The Mystery at Underwood House (An Angela Marchmont Mystery) by Clara Benson Read Free Book Online Page A

guessed it had been taken some years ago. Just for a moment she thought she recognized the face, but then almost instantly the impression was gone and she shook her head.
    She heard the others calling her and, recollecting herself, thrust the picture in her pocket and hurried after them. Was the photograph connected to this business? If so, how? And who was the woman?

SEVEN
     
    ‘ There’s Uncle John,’ said Stella as they reached the lawn.
    John Haynes was a bluff, hearty-looking man with greying hair and moustache. He hailed them jovially.
    ‘ Ah, there you are, Angela,’ he said. ‘Louisa said I should find you out here somewhere. She’s still clinging to this nonsense about Edward. I told her not to listen to Ursula—the woman is mad, quite frankly—got a ridiculous bee in her bonnet—but she went ahead and called you anyway. Have you been down to the lake? What do you think of Underwood?’
    Angela duly expressed her admiration of the house and grounds and he nodded complacently.
    ‘ Yes, it’s a pleasant spot, isn’t it? I know it’s not the fashion to be sentimental, but I must confess I love the old place. The others wanted to get rid of it, you know, said it was a millstone around all our necks, but I—well, I could never agree to sell it, however much it costs to keep it up. Ha! They can’t make me sell now, can they? Not now they’re dead. But you won’t dig up anything, I can promise you that. Poor Philippa had been ill for years—heart trouble, you know, and Winifred always was a batty old trout—just the type to break her neck through her own carelessness.’
    He broke off from this startling outburst to shout to a large retriever that was nosing around in some undergrowth.
    ‘ Does the house belong wholly to you now?’ asked Angela.
    John Haynes made a noise that sounded like ‘harrumph’.
    ‘ Not wholly, no. I got Philippa to leave me her share in her will. Promised to think about selling if she did. Silly old fool—can’t think why she believed me. Susan and Ursula inherited a quarter share each after Winifred and Edward died, but between you and me I’m pretty sure I shall come to an agreement with Susan—her mother gave all her money to spiritualist societies and educational institutions for deserving orphans, that kind of thing, so Susan was left flat broke. Ursula hasn’t a leg to stand on. She can whistle for it if she likes, but unless she agrees to sell her share to me it’s all so much gas.’
    ‘ I take it, then, that you don’t believe the deaths were anything but natural.’
    John snorted.
    ‘ Of course they were natural! Any half-wit can see that. Why my wife should take it into her head to believe anything that woman says is beyond me, but there you have it—she’s allowed herself to be influenced and now she sees shadowy figures with raised daggers behind every gate-post.’
    ‘ But don’t you think it odd that your brother should choose to go out on the lake on a freezing winter’s night? Especially when, by all accounts, he loathed the water.’
    ‘ So Ursula says. I can’t say I remember his having such a hatred of it. If you ask me, it’s perfectly natural that a man in a huff should decide to work it off with a turn on the lake. It’s what I should do myself.’
    ‘ I understand that nobody was present at either of your sisters’ deaths.’
    ‘ Not that I know of. In Philippa’s case, she simply went to bed and didn’t get up again. I missed all the excitement with Winifred. I gather she came down with quite a thud.’
    ‘ Uncle!’ said Stella reproachfully.
    John Haynes looked sheepish.
    ‘ Well, I dare say that was in poor taste, but it’s no use pretending there was any love lost between Winifred and Edward and me, although I was rather fond of Philippa.’
    ‘ Louisa said you were in your study when Winifred fell,’ said Angela.
    ‘ Yes. I was in the middle of something and didn’t take any notice of the row for a bit. Eventually