2006 - Wildcat Moon Read Online Free PDF

up.”
    “That Jonathan Greswode at Killivray now is hardly ever there, lives most of the time up London. Bit of a nancy boy, I’ve heard. All dickie bows and hair oil,” Walter Grimble chipped in.
    “He can’t be a nancy boy, he’s married, got a child with a funny name,” Billy Nettles answered.
    “Romilly, I think she’s called,” said Nan.
    “I’ve never even seen her,” Freddie piped up.
    “Hardly anyone has. They keep her inside mostly, like a bloody hot-house plant There’s talk that she ain’t the full shilling,” said Billy Netties.
    “There’s a lot of that in them aristocracy types…too much inbreeding and eating fancy food…cousins marrying and all that ain’t never right if you ask me,” Charlie shook his head knowingly.
    “There was some talk about the mother years back. She was an actress, make-up artist or some bloody thing,” Billy said. “But they reckon she’s gone all religious since she married, always going off to some nunnery for months on end.”
    “Who looks after the kid then?” Nan asked.
    “They got an old nanny lives there, been there for ever.”
    “And that governess woman you see up at the Post Office once in a blue moon,” Charlie Payne added.
    “I heard she’s gone. She were a frosty-faced old bag, looked like she got something wedged up her arse.”
    “Language, man!” interjected Billy Nettles with a sniff, glaring at Walter Grimble.
    A fierce gust of wind rattled the windows and smoke blew out of the fire and into the bar.
    “Spirits on the move tonight,” said Charlie, nodding towards the fireplace.
    Nan eyed him sceptically. “Don’t talk daft; it’s just the wind, that’s all.”
    “The dead like to make their mark every now and again, show us they’re still around in some shape or form. That’ll be Benjamin Tregantie, I’ll bet.”
    Freddie looked at the fire warily.
    “It’s a full moon tonight. He’s making his last visit to the Skallies before his soul flies off wherever the souls of awkward old buggers go to.”
    “That’s fanciful talk, Charlie. Anyway I liked him.”
    “We all liked him, Nan, he were a good old stick, don’t mean he weren’t a cantankerous old sod.”
    More smoke blew out of the fire and Nan hurried out from behind the bar and flapped her apron to try and dear it then went across and opened the door.
    The wind was getting up rough and twigs and leaves skittered along Bloater Row, and somewhere a loose shutter banged noisily. She looked left down Bloater Row. At the far end past Hogwash House old Benjamin’s upturned boat was rocking from side to side in the wind as though something were trapped underneath. She shivered.
    Then a movement to her right caught her eye. She peered warily into the darkness. She couldn’t see anyone but if she wasn’t mistaken someone or something was lurking about in the shadows over near the wobbly chapel. It was high time that place was pulled down. It was a bloody good job it was locked up and none of the kids could get inside, it was a death trap.
    For God’s sake, Nan, she chided herself, you’re letting your imagination get the better of you. It was all that talk of the dead that had made her jumpy…
    The trouble was these days you didn’t know who was hanging about Take that poor little girl up in London…disappeared on her way home from school in a snowstorm and the body still not found weeks later. Poor little dab was there one minute and gone the next.
    Nan stepped back into the warmth of the bar and dosed the door quickly. “The forecast was right, boys, there’s a hell of a storm on its way. So last orders, gentlemen, please.”
     
    Fleep stood at the window and looked out into the night. Occasionally a wave hit the rocks below the Skallies and spray hit the windows making him jump. He turned and looked across at the bed longingly. If only he could get some sleep…
    It was a long time now since he had had a good sleep. He had learned to live with a few