A Clubbable Woman by Reginald Hill

Author:Reginald Hill [Hill, Reginald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural, Political
ISBN: 9780007313020
Google: K4FKPwAACAAJ
Amazon: 1933397934
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem
Published: 1972-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

Jenny and Antony looked at each other, brown eyes unblinkingly fixed on blue, over the rims of their upraised pint pots.

‘Umh,’ said Antony appreciatively, putting his glass down and nodding his head, ‘not bad at all. Unpretentious, with a pleasant touch of wit, should travel quite well. There is perhaps a slight tendency towards making one drunk.’

They were sitting near a huge open fire in the lounge of a pub of that kind of indeterminate oldness which is the sign of constant use and development over many years. The fireplace was obviously very old indeed. It was large, and had once been larger. The table they sat at was wrought iron, with a bright brass guard-rail running round the top of it, more of a danger to glasses than anything else. In the ceiling there was visible what might have been an original oak cross-beam, but it had been unceremoniously distempered with the rest.

‘I like it here,’ said Antony. ‘They have attempted neither to freeze the past, nor anticipate the future. Nor indeed to impress the present upon us with framed photographs of actors and actresses, cricketers and jockeys, the semi-famous sub-world, with duplicated scrawls of spurious well-wishings stamped across their corners.’

‘I just like the beer,’ said Jenny.

‘It was nice of your father to chase us off together as he did,’ said Antony.

‘He’s a nice man.’

‘Yes, I’m sure he is. Well, Jenny, now we have got over the initial emotionalism of our reunion, perhaps one or two points might be clarified for me. Your father has extended to me the hospitality of his house for as long as I care to take it, or until he grows sick of the sight of me.

It did not escape my notice, however, that you were accompanied last night by a rather large, rather muddy man who, I gathered from hints dropped from various quarters, had been your escort that evening. Competition I do not mind. I thrive on it. But we Wilkeses were never dogs in mangers. A word will be enough.’

‘Which word is that?’ asked Jenny.

‘If you don’t know it, then I shall not teach you it. Good. I’m glad that’s out of the way.’

‘I didn’t know it was.’

‘Well, isn’t it?’

‘Of course, you fool. Didn’t you get a good look at him? I was after information, that’s all.

‘Information?’

Quickly Jenny explained about Ted Morgan. At least it started off as a quick explanation, but almost without noticing, she was soon telling Antony everything she had felt or feared in the past week.

He listened gravely without interrupting her. When she finished, he went to the bar and refilled their glasses.

‘There are evidently some very nasty people in this little town of yours,’ he said reflectively.

‘And some very nice ones,’ said Jenny with instinctive indignation.

He grinned at her and took her hand.

‘But what goes on on the terraces seems to be very simple and almost harmless compared with that Rugby Club of yours.’

The look of strain which had been missing from Jenny’s face most of the morning returned.

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.