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Get up and go from here as fast as you can. She was half out of bed, when there was a knock on the door and Prissy came in with her hair in a plait. It was absurd to feel caught, but she did.
Prissy was yawning.
‘I hate getting up early,’ she said. ’Don’t you. It’s only half-past six, but if you really want to catch a train-’
The train… She didn’t know… She looked at Prissy for a moment of blank unseeing fear. And then it all cleared. She had to get away-to Jim-to Miss Silver. She shut her eyes for a moment, and then opened them again.
‘I’m sorry-I was dreaming. I don’t know where I was, but not here.’
‘Are you here now?’ There was a frank curiosity in Prissy’s voice, and in her look too.
‘Yes-I’m here-’ Her voice shook a little on the words.
Prissy came over and sat on the bed.
‘Well then, I think we’d better talk. What I thought was- you’ve got friends, haven’t you?’
Jim-Miss Silver… She said, ‘Yes, I’ve got friends.’
Prissy hugged herself. She said with a good deal of relief, ‘Well, that’s all right. I should think the best thing would be if I were to drive you to Felsham to catch a train. It’s only seven miles, and it’s a different line, so that if anyone wanted to catch you they wouldn’t think of it-at least I hope they wouldn’t.’
‘Would you-would you do that?’
‘Yes, I would. Are you going to tell me anything?’
‘I don’t know. Would you believe me?’
Prissy burst out laughing.
‘How can I tell? You can try. I mean, if you were to say you had fallen out of an aeroplane, or something like that, I might help you, but I shouldn’t believe you, because that would be stupid. It would be much easier to believe that you were making it up, or-or something like that.’
A
‘Yes, who is he?’
‘I don’t know-I really don’t.’
Prissy had her arms round her knees. She giggled a little and said, ‘He said you were his niece.’
‘I know-I heard him. It isn’t true.’
‘How do you know if you can’t remember?’
‘I’d never seen him before-I’m sure I hadn’t. He was utterly strange and-and horrible.’
Prissy was nodding.
‘Yes, I thought so too. I was glad you’d locked the door. I thought he was a horror.’ She got off the bed and yawned. ‘Isn’t getting up beastly? But we’d better get going before there are too many people about.’
A
It wasn’t there.
She stared about the room, unbelieving. She was still staring when Prissy came back. A
‘Oh-when did you have it last?’
‘I don’t know. It was in my bag-I can’t see it. It was in notes-ten one-pound notes.’
‘When can you remember seeing it last?’
A
‘Yesterday morning.’ She sat down on the bed, her face white, her hands shaking. ‘What am I going to do?’
‘Perhaps you left it downstairs.’
They looked downstairs, but there was nothing there.
Prissy marched out of the room. Before A
‘Here you are,’ she said.
The colour came back into A
Prissy screwed up her face.
‘Nonsense! Money’s only any good when it’s doing something. This isn’t any good at all, not whilst I’ve got it, because it’s not doing anything but sitting in a box under my nightgowns. If that horrid man of yours had got in last night he’d have taken it.’ She gave a determined little nod of the head. ‘Quite easily. Come along, we’ll have some breakfast. And then we’ll be off to the train.’
They had cold bacon and bread and marmalade and cocoa for breakfast. And then Prissy went down to the garage and got out the car.
‘And suppose the horror is prowling. I think you had better be very quick. In fact I think it would be a good thing if you sort of crouched down in the back seat with a rug over you, so that no one would know I wasn’t alone. And the sooner we get off the better.’
A
When they reached the first houses Prissy said, ‘You’d better come out now. It won’t do to look as if you didn’t want to be seen.’
That was true. She pushed away the rug, sat up, and tidied her hair. She was more frightened than she had been at all, but she mustn’t show it.
The car ran down to the station, drew up, and she got out. When she turned round Prissy was getting out too. She said, ‘Go into the waiting-room. It’s just here. I’ll take your ticket.’
It was a game for Prissy, an exciting game. But for her- And then suddenly there was a rush of courage and hope. She walked into the waiting-room and sat down with her back to the light.
Prissy came to her there with the ticket.
‘Here you are. There’s a quarter of an hour before the train comes in. It sounds horrid, but I think I had better not wait.’
A
‘Why?’
‘Mrs Brown,’ said Prissy. ‘It’s her day. If she comes and finds me out she’ll talk about it all over the place. As it is, if I go at once I shall just get back before she comes and there won’t be any talk. You’ll be all right.’ She nodded her head and took both of A
‘Let me know how it all comes out,’ she said, and was gone.
CHAPTER 24
Prissy drove back in a very good humour. She was pleased with herself. She thought of telling Aunt Hester that they had had a visitor, but decided that she wouldn’t. Aunt Hester was all right, but she was inclined to fuss, and she hadn’t seen A
Prissy considered that she was very good at judging people and knowing what they were really like. That man last night, she had really hated him from the first moment that he knocked on the door. A
She had locked the garage door and let herself into the house, when it came to her suddenly that she had been very wise. She was quite often pleased with herself, but this time she was very pleased indeed, because not a quarter of an hour after she had let herself into the house there was someone tapping on the front door again. It was too early for Mrs Brown. A quarter past eight was her time, and it was only eight o’clock.
She went down, and she put the chain on the door before she opened it. It was the first time she had ever used the chain, and she was very glad of it. The door opened as far as the chain would let it, and she saw the man who was standing outside.