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Stories
1
Chapters
7
Words
9.9 K
Comments
0
Reading
49 m
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For an instant Edwin did nothing. The hand was cold and swollen, the skin loose beneath his grip. It lay across the rope at his wrist, though he could not tell whether the fingers had caught there or merely been carried against him when the body moved. He tore his arm backwards. The hand came with it. Alice turned in the mud. The movement released another cloud of silt. Edwin could no longer see the surface. Hair passed across his face again and something struck his shoulder. He let go of the…-
9.9 K • Completed
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The light was gone by the time Edwin reached the trees. He stopped beneath them and looked towards the water. Rain came through the branches in large drops and struck his shoulders, but there was nothing beyond the island now except darkness. No lamp showed from the boathouse. Nothing pale stood at the edge of the pond. For a moment the whole expedition seemed ridiculous. He had got out of bed in the middle of the night because poor sleep and rain on a window had caused him to mistake some…
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9.9 K • Completed
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That evening Penelope told Edwin that Constable Hale had sent word from the village. He would return in the morning, this time with someone from Shrewsbury, to finish taking statements from the household. Thomas and Molly were to be spoken to again, and Alice's father had apparently been writing to the police almost every day. “Must the man make a career of it?” Edwin said. Penelope looked up from her dinner. “His daughter is missing.” “I am aware of that.” There had been nothing…
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9.9 K • Completed
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The following night Penelope woke him shortly after three. At first Edwin thought she had gone to the lavatory. Then he saw her standing at the bedroom window with one curtain drawn aside. “What is it?” “Nothing. I thought I saw a light.” Edwin sat up. When he asked where, she pointed beyond the lawn. “Down there somewhere.” He got out of bed and went to the window. The moon was weak behind cloud. The pond itself could scarcely be seen, only a pale interruption between the trees.…
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9.9 K • Completed
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At half past seven the following morning Thomas brought the Humber round to the side entrance. He waited there for fifteen minutes before going in search of Alice. Mrs Pearce was in the stillroom. She had assumed Alice had already left and seemed genuinely surprised to hear that Thomas was waiting for her. Alice, he explained, had found him in the motor house the previous evening and asked to be driven to the station at half past seven. She had been quite definite about it. Mrs Pearce stopped what…
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9.9 K • Completed
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By breakfast the following morning Mrs Pearce had already heard that Alice would be leaving. She came into the breakfast room before Edwin had finished his coffee. “She came to me before seven,” the housekeeper said. “Family trouble, apparently. She was rather vague.” Edwin said Alice had told him as well. Mrs Pearce looked at him then, and he explained that she had happened to find him the previous afternoon. “I can't say I'm surprised,” Mrs Pearce said. “She's had notions lately.…
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9.9 K • Completed
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Sir Edwin Harcourt first learned that Alice Mercer was pregnant on a Tuesday afternoon early in March. She told him in the gun room, which was not a sensible place for the conversation, but she had been waiting outside his study and lost her nerve when she heard Lady Harcourt coming down the stairs. The gun room stood opposite the back passage and was seldom used except in autumn. Alice slipped inside when she saw him and asked him to shut the door. Edwin did so. She was twenty-two and worked…
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9.9 K • Completed
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