Final Curtain

DR. WITHERS, G.P. at Ancreton

MR. JUNIPER, chemist

MR. RATTISBON, solicitor

MR. MORTIMER, of Mortimer & Loame, Undertakers and Embalmers

RODERICK ALLEYN,

Chief Detective-Inspector

DETECTIVE-SERGEANT THOMPSON

VILLAGE CONSTABLE

1 (#ulink_ea0825c9-bc54-5c9e-bea2-44230d6f1716)

Siege of Troy (#ulink_ea0825c9-bc54-5c9e-bea2-44230d6f1716)

I

‘Considered severally,’ said Troy, coming angrily into the studio, ‘a carbuncle, a month’s furlough and a husband returning from the antipodes don’t sound like the ingredients of a hell-brew. Collectively, they amount to precisely that.’

Katti Bostock stepped heavily back from her easel, screwed up her eyes, and squinting dispassionately at her work said: ‘Why?’

They’ve telephoned from C.1. Rory’s on his way. He’ll probably get here in about three weeks. By which time I shall have returned, cured of my carbuncle, to the girls in the back room.’

‘At least,’ said Miss Bostock, scowling hideously at her work, ‘he won’t have to face the carbuncle. There is that.’

‘It’s on my hip.’

‘I know that, you owl.’

‘Well – but, Katti,’ Troy argued, standing beside her friend, ‘you will allow and must admit, it’s a stinker. You are going it,’ she added, squinting at Miss Bostock’s canvas.

‘You’ll have to move into the London flat a bit earlier, that’s all.’

‘But if only the carbuncle, and Rory and my leave had come together – well, the carbuncle a bit earlier, certainly – we’d have had a fortnight down here together. The A.C. promised us that. Rory’s letters have been full of it. It is tough, Katti, you can’t deny it. And if you so much as look like saying there are worse things in Europe –’

‘All right, all right,’ said Miss Bostock, pacifically. ‘I was only going to point out that it’s reasonably lucky your particular back room and Roderick’s job both happen to be in London. Look for the silver lining, dear,’ she added unkindly. ‘What’s that letter you keep taking in and out of your pocket?’

Troy opened her thin hand and disclosed a crushed sheet of notepaper. ‘That?’ she murmured. ‘Oh, yes, there’s that. You never heard anything so dotty. Read it.’

‘It’s got cadmium red all over it.’

‘I know. I dropped it on my palette. It’s on the back, luckily.’

Miss Bostock spread out the letter on her painting-table, adding several cobalt finger-prints in the process. It was a single sheet of pre-war notepaper, thick, white, with an engraved heading surmounted by a crest – a cross with fluted extremities.

‘Cricky!’ said Miss Bostock. ‘Ancreton Manor. That’s the – Cricky!’ Being one of those people who invariably read letters aloud she began to mutter:

Miss Agatha Troy (Mrs. Roderick Alleyn)

Tatlers End House

Bossicot, Bucks.

Dear Madam,

My father-in-law, Sir Henry Ancred, asks me to write to you in reference to a portrait of himself in the character of Macbeth, for which he would be pleased to engage your services. The picture is to hang in the entrance hall at Ancreton Manor, and will occupy a space six by four feet in dimension. As he is in poor health, he wishes the painting to be done here, and will be pleased if you can arrange to stay with us from Saturday, November 17th, until such time as the portrait is completed. He presumes this will be in about a week. He will be glad to know, by telegram, whether this arrangement will suit you, and also your fee for such a commission.

I am,

Yours faithfully,

MILLAMANT ANCRED.

‘Well,’ said Miss Bostock, ‘of all the cheek!’

Troy grinned. ‘You’ll notice I’m to dodge up a canvas six by four in seven days. I wonder if he expects me to throw in the three witches and the Bloody Child.’

‘Have you answered it?’

‘Not yet,’ Troy mumbled.

‘It was written six days ago,’ scolded Miss Bostock.

‘I know. I must. How shall I word the telegram: “Deeply regret am not house painter”?’

Katti Bostock paused, her square fingers still planted under the crest. ‘I thought only peers had those things peppered about on their notepaper,’ she said.

‘You’ll notice it’s a cross, with ends like an anchor. Hence Ancred, one supposes.’

‘Oh! I say!’ said Katti, rubbing her nose with her blue finger. ‘That’s funny.’

‘What is?’

‘Didn’t you do a set of designs for that production of Macbeth?’

‘I did. That may have given them the idea.’

‘Good Lord! Do you remember,’ said Miss Bostock, ‘we saw him in the play. You and Roderick, and I? The Bathgates took us. Before the war.’

‘Of course I do,’ said Troy. ‘He was magnificent, wasn’t he?’

‘What’s more, he looked magnificent. What a head. Troy, do you remember, we said –’

‘So we did. Katti,’ said Troy, ‘you’re not by any chance going to suggest –’