Free Look to the Lady by Margery Allingham Page B

many there are,’ he said, ‘or who they are. Some – ah – some Bohemian set, I understand. They’ve been getting on your father’s nerves. I don’t know what your aunt was doing filling the place with dozens of strangers.’
    Penny looked a little surprised.
    â€˜There’s only seven visitors, and they’re at the Cup House now,’ she said. ‘We don’t see much of them. Aunt used to keep them to herself.’
    â€˜Oh, I see.’ The doctor looked considerably relieved. ‘I understood from your father that there was an army of lunatics encamped somewhere. Oh, well, it won’t be so difficult. I don’t suppose they’ll want to stay, don’t you know.’
    The old man had brightened visibly. Clearly a weight was off his mind. ‘There’s just one other thing,’ he went on rather more slowly than usual, evidently choosing his words with deliberation. ‘With regard to the funeral, I should – ah – get it over quietly, don’t you know. As little fuss as possible. I don’t think there’s any necessity to fill the house with visitors. No last looks or any morbid rubbish of that sort. I’m sorry to speak frankly,’ he went on, directing his remarks to Val, ‘but it’s your father we’ve got to think of. It’s getting near your twenty-fifth birthday, you know, my boy, and that is a very trying time for both you and your father.’ He paused to let his words sink in, and then added practically: ‘There’s no near relative that you’ll offend, is there?’
    Penny considered. ‘There’s Uncle Lionel’s brothers,’ she said dubiously.
    â€˜Oh, no need to worry about them. Write to them and leave it at that.’ The doctor dismissed the family of the late Sir Lionel Pethwick with a wave of his hand.
    Penny laid her hand upon his arm affectionately.
    â€˜You dear,’ she said. ‘You’re trying to hush it all up for us.’
    â€˜My dear child!’ The old man appeared scandalized. I’ve never heard such nonsense. There’s nothing to hush up. A perfectly normal death. I’m merely considering your father, as I keep on telling you. You young people are too eager to listen to the superstitious chatter of the country folk. There’s no such thing as a look of horror on a dead face. It’s death itself that is horrifying. A case of a sudden end like this is always shocking. I’ll make you up a sedative, Penny. One of the men can come down for it. Take it three times a day, and go to bed early.
    â€˜I’ll speak to Robertson too, Val, as I go through Sudbury. You can leave everything to him. I should fix the funeral for Wednesday. Without appearing callous, the sooner you get these things over the better. You’re modern young people. I’m sure you’ll understand me. Now I’ll go,’ he added, turning briskly towards the door. ‘Don’t trouble to come down with me. I want to have a word with Branch on my way out. I believe that old rascal is more capable than the whole lot of you. Good-bye. I shall drop in tomorrow. Good-bye, Penny, my dear.’
    He closed the door firmly behind him and they heard him padding off down the parquetted corridor. Penny turned to her brother, her eyes wide and scared.
    â€˜Val, he suspects something,’ she said. ‘All this quiet funeral business – it’s so unlike him. Don’t you remember, Mother used to say that he was as proud at a funeral as if he felt he was directly responsible for the whole thing? He doesn’t like the look of it. Poor Aunt Di, she was a thorn in the flesh, but I never dreamed it would all end so quickly and horribly as this. I’d give anything to be able to hear her explain her psychic reaction to sunset over Monaco again.’
    Val was troubled. ‘Do you mean you think it wasn’t heart failure?’ he