Page 71 of Marriage and Murder
When Gladys, eyes wide, merely nodded, Madeline prompted, “We understand that you were walking from your aunt’s house to Iris’s for a light luncheon. Your aunt’s house lies farther out along Green Lane, doesn’t it?”
Gladys nodded. “Yes, it’s farther out around the bend.”
“So where were you,” Penelope asked, “when you saw Viola, and what was she doing at that point?”
Gladys fractionally inclined her head as if approving the question. “Well,” she replied, “I was just this side of the bend and walking this way, and Viola was marching—and that’s the right word, mind you, as she was awfully determined—toward me from the junction.”
“Did she see you?” Madeline asked.
“Of course. I’d be hard to miss, just as she was.” Gladys added, “I raised my hand, and she waved back. That’s when I noticed the paper in her hand—she had it in the hand she raised, and I wondered what it was. Didn’t quite look like a letter, not one in an envelope, you see.”
“What happened next?” Penelope asked.
“Well,” Gladys said, “I was hoping she’d slow and wait and speak with me, but instead, she took a few more steps, and then”—Gladys paused, no doubt to allow anticipation of her next revelation to build—“she turned in through the Penroses’ gate.”
Eyes gleaming with the fervor of a true village gossip, Gladys looked at Madeline and Penelope. “Well,thatgot my attention, as you might imagine.”
“Oh?” Penelope played innocent. “Why was that?”
“Well, Mrs. Adair, all the village knows that Viola and Ida Penrose don’t see eye to eye about much, but especially with that business of the orchard boundary…well, that really soured relations between them.”
“I see.” Penelope nodded. “So you saw Viola go up the Penroses’ front path.”
“Aye, but I saw much more than that,” Gladys said. “I walked faster because I wanted to see what happened. That big old tree in the Penroses’ front yard? There’s a spot beside the fence thatif you stand just there, Ida or whoever is at the front door can’t see you.”
Penelope had to hand it to Gladys. “So you stopped on that spot.”
“O’course I did,” Gladys said. “I wanted to see the fireworks, didn’t I? Not that there were any, as it happened, but I was in that spot, listening, and I heard Viola say to Ida, ‘This is for Arthur.’ And Ida replied, ‘He’s not here. He’s out in the fields.’ There was a pause, then Viola said, ‘Well, I suppose I can leave it with you to give him,’ and I peeked around the tree and saw Viola give Ida the paper Viola’d been carrying.”
Gladys sat back and faintly grimaced. “I thought there’d be more, but I knew I couldn’t stay there and have Viola find me when she came back down the path, so while Ida was looking down at the paper in her hand and Viola was watching her, I scooted on and walked on to the junction. But I stopped there, at the corner, like, and looked back, and I saw Viola come out of the Penroses’ gate and walk on to Lavender Cottage.”
Penelope clarified, “You saw her go through the Lavender Cottage gate?”
Gladys nodded. “I decided that was that, scene ended, and went on to Iris’s for lunch.”
Penelope thought, then asked, “Do you have any idea what time you arrived at Iris’s cottage?”
“Iris had been expecting me at twelve-thirty,” Gladys replied, “and she commented that I was nearly ten minutes late.”
“So,” Madeline said, “you reached Iris’s at just before twelve-forty.”
Gladys nodded. “Seems like.”
“Later,” Penelope said, “when you went to afternoon tea with Ida, did you mention seeing Viola at her door?”
Gladys pulled a face. “Iris and I debated whether or not to mention it, but it seemed like it might be a sore point with Ida,and either way, we could ask Viola herself about it later, which, all in all, seemed the better road. So we didn’t say anything about it to Ida.”
Thank heaven for small mercies,Penelope thought.
“At what time did you and Iris get to Penrose Cottage?” Madeline asked, and Penelope refocused.
“Three on the dot, just like always,” Gladys replied. “That’s always been the time for Ida’s afternoon teas.”
“While you were inside Penrose Cottage, did you happen to see the paper Viola had given Ida?” Penelope asked.
“No,” Gladys replied. “And it wasn’t for want of looking, and Iris didn’t see anything that might be it, either.”
Penelope wracked her brains for further questions. “Have you known Ida and Arthur for long? I assume they’re longtime residents of the village.”
