In his not-so-humble opinion, the shooting incident in the library was cardinal to the whole affair. Antonia agreed. She thought of it as a kind of a butterfly effect. ‘I am all right. I really am. It was a shock. It was quite awful, but I am – I am used to it. He’s done it before, it’s happened ...
19 Speak, Memory! ‘Don’t know what to make of Aunt Hortense,’ Major Payne said. ‘Would you say she was as cunning as the coiled cobra she used to wear round her wrist?’ ‘I am not sure. That would be overrating her, I think.’ He started the engine. ‘Toute vérité n’est pas b...
‘Hell for leather,’ she murmured. (Did anyone ever use the expression nowadays?) She found herself trying to imagine the experts in violent death arriving at Philomel Cottage. She hated police procedurals, so she was vague about it. There would be a team consisting of a detective inspector, a pol...
She kept opening the oven door and poking at the chicken with a fork. She was impatient. The chicken was neither too big, nor too small but of moderate size – exactly as the kala iilam had instructed. She had got up at dawn and wrung its neck herself. Eventually the chicken was ready and, putting...
‘In the same accident?’ ‘Yes – she was in the other car. The one we collided with. She was seven months pregnant at the time. She survived but she lost her baby. She had a miscarriage.’ ‘How terrible,’ Antonia said. ‘Oh, it was. Doesn’t bear thinking about!’ Beatrice flapp...
