Free Red Shadow by Patricia Wentworth

completely false impression to his mind. He had nieces of about Laura’s age, and he was very fond of them. He imagined Laura’s blush to be a tribute to Mr Basil Stevens, and thought him a singularly fortunate man. He regarded his young client with sympathetic admiration, and it would have required an affidavit to persuade him that her unexpected marriage had been due to anything except the haste of two young people impatiently in love.
    He said good-bye again, added his best wishes for a speedy recovery, and left the room completely at his ease.
    As soon as the door had closed behind him, Laura moved. The sealed envelope lay on the turned-down sheet, just touching one of her wrists. She moved, took it in her right hand, and looked at it. She saw an ordinary manila envelope heavily sealed with green wax. The seals were towards her. She turned it over and saw her lost name staring at her—Miss Laura Cameron. Something pricked at her heart. She felt a pang that turned her faint. And at the same moment the door of the room opened.
    On an impulse which she did not understand, Laura pushed the envelope under the bed-clothes and leaned back with half closed eyes. Afterwards she thought that she had hidden the envelope because she could not endure that anyone else should see that lost name of hers. At the time she did not reason; she merely acted.
    Catherine Werner came round the screen.
    â€œFaint?” she said.
    Laura made an effort and opened her eyes.
    â€œNot now.”
    â€œHe has tired you. Men are tiring—except when they are making love. They never know when to stop.” She laughed a little. “I suppose he wanted you to sign a lot of papers?”
    Laura shook her head.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI thought a lawyer always made you sign papers—many papers.”
    Laura’s head moved again.
    â€œYou did not sign anything?” said Catherine.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDid he leave you any papers to sign?—because I will not have you troubled any more to-day. You can give them to me, and I will put them away until tomorrow.”
    A faint shade of surprise changed Laura’s expression. She lay back upon the raised pillows, with the embroidered shawl spread about her and fallen a little open in front, so that her neck showed and the thin silk of her nightdress. Her hands lay palm upwards on the sheet. She could feel the envelope pressed against her right side. Her elbow held it there, and the bedclothes covered it.
    Without any conscious reasoning Laura burnt her boats.
    â€œThere won’t be any papers to sign until the will is proved,” she said; and then, “I’m tired.”
    â€œI’ll take away one of those pillows,” said Catherine.
    Laura held the letter close against her. She was glad to lie down, and for more than one reason. If Catherine thought she was going to rest, she would leave her alone. Laura wanted to be alone. She wanted to stop holding back the tears that were burning her eyelids, and to weep away the pain at her heart.

CHAPTER X
    When she was alone, Laura shed some very bitter tears, but after a while they ceased to flow and she fell into a light uneasy sleep. From this she waked with a start, to hear the clock in the lower hall strike three. It had a deep, booming note that left a tremor upon the air. Laura waked, turned a little, and felt the envelope which Mr Rimington had given her. For the first time she wondered what it contained. After a few moments she drew it out and looked at it, leaning on her elbow. What could Mr Hallingdon have had to say to her?
    She turned the envelope over, and then, sitting up in bed, she opened it, without breaking the seals, by tearing the other end. There was rather a thick letter inside. She took it out and unfolded it, and as she did so, a smaller envelope fell down upon the fringes of her shawl. It was written in a decided hand upon greyish-blue paper, and it began:
    â€œMy dear