Blackstone's Pursuits Read Online Free PDF Page B

right.
    ‘Loft, flat,’ she said. ‘What’s the difference?’
    ‘About five grand in a good market, I reckon.’ That got her attention.
    We made our way up the narrow, twisty stairway to my pad, and stepped into the tiny square area which passed for my entrance hall. Two doors and a staircase led from it. ‘Kitchen to the left, bathroom door to the right,’ I said. I opened each door to demonstrate. When I opened the door on the right, a red-faced woman screamed. She was sat on the toilet, so it was understandable.
    ‘The rest of it’s up there.’ I said hurriedly. Weighed down by bags, I led the way up the staircase to the heart of my stronghold. Prim stepped up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. ‘Er, Oz. About Mrs Blackstone?’
    I frowned. ‘I told you, my mother’s dead. Anyway, she always bolted the door when she went to the toilet. That was Jan. She does my books, but she sets her own hours.’
    Well, it was true. Jan and I were at school together. She did my books. Occasionally she ironed a shirt if she felt sorry for me, On even rarer occasions, when something was troubling her or she just felt like my company, she gave me a cuddle in the night.
    Downstairs we heard the toilet flush. I looked across the room. Fortunately my ledgers were spread out on my desk. Prim followed my eyes, then looked around the rest of the place.
    ‘You never said it was open plan!’
    ‘You never asked. Anyway, it isn’t. The living area’s down here. The sleeping area’s that raised part, up that wee ladder. When you’re in bed, you can’t be seen from down here. Well, hardly.’
    ‘Very comforting!’ She’s good at irony, is Prim.
    ‘Remember the pointy bit I showed you? Well, you get to that through the sleeping area. You see the foot of the second ladder there?’
    ‘It looks sort of like a square funnel from the inside, doesn’t it,’ she said. At that moment Wallace, the curious iguana, eased his cumbersome frame down the ladder, and swung across to walk along the railing which enclosed the raised area, and against which my bed was pressed.
    She shook her head, and then did something which turned my knees to jelly. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed me. Not on the cheek, on the lips. Chastely, you understand. Hands by her side and everything. But still, not on the cheek, on the lips.
    ‘Osbert, you may be a fruitcake, and you may live in a fucking mad-house, but you are my saviour and protector, my knight in shining armour. You’re here when I need you, and I thank you.’
    The gallows answer stuck in my throat. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me, and I was unspeakably touched.
    Jan wasn’t. She smiled at Prim as she appeared at the top of the stairs, and she smiled at me. I could grade the warmth of Jan’s smiles pretty well, and the one she threw at me was straight from the fridge. She’s a tall girl, with looks and dark hair that fell off a Jane Russell poster, and a chest to match.
    ‘Hi,’ I said. I was about to add, ‘Sorry about surprising you on the bog,’ but I thought that I’d better not. ‘Jan, this is Prim Phillips. Prim, Jan More. Prim’s got a problem, she needs somewhere to crash for a couple of days.’
    Jan smiled again, with a glint in her eye, but there was nothing malicious in it. ‘Must be a big problem, for you to wind up here. Watch out for Wallace, darlin’. That bloody iguana was right up my kilt this morning.’
    She turned back to me. ‘Oz, your books are done. Your VAT slip’s ready to go. I’ve written cheques for that and all your other bills, and I’ve written one for me too.’
    ‘Fine,’ I said. I picked up my chequebook, signed the second cheque, tore it out and handed it to her. I didn’t even check the amount. Jan hadn’t given herself a rise in four years. Mind you, she’d given me a few.
    ‘Thanks. Right, I’m off. See you next month, or whenever.’
    I saw her to the door. ‘Look, Jan, you’d never believe ...’
    She