Broken Music by Marjorie Eccles

Author:Marjorie Eccles [Eccles, Marjorie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Historical
ISBN: 9780749007966
Amazon: 1407914820
Goodreads: 8844756
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Published: 2009-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

The Leasowes, the place where Nella Wentworth had told him the Gypsies were encamped, turned out to be on Oaklands land. Although he had indeed spent the previous day walking the surrounding hills, Reardon thought he had better give more credence to his pretence of being here on a walking holiday by leaving his motorcycle parked in the yard behind the Greville Arms. He walked along the road towards the outskirts of the village and, following instructions obtained at the pub, he found the encampment without difficulty, the blue smoke spiralling up through the bare tree branches giving him the first indication of its whereabouts. He climbed over a stile by the side of a five-barred gate, but it was still hidden below the slope of the field. He paused to reconnoitre.

He had learnt a thing or two about these Gypsies while he was making his enquiries as to their location. The first was that the same family, the Boswells, had been coming back to Broughton Underhill to pitch their caravans for generations, from where they were never hounded or moved on as they were in many places. Or not until some of their more antisocial activities became too outrageous to be ignored by Ted Bracey, whose motto of live and let live was sometimes sorely put to the test by them. Apparently the old earl, in his day, had been heard to say that if they only took a pheasant or two to fill their children’s bellies, they were damned welcome to them, and if they needed a place to camp for the summer, the Leasowes wasn’t being used for anything else, and had ordered them to be left in peace. His daughter, Lady Sybil, evidently saw no reason to change that state of affairs.

As he eventually began to make the descent towards the stream, the camp came into view: several brightly decorated covered wagons drawn up together round a fire, over which a pot was suspended on a tripod, sending forth a sharp, savoury aroma which blended pleasantly with the woodsmoke. It was a quiet and secluded spot, on a curve of the stream, overhung by willows just turning green-gold, with catkins hanging from the bare black branches of the hazels. There were no men about but a group of women seemed to be washing clothes at the stream, and a few horses grazed at some distance. Otherwise there appeared at first to be no further sign of life until, as he drew nearer, half a dozen savage-looking dogs suddenly appeared from nowhere and in a moment surrounded him, snarling and leaping, teeth bared.

Not much frightened Herbert Reardon, but he didn’t like the look of these at all and there was no possibility of escape. As it was he stood immobile in the centre of the ring, feeling a fool but not inclined to try moving forward, until the sound of a whistle caused the pack to sink to the ground, tongues lolling, though still keeping watchful eyes on him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.