The Body on the Beach (The Weymouth Trilogy) by Church Lizzie

Author:Church, Lizzie [Church, Lizzie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-07-23T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Giles reappeared the next afternoon. Kathryn was reading with Bob in the kitchen and was just announcing the end of lessons for the day when she heard her husband coming into the hall.

She went to meet him, and managed a smile. Giles seemed to notice that she had donned her mourning outfit. He failed to say anything about it.

‘Have you sorted everything, Giles?’ she asked.

Giles took her in his arms and gave her a big hug.

‘We’ll be all right, Kitty, don’t you fret.’

Kathryn felt that she would be far less likely to fret if she were to know exactly how things stood but she could see that her husband was determined to give nothing away.

‘I met up with your friend’s brother – Berkeley, is it? – at the bank,’ he said, carelessly, taking off his coat. ‘He and Brewer were off for a bevvy so I went alongside. Invited me for dinner so I had to stay. Brewer’s eldest daughter was there – Sophie he called her. Gad, what a girl. Just sixteen and straight from school. Ripe for the plucking. Dainty as a fairy – a bit in your style, Kitty, but twice the woman. She won’t be hanging around for long, that’s for sure. Berkeley couldn’t take his eyes off her.’

It was perhaps fortunate that Giles had slung his coat onto the floor, as it gave Kathryn the opportunity of turning away to pick it up again, and hence hiding the effects of his news from sight. She had never thought of Mr Berkeley taking an interest in other women, she knew not why. She did not like the idea at all, though she knew that she had no right to think it. After all, it was perfectly natural for him to do so.

‘So did you stay with Mr Brewer?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. Didn’t get out of there until after midnight so there was nothing for it but to put up at the Royal.’

‘But I thought you were short of money.’

‘So – what else would you have had me do? I couldn’t walk back here in the dark, could I? I might have killed myself falling down the cliffs. None of the lodging houses would’ve taken me in at that time of night. I was lucky enough to get in at the Royal.’

Kathryn couldn’t help but reflect on the money she had just given to the landlady to cover her poor aunt’s funeral. It had been all that she’d had left until the end of June, yet it was probably a quarter of the amount that Giles had just expended upon himself for his single night at the Royal.

‘Well, I’m glad that everything has got sorted anyway,’ she said. ‘I daresay that everything will work out in the end.’

On the first of May Kathryn took Bob up to the village green for the annual celebrations and watched as he romped joyously around the maypole with the rest of the village children, sorry that she had to drag him

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