A Family Affair by Mary Jane Staples

Author:Mary Jane Staples
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446488171
Publisher: Transworld

Chapter Fourteen

FROM THE OFFICES of the Registrar of Companies, Mr Ronald Ponsonby obtained details of the names and addresses of the directors of Adams Enterprises Ltd. There were four, Robert Adams, Tommy Adams, Sammy Adams and Eliza Somers. He needed the addresses in order to give himself the pleasure of seeing what the quarry looked like. Yes, it would be a pleasure to see the faces of the people on whom his twin brother had laid a curse. But Eliza Somers, who was she? He could ask someone in Walworth, perhaps, if Walworth was her birthplace. She was living now in Sunrise Avenue, Denmark Hill. They were all living in that area, SE5. Family closeness? Could Eliza Somers be the sister? If so, she made up the family of three brothers and a sister. They and their spouses were all to go.

Well, he still had plenty of time to identify all of them, while bearing in mind he did not want anyone to remember him as a man who was always enquiring into the affairs of the Adams family.

He took himself into the City for a pleasant lunch at an old-fashioned but discriminating restaurant. He returned afterwards to his lodgings, and met his landlady just as she was going out. A handsome woman, he conceded, and healthily full-bodied, but of no appeal to him. He and his brother had only ever been interested in young girls, young girls pretty enough to be photographed, and to stay young and pretty forever in the photographs.

‘Ah, hello, Mrs Paterson, you are on your way out, I see, and I am on my way in,’ he said with a couple of little nods.

‘Yes, I’m just goin’ to the shops, I’m feelin’ I’ve got the strength,’ said Mrs Paterson.

‘Good, very good,’ he said, peering through the plain glass of his unnecessary spectacles. Unnecessary to his eyesight, that is. ‘It’s a lovely afternoon.’

‘Yes, what a blessin’,’ said Mrs Paterson, and went on her way.

Ten minutes later, Mr Ronald Ponsonby, as quietly as a mouse, entered Doreen’s bedroom. A pretty young lady, very, and would have been delightful had she been a few years younger. However, she was still young enough, perhaps, for what she wore to be sweetly interesting. He pulled open a drawer in her mock Georgian mahogany dressing-table. Its oval mirror stared at him. He closed the drawer. He pulled open another. He smiled. Neatly folded underwear gazed shyly up at him. A dainty man, he took out each garment in turn and unfolded it with the lightest of touches. Eventually, all the garments lay in attractive array on the bed. Lace and little patterns of embroidery decorated some of the delicately feminine lingerie. He moved slowly around the bed, looking.

‘Charming,’ he murmured, ‘charming.’

He refolded and replaced all the items, taking care to ensure they went back in the right order. He returned to his own room, having indulged himself very pleasurably in a visual way.

Mr Ronald Ponsonby, like his twin brother, had very peculiar tastes.

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