One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley

Author:Emily Critchley [Emily Critchley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths, Family Life, Cozy
ISBN: 9781804181270
Google: ZeaXEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre Ltd.
Published: 2023-05-24T23:00:00+00:00

21

1951

A

WEEK LATER AND I’VE GOT myself a job in the hope Reg will leave me alone. I take Mrs Underwood’s baby out for an hour each afternoon when I get home from school. His name is Paul. He’s got pink cheeks and he smiles if you play peek-a-boo with him. I like lifting him out of the pram and bouncing him on my knee when we get to the park. Mostly though, I just wheel him around Ludthorpe whilst he gurgles and kicks his chubby little legs in the air, or peers out at me from beneath the thick blankets Mrs Underwood swaddles him in. Mrs Underwood is chuffed to bits about our arrangement. ‘A whole hour to myself! Whatever shall I do with it, Edie? You’re a godsend, you really are.’

One afternoon when I dropped Paul off, she didn’t answer and I stood there for ages, banging her door knocker as loudly as I could. She’d fallen asleep on the sofa; I could see her stockinged feet up on the sofa arm when I peeked through the letter box, and when she finally answered the door she had the imprint of the embroidered sofa cushion on her cheek.

She pays me ten shillings a week, which I’m supposed to hand over to Reg (although I always keep a little back). My mother gives me apologetic looks but says nothing. ‘She’s got to earn her keep, Nancy,’ Reg says. ‘I was out at work at her age. What does she think this is, a free boarding house? All meals provided?’

It’s where I am today, walking Paul through the park, earning my keep. It’s early evening. The air is dry and still and the neatly mown grass is striped with long shadows from the trees.

I push the pram up onto the bandstand and rock Paul gently. I wonder where Lucy is now. Is she at home, having dinner with her parents, waiting for it to grow dark so she can sneak out of the house and meet Mr Wheaton at the woods? They’ve got a new signal. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, during our history lessons, Lucy knows that if Mr Wheaton places his hand on her desk at some point during the hour it means he will be waiting in his car by the woods for her at nine o’clock that night. If he doesn’t, it means he can’t meet her. Once she went and waited a whole hour for him but he didn’t show. Apparently his wife made a fuss about him going to the pub and he couldn’t get away. I was freezing, Lucy had said to him the following night. You could have given me three rings on the telephone or something. Mr Wheaton had apparently got cross, told her not to be so ridiculous, that he was risking enough as it was. He’d asked Lucy why she was always ruining the short amount of time they had together and so Lucy had walked home, cold and tearful. I hate Mr Wheaton for making her feel that way.

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