Inspector Chucky 01 Cat and Mouse by Christianna Brand

Author:Christianna Brand [Brand, Christianna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480405745
Amazon: 0571251595
Published: 2013-01-15T22:38:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

MISS EVANS THE MILK was late that day. They saw her little boat push off from the opposite bank as Tinka and Mr. Chucky walked off down the mountain-path. Mr. Chucky was most unwontedly nervous. His accent grew almost unbearably Welsh. “There’s sorry, I am, Miss Jones, bach, but what else could I say?”

“Does he seriously believe that I’d be up in his attic letting myself be kissed by—of all people!—you!”

“Well, but you was, wasn’t you?”

“Not with any pleasure to me, I assure you.”

“Nor to me neither,” said Chucky. “No offence, Miss Jones, where none intended!”

“Oh, none at all,” said Miss Jones, heavy with sarcasm.

“At least it gave us an excuse for being up there.”

“It gave you an excuse. It’s hardly helped me!”

“If Mr. Carlyon had thought you’d been up there looking round, he’d have chucked us both out, and even harder. As it is, I can get back into the house.”

“Well, that I will put a stop to,” said Katinka. “I would have there and then, only he was so very ready to believe… Oh, well, what the hell! Anyway, I shall go to the police and tell them the whole shoot, as soon as I get to Pentre Trist. I shall tell them that you’re masquerading here as one of them, and I’m not going to have Mr. Carlyon upset any more, and that’s flat.”

He flashed her a very curious glance, out of that bright, brown, bird-like eye. “You seem very tender of Mr. Carlyon’s feelings, after the way he’s treated you.”

“He just doesn’t understand the truth, that’s all. I’m not going to stand by and see him worried any more, when his heart’s already nearly broken as it is.”

“Your own heart,” he said dryly, “would appear not to be under very good control.”

“My own heart’s perfectly in order, thank you very much.”

But he persisted, half laughing, half serious. “Don’t tell me that the hard-hitting Miss Jones has actually really fallen in love!”

“What’s love?” said Katinka, hurriedly. “Only a lot of genes and things, after all. In a couple of days I’ll probably have forgotten the whole business. I mean, out of sight out of libido, or whatever the thing is. But meanwhile…” She gave him a little, unhappy, pleading smile. “Well, yes, I am sort of smitten with the man, so be a pal and let it go at this. Don’t go on with it! Leave them alone with their misery. After all—what more is there for you to find out?”

“Well, there’s always Amista,” he said.

“You don’t believe in Amista,” she said, angrily. “That’s only an excuse.”

“Oh, but you’ve convinced me,” he insisted, gaily. “After all, if you hadn’t heard from Amista, how could you have known as much as you did about the house and the things in the house and the people in the house? So Amista did exist. She was writing from this house for all those months. And there was the letter in the hall, the first day you arrived here, addressed in her writing, sealed with her own seal.

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