Free Endless Night by Agatha Christie

Greece.

Endless Night

Chapter 10
    It was, I think, the day after that. We were in Athens.
    Suddenly, on the steps of the Acropolis Ellie ran into people that she knew. They had come ashore from one of the Hellenic cruises. A woman of about thirty-five detached herself from the group and rushed along the steps to Ellie exclaiming, “Why, I never did. It's really you, Ellie Guteman? Well, what are you doing here? I'd no idea. Are you on a cruise?”
    “No,” said Ellie, “just staying here.”
    “My, but it's lovely to see you. How's Cora, is she here?”
    “No, Cora is at Salzburg I believe.”
    “Well, well.” The woman was looking at me and Ellie said quietly, “Let me introduce - Mr. Rogers, Mrs. Bennington.”
    “How d'you do. How long are you here for?”
    “I'm leaving tomorrow,” said Ellie.
    “Oh dear! My, I'll lose my party if I don't go, and I just don't want to miss a word of the lecture and the descriptions. They do hustle one a bit, you know. I'm just dead beat at the end of the day. Any chance of meeting you for a drink?”
    “Not today,” said Ellie, “we're going on an excursion.”
    Mrs. Bennington rushed off to rejoin her party. Ellie, who had been going with me up the steps of the Acropolis, turned round and moved down again.
    “That rather settles things, doesn't it,” she said to me.
    “What does it settle?”
    Ellie did not answer for a minute or two and then she said with a sigh, “I must write tonight.”
    “Write to whom?”
    “Oh, to Nora, and to Uncle Frank, I suppose, and Uncle Andrew.”
    “Who's Uncle Andrew? He's a new one.”
    “Andrew Lippincott. Not really an uncle. He's my principal guardian or trustee or whatever you call it. He's a lawyer - a very well known one.”
    “What are you going to say?”
    “I'm going to tell them I'm married. I couldn't say suddenly to Nora Bennington 'Let me introduce my husband'. There would have been frightful shrieks and exclamations and 'I never heard you were married. Tell me all about it, darling' etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It's only fair that my stepmother and Uncle Frank and Uncle Andrew should be the first to know.” She sighed. “Oh well, we've had a lovely time up to now.”
    “What will they say or do?” I asked.
    “Make a fuss, I expect,” said Ellie, in her placid way. “It doesn't matter if they do and they'll have sense enough to know that. We'll have to have a meeting, I expect. We could go to New York. Would you like that?” She looked at me inquiringly.
    “No,” I said, “I shouldn't like it in the least.”
    “Then they'll come to London probably, or some of them will. I don't know if you'd like that any better.”
    “I shouldn't like any of it. I want to be with you and see our house going up brick by brick as soon as Santonix gets there.”
    “So we can,” said Ellie. “After all, meetings with the family won't take long. Possibly just one big splendid row would do. Get it over in one. Either we fly over there or they fly over here.”
    “I thought you said your stepmother was at Salzburg.”
    “Oh, I just said that. It sounded odd to say I didn't know where she was. Yes,” said Ellie with a sigh, “we'll go home and meet them all. Mike, I hope you won't mind too much.”
    “Mind what - your family?”
    “Yes. You won't mind if they're nasty to you.”
    “I suppose it's the price I have to pay for marrying you,” I said. “I'll bear it.”
    “There's your mother,” said Ellie thoughtfully.
    “For heaven's sake, Ellie, you're not going to try and arrange a meeting between your stepmother in her frills and her furbelows and my mother from her back street. What do you think they'd ever have to say to each other?”
    “If Cora was my own mother they might have quite a lot to say to each other,” said Ellie. “I wish you wouldn't be so obsessed with class distinctions, Mike!”
    “Me!” I said incredulously. “What's your American phrase - I come from the wrong side of the tracks,