The Long Farewell (2012)
“And this was all that Appleby could say. He went to the door, threw it open, and listened. There wasn’t a sound. But he couldn’t conceivably be the only person still awake in Urchins; it seemed indeed improbable that any of the people who had so lately been in this room with him could be already asleep. They were hesitating, in fact, to be the first person to emerge and start the shouting. They were telling themselves that what they had heard was perhaps the fall of a picture or a looking-glass... from the wall, or the backfire of a motor-bicycle in some nearby lane.
But now the silence was broken. It was broken, very faintly, by distant screams. And then he heard Edward Packford’s voice, calm and authoritative, in some distant part of the house. ‘Mrs Husbands – can you hear me? Tell those women to stop that noise and get back to bed.’ Well, that told one something at once. It was the housekeeper’s domestic staff that had judged it incumbent upon itself to kick up a shindy. And as this part of the establishment was almost certainly accommodated in the attics, and as it must indeed have been abruptly roused from slumber thus to indulge in instant hysterics, the inference was that the shot had been fired at least as high as the main bedroom floor.MoreLess
But now the silence was broken. It was broken, very faintly, by distant screams. And then he heard Edward Packford’s voice, calm and authoritative, in some distant part of the house. ‘Mrs Husbands – can you hear me? Tell those women to stop that noise and get back to bed.’ Well, that told one something at once. It was the housekeeper’s domestic staff that had judged it incumbent upon itself to kick up a shindy. And as this part of the establishment was almost certainly accommodated in the attics, and as it must indeed have been abruptly roused from slumber thus to indulge in instant hysterics, the inference was that the shot had been fired at least as high as the main bedroom floor.MoreLess
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