Death of a Butterfly by Simon Brown

Author:Simon Brown [Brown, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC025000, FIC022040, FIC050000, FICTION / Crime
ISBN: 9780857280145
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2013-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Henry arrived early afternoon, travelling with a black backpack. He gave me a hug and kiss on each cheek. I smelt lemon.

“Mrs H sent me over, said you’re in trouble.”

“Dorothy Hope asked me to fly to Venice. She said you were frightened,” I corrected him, imitating my aunt.

We both laughed. I prepared some soup for us, whilst Henry unpacked. I wanted to take Henry out and show him some of the places I had enjoyed most. After we ate, I showed Henry my trick with the hand mirror and put on my mask for him to see. I suddenly felt bouncy, energised and enthusiastic.

We strode out into the street and walked round to St Mark’s Square.

“Your aunt insisted I take you for tea at this place she recommended. She even gave me the euros.”

We sat in sumptuous chairs listening to musicians playing “Spring” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, as we looked out over the square. Our teas and cakes arrived on a silver tray.

I told Henry about Veronica, Claudia and the chases. Henry seemed preoccupied with his pastries and made inane comments like “wow,” “scary” and “cool” before taking another bite of his cake. When I finished, I felt a rush of anger. I gripped the arms of my chair and stared at Henry.

“Wow, this is some cool place. Just look at the mirror behind you. Looks hundreds of years old. Isn’t it neat how they put the trays on the table, and then to clear up they just take the tray away again.”

“Don’t you care?”

Henry looked up from pouring his tea with surprise.

“I could have been killed by that masked madman.”

Henry pointed to his mouth. He was still chewing. I took the opportunity to talk at him.

“I’m sorry, Henry, but after all I have been through I just wanted a little more than half-hearted, one-word expressions.”

I felt my anger rise again. But what did I expect? I wanted more sympathy and at the very least to be heard. Henry wiped chocolate from his lips with a napkin.

“No problem, I understand. Sorry, I’m just a bit overwhelmed by Venice. You’re safe now. This cake is something. How’s yours?”

Dorothy’s voice interrupted. Expectations, my dear, expectations. Enjoy Henry as he is.

“Fiddlesticks,” I mumbled under my breath.

Henry broke my thoughts.

“You know in Chinese medicine, fear is associated with the kidneys, so you may be deficient there. I brought some needles and can give you a treatment later. You also seem a bit angry since we came here. Could be an excess of liver chi.”

He paused and looked at me with concern before adding.

“Don’t worry. When he sees us together, he’ll back off.”

Having my feelings summed up in terms of the energetic state of my organs did not really help but I was now calm enough to realise that I was reacting to something from within me. Why was I expecting so much of Henry?

We walked through the narrow streets until evening and found a small restaurant for our dinner. I realised I knew very little about Henry.

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