The Mystery at Underwood House (An Angela Marchmont Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page A

year.’
    ‘ Oh yes, of course, I see,’ said Mr. Faulkner. ‘Yes, that was in the nature of the man. He was malicious, you know, and very much the type to attempt to exert an influence even from beyond the grave. I’m afraid he would have taken great glee in the idea of forcing them to spend time with each other against their wishes.’
    ‘ You are the executor of his will. Did he leave specific instructions as to the dates on which these twice-yearly meetings were to take place? The first two were on the 16th of February and the 27th of May last year, while the last one was this year on the 16th of February again. Is the next one to take place on the 27th of May?’
    ‘ Yes, I believe it is, now you come to mention it. As a matter of fact, I was just preparing the invitations this morning.’ He opened a drawer in his desk. ‘Now, let me see—ah! Here they are,’ he said, taking out a small sheaf of papers. He applied a pair of pince-nez to his eyes and frowned at the top page. From where she sat, Angela could see that he signed his name with a grand flourish. ‘Yes,’ he went on, ‘the next date given is the 27th of May, 1927. How remiss of me not to notice the coincidence.’
    ‘ Is there any significance in the two dates?’ asked Angela.
    ‘ Not that I know of,’ said Mr. Faulkner. ‘But I was not privy to all of Philip’s secrets. I was merely instructed to send letters requesting attendance about two weeks before the date of the meeting itself.’
    ‘ Only two weeks! Isn’t that very short notice?’
    ‘ Those were my instructions,’ replied the solicitor.
    ‘ How did you make sure everyone attended as requested? I suppose you didn’t go to Underwood House yourself?’
    ‘ No, as I told the police I was engaged elsewhere on each of those days. On the first two occasions I happened to be staying with Sir Maurice Upton, the Chief Constable of this district, and on the third I was the guest of Lord Willesden, the former Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, and his wife, at their home in Somerset. No, I sent my clerk, Hawley, down to Beningfleet on the dates in question. He merely stayed until all the family had arrived then left. I did not think it necessary for him to continue there for the whole evening—whatever Philip had intended it was certainly not my objective to force them all to remain in company with each other. As far as I was concerned the Hayneses had fulfilled the conditions of the will by making the journey. Whether or not they chose to stay there once they had arrived was hardly my affair.’
    ‘ I see.’
    ‘ And besides,’ he went on dryly, ‘I knew them of old. Much as they disliked one another, it was unthinkable that any of them should show weakness and be the first to flee the field. They would far rather have stayed and fought to the death.’ He caught himself. ‘Dear me, that was a rather unfortunate choice of expression on my part,’ he said.
    ‘ If you were not present at the time then I imagine you won’t know much about how they all died,’ said Mrs. Marchmont.
    ‘ Very little,’ replied Mr. Faulkner. ‘I know Philippa Haynes was thought to have died of heart failure, but that was hardly a surprise given the generally weak state of her health. And poor Winifred tripped and fell downstairs, I understand. Again, that doesn’t seem unlikely. She spent much of her time drifting about in a day-dream and may easily have lost her footing.’
    ‘ She didn’t fall downstairs exactly; she toppled over the balustrade,’ said Angela.
    ‘ Ah yes, of course—I’d forgotten that.’
    ‘ Rather difficult to do that simply by losing one’s footing, don’t you think?’
    ‘ But now you mention it, wasn’t there some talk of her leaning over to adjust a ceiling-light? Perhaps she was simply very unlucky.’
    ‘ Perhaps,’ said Angela. ‘Then we come to Edward, who drowned while out on the lake despite apparently hating water and boats.’
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