THE BLUE DIAMOND (Murder Mystery Classic). Annie Haynes
well, I dare say you wouldn’t,” conceded the nurse in a conciliatory tone. “The fact of the matter is I am so bothered that I hardly know what I am saying or what to do. But I understand that nothing has been found out about my patient, or who she is, since I saw Dr. Grieve this morning?”
“Not a word. I heard Sir Arthur tell Miss Mavis as much not half an hour ago on this very spot,” glancing down the corridor and at the door leading into the pink- room, which the nurse had carefully closed behind her when she came out. “None of the people around here know anything of her, and nobody seems to have met her on the way or seen her come into the park. We can’t see daylight in it—not Sir Arthur or any of us,” concluded Minnie breathlessly.
The nurse bit her lips nervously and glanced at the closed door behind her.
“Minnie, it is in this way—if nobody else has seen that young lady before, I believe I have,” she whispered. “Now you know that I must see her ladyship to-night and why.”
Minnie’s eyes opened to their fullest extent.
“You don’t mean it, nurse! Are you sure?”
“Sure enough!” the nurse replied with a significant nod. “We come across many folk, do we nurses, and little think how we shall see them again, some of them.”
“But where did you see her? Do you know who she is?” asked Minnie.
“I don’t know who she is, any more than you do yourself, but I may know what will lead to its being found out!’ the nurse replied enigmatically. “That will do, Minnie—the rest is for her ladyship’s ear only. Now, can you get a message to her? Tell her Nurse Marston must speak to her, and alone, to-night.”
“I don’t quite see how it is to be managed,” debated Minnie slowly, “but I will do my best. I’ll speak to Mr. Jenkins—or perhaps it would be better if you wrote a bit of a note, nurse, so as to let Mr. Jenkins give it to her ladyship.”
Nurse Marston hesitated a moment; then she tore a leaf from the notebook hanging at her side, and, after hastily scribbling a line or two, folded it up and handed it to the girl.
“There, if you can get that to her!” she said.
“I will try. And—and”—Minnie detained her—“won’t you tell me a bit more, nurse?” wheedlingly.
“Not a word!” said the nurse positively. “I dare say I’ve said more than I ought now.”
“But—”
With her finger on her lips to enjoin silence, and with a farewell nod, the nurse turned the door-handle and slipped quietly into her patient’s room.
Minnie went slowly down the passage, stopping a moment to peep over the banisters and get a glimpse of the gaily-attired ladies who were passing through the hall below before she made her way to the backstairs to perform Nurse Marston’s errand.
With the note in her hand she tapped lightly at the door of the housekeeper’s room, blushing as she caught the sound of voices and saw a man standing with his back to her when she entered.
“I’ve come with a message from the nurse to her ladyship. Could you send it to her, do you think, Mrs. Parkyns?” holding it out.
The housekeeper looked important.
“Well, I think I might take it on myself, seeing it is marked ‘Immediate.’ You wait a minute, Minnie. I will speak to Mr. Jenkins.”
She bustled off and Minnie was left tête-à-tête with her sweetheart.
Mr. Gregory was distinctly inclined to make the most of his opportunity; he caught hold of Minnie round the waist with both hands before the girl had time to raise any objection.
“Well, and what have you been doing with yourself all day, Minnie?” he said. “Not talking to Mr. Thomas Greyson, I hope?”
Minnie raised her eyes reproachfully.
“Jim, how can you? As if I should! I have been sitting with the poor young lady they found in the park last night for the biggest part of the day.”
Gregory held her from him at arm’s length.
“That’s why your eyes look heavy,” he declared. “I can’t have you put upon. What is the good of that fine nursing madam that I saw talking for a good half-hour to Mr. Garth Davenant in the avenue this afternoon if she can’t look after the lady herself?”
“Oh, I haven’t had anything to do since Nurse Marston came—” Minnie was beginning.
Gregory interrupted her, his eyes regarding her keenly from beneath his narrowed lids.
“Nurse—what did you say her name was—Marston?”
“Yes, Marston. She is Mrs. Marston’s daughter down at Lockford. Do you know her, Jim? She has been in London.”
“Not that I know of,” he said carelessly. “Mr. Garth seemed pretty thick with her this afternoon, to my way of thinking. That note you gave Mrs. Parkyns was from her, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. She wants to see her ladyship most particular to-night,” said Minnie, forgetting her promise. “Something about the young lady—”
Jim glanced obliquely at her a moment.
“What about her? She doesn’t know anything of her, this Nurse Marston, does she?”
“She thinks she does, but I don’t know what. She said she wouldn’t tell anyone but her ladyship,” Minnie said carelessly; then in an altered tone, “There! She charged me I wasn’t to say a word to anybody and here I am telling you all about it!”
“Don’t you fret yourself, I shan’t say anything. For the matter of that, telling you is the same thing as telling me, for ain’t you and me going to be one, Minnie?” responded Mr. Gregory, his clasp growing tighter. “I have got something better than that to talk about to-night. There’s a little cottage down against the common at Lockford to let. How’d that do—Ah, Mrs. Parkyns, you do come into the room quiet! I never so much as heard a step!”
The housekeeper laughed meaningly.
“Ay, maybe I am a bit too quiet for some folks! Bless me, Minnie, there’s no need to put yourself about!” for the girl had sprung away from Gregory and thrown up her hands to her flaming face. “We have all of us been young once, my lass. Where are you off to now, may I ask?”
“There’s some lace to be put on Miss Mavis’s gown for to-morrow,” faltered Minnie. “I—I must be off, Mrs. Parkyns.”
“And her ladyship’s message to the nurse?” remarked the housekeeper, chuckling at the girl’s confusion. “There, if I don’t believe you have forgot all about it! What can you be thinking of, I wonder!” with a laugh at Gregory. “Her ladyship says if Nurse Marston’s business is very important she is to come to her in the small library when all the guests are gone. She does not think they will be very late to-night.”
“The small library? I haven’t seen that, I think,” Gregory remarked, moving a little nearer the girl but keeping his eyes on the housekeeper.
“Well, I dare say you haven’t,” she remarked a trifle condescendingly. “It hasn’t been, so to speak, in general use, though it has been kept aired, since Sir Noel died. He always sat there in the morning when he was indoors. It is that small room that opens into the conservatory to the right of the drawing-room.”
“Oh, ah, I think I have seen it,” Jim said absently, edging nearer the door through which Minnie had already vanished. “I’ll be pleased to do what I can for you at any time, Mrs. Parkyns; but if there is nothing more tonight—”
“I should be sorry to keep you if there was,” the housekeeper said with a significant laugh. “You are to let us have the cattleya for the table to-morrow night, Sir Arthur said.”
“Very