Free Guilty Thing Surprised by Ruth Rendell Page A

amanuensis,’ said Marriott, seizing her arm. ‘You’ve no idea the funny looks I get when I introduce her like that. But then people are so illiterate, aren’t they? This is Chief Inspector Wexford, my dear, the guardian of our peace.’
    Unmoved by Marriott’s remarks, Hypatia extended a large calm hand.
    ‘She won’t interfere with us,’ said Marriott as if she wasn’t there. ‘She’s just going to have a bath and make herself more beautiful than ever. Run along, Patty, darling.’
    ‘If you’re sure that’s enough nosh,’ said Hypatia.
    ‘Quite sure. We don’t want any bilious attacks like last time, do we? Now then, Reg, do your grand inquisitor stuff. I’m desolated that this isn’t a social call, but I don’t delude myself.’ Marriott raised his glass. ‘Here’s to kindness!’
    ‘Er—cheers,’ said Wexford. He waited until the woman had gone and sounds had reached him of water gurgling through the pipes. Then he said, ‘I want to know about the Nightingales, anything you can tell me.’ He grinned. ‘I know you won’t let yourself be inhibited by any foolish scruples like good taste or not speaking ill of the dead.’
    ‘I was very fond of Elizabeth,’ said Marriott in a slightly offended tone. ‘We’d known each other all our lives. We were infants together, in a manner of speaking.’
    ‘A manner of stretching, more like,’ said Wexfordnastily. ‘She could have given you a good fifteen years, so don’t kid yourself.’
    Marriott sniffed. ‘It’s easy to see you got out of bed the wrong side this morning.’
    ‘I don’t know about the wrong side. I got out of it a damn’ sight to early. So you’ve known her since
she
was born, have you? Where was that?’
    ‘Here, of course. Didn’t you know she and Denys were born here?’
    ‘Hardly know a thing about them.’
    ‘Oh, that’s what I like. Total ignorance. As I say to the spotty devils, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after enlightenment, for they shall be filled, even if I have to knock it into ’em with a slipper. Well, they were born here all right, in a nasty little damp house down by Kingsbrook Lock. Their mother came from London, quite a good family, but their father was Kingsmarkham born and bred. He was a clerk in the council offices.’
    ‘Not well-off, then?’
    ‘Poor as church mice, my dear. Elizabeth and Denys went to the council school, as it then was, and no doubt he would have gone on wasting his sweetness on the desert air but for the bomb.’
    ‘What bomb?’ enquired Wexford as the bathroom door slammed and something went glug in the water tank far above their heads.
    ‘One of that stick of bombs a German plane let fly over here on its way to the coast. It was a direct hit and it took Villiers
père
and
mère
to Kingdom Come in one fell swoop.’
    ‘Where were the children?’
    ‘Denys was out fishing and Elizabeth had been sent to fetch him home. It was early evening, about seven.The Villiers children, Elizabeth and Denys, were fourteen and eleven respectively.’
    ‘What became of them?’
    ‘A rather peculiar and most unfair arrangement was made for them,’ said Marriott. ‘Denys went to his mother’s brother and did very well for himself. This uncle was a barrister in a good way of doing and he sent Denys to some public school and then to Oxford. Poor Elizabeth was left behind with her aunt, her father’s sister, who took her away from the High School here when she was fifteen and sent her to work at Moran’s, the draper’s.’
    Wexford’s face registered the astonishment Marriott had hoped for. ‘Mrs Nightingale a draper’s assistant?’
    ‘I thought that would shake you. That old bitch Priscilla Larkin-Smith still goes about telling her mates about the days when Elizabeth Villiers used to fit her for her corsets.’
    ‘How did she meet Nightingale?’
    ‘Oh, that was a long time later,’ said Marriott. ‘Elizabeth wasn’t at Moran’s for long. She ran away to London