Hercule Poirot's Christmas: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot 20)

Simeon stopped laughing to himself. He sat up and stared at her. He said, ‘What’s that you say?’

‘I said, have you paid for it, Grandfather?’

Simeon Lee said slowly:

‘I—don’t know…’

Then, beating his fist on the arm of the chair, he cried out with sudden anger:

‘What makes you say that, girl? What makes you say that?’

Pilar said:

‘I—wondered.’

Her hand, holding the screen, was arrested. Her eyes were dark and mysterious. She sat, her head thrown back, conscious of herself, of her womanhood.

Simeon said:

‘You devil’s brat…’

She said softly:

‘But you like me, Grandfather. You like me to sit here with you.’

Simeon said: ‘Yes, I like it. It’s a long time since I’ve seen anything so young and beautiful…It does me good, warms my old bones…And you’re my own flesh and blood…Good for Jennifer, she turned out to be the best of the bunch after all!’

Pilar sat there smiling.

‘Mind you, you don’t fool me,’ said Simeon. ‘I know why you sit here so patiently and listen to me droning on. It’s money—it’s all money…Or do you pretend you love your old grandfather?’

Pilar said: ‘No, I do not love you. But I like you. I like you very much. You must believe that, for it is true. I think you have been wicked, but I like that too. You are more real than the other people in this house. And you have interesting things to say. You have travelled and you have led a life of adventure. If I were a man I would be like that, too.’

Simeon nodded.

‘Yes, I believe you would…We’ve gipsy blood in us, so it’s always been said. It hasn’t shown much in my children—except Harry—but I think it’s come out in you. I can be patient, mind you, when it’s necessary. I waited once fifteen years to get even with a man who’d done me an injury. That’s another characteristic of the Lees—they don’t forget! They’ll avenge a wrong if they have to wait years to do it. A man swindled me. I waited fifteen years till I saw my chance—and then I struck. I ruined him. Cleaned him right out!’

He laughed softly.

Pilar said:

‘That was in South Africa?’

‘Yes. A grand country.’

‘You have been back there, yes?’

‘I went back last five years after I married. That was the last time.’

‘But before that? You were there for many years?’

‘Yes.’

‘Tell me about it.’

He began to talk. Pilar, shielding her face, listened.

His voice slowed, wearied. He said: