Free The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong Page A

silence fall. "—wisest thing to do is wait," he said.
     
    Francis sighed. He couldn't help it He hoped it would pass in character.
     
    "Yes,” said Grandy. "Let time pass. Let us wait and see. We will not inundate her with proofs or with evidence."
     
    O.K. We wont, thought Francis. But will you be checking on me some more? He knew there had been some checking, Jane had been sent; Oliver had gone. Maybe others. Would Grandy check the story further or was he already sure that the whole fantastic untruth that Francis was telling was untrue? Francis thought, I'm not fooling him. Can't be. Why does he bide his time, then? Because he doesn't know my motive? He wants to find out? The one thing he can't know is that I care about Rosaleen. He thought, Never mind why. Time is what I want. He hardened his heart. Mathilda would have to suffer.
     
    "Yes, let her rest," said Grandy. "Let her realize that she is safe at home."
     
    Francis stood up. Safety wasn't a thing for him to think about. "Right," he said.
     
    Grandy called him back with a motion of the cigarette holder. "Your marriage, as I understand it, was merely, . . legal?"
     
    Francis said, "That's quite true, sir."
     
    "You will stay on . . . in the guest house?"
     
    "Naturally," said Francis.
     
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
    Grandy s house stood on its own acre. It faced the westernmost street of the small city, a street that was almost like a country road, and its gardens spilled down a slope back of the house. Grandy said he had managed to have all the advantages of open country and yet escaped the need to do without city services. He claimed that his house was poised on the exact hairline of geographical wisdom. Grandy was full of theories about everything.
     
    The house was not large. It was adapted to him. To the left of the hall ran his long living room, where he held court. On the south wall, a blister of glass was used for plants and porch furniture, and continued to the second story, where it became Grandy s exquisite
    and rather famous bathroom. His kitchen—another famous room—was directly at the back of the house. His study was not large—a one-story piece of the house tucked in between the kitchen and the living room. The dining room lay north.
     
    He ran the entire establishment without servants. In the kitchen, he would preside over a collection of quaint copper pots, garlands of gourds, strings of onions, mixed in among all the latest gadgets in chromium and glass. He kept there a chefs hat which he wore
    seriously. Meals in his house were rituals in which the preparation of the food was just as important as the eating of it. He would bustle about and illuminate the proceedings with lectures in his fascinating voice. His lore, his stock of old wives' tales, was inexhaustible.
     
    Mathilda came down in the green dress, and there he was in his cap, doing delicate last-minute things to the sauce. Oliver lounged against the wall. Francis was dusting glasses with a towel. Jane was setting the table.
     
    Althea, on a high stool, was timing the spaghetti with Grandy's big round silver kitchen watch. She was still in her yellow gown—some soft silk with a wide skirt. She wore a lot of yellow. It was odd and striking on her. It gave a gold-and-silver effect and was arresting when black velvet would have been obvious.
     
    Grandy came to embrace Mathilda. The big spoon waved back of her shoulder. He smelled of talcum and a little garlic. He beamed tenderly.
     
    "Grandy," she murmured, close to his ear, "I need to talk to you. I have things to tell you." She knew it wasn't a good time, not with the sauce at the stage it was.
     
    "I know," he crooned in her ear, "I know, dear, I know." Mathilda felt sure then that he did know. It didn't occur to her that he had been told, but just that he knew somehow. "After dinner," he murmured. "Let us be alone, eh?"
     
    She was convinced that they must be alone while she told him. "Yes," she said eagerly,