Fear in the Sunlight (Josephine Tey Mystery 4) by Upson Nicola

Author:Upson, Nicola [Upson, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: FF, FGC
ISBN: 9780571282043
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2012-04-02T22:00:00+00:00

4

‘You’re angry with me, aren’t you?’

‘No, Hitch. I’m just tired. Don’t worry about it.’ Alma smiled unconvincingly at her husband’s reflection in the dressing-table mirror and carried on removing her make-up. ‘It’s been a long day.’

‘And you’re angry.’

She sighed and turned to face him. ‘I just don’t understand why you do it.’ He sat on the end of the bed, his face flushed from the wine and the heat of the room, and she could see from his expression that he didn’t know either. She worried about his health more and more these days: his weight had always fluctuated but he was heavier now than he had ever been, and recently he had even begun to take short naps on set; it would only be a matter of time before someone mentioned this in an interview, and rumours would go round that his best was behind him. Alma recognised the streak of cruelty that entered her husband’s jokes whenever he was undergoing a personal crisis. She had seen it several times already in the course of their marriage: when The Lodger was shelved, for instance, or when Blackmail failed to win over American audiences. This time, the intensity of it frightened her‚ and she had to make him see that. ‘I think you went too far,’ she said.

‘Blame David. He invited them.’

‘Only because you told him to. And sending him after Turnbull with a bottle of single malt doesn’t suddenly make everything right.’

He looked defensive. ‘How was I to know they were going to behave like that?’

‘You couldn’t have known, and that’s exactly my point. It isn’t a film set, Hitch. You don’t get to decide what happens. People have emotions that didn’t start in your head. They have jealousies and attachments and grudges that you have no idea about. We all do.’

‘Oh yes?’ He winked at her and tried to soften her mood, a sure sign that he knew he was in the wrong. ‘And what might those be, Mrs Hitchcock?’

‘I was talking generally,’ Alma said firmly, remembering her brief exchange with Bella Hutton, out of character for both of them but symptomatic of the way in which petty jealousies could escalate. ‘And don’t try to joke your way out of this.’ She walked over to the bed and kissed the top of his head, then sat down next to him and took his hand. ‘There’s already enough in our life that’s unsettled, Hitch, things that are beyond our control. Why go out of your way to make trouble?’ It was his chance – one of several she had given him lately – to talk honestly about everything that was worrying him: the colleagues he was losing; the mounting financial crisis at Gaumont which threatened them all; his disappointment with the response to his last film and his doubts about the one that was scheduled for release at the end of the year. Even though she knew he was only doing it to protect her, it hurt her when

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