The Incident at Fives Castle (An Angela Marchmont Mystery #5) Read Free

Miss Foster, formerly the family governess and now a companion to Lady Strathmerrick.
    ‘Hallo, Miss Fo,’ said Gertie. ‘How’s the book going?’
    The woman paused in her writing and glanced up.
    ‘Hallo, Lady Gertrude,’ she said. ‘My book is going rather well at present, thank you, although I am having a little trouble with a scene in which the illegitimate son of the King of Prussia disguises himself as a woman in order to obtain a secret audience with the Infanta Francisca of Spain.’
    ‘Letty, do you know anything about these two friends of Gertie’s?’ said Lady Strathmerrick, who was uninterested in the sartorial plight of the King of Prussia’s son.
    ‘Which two friends?’ said Miss Foster.
    ‘Freddy and Angela,’ said Gertie. ‘They’re coming up to Scotland with us for New Year. I’m sure I’ve told you all about them.’
    ‘Are they the ones with the triplets?’ said Miss Foster.
    ‘Oh no, they’re not married,’ said Gertie. ‘At least, not to each other.’
    ‘What?’ cried Lady Strathmerrick in horror. ‘We can’t have that!’
    ‘No, no,’ Gertie hastened to assure her. ‘It’s not like that at all. They’re not a couple. Freddy is my pal and Angela is my pal and Freddy is Angela’s pal and we’re all pals together, that’s all. Besides, Angela is rather older than Freddy and I, and I don’t suppose she’s at all interested in little boys. Anyway,’ she went on, ‘if there’s any funny business going on I should rather think it’s between Freddy and Priss.’ She saw her mother’s alarmed face and said hurriedly, ‘I’m only joking! I promise you, there’s nothing at all you need worry about.’
    Lady Strathmerrick had heard this countless times before, but had never yet won an argument with her daughter. She subsided with a little bleat.
    The telephone-bell rang in the hall, and shortly afterwards a grave manservant entered to tell Lady Strathmerrick that her husband had called from the House to say that he would be late for dinner. Lady Strathmerrick sighed and the manservant withdrew. Shortly afterwards, the drawing-room door opened again to admit an extremely pretty girl accompanied by a formal young man who had the air of being rather pleased with himself.
    ‘There you are, dears,’ said Lady Strathmerrick. ‘And how was the picture?’
    ‘Rather a bore in the end,’ said the girl. ‘After the first five minutes I realized I’d seen it before, but Claude insisted on our sitting through it.’
    ‘My dear girl, we’d paid to get in,’ said the young man. ‘If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s wasting money. And besides, I hadn’t seen it myself.’
    ‘But I wanted to leave,’ said Priss sulkily. ‘We never seem to do what I want.’
    ‘Well, the next time we find ourselves watching a film you’ve already seen, I promise we’ll go if you like,’ said Claude Burford with a laugh.
    Priss tossed her head but did not reply.
    ‘Who are all these important people coming to Fives, Claude?’ asked Gertie. ‘Father won’t tell me—he said I wouldn’t be interested, but I’m sure something’s up.’
    ‘Nonsense. Nothing’s up,’ said Claude. ‘And your father was right: you won’t be interested at all. It’ll just be a lot of men talking about dull business stuff. Nothing you girls need worry about.’
    ‘But who?’ Gertie found Claude’s air of superiority maddening.
    ‘Well, the Buchanans are coming. And Aubrey Nash and his wife—the American Ambassador, you know. And perhaps a civil servant or two. Oh, and there’ll be a Danish professor called Klausen. Really, it couldn’t be less interesting.’
    ‘I see,’ said Gertie. ‘Yes, it does sound rather dull. At least there will be a couple of women, at any rate, so perhaps it won’t be a complete dead loss. We shall have to see what we can do to liven things up a little.’
    ‘There’s to be no livening up of anything,’ said Lady Strathmerrick. ‘Letty, tell