There Was an Old Woman Read Online Free PDF Page B

pleasure of calling attention to himself.) And she was delicious and fresh as a mint bed by a woodsy brook. Then what, wondered Ellery as he took Sheila’s gloved hand and heard her explanation of having been visiting—”Don’t dare laugh, Mr. Queen!”—a sick friend, was wrong? Why that secret sadness in her eyes?
    He learned the answer as they drove west to the Drive, the three of them crowded into the front seat of the roadster.
    â€œMy mother’s against our marriage,” said Sheila simply. “You’d have to know Mother to know just how horrible that can be, Mr. Queen.”
    â€œWhat’s her reason?”
    â€œShe won’t give one,” complained Charley.
    â€œI think I know her reason,” said Sheila so quietly Ellery almost missed the bitterness. “It’s my sister Louella.”
    â€œThe inventor?”
    â€œYes. Mother makes no bones about her sympathies, Mr. Queen. She’s always been kinder to the children of her first marriage than to Bob and Mac and me. Maybe it’s because she never did love my father, and by being cold to us she’s getting back at him, or something. Whatever it is, I do know that Mother loves poor Louella passionately and loathes me.” Sheila sucked in her lower lip, as if to hide it.
    â€œIt’s a fact, Ellery,” growled Paxton. “You’d think it was Sheila’s fault that Louella’s a skinny old zombie, swooping around her smelly chem lab with an inhuman light in her eye.”
    â€œIt’s very simple, Mr. Queen. Rather than see me married while Louella stays an old maid, Mother’s perfectly willing to sacrifice my happiness. She’s quite a monster about it.”
    Ellery Queen, who knew odd things, thought he saw wherein the monster dwelt. The children of the Old Woman’s union with Bacchus Potts were off normal. On these, the weaklings, the misfits, the helpless ones, Cornelia Potts expended the passion of her maternity. To the offspring of her marriage with Stephen Potts, né Brent, therefore, she could give only her acid anger. The twin boys and Sheila were what she had always wanted fussy little Thurlow, spinster-inventor Louella, and the still-unglimpsed Horatio to be. This much was clear. But there was that which was not.
    â€œWhy do you two stand for it?” Ellery asked.
    Before Charley could answer, Sheila said quickly: “Mother threatens to disinherit me if I marry Charley.”
    â€œI see,” said Ellery, not liking Sheila’s reply at all.
    She read the disapproval in his tone. “It’s not of myself I’m thinking! It’s Charley. You don’t know what he’s gone through. I don’t care a double darn whether I get any of Mother’s money or not.”
    â€œWell, I don’t either,” snapped Charley, flushing. “Don’t give Ellery the impression—The hours I’ve spent arguing with you, sweetie-pie!”
    â€œBut darling—”
    â€œEllery, she’s as stubborn as her mother. She gets an idea in her head, you can’t dislodge it with an ax.”
    â€œPeace,” smiled Ellery. “This is all new to me, remember. Is this it? If you two were to marry against your mother’s wishes, Sheila, she’d not only cut you off but she’d fire Charley, too?” Sheila nodded grimly. “And then, Charley, you’d be out of a job. Didn’t I understand that your whole practice consists in taking care of the Potts account?”
    â€œYes,” said Charley unhappily. “Between Thurlow’s endless lawsuits and the legitimate legal work of an umpteen-million-dollar shoe business, I keep a large staff busy. There’s no doubt Sheila’s mother would take all her legal work elsewhere if we defied her. I’d be left pretty much out on a limb. I’d have to start building a practice from scratch. But I’d do it in a shot to get Sheila.