And then she saw him stiffen and his eyes go to the door. He waited a second, then rising noiselessly, crossed the wooden floor of the veranda quickly and pushed open the door, to find himself face to face with the smiling Jean Briggerland.
Chapter XXVIII
“However did you get here?” asked Lydia in surprise.
“I went into Nice,” said the girl carelessly. “The detectives were going there and I gave them a lift.”
“I see,” said Jack, “so you came into Turbie by the back road? I wondered why I hadn’t seen your car.”
“You expected me, did you?” she smiled, as she sat down at the table and selected a peach from its cottonwool bed. “I only arrived a second ago, in fact I was opening the door when you almost knocked my head off. What a violent man you are, Jack! I shall have to put you into my story.”
Glover had recovered his self-possession by now.
“So you are adding to your other crimes by turning novelist, are you?” he said good-humouredly. “What is the book, Miss Briggerland?”
“It is going to be called ‘Suspected,’” she said coolly. “And it will be the Story of a Hurt Soul.”
“Oh, I see, a humorous story,” said Jack, wilfully dense. “I didn’t know you were going to write a biography.”
“But do tell me about this, it is very thrilling, Jean,” said Lydia, “and it is the first I’ve heard of it.”
Jean was skinning the peach and was smiling as at an amusing thought.
“I’ve been two years making up my mind to write it,” she said, “and I’m going to dedicate it to Jack. I started work on it three or four days ago. Look at my wrist!” She held out her beautiful hand for the girl’s inspection.
“It is a very pretty wrist,” laughed Lydia, “but why did you want me to see it?”
“If you had a professional eye,” said the girl, resuming her occupation, “you would have noticed the swelling, the result of writers’ cramp.”
“The yarn about your elderly admirer ought to provide a good chapter,” said Jack, “and isn’t there a phrase ‘A Chapter of Accidents’ — thatought to go in?”
She did not raise her eyes.
“Don’t discourage me,” she said a little sadly. “I have to make money somehow.”
How much had she heard? Jack was wondering all the time, and he groaned inwardly when he saw how little effect his warning had upon the girl he was striving to protect. Women are natural actresses, but Lydia was not acting now. She was genuinely fond of Jean and he could see that she had accepted his warnings as the ravings of a diseased imagination. He confirmed this view when after a morning of sightseeing and the exploration of the spot where, two thousand years before, the Emperor Augustine had erected his lofty “trophy,” they returned to the villa. There are some omissions which are marked, and when Lydia allowed him to depart without pressing him to stay to dinner he realised that he had lost the trick.
“When are you going back to London?” she asked.
“Tomorrow morning,” said Jack. “I don’t think I shall come here again before I go.”
She did not reply immediately. She was a little penitent at her lack of hospitality, but Jack had annoyed her and the more convincing he had become, the greater had been the irritation he had caused. One question he had to ask but he hesitated.
“About that will—” he began, but her look of weariness stopped him.
It was a very annoyed young man that drove back to the Hôtel de Paris. He had hardly gone before Lydia regretted her brusqueness. She liked Jack Glover more than she was prepared to admit, and though he had only been in Cap Martin for two days she felt a little sense of desolation at his going. Very resolutely she refused even to consider his extraordinary views about Jean. And yet —
Jean left her alone and watched her strolling aimlessly about the garden, guessing the little storm which had developed in her breast. Lydia went to bed early that night, another significant sign Jean noted, and was not sorry, because she wanted to have her father to herself.
Mr. Briggerland listened moodily whilst Jean related all that she had learnt, for she had been in the salon at the National for a good quarter of an hour before Jack had discovered her.
“I thought he would want her to make a will,” she said, “and, of course, although she has rejected the idea now, it will grow on her. I think we have the best part of a week.”
“I suppose you have everything cut and dried as usual,” growled Mr. Briggerland. “What is your plan?”
“I have three,” said Jean thoughtfully, “and two are particularly appealing to me because they do not involve the employment of any third person.”
“Had you one which brought in somebody else?” asked Briggerland in surprise. “I thought a clever girl like you—”
“Don’t waste your sarcasm on me,” said Jean quietly. “The third person whom I considered was Marcus Stepney,” and she told him the gist of her conversation with the gambler. Mr. Briggerland was not impressed.
“A thief like Marcus will get out of paying,” he said, “and if he can stall you long enough to get the money you may whistle for your share. Besides, a fellow like that isn’t really afraid of a charge of bigamy.”
Jean, curled up in a big armchair, looked up under her eyelashes at her father and laughed.
“I had no intention of letting Marcus marry Lydia,” she said coolly, “but I had to dangle something in front of his eyes, because he may serve me in quite another way.”
“How did he get those two slashes on his hand?” asked Mr. Briggerland suddenly.
“Ask him,” she said. “Marcus is getting a little troublesome. I thought he had learnt his lesson and had realised that I am not built for matrimony, especially for a hectic attachment to a man who gains his livelihood by cheating at cards.”
“Now, now, my dear,” said her father.
“Please don’t be shocked,” she mocked him. “You know as well as I do how Marcus lives.”
“The boy is very fond of you.”
“The boy is between thirty and thirty-six,” she said tersely. “And he’s not the kind of boy that I am particularly fond of. He is useful and may be more useful yet.”
She rose, stretched her arms and yawned.
“I’m going up to my room to work on my story. You are watching for Mr. Jaggs?”
“Work on what?” he said.
“The story I am writing and which I think will create a sensation,” she said calmly.
“What’s this?” asked Briggerland suspiciously. “A story? I didn’t know you were writing that kind of Stuff.”
“There are lots of important things that you know nothing about, parent,” she said and left him a little dazed.
For once Jean was not deceiving him. A writing table had been put in her room and a thick pad of paper awaited her attention. She got into her kimono and with a little sigh sat down at the table and began to write. It was half-past two when she gathered up the sheets and read them over with a smile which was half contempt. She was on the point of getting into bed when she remembered that her father was keeping watch below. She put on her slippers and went downstairs