Lady Emmeline and the Swansong Caper by Anna Reader

Author:Anna Reader [Reader, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-05T22:00:00+00:00

“Oi,” Purdie hissed, yomping across the sand to catch up with her brother, her hands full of plates. “Do you think Pa intends to steal that manuscript?”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” Algie replied, peering over his shoulder to make sure that their parents were a fair distance away. “Seems a bit fishy, though. Walter Scott, maybe, but what would he do with A Pair of Blue Eyes?”

“I’m not sure Pa even knows who Thomas Hardy is,” Purdy mused, narrowly dodging a jet of water from a buried razor-clam.

“Maybe it’s got something to do with that cricket match,” Algie whispered, once again looking back over his shoulder without a shred of discretion.

“You’d be a horrendous spy, you know,” Purdie observed. “Oh, heck. Look out – Woods is on the prowl, and she’s wielding a rolling pin.”

The harassed housekeeper was indeed marching towards them, a martial look in her eye.

“And what time do you call this?” she demanded, tucking the flour- covered rolling pin under one cavernous arm-pit and seizing the dirty cutlery. “It’s almost five o’clock, that’s what it is. How am I supposed to keep to any kind of a timetable if you insist on eating like Italians, that’s what I’d like to know.”

Invoking the eating habits of Italy was a serious matter for Mrs Woods. None of the Purdews knew where this fear had come from or why it affected her so profoundly, but their housekeeper was obviously convinced that a kind of lawless anarchy reigned supreme in an Italian kitchen. Algie had once had the audacity to request a pasta dish for supper, and Woods hadn’t spoken to him for a month.

“Sorry, old thing,” Algie said, looking his most repentant. “Time ran away with us, rather. Tempus fugit, and all that.”

Woods sniffed, and turned on her heel. “Don’t you speak French to me, young man,” she said. “If supper’s ruined it won’t be any fault of mine, and that’s the last I’ll say on the matter.” And with that she stalked back towards the house, muttering darkly about spoiled custard and the imminent collapse of world order.

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