THE BLUE DIAMOND (Murder Mystery Classic). Annie Haynes
Arthur found you in the park and carried you to the carriage,” Mavis returned prosaically. “We were very glad we heard you; it might have killed you to stay there all night.”
The knock at the door was repeated, and a voice called: “Nurse!”
Mavis recognized her mother’s voice and tried to draw her hand away.
“It is my mother,” she said.” I must speak to her.”
But the other girl still clung to her.
“You must not go,” she said. “I am not strong enough to see anyone else to-night—indeed, I am not. Promise you will not let anyone come in.”
Chapter V
With a jerk Mavis freed herself. “Indeed I must—”
At the same moment the door opened and Lady Laura looked into the room.
“I have been waiting for you for quite a quarter of an hour, nurse,” she said in a distinctly aggrieved tone. “If anything prevented your coming you ought at least to have sent me word. I told my daughter—Mavis! You are here still! Where is Nurse?” glancing round in surprise.
“I don’t know. She left to come to you, mother. She —Hilda is better; she has been talking to me.”
Lady Laura stepped up to the bedside and smiled reassuringly into the eyes raised imploringly to her.
“I am so glad you are better, my dear,” she said in a cheery, comfortable fashion. “But you ought to have something now. Mavis, give me that glass. Ah, that is right!” with a confidence born of experience as the girl swallowed a few drops of the champagne. “Now if you can get some sleep, my dear, I think it will be the best thing for you. What is this you say about Nurse Marston, Mavis—that she left here to come to me? Poor thing, she must have gone into the wrong room, and I dare say is abusing me for keeping her from her patient all this time!” with a laugh. She rang the bell. “Oh, Minnie! Find Nurse Marston and tell her that I am here, and ask her to come up. She must have gone into some other room.”
Minnie looked puzzled.
“I showed her the small library myself, my lady. I had been helping Lady Davenant with her cloak. I came out as Nurse Marston passed and I went as far as the bend in the passage with her and pointed out the door.”
“Then she must have mistaken you,” Lady Laura decided easily, “and you will find her in one of the adjoining rooms. Be as quick as you can, Minnie.”
“Yes, my lady,” and the girl hurried off.
Lady Laura turned to Mavis.
“Now, Mavis, it is time you were in bed, or you will lose your beauty sleep. Come, I will stay with Hilda”—and she smiled at the girl—“until Nurse Marston comes.”
Mavis glanced at Hilda’s white face, at the suspiciously bright eyes in which there lay no shadow of sleep, and then, moved by some sudden impulse, she leaned over and kissed the girl.
“Good night, dear, and sleep well!”
Outside in the passage she encountered Minnie.
“Oh, Miss Mavis, has the nurse come back?” she began excitedly. “I can’t find her anywhere. She isn’t anywhere downstairs, as far as I can see.”
Mavis looked perplexed for a moment, then her face brightened up.
“I dare say she is in her room. Perhaps she is not well.” She tapped at the door, which was left ajar, but there was no response, and a glance was sufficient to show them that the room was untenanted.
Minnie looked troubled.
“I can’t think where she can be, Miss Mavis. I have been everywhere downstairs except in the billiard-room and the smoking-room, and not a sign of her can I find. If her lady—”
The door of the invalid’s room opened noiselessly, and Lady Laura herself looked out.
“Is Nurse there? I want to—”
“My lady, I can’t find her anywhere!” Minnie burst out.
But signing to her to be silent, Lady Laura came into the passage.
“What do you say, Minnie—you cannot find her? Have you looked in the morning-room? She has probably turned in there in mistake for the small library.’’
“I have been in all those rooms, my lady, and she isn’t there. I can’t think where she can have got to. And she was that anxious to speak to you, my lady! ‘‘
For a moment Lady Laura looked vaguely disturbed, then she smiled at Minnie’s evident perturbation.
“Well, I don’t suppose she is lost, Minnie,’’ she said cheerfully. “Probably she did not feel well, and is sitting down quietly somewhere; but I think I will just go down and speak to Mrs. Parkyns, and look into the rooms myself, and I think we must turn you into a nurse for the time being, Minnie. Be sure you let me know as soon as Nurse Marston comes back.’’
“Yes, my lady.’’ But the girl still looked uneasy and worried.
Mavis followed Lady Laura and tucked her hand under her arm.
“I am coming with you, mother dear. Yes, really you must let me,” as Lady Laura began to remonstrate. “Indeed, I could not sleep until we have found the nurse and heard what she has to say. Isn’t Hilda perfectly lovely, mother? Much prettier than we thought her last night.”
“She is very beautiful,” Lady Laura said abstractedly. “I fancy that Nurse Marston wished to speak to me about her. Perhaps she has discovered some clue to her identity. Ah, here is Parkyns!” as that functionary appeared, looking portly and important in her rich black silk. “Well, Parkyns, have you seen anything of Nurse Marston yet?”
“No, my lady,” the housekeeper replied with dignity. “Where the young woman can have put herself I can’t imagine. We have looked all over the bottom part of the house ourselves, me and Mr. Jenkins, as soon as Minnie said she couldn’t be found, and one of the maids has been upstairs. It really doesn’t seem as if she could be in the house.”
Lady Laura felt bewildered.
“It is impossible that she can have gone out at this time of night without telling anyone!” she exclaimed. “You are sure she is not downstairs, you say, Parkyns?”
“Quite sure, my lady! Leastways, we have been in every room except the smoking-room. Sir Arthur is there.”
Lady Laura pondered a moment; then she turned down the passage leading to the smoking-room and opened the door. Sir Arthur was lying back on the lounge, his feet on a chair and his head thrown back as he lazily watched the rings of smoke curling up to the ceiling from his cigar.
He sprang up in surprise when he saw his mother, with Mavis clinging to her arm and Mrs. Parkyns bringing up the rear.
“Why, mother, what is it? What has happened? Has there been a change for the worse?”
“No, no! Nothing of that kind,” Lady Laura said quickly, with an indefinable feeling of unrest as she noted the trend his anxiety had taken. “It is only that—have you by any chance seen Nurse Marston?”
Arthur stared.
“Seen Nurse Marston? My dear mother, no! Why, what do you mean? Is she lost?”
“Oh, no!” Lady Laura said helplessly. “Only we can’t find her.”
Arthur laughed.
“Seems much about the same thing, doesn’t it? How does it come about? Has she left her patient?”
“She was to come to me—” Lady Laura