I’m risking a lot. It’s got to be worth my while. I’ll be risking a lot, and you know it. Well, I’m not doing it for nothing, and that’s flat.’ The hazel eyes had the hard, dominant look which had impressed William Smith.
    Cyril Eversley said, ‘What do you want?’ But he knew before she spoke.
    Her smile widened.
    ‘You’ve been a widower for five years—Sylvia is married. Everybody expects you to marry again.’
    He said, ‘It would make too much talk.’
    ‘My dear Cyril, men marry their secretaries every day. Who cares about talk?’
    He looked down at his own long, nervous fingers. At some moment, he didn’t know when, they had picked up a short length of red pencil. He saw them twitch on it, rolling it to and fro.
    ‘I should be lost without you here.’
    ‘You needn’t let that stand in your way. I like to have a finger in the pie. I would stay on at any rate until we’d got everything straight.’
    There was more to put straight than he knew about — more than she ever intended him to know. It could be done if she brought this off. The Admiral was a godsend. She pressed her advantage.
    ‘Look here, Cyril, it’s a pretty good bargain for you — honestly. Don’t you ever get tired of your own company down at Evendon? I should have thought you’d be bored stiff now that you haven’t got Sylvia dashing in and out with her crowd.’
    He looked up with a faint gleam of humour.
    ‘There used to be rather too much dashing in and out, you know.’
    ‘I daresay, but there’s no sense in going to the opposite extreme. And you want someone to run the house. I don’t mind betting you’re being robbed right and left.’
    Inwardly he shrank. Mavis had a coarse streak in her. She attracted him, as vital, domineering women do attract his type of man. Sometimes the attraction was strong enough, to blind him to everything else. When it wasn’t she could jar him badly. No man likes to be urged to marry, but he had to reckon with long habit and the pressure of her will on his.
    She said with half a laugh, ‘You really want a wife a great deal more than I want a husband. I think I’m a bit of a fool to take it on. I shouldn’t if I wasn’t fond of you, but there it is.’
    He said, ‘I know.’ And then, ‘Why can’t we just go on as we are? As you say, I haven’t got so much to offer you now.’
    She laughed outright.
    ‘Perhaps not, but I happen to want it. I said it was a bargain, and I said you’d be getting the best of it, and so you will. But I shouldn’t be going into it if I wasn’t getting something too. You’ll get a good-looking, presentable wife and an efficient mistress for your house, and I’ll keep on at the office until we’ve straightened everything out and I’ve trained somebody else. Comfort, efficiency, and security – that’s your share of the bargain. I give up my independence, and I get a double job, a lot of hard work, and — security. If that satisfies me, it’s just your luck. I’m putting all my cards on the table.’
    She had a moment’s thought of how surprised he would be if she really did so — surprised, and shocked. That was one of the amusing things about Cyril — the moment you got down to facts they shocked him.
    He