The Tiger In the Smoke Read Free

bit unbearable, darling.’
    â€˜I know.’ He spoke too quickly. ‘The Canon genuinely thinks it’s Martin, does he?’ and he added ‘Your husband’ with a formality which had not existed between them for a year.
    She began to speak, hesitated, and laughed uncertainly.
    â€˜Oh dear, that was terrible! I nearly said “Daddy always thinks the worst” and that isn’t at all what I meant – either about Daddy or about Martin.’
    He made no comment and there was a long and unhappy pause during which the cab leapt forward a foot or so, only to pause and pant again, frustrated. Geoffrey glanced at his watch.
    â€˜There’s plenty of time, anyway. Now, you’re sure it is three-thirty that you’re meeting Campion and this Inspector?’
    â€˜Yes. Albert said we’d meet in that yard place at the top of the station, the one that used to smell of horses. The message just said, “Bath train, three forty-five, November eight” – nothing else.’
    â€˜And that was on the back of the photograph?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜It wasn’t in Martin’s handwriting? Just block capitals?’
    â€˜I told you.’
    â€˜You didn’t show it to me.’
    â€˜No, darling.’
    â€˜Why?’
    She met his glance calmly with her wide stare. ‘Because I didn’t want to very much. I showed it to Val because I work for her, and she called up her brother. Albert brought the police into it and they took the photograph, so I couldn’t show it to anyone.’
    Geoffrey’s face was not designed to show exasperation or any other of the more helpless emotions. His eyes were hard as he watched her.
    â€˜Couldn’t you tell if it was like him?’
    â€˜Oh, it was
like
him.’ She sounded helpless herself. ‘They’ve all been
like
him, even that first one which we all saw. They’ve all been like him but they’ve all been bad photographs. Besides –’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I was going to say I’ve never seen Martin out of uniform. That’s not true, of course, but I did only see him for a short time on his two leaves. We were only married five months before he was killed – I mean, if he
was
killed.’
    The man looked away from her out into the fog and the scurrying shadows in it.
    â€˜And dear old Canon Avril seriously believes that he’s come back to stop you marrying me five years after the War Box cited him “Missing believed killed”?’
    â€˜No,’ she protested. ‘Daddy fears it. Daddy always fears that people may turn out unexpectedly to be horrible, or mental, or desperately ill. It’s the only negative thing in his whole makeup. It’s his bad bit. People only tell Daddy when it really is something frightful. I know how he feels now. He’s afraid Martin may be alive and mad.’
    Geoffrey swung round slowly and spoke with deliberate cruelty, aimed mainly at himself.
    â€˜And how about you, pretty? What are you hoping?’
    She sighed and leaned back, stretching her long slender legs to dig one very high heel into the jute mat. Her eyes were watching his face and they were entirely candid.
    â€˜I knew I’d have to tell you all this, Geoff, so I thought it out.’ The drawl was not unsuited to frankness. Each word had its full value. ‘I love you. I really do. As I am now, with these last five years behind me, I am a person who is quite terribly in love with you and will always be – or so I think now, today, in this taxi. But I did love Martin when I was nineteen, and when I knew – I mean when I thought – he was dead I thought I’d die myself.’ She paused. ‘Somehow I think I did. Your Meg is a new girl.’
    Geoffrey Levett discovered with horror that he was in tears. At any rate his eyes were smarting and he felt sick. His hand closed more tightly over the slender gloved one and he banged