I
Nadine Boynton came out of the hotel. As she hesitated uncertainly, a waiting figure sprang forward.
Mr Jefferson Cope was immediately at his lady’s side.
‘Shall we walk up this way? I think it’s the pleasantest.’
She acquiesced.
They walked along and Mr Cope talked. His words came freely if a trifle monotonously. It is not certain whether he perceived that Nadine was not listening. As they turned aside on to the stony flower-covered hill-side, she interrupted him.
‘Jefferson, I’m sorry. I’ve got to talk to you.’
Her face had grown pale.
‘Why, certainly, my dear. Anything you like, but don’t distress yourself.’
She said: ‘You’re cleverer than I thought. You know, don’t you, what I’m going to say?’
‘It is undoubtedly true,’ said Mr Cope, ‘that circumstances alter cases. I do feel, very profoundly, that in the present circumstances decisions may have to be reconsidered.’ He sighed. ‘You’ve got to go right ahead, Nadine, and do just what you feel.’
She said with real emotion: ‘You’re so good, Jefferson. So patient! I feel I’ve treated you very badly. I really have been downright mean to you.’
‘Now, look here, Nadine, let’s get this right. I’ve always known what my limitations were where you were concerned. I’ve had the deepest affection and respect for you ever since I’ve known you. All I want is your happiness. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. Seeing you unhappy has very nearly driven me crazy. And I may say that I’ve blamed Lennox. I’ve felt that he didn’t deserve to keep you if he didn’t value your happiness a little more than he seemed to do.’
Mr Cope took a breath and went on:
‘Now I’ll admit that after travelling with you to Petra, I felt that perhaps Lennox wasn’t quite so much to blame as I thought. He wasn’t so much selfish where you were concerned, as too unselfish where his mother was concerned. I don’t want to say anything against the dead, but I do think that your mother-in-law was perhaps an unusually difficult woman.’
‘Yes, I think you may say that,’ murmured Nadine.
‘Anyway,’ went on Mr Cope, ‘you came to me yesterday and told me that you’d definitely decided to leave Lennox. I applaud your decision. It wasn’t right—the life you were leading. You were quite honest with me. You didn’t pretend to be more than just mildly fond of me. Well, that was all right with me. All I asked was the chance to look after you and treat you as you should be treated. I may say that afternoon was one of the happiest afternoons in my life.’
Nadine cried out: ‘I’m sorry—I’m sorry.’
‘No, my dear, because all along I had a kind of feeling that it wasn’t real. I felt it was quite on the cards that you would have changed your mind by the next morning. Well, things are different now. You and Lennox can lead a life of your own.’
Nadine said quietly: ‘Yes. I can’t leave Lennox. Please forgive me.’
‘Nothing to forgive,’ declared Mr Cope. ‘You and I will go back to being old friends. We’ll just forget about that afternoon.’
Nadine placed a gentle hand on his arm. ‘Dear Jefferson, thank you. I’m going to find Lennox now.’
She turned and left him. Mr Cope went on alone.
II
Nadine found Lennox sitting at the top of the Graeco-Roman theatre. He was in such a brown study that he hardly noticed her till she sank breathless at his side. ‘Lennox.’
‘Nadine.’ He half turned.
She said: ‘We haven’t been able to talk until now. But you know, don’t you, that I am not leaving you?’
He said gravely: ‘Did you ever really mean to, Nadine?’
She nodded. ‘Yes. You see, it seemed to be the only possible thing left to do. I hoped—I hoped that you would come after me. Poor Jefferson, how mean I have been to him.’
Lennox gave a sudden curt laugh.
‘No, you haven’t. Anyone who is as unselfish as Cope ought to be given full scope for his nobility! And you were right, you know, Nadine. When you told me that you were going away with him you gave me the shock of my life! You know, honestly, I think I must have been going queer or something lately. Why the hell didn’t I snap my fingers in Mother’s face and go off with you when you wanted me to?’
She said gently: ‘You couldn’t, my dear, you couldn’t.’
Lennox said musingly: ‘Mother was a damned queer character…I believe she’d got us all half hypnotized.’
‘She had.’
Lennox mused a minute or two longer. Then he said: ‘When you told me that afternoon—it was just like being hit a crack on the head! I walked back half dazed, and then, suddenly I saw what a damned fool I’d been! I realized that there was only one thing to be done if I didn’t want to lose you.’
He felt her stiffen. His tone became grimmer.
‘I went and—’
‘Don’t…’
He gave her a quick glance.
‘I went and—argued with her.’ He spoke with a complete change of tone—careful and rather toneless. ‘I told her that I got to choose between her and you—and that I chose you.’
There was a pause.
He repeated, in a tone of curious self-approval:
‘Yes, that’s what I said to her.’
[Appointment with Death -Agatha Christie] Part 2. Chapter 13