Miss Pink Investigates: Part One (Miss Pink Box Set Book 1) by Gwen Moffat

Author:Gwen Moffat [Moffat, Gwen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2019-06-26T22:00:00+00:00

A SHORT TIME TO LIVE

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

In this story Sandale and its houses are imaginary, as are all the characters, who have no relation to any specific people, alive or dead.

Chapter One

It was two o’clock on a Thursday afternoon in November and the London-Glasgow express was making good time as it bored through the urban sprawl between Liverpool and Manchester. The fog was thin but it had brought an early dusk to the north country; there were lights here and there in houses, more in offices, and street lamps hung like tangerines in the opal gloom.

The train slipped through a station and past rows of dark brick cottages with outdoor lavatories in grimy yards and lines of nappies limp in the sodden air. In the restaurant car Lucy Fell played with the stem of her wineglass and watched the reflections of her rings in the window. Across the table Denis Noble remarked expansively, ‘I should have ordered champagne.’

‘We had champagne on the way up.’

‘We’re celebrating again—aren’t we? Going south it was in anticipation of a lovely time, and now we should celebrate an achievement, right?’

She smiled at him and her round and rather large face glowed. The green eyes sparkled and her expression was so infectious that Noble, a ponderous and fleshy man with anxious eyes, looked suddenly boyish and eager.

‘All relationships have their ups and downs,’ she murmured. ‘Thank God we’re not humdrum, darling. Chaps are bound to feel their oats sometimes. After all, she was very young. . . .’ She returned to contemplation of the interminable terraces, her profile classical in the light. She had good skin and high cheekbones. ‘And exciting,’ she added.

‘You can say that again!’ He shifted in his seat. ‘And I don’t mean it as a compliment. No, Lucy, that’s my last oat, I’m afraid; I’m an old man.’ He reached across the table and captured her hand. ‘You’ll have to take care of me from now on.’ He caught her expression and his eyes were contrite. ‘I know that’s a lot to ask after I’ve made such a fool of myself, not to say hurting you, but at least I’ve found my level. If I hadn’t succumbed to that little tart, I’d have gone on wanting her for the rest of my life.’

She showed no surprise. Her eyes lingered on his thick hair where there was only a suspicion of grey in the black, on the broad face sweating gently after the food and wine, on the wide shoulders and the Savile Row suit.

‘You’re still a very beautiful woman,’ he said. Her eyes slipped as if gear wheels missed a cog. He went on happily, ‘And you can still make me madly jealous. You didn’t spend much time with me in town but I suppose that was deliberate: wanted to put me in my place, eh?’

‘I was shopping.’

‘The bills told me that, my sweet.’ He smiled to show that no sting was intended and surveyed her costume with interest.

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