Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot 17)

There was something else beside laughter in her eyes. Hercule Poirot shook his head doubtfully.

“She cares too much, that little one,” he said to himself. It is not safe. No, it is not safe.”

And then a word caught his ear, “Egypt.”

Their voices came to him clearly—the girl’s young, fresh, arrogant, with just a trace of soft-sounding foreign R’s, and the man’s pleasant, low-toned, well-bred English.

“I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched, Simon. I tell you Linnet won’t let us down!”

“I might let her down.”

“Nonsense—it’s just the right job for you.”

“As a matter of fact I think it is…I haven’t really any doubts as to my capability. And I mean to make good—for your sake!”

The girl laughed softly, a laugh of pure happiness.

“We’ll wait three months—to make sure you don’t get the sack—and then—”

“And then I’ll endow thee with my worldly goods—that’s the hang of it, isn’t it?”

“And, as I say, we’ll go to Egypt for our honeymoon. Damn the expense! I’ve always wanted to go to Egypt all my life. The Nile and the Pyramids and the sand….”

He said, his voice slightly indistinct: “We’ll see it together, Jackie…together. Won’t it be marvellous?”

“I wonder. Will it be as marvellous to you as it is to me? Do you really care—as much as I do?”

Her voice was suddenly sharp—her eyes dilated—almost with fear.

The man’s answer came quickly crisp: “Don’t be absurd, Jackie.”

But the girl repeated: “I wonder….”

Then she shrugged her shoulders. “Let’s dance.”

Hercule Poirot murmured to himself:

“Une qui aime et un qui se laisse aimer. Yes, I wonder too.”

VII

Joanna Southwood said: “And suppose he’s a terrible tough?”

Linnet shook her head. “Oh, he won’t be. I can trust Jacqueline’s taste.”

Joanna murmured: “Ah, but people don’t run true to form in love affairs.”

Linnet

shook her head impatiently. Then she changed the subject. “I must go and see Mr. Pierce about those plans.”

“Plans?”

“Yes, some dreadful insanitary old cottages. I’m having them pulled down and the people moved.”

“How sanitary and public-spirited of you, darling!”

“They’d have had to go anyway. Those cottages would have overlooked my new swimming pool.”