Ice in the Bedroom Read Online Free Page B

nobody to look after you? Or have you a cook?'
    Freddie laughed hackingly.
    'You mean a chef? On our starvation wages? No, we have no chef, no butler, no first and second footmen, no head and under housemaids, and no groom of the chambers. George does the cooking, and pretty ghastly it is. But I mustn't bore you with my troubles.'
    'Oh, Freddie, you aren't.'
    'Well, I shall if I go on any longer. Change the subject, what? How do you get along with Leila Yorke?'
    'Oh, splendidly. She's the top.'
    'In what respect?'
    'In every respect.'
    'Not in her literary output. You must admit that she writes the most awful bilge.'
    'No longer.'
    'How do you mean, no longer?'
    'She's giving up doing that sentimental stuff of hers.'
    'You're kidding. No more slush?'
    'So she says.'
    'But it sells like hot cakes.'
    'I know.'
    'Then why? What's she going to do? Retire?' 'No, she's planning to write one of those stark, strong novels…you know, about the grey underworld.’
    'Lord love a duck! This'll be a blow to Cornelius.'
    'Who's he?'
    'Fellow I know. He reads everything she writes.'
    ‘I wonder if he'll read her next one.'
    'How's it coming?'
    'It hasn't started yet. She feels the surroundings at Claines Hall aren't right. She says she can't get into the mood. She wants to move somewhere where she can soak in the grey atmosphere and really get going. What's the matter?'
    'Nothing.'
    'You sort of jumped.'
    'Oh, that? Touch of cramp. Has she found a place to go to yet?'
    'No, she's still thinking it over.'
    'Ah!'
    'Ah what?'
    'Just Ah. Weil, here we are at the old front door. What's the procedure? Do I charge in?'
    'You'd better wait. I'll tell her you're here.'
    Sally crossed the hall, knocked on a door, went in and came out again.
    'She wants you to go in.'
    There was a pause.
    'Well, Freddie,' said Sally.
    'Well, Sally,' said Freddie.
    ‘I suppose this is the last time we shall meet.'
    'You never know.'
    ‘I think it is.'
    'You wouldn't care to dash in and have lunch with me one of these days?'
    'Oh, Freddie, what's the use?'
    ‘I see what you mean. Well, in that case Bung-ho about sums it up, what?'
    'Yes. Goodbye, Freddie.'
    'Goodbye.'
    'Better not keep Miss Yorke waiting. She's been a little edgy since she made her great decision,' said Sally, and went off to the potting shed by the kitchen garden to have a good cry. She knew she had done the sensible thing, but that did not prevent her feeling that her heart was being torn in small pieces by a platoon of muscular wild cats, than which few experiences are less agreeable.
     

 
    4
     
    FREDDIE”S first sight of Mr. Cornelius's favourite novelist, author of For True Love Only, Heather of the Hills, Sweet Jennie Dean and other works, had something of the effect on him of a blow between the eyes with a wet fish, causing him to rock back on his heels and blink. Going by the form book, he had expected to see a frail little spectacled wisp of a thing with a shy smile and a general suggestion of lavender and old lace. From this picture Leila Yorke in the flesh deviated quite a good deal. She was a large, hearty-looking woman in the early forties, built on the lines of Catherine of Russia, and her eyes, which were blue and bright and piercing, were obviously in no need of glasses.
    'Hullo there,' she said in a voice which recalled to him that of the drill sergeant at his preparatory school, a man who could crack windows with a single ' 'Shun!'. 'You Widgeon?'
    'That's right.'
    'Shoesmith phoned me that you were bringing those papers. I'll bet you left them in the train.'
    'No, I have them here.'
    'Then let's sign the things and get it over.'
    She scribbled her signature with the flowing pen of a woman accustomed to recording her name in autograph albums, and disposed herself for conversation.
    'Widgeon?' she said. 'That's odd. I used to know a Rodney Widgeon once. Know him still, as a matter of fact, only he goes around under an alias these days. Calls himself Lord Blicester. Any