Page 8 of A Very Bookish Murder
‘Never mind,’ Ally said soothingly, patting his hand. ‘They do say that anticipation can sometimes be the best part…’
The four women returned not long before ten o’clock. Brigitte and Penelope had driven up from the south, and still had their cars parked in the village, whereas Millie had made the journey by air to Inverness, and then by bus. Joyce, who didn’t drink and who had a large Range Rover, had driven them back up to the malthouse.
‘It was parked out on the road anyway because of having to clear the car park,’ she said, ‘and I wanted to bring it up here.’
Ally ushered them into the large sitting room and offered hot drinks and/or nightcaps.
‘I’d love a hot chocolate!’ exclaimed Joyce.
‘Great idea,’ the other three chorused.
‘We’ve had such a load of alcohol this afternoon and evening,’ Penelope said cheerfully. ‘But we bloody well needed it, didn’t we, gals?’
The ‘gals’, apart from Joyce, all agreed that they had indeed needed alcohol after the horrendous events of the afternoon.
‘So now there is no Jodi,’ Brigitte said sadly.
‘To be honest, I didn’t like her that much,’ Joyce admitted. ‘I must confess that I wasn’t particularly shocked when Della came up with the plagiarism thing because I think she stole one of my ideas too…’
‘What makes you think that?’ Penelope asked.
‘Because one of her plots was very similar to one of mine which I’d sent for her to edit,’ Joyce replied.
‘No smoke without fire, I suppose,’ Penelope said brusquely.
‘And this course has cost a lot of money, so what happens now?’ Millie asked.
‘We are not giving up now, ladies!’ Penelope said loudly. ‘You’ve paid for a course, and I shallgive youa course.’
‘But what would we do?’ Millie asked.
‘Well, we can still do writing exercises and brainstorming sessions.’
‘But we should discuss how Jodi died and who could have possibly done it. Surely that would be a good base for crime stories?’ Ally suggested hopefully.
Penelope guffawed. ‘Obviously there’s little doubt that the Irish woman killed her,’ she said firmly in her usual loud fashion.
‘That’s true; after all, if it wasn’t any of us, who else could it be?’ Millie asked.
‘It could have been that Laura whatever-her-name-is,’ Joyce said. ‘I thought she was a bit strange, and I thought all along that she had another agenda.’ She put her head in her hands. ‘Oh God, I’m never going to forget seeing Jodi lying there…’
‘If only we hadn’t needed the toilet,’ Millie said sadly.
‘Some of ushaveto go!’ Penelope boomed. ‘I have a very weak bladder, I’ll have you know.’
‘Have you tried those special pants they keep advertising?’ asked Joyce, who seemed more than happy to change the subject.
Ally decided this was a good time to escape to the kitchen and make the hot chocolates.
‘This is Ross,’ Ally announced as he followed her into the sitting room a little while later, carefully carrying a large tray of hot chocolates, followed by two excited Labradors. As she shooed them back into the kitchen, Ally was aware that he was being scrutinised and was also aware of some muted murmurs of approval. And so there should be, she thought. Ross was tall, lean, silver haired and blue eyed, and he looked very tasty this evening. Pity about the night of passion though, but Ally couldn’t imagine either of them staying awake long enough for anything other than a hasty goodnight kiss.
‘That policeman said he wanted us to stay here,’ Brigitte said, stirring her drink. ‘So now we must be here for some time and my husband will go crazy!’
‘Do you know how long for?’ Millie asked, looking horrified.
Brigitte shrugged again. ‘I do not know.’
‘What will happen,’ boomed Penelope, ‘is that most likely we will have to stay here until someone is arrested, and that’sthat!’
