[MaC] Interviewing Esme

[Mel Mason]

>> > > Cyril glanced out the door, torn between following the commotion
>> > back
>> > > upstairs or staying to help Esme.  He worried increasingly about
>> > > Florence, but Esme appeared to know something about what was
>> > happening
>> > > here.  He ventured a question to his distraught neighbor.  "Esme,
>> > > dear," he asked gently, "what do you know?  How did you know about
>> > > Nola's ...condition."
>> > >
>> > Esme gave a little gulp.
>> >
>> > "I ... I ... knew ... She told me that it was a friend of hers.  She
>> > wanted
>> > to know ... But I couldn't help her!  Of course I couldn't!  How
>> > would I
>> > know anything about that?"
>>
>>"Of course, you couldn't," Cyril answered cautiously, since he had no
>>clue what she was talking about.  He glanced at Vangie and Arabella to
>>see if this made any more sense to a woman than it did to him.  He also
>>glanced nervously at the door, as it sounded as if the crowd upstairs
>>might be in the vicinity of his own flat.
>
> =Because you always made it a point that you -didn't- know, you didn't 
> hear, you never saw anything,= thought Vangie.
>
> Arabella nodded slightly. She, for one, would have been hard pressed to 
> find such 'help' had she been approached. Some women knew where to obtain 
> the necessary expertise, of course, or these things would not happen. 
> Esme's words also reinforced her original thoughts that someone else had 
> been involved with the poor girl - for really, if Marty Fitzroy had gotten 
> Nola Diamond in her condition, would she have turned for help to Fitzroy's 
> wife?
>
> "Mrs. Fitzroy," she asked, "you seemed anxious long before the tragedy 
> occurred. What has been upsetting you so?"
>

"Nothing," said Esme nervously, twisting her handkerchief even more.  "I'm 
just worried about my sister, that's all, with all this dreadful bombing. 
She ... she lives in the East End.  In Bethnal Green."