Free The Four of Hearts by Ellery Queen

beamed ceiling. ‘Fools, fools!’
    â€˜Who’s a fool?’
    â€˜Oh, so the shoe fits!’
    â€˜You keep out of this!’
    â€˜She’s my mother, and I love her, and I won’t see her throw her life away on the father of a useless, pretty-faced, contemptible Turk! ’
    â€˜ You should talk, with your weakness for Argentine polo players!’
    â€˜Ty Royle, I’ll slap that hateful face of yours again!’
    â€˜Try it and I swear I’ll tan your beautiful hide – yes, and where you sit, too!’
    â€˜Ty –’
    â€˜Bonnie, sweet child –’
    â€˜Oh, hello, Queen,’ said Jack Royle. ‘Have a ringside seat. Ty, you’ve got to cut this out. I’m old enough to know what I’m doing. Blythe and I were made for each other –’
    â€˜Page ninety-five of the script,’ growled Ty. ‘We’re shooting the clinch tomorrow. For the love of Pete, dad!’
    â€˜Who is that man?’ murmured Blythe, glancing at Ellery. ‘Now, Bonnie, I think you’ve said enough. And you need some lipstick.’
    â€˜Hang the lipstick! Oh, mother, mother, how can you?’
    â€˜Jack darling, a Martini. Extra dry. I’m parched.’
    â€˜Mr. Queen,’ wailed Bonnie, ‘isn’t this disgraceful? They’re actually making up! Mother, I simply will not allow it. Do you hear? If you insist on going through with this impossible marriage –’
    â€˜Whose marriage is this, anyway?’ giggled Blythe.
    â€˜I’ll – I’ll disown you, that’s what I’ll do. I won’t have this leering, pop-eyed, celluloid stuffed shirt for a stepbrother!’
    â€˜Disown me ? Bonnie, you silly child.’
    â€˜That’s the only sane thing I’ve ever heard this blondined, arrow-chinned, lopsided female Gorgonzola say!’ shouted Ty to his father. ‘Me, too. If you go through with this we’re quits, dad … Oh, Queen; sorry. You are Queen, aren’t you? Help yourself to a drink. Come on, dad, wake up. It’s only a bad dream.’
    â€˜Ty, chuck it,’ said Jack Royle crisply. ‘Cigars in the humidor, Queen. It’s settled, Ty, and if you don’t like it I’m afraid you’ll have to lump it.’
    â€˜Then I lump it!’
    â€˜Mother,’ said Bonnie hollowly, ‘are you going to leave this hateful house with me this minute, or aren’t you?’
    â€˜No, dear,’ said Blythe sweetly. ‘Now run along, like a sweet baby, and keep that appointment with Zara. Your hair’s a fright.’
    â€˜Is it?’ asked Bonnie, startled. Then she said in a tragic voice: ‘Mother, this is the end. Goodbye, and I hope he doesn’t beat you, although I know he will. Remember, you’ll always be able to come back to me, because I really love you. Oh, mother!’ And, bursting into tears, Bonnie made blindly for the door.
    â€˜Now, it’s Sidecars,’ said Ty bitterly, ‘but after a year with her it’ll be absinthe and opium. Dad, goodbye.’
    Thus it came about that the prince and princess of the royal families endeavoured to make their dramatic exits simultaneously, and in so endeavouring bumped their royal young heads royally at the door.
    â€˜Lout!’ said Bonnie through the tears.
    â€˜Why don’t you watch where you’re going?’
    â€˜Such a gentleman. Where did you get your manners – from Jem Royle, the celebrated horse-thief of Sussex?’
    â€˜Well, this is my house, and you’ll oblige me by getting out of it as quickly as those Number Eights of yours can carry you,’ said Ty coldly.
    â€˜ Your house! I thought you’d just renounced it forever. As a matter of fact, Tyler Royle, you’re probably behind this absurd idea of mother’s. You’ve manipulated it some way, you – you Machiavelli!’
    â€˜I? I’d rather see my dad playing