The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey Read Free Book Online Page B

very faded navy—it’s infallible.”
    Robert smiled at her indulgently. She was very feminine after all.
    â€œAnd don’t feel superior because it happens not to be lawyers’ logic,” she added. “Have a look round at your own friends, and see.”
    Before he could stop himself he thought of Gerald Blunt, the Milford scandal. Assuredly Gerald had slate-blue eyes. So had Arthur Wallis, the potman at The White Hart, who was paying three different monetary levies weekly. So had—Damn the woman, she had no right to make a silly generalisation like that and be right about it.
    â€œIt is fascinating to speculate on what she really did during that month,” Marion said. “It affords me intense satisfaction that someone beat her black and blue. At least there is one person in this world who has arrived at a correct estimate of her. I hope I meet him someday, so that I may shake his hand.”
    â€œHim?”
    â€œWith those eyes it is bound to be a ‘him.’ ”
    â€œWell,” Robert said, preparing to go, “I doubt very much whether Grant has a case that he will want to present in court. It would be the girl’s word against yours, with no other backing on either side. Against you would be her statement: so detailed, so circumstantial. Against her would be the inherent unlikeliness of the story. I don’t think he could hope to get a verdict.”
    â€œBut the thing is there, whether he brings it into court or not. And not only in the files of Scotland Yard. Sooner or later a thing like that begins to be whispered about. It would be no comfort to us not to have the thing cleared up.”
    â€œOh, it will be cleared up, if I have anything to do with it. But I think we wait for a day or two to see what the Yard mean to do about it. They have far better facilities for arriving at the truth than we are ever likely to have.”
    â€œComing from a lawyer, that is a touching tribute to the honesty of the police.”
    â€œBelieve me, truth may be a virtue, but Scotland Yard discovered long ago that it is a business asset. It doesn’t pay them to be satisfied with anything less.”
    â€œIf he did bring it to court,” she said, coming to the door with him, “and did get a verdict, what would that mean for us?”
    â€œI’m not sure whether it would be two years’ imprisonment or seven years’ penal servitude. I told you I was a broken reed where criminal procedure is concerned. But I shall look it up.”
    â€œYes, do,” she said. “There’s quite a difference.”
    He decided that he liked her habit of mockery. Especially in the face of a criminal charge.
    â€œGoodbye,” she said. “It was kind of you to come. You have been a great comfort to me.”
    And Robert, remembering how nearly he had thrown her to Ben Carley, blushed to himself as he walked to the gate.

Chapter 4
    H ave you had a busy day, dear?” Aunt Lin asked, opening her table napkin and arranging it across her plump lap.
    This was a sentence that made sense but had no meaning. It was as much an overture to dinner as the spreading of her napkin, and the exploratory movement of her right foot as she located the footstool which compensated for her short legs. She expected no answer; or rather, being unaware that she had asked the question, she did not listen to his answer.
    Robert looked up the table at her with a more conscious benevolence than usual. After his uncharted step-picking at The Franchise, the serenity of Aunt Lin’s presence was very comforting, and he looked with a new awareness at the solid little figure with the short neck and the round pink face and the iron-grey hair that frizzed out from its large hairpins. Linda Bennet led a life of recipes, film stars, god-children, and church bazaars, and found it perfect. Well-being and contentment enveloped her like a cloak. She read the Women’s Page of the