The Silent Pool by Patricia Wentworth Read Free Book Online

was the child of the photograph. She showed no sign of having just emerged from a screaming fit. The dark straight fringe was neat, the fine pale skin unmarked by tears. The beautiful deep-set eyes were fixed in an appraising stare.
    ‘Are you Star’s Janet?’
    ‘I am.’
    ‘That played with her and Ninian at Darnach?’
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘You mightn’t have been. I know three other people called Janet. Ninian plays lovely games – doesn’t he?’
    Janet said ‘Yes’ again.
    The eyes looked through and through her. They were of so dark a grey that they might almost have been black. Janet wondered what they saw. The thought went through her mind, and as it passed, Stella put out a hand and said,
    ‘Come along and see my room. Yours is next door. It’s Nanny’s really, but she’s gone away on a holiday. I screamed for two hours.’
    The little hand was cold in hers. Janet said,
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I didn’t want her to go.’
    ‘Do you always scream when you don’t want things and they happen?’
    With simple determination Stella said, ‘Yes.’
    ‘It sounds very unpleasant.’
    The dark head was vigorously shaken.
    ‘No, I like it. Everyone else puts their hands to their ears. Aunt Edna says it goes through and through her. But I don’t mind how much noise I make. I was screaming when you came.’
    Janet said, ‘I heard you. Why? Why did you scream?’
    They had reached the top of the stairs. Passages ran away to the right and to the left. Stella tugged at her hand.
    ‘We go this way.’ They took the right-hand passage. ‘I didn’t want you to come.’
    ‘Why?’
    The child caught her breath.
    ‘I wanted to go with Star in an aeroplane. It would be fun. So I screamed. Sometimes if I scream long enough I get what I want—’ Her voice trailed away, the clasp on Janet’s hand tightened, the dark brows drew together. ‘I don’t always, but sometimes I do. And it’s no good trying to stop me. Joan slapped me just before you came, but it only made me worse.’
    ‘Was that Joan who let me in?’
    Stella nodded vigorously.
    ‘Joan Cuttle. Aunt Edna says she’s such a nice girl, but I think she’s a sissy. She can’t even slap properly. She just flaps with her hand – it doesn’t hurt a bit. Anyhow I oughtn’t to be slapped – it’s bad for me. Star would be very angry if she knew. Do you think I am a problem child? Uncle Geoffrey says I am.’
    Janet said, ‘I’m sure I hope not.’
    They had arrived at what was evidently the nursery. It had a lovely view over green lawns that went down to a stream, but after the merest glance her hand was tugged again.
    ‘Why did you say you hoped not? I think it’s intresting.’
    Janet shook her head.
    ‘It sounds very uncomfortable, and you wouldn’t be happy.’
    The dark eyes were lifted to hers in an odd deep stare. Stella said mournfully,
    ‘But I don’t scream when I’m happy.’ Then she jerked her hand away. ‘Come and see my room! Star had it done for me. It’s got flowers on the curtains and blue birds flying, and there’s a blue carpet and a blue eiderdown, and a picture with a hill.’
    It was a pretty child’s room. The hill in the picture was the hill that stood over Darnach with the Rutherfords’ house at the foot. The name of the hill was Darnach Law, and she and Star and Ninian had climbed over every foot of it.
    Nanny’s room, which was to be hers, opened out of Stella’s. It had the same outlook, but a good deal of heavy mahogany furniture made it dark. There were pictures of Nanny’s relations on the mantelpiece, and a many times enlarged photograph above it. Stella could tell her who everyone was. The young man in uniform was Nanny’s brother Bert, and the girl next to him was his wife Daisy. The picture over the mantelpiece was done from quite a little one of Nanny’s father and mother on their wedding day.
    Stella knew everything about the people in the photographs. She was in the middle of a most exciting story of