Death at the Wedding Feast Read Online Free PDF

the stairs.
    John stared after her, shaking his head. He would obviously have to be more careful in future when his daughter warned him psychically of something.
    Two days later Jacquetta Fortune, sitting with the carter who brought her few sad pieces of furniture, arrived at Two, Nassau Street. John, receiving her, was only glad that Sir Gabriel now lived in Kensington and was therefore unable to see the fragments of a married home carried in. On the ground floor he had cleared out Emilia’s parlour, leaving in the harpsichord as it occurred to him that Jacquetta might care to play. Upstairs he had, in company with Rose’s maid, revitalized one of the guest bedrooms, tactfully removing the bed as he felt quite sure that Mrs Fortune would be bringing her marriage bed with her.
    He was not mistaken. The very first thing carried in by a sweating carter and a small-sized boy who looked as if he hadn’t eaten for a week was the bed. They lugged it upstairs, Jacquetta following behind like a moth. But she exclaimed in delight when she saw the room and the pretty curtains that the maid had rescued from somewhere in the depths of the house.
    â€˜Oh, Mr Rawlings,’ she said. ‘How delightfully you have prepared it for me.’
    â€˜I merely ran an eye over the proceedings. You have Emily to thank for this.’
    â€˜Emily?’
    â€˜Rose’s maid.’ He changed the subject, thinking how wan she looked. ‘Would you like a little something to eat? A pre-dinner entrée perhaps?’
    â€˜Thank you. I am rather famished.’
    â€˜Then come downstairs, do. I’ll get the servants to prepare something. Besides you have to meet Rose.’
    He offered her his arm, but his enquiry as to the whereabouts of his daughter was met with a servant’s crisp reply that she was playing in the garden and was not coming in until five. John’s banging on the French doors elicited no reply, and he was just about to step outside to fetch the naughty child in when Mrs Fortune stopped him.
    â€˜Oh, Mr Rawlings, leave her in peace, I beg you. Can’t you remember how down in the dumps you felt when interrupted in a game? She is surely wrapped up warmly and is no doubt enjoying herself enormously.’
    He looked at Jacquetta closely, once more taking in her thinness and general pale manner. ‘Very well, as you suggest,’ he answered, and gave her a little half-bow.
    But he knew that Rose’s curiosity would be aroused and, sure enough, after five minutes or so a little face appeared at the window, peering in. Playing the game, John ignored it, at the same time whispering to Mrs Fortune, ‘My daughter has arrived and is studying you. Be so good as not to notice.’
    She smiled that sudden-sunlight smile of hers, and John wished for the briefest of brief seconds that he was not involved with Elizabeth di Lorenzi, had never met her in fact, and that he could spend the rest of his days bringing Jacquetta Fortune back to the woman that she must once have been.
    At that moment there came two simultaneous knocks, one on the outside of the French doors, the other on the entrance to the study. John admitted the study visitor first and discovered Gideon Purle, hat in hand and looking terribly smart, standing there.
    The young man had grown even taller and these days stood well over six feet. His face had changed too, losing that boyish chubbiness and now dominated by a pair of lively eyes that darted hither and thither so brightly that one was left with the impression of flashes of colour shooting round the room. He was twenty years old and would be leaving his apprenticeship in the next couple of years. John sighed, suddenly feeling that he was getting on in years. He had had two apprentices in his career. But what men they had both grown into: the hulking, attractive young creature who had just entered the room, and the pale, limping but alive with character Nicholas Dawkins. John