The Black Boy

The Black Boy is an inn at Haversham whose ordinary role as a place to eat briefly intersects with Miranda Butler’s secret departure. Its dining room and garden-side exits make it more than a stopping point: the inn provides the route by which Miranda slips away from Ariadne Oliver and reaches a parked car.

Setting and Planned Stop

Ariadne Oliver chooses The Black Boy as a lunch stop on the journey with Miranda, describing it as about three-quarters of an hour from where they are and as a place that serves a good meal. Miranda protests that she has not yet told Cathie she cannot go to the pictures with her the next day; Ariadne Oliver urges her to hurry, saying they can telephone. The plan places the inn within an everyday family outing, with lunch and Miranda’s arrangements for tomorrow occupying the conversation.

The Dining Room

When Ariadne Oliver arrives, she settles at a table by the dining-room window. Because it is still fairly early, the room is not very full. Judith Butler returns from powdering her nose, sits opposite Ariadne Oliver, and studies the menu. Ariadne Oliver asks what Miranda likes so they can order for her while expecting her to return shortly; Judith replies that Miranda likes roast chicken. The simple meal order establishes the adults’ assumption that Miranda is still nearby and will rejoin them.

Garden, Yard, and Lane

Instead, after Ariadne Oliver leaves the Ladies' Room, Miranda waits briefly, opens the door, checks outside, and uses a nearby side door to reach the garden. She runs along a path around the back yard of a building that had once been a coaching inn and was now a garage. A small pedestrian door leads from there to a lane, where a car is parked. A grey-bearded man with beetling grey eyebrows sits inside reading a newspaper; Miranda climbs in beside the driving-seat and laughs, telling him that he looks funny. He encourages her to laugh, then drives away, turning right, left, and right again before reaching a secondary road. The route turns the inn’s garden and service-side access into a concealed passage from the public lunch stop to a private departure.