JК
Five Little Pigs :: Christie Agatha
Страница: 3 из 147Uncle Simon and Aunt Louise were sweet to me, and I went to school and had a lot of friends, and I’d quite forgotten that I’d ever had another name, not Lemarchant. Aunt Louise, you see, told me that that was my name in Canada and that seemed quite sensible to me at the time-it was just my Canadian name-but as I say I forgot in the end that I’d ever had any other.’
She flung up her defiant chin. She said:
‘Look at me. You’d say-wouldn’t you? if you met me: “There goes a girl who’s got nothing to worry about!” I’m well off, I’ve got splendid health, I’m sufficiently good to look at, I can enjoy life. At twenty, there wasn’t a girl anywhere I’d have changed places with.
‘But already, you know, I’d begun to ask questions. About my own mother and father. Who they were and what they did? I’d have been bound to find out in the end-
‘As it was, they told me the truth. When I was twenty-one. They had to then, because for one thing I came into my own money. And then, you see, there was the letter. The letter my mother left for me when she died.’
Her expression changed, dimmed. Her eyes were no longer two burning points, they were dark dim pools. She said:
‘That’s when I learnt the truth. That my mother had been convicted of murder. It was-rather horrible.’
She paused.
‘There’s something else I must tell you. I was engaged to be married. They said we must wait-that we couldn’t be married until I was twenty-one. When I knew, I understood why.’
Poirot stirred and spoke for the first time. He said:
‘And what was your fiance’s reaction?’
‘John? John didn’t care. He said it made no difference-not to him. He and I were John and Carla-and the past didn’t matter.’
She leaned forward.
‘We’re still engaged. But all the same, you know, itdoes matter. It matters to me. And it matters to John too…It isn’t the past that matters to us-it’s the future.’ She clenched her hands. ‘We want children, you see. We both want children. And we don’t want to watch our children growing up and be afraid.’
Poirot said:
‘Do you not realize that amongst every one’s ancestors there has been violence and evil?’
‘You don’t understand. That’s so, of course. But then, one doesn’t usually know about it. We do. It’s very near to us. And sometimes-I’ve seen John just look at me. Such a quick glance-just a flash.
She flung up her defiant chin. She said:
‘Look at me. You’d say-wouldn’t you? if you met me: “There goes a girl who’s got nothing to worry about!” I’m well off, I’ve got splendid health, I’m sufficiently good to look at, I can enjoy life. At twenty, there wasn’t a girl anywhere I’d have changed places with.
‘But already, you know, I’d begun to ask questions. About my own mother and father. Who they were and what they did? I’d have been bound to find out in the end-
‘As it was, they told me the truth. When I was twenty-one. They had to then, because for one thing I came into my own money. And then, you see, there was the letter. The letter my mother left for me when she died.’
Her expression changed, dimmed. Her eyes were no longer two burning points, they were dark dim pools. She said:
‘That’s when I learnt the truth. That my mother had been convicted of murder. It was-rather horrible.’
She paused.
‘There’s something else I must tell you. I was engaged to be married. They said we must wait-that we couldn’t be married until I was twenty-one. When I knew, I understood why.’
Poirot stirred and spoke for the first time. He said:
‘And what was your fiance’s reaction?’
‘John? John didn’t care. He said it made no difference-not to him. He and I were John and Carla-and the past didn’t matter.’
She leaned forward.
‘We’re still engaged. But all the same, you know, itdoes matter. It matters to me. And it matters to John too…It isn’t the past that matters to us-it’s the future.’ She clenched her hands. ‘We want children, you see. We both want children. And we don’t want to watch our children growing up and be afraid.’
Poirot said:
‘Do you not realize that amongst every one’s ancestors there has been violence and evil?’
‘You don’t understand. That’s so, of course. But then, one doesn’t usually know about it. We do. It’s very near to us. And sometimes-I’ve seen John just look at me. Such a quick glance-just a flash.