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Poirot said solemnly:
‘I am delighted to learn that you have no guilty secret to hide.’
Just for a moment the sulky mask of her face was transformed as she shot him a swift questioning glance. Poirot did not seem to notice it as he went on.
‘Madame, your mother, was not at lunch today. She is not indisposed, I trust?’
‘This place doesn’t suit her,’ said Rosalie briefly. ‘I shall be glad when we leave.’
‘We are fellow passengers, are we not? We both make the excursion up to Wadi Halfa and the Second Cataract?’
‘Yes.’
They came out from the shade of the gardens on to a dusty stretch of road bordered by the river. Five watchful bead sellers, two vendors of postcards, three sellers of plaster scarabs, a couple of donkey boys and some detached but hopeful infantile riff-raff closed in upon them.
‘You want beads, sir? Very good, sir. Very cheap…’
‘Lady, you want scarab? Look – great queen – very lucky…’
‘You look, sir – real lapis. Very good, very cheap…’
‘You want ride donkey, sir? This very good donkey. This donkey Whiskey and Soda, sir…’
‘You want to go granite quarries, sir? This very good donkey. Other donkey very bad, sir, that donkey fall down…’
‘You want postcard – very cheap – very nice…’
‘Look, lady… Only ten piastres – very cheap – lapis – this ivory…’
‘This very good fly whisk – this all amber…’
‘You go out in boat, sir? I got very good boat, sir…’
‘You ride back to hotel, lady? This first-class donkey…’
Hercule Poirot made vague gestures to rid himself of this human cluster of flies. Rosalie stalked through them like a sleep walker.
‘It’s best to pretend to be deaf and blind,’ she remarked.
The infantile riff-raff ran alongside murmuring plaintively:
‘Bakshish? Bakshish? Hip hip hurrah – very good, very nice…’
Their gaily coloured rags trailed picturesquely, and the flies lay in clusters on their eyelids. They were the most persistent. The others fell back and launched a fresh attack on the next corner. Now Poirot and Rosalie only ran the gauntlet of the shops – suave, persuasive accents here…
‘You visit my shop today, sir?’
‘You want that ivory crocodile, sir?’
‘You not been in my shop yet, sir? I show you very beautiful things.’
They turned into the fifth shop and Rosalie handed over several rolls of film – the object of the walk.
Then they came out again and walked towards the river’s edge.
One of the Nile steamers was just mooring. Poirot and Rosalie looked interestedly at the passengers.
‘Quite a lot, aren’t there?’ commented Rosalie.
She turned her head as Tim Allerton came up and joined them. He was a little out of breath as though he had been walking fast. They stood there for a moment or two, and then Tim spoke.
‘An awful crowd as usual, I suppose,’ he remarked disparagingly, indicating the disembarking passengers.
‘They’re usually quite terrible,’ agreed Rosalie. All three wore the air of superiority assumed by people who are already in a place when studying new arrivals.
‘Hallo!’ exclaimed Tim, his voice suddenly excited. ‘I’m damned if that isn’t Li
If the information left Poirot unmoved, it stirred Rosalie’s interest. She leaned forward and her sulkiness quite dropped from her as she asked:
‘Where? That one in white?’
‘Yes, there with the tall man. They’re coming ashore now. He’s the new husband, I suppose. Can’t remember her name now.’
‘Doyle,’ said Rosalie. ‘Simon Doyle. It was in all the newspapers. She’s simply rolling, isn’t she?’
‘Only about the richest girl in England,’ said Tim cheerfully.
The three lookers-on were silent watching the passengers come ashore. Poirot gazed with interest at the subject of the remarks of his companions. He murmured:
‘She is beautiful.’
‘Some people have got everything,’ said Rosalie bitterly.
There was a queer grudging expression on her face as she watched the other girl come up the gangplank.
Li
She was aware of the keen glances bent upon her – and at the same time almost unaware of them; such tributes were part of her life.
She came ashore playing a role, even though she played it unconsciously. The rich, beautiful society bride on her honeymoon. She turned, with a little smile and a light remark, to the tall man by her side. He answered, and the sound of his voice seemed to interest Hercule Poirot. His eyes lit up and he drew his brows together.
The couple passed close to him. He heard Simon Doyle say:
‘We’ll try and make time for it, darling. We can easily stay a week or two if you like it here.’
His face was turned towards her, eager, adoring, a little humble.
Poirot’s eyes ran over him thoughtfully – the square shoulders, the bronzed face, the dark blue eyes, the rather childlike simplicity of the smile.
‘Lucky devil,’ said Tim after they had passed. ‘Fancy finding an heiress who hasn’t got adenoids and flat feet!’
‘They look frightfully happy,’ said Rosalie with a note of envy in her voice. She said suddenly, but so low that Tim did not catch the words: ‘It isn’t fair.’
Poirot heard, however. He had been frowning somewhat perplexedly, but now he flashed a quick glance towards her.
Tim said:
‘I must collect some stuff for my mother now.’
He raised his hat and moved off. Poirot and Rosalie retraced their steps slowly in the direction of the hotel, waving aside fresh proffers of donkeys.
‘So it is not fair, Mademoiselle?’ asked Poirot gently.
The girl flushed angrily.
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘I am repeating what you said just now under your breath. Oh, yes, you did.’
Rosalie Otterbourne shrugged her shoulders.
‘It really seems a little too much for one person. Money, good looks, marvellous figure and-’
She paused and Poirot said:
‘And love? Eh? And love? But you do not know – she may have been married for her money!’
‘Didn’t you see the way he looked at her?’
‘Oh, yes, Mademoiselle. I saw all there was to see – indeed I saw something that you did not.’
‘What was that?’
Poirot said slowly:
‘I saw, Mademoiselle, dark lines below a woman’s eyes. I saw a hand that clutched a sunshade so tight that the knuckles were white…’
Rosalie was staring at him.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that all is not the gold that glitters – I mean that though this lady is rich and beautiful and beloved, there is all the same something that is not right. And I know something else.’
‘Yes?’
‘I know,’ said Poirot, frowning, ‘that somewhere, at some time, I have heard that voice before – the voice of Monsieur Doyle – and I wish I could remember where.’
But Rosalie was not listening. She had stopped dead. With the point of her sunshade she was tracing patterns in the loose sand. Suddenly she broke out fiercely:
‘I’m odious. I’m quite odious. I’m just a beast through and through. I’d like to tear the clothes off her back and stamp on her lovely, arrogant, self-confident face. I’m just a jealous cat – but that’s what I feel like. She’s so horribly successful and poised and assured.’
Hercule Poirot looked a little astonished by the outburst. He took her by the arm and gave her a friendly little shake.