All Lessons Learned: Cambridge Fellows Mysteries, Book 8 by Charlie Cochrane

Author:Charlie Cochrane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2011-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Lavinia presided over the tea pot just as her mother had on many occasions at The Casino hotel when they were children. Jonty watched his niece and nephew, seeing in them the reflection of his sister and himself at the same age. History repeating itself—although the circumstances had never been so strange before, Lazarus taking tea with Martha.

“Uncle Jonty, how did…”

“No more questions for the moment, Georgie. Can’t you see your uncle’s in need of his whistle being wetted?” Ralph clearly had some questions of his own he wanted to ask and was restraining himself manfully. So far George and Alexandra’s enquiries had centred solely on Jonty’s journey through France; what he thought of Honfleur, what he’d seen in Paris, whether he too thought the Venus de Milo had been modelled on a man as Uncle Orlando insisted was the case. Nobody was touching on what really mattered.

“I promise I’ll answer everything to the best of my ability—” Jonty held up a small square buttery biscuit, as if he was in court and taking an oath on it, “—if you’ll let me get outside of at least two cups of tea. More if it’s a decent brew. Allow an old soldier some comforts, please.”

He got his tea—and pastries, which were even more consoling than the brew was—while Lavinia and her brood prattled on about school and how George had to remember not to be too frank when they discussed Shakespeare in his English lessons. Jonty was so comfortable, so ridiculously happy, he wanted to curl up and doze like a great contented cat right there in the chair, but he’d have to earn that privilege. Too much had still been left unanswered and how close “the best of my ability” was going to come to the literal truth, he hadn’t decided.

“What gets me is how you’ve managed to survive financially all this time.” Ralph, practical as ever, couldn’t keep the question in a moment longer. His tone also implied the bit he didn’t actually say—that Jonty clearly hadn’t been on his uppers nor had he been going door to door, begging.

“Ah. It’s a bit embarrassing really.” Jonty saw the sudden flush rising on his sister’s cheeks, her sideways glance at her children. “Nothing to offend the ear, Lavinia, I hasten to add.” Maybe she’d got it into her head he’d been acting as some sort of a gigolo? “I’d had it planned, you see. I had no intention of returning home—not to live—if Orlando was killed.”

“Oh.” The wind was taken out of Ralph’s sails. “That seems a bit…cold blooded, old man.”

“Not so much cold blooded as a case of survival. I couldn’t have gone back to Cambridge if he wasn’t there to keep me company. I’m not that brave.” Jonty laid down his cup, wondering whether he’d need something stronger to see him through this ordeal.

“Uncle Orlando’s gone back there.” Alexandra looked to her brother to have this simple fact confirmed, as if the grown-ups were too stupid to have remembered.

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