Page 66 of A Very Bookish Murder
Millie and Morwenna appeared downstairs together at twenty-five past nine, Millie in her dark glasses.
‘How’s the eye?’ Ally asked as they helped themselves to cereal.
‘A bit sore and quite spectacular,’ Millie replied, removing her sunglasses to display the swollen area around her eye, now in varying shades of black, blue and purple.
‘I was just saying to Millie that it must have taken some force to deliver a blow like that,’ said Morwenna, ‘so Penelope must be mighty strong.’
‘And whoever strangled Jodi Jones must have been mighty strong too,’ Millie said, replacing her glasses.
‘Because Jodi would surely have put up a fight?’ said Morwenna.
‘Sowethink it has to be Penelope who killed Jodi,’ Millie concluded.
Ally shook her head. ‘Who knows? Maybe we’ll get some clue today. Now, what would you like for breakfast?’
‘We’ve got a long day ahead,’ Millie remarked.
‘I’m giving Millie a lift to the airport,’ Morwenna said, ‘because it’s pretty much on my way. But it’s going to be alongday. Yes, I think I’ll have the full cooked breakfast.’
Millie nodded. ‘Yes, for me too, please.’
‘Incidentally,’ Ally said, ‘I found these keys down the side of the sofa. Would they belong to either of you?’
Morwenna shook her head, but Millie nodded. ‘Ah,’ she said, ‘I wondered where I’d dropped them. Yes, they’re mine.’
Ally handed her the keys, a little baffled.
Penelope appeared next, looking grey and tired. ‘Good morning, both,’ she said, stifling a yawn, ‘I hope you feel better than I do!’ She peered at Millie.
Millie pushed her glasses up. ‘Take a look at that! You are not aware of your own strength. And donotstart apologising again.’
‘I am suitably chastened,’ Penelope said, pulling a sad face. She turned to Ally. ‘I will have the full breakfast today because there’s a long drive ahead for me.’
‘I guessed you probably all would,’ Ally said, just as Brigitte and George entered the dining room.
‘Bonjour!’ Brigitte said cheerfully, looking around.
‘I’m glad someone’s feeling bright this morning,’ Ally said with a smile as she made her way towards the door. She stopped in her tracks when George, standing in the middle of the room, began to speak.
‘I think I owe everyone an apology,’ he said, ‘for not telling you who I was. But I was so afraid that it might involve Brigitte, and that you might suspect her as the killer.’
‘Well, she’s not out of the woods yet!’ Penelope snapped.
‘She told you last night why she was here,’ George continued, ‘which was to try to talk some sense into my strange mother.’
‘You never appeared particularly sad,’ Millie said, sitting down with a bowl of fruit, ‘and, after all, shewasyour mother.’
George sighed as he sat down opposite her at the table. ‘No, I didn’t come here straight away because yes, I was sad, but also relieved.’
There was a moment’s silence while everyone stared at him, digesting this.
‘I was an adult before I ever knew her,’ George went on, ‘and, at first, I was very emotional about the whole thing.’ He took a sip of fruit juice. ‘Then she began to try to control every damn thing I did.’
Ally remembered what Laura had said during dinner, that Jodi was a controller.
‘She’d appear every five minutes,’ George said, ‘telling me I should do this, I should do that. And it’s not as if she was lonely because she had a lover and a good social life. But I found it very draining, particularly when she forbade me to marry. Wedidmarry, of course’ – here he patted Brigitte fondly on the arm as she sat down beside him – ‘but I never told my mother. Jodi had set me up with my own publishing business, you see, and I was very much afraid she might withdraw her money, which would have wrecked the business. I was in her debt, and I did not want Brigitte to be mixed up in any of this. But she wasinsistent on coming to this retreat to try to get to know Jodi and to get her to approve our marriage.’ He looked around, smiling. ‘At least I’ve acquired an uncle out of all this! It’s the most incredible coincidence, and neither myself or my new uncle Bob can scarcely believe it! In fact, when we leave here today, we’re going to spend a few days with him and his wife in Inverness.’
Brigitte kissed him on the cheek. ‘There will be so much to talk about, to catch up on,’ she said.
