Love Him to Death Read Online Free PDF

have any time to admire them.” She fixed Sally with a piercing stare. “You’ve read through my instructions, I take it? Think you can manage?”
    “Oh yes,” said Sally with a lot more confidence than I knew she felt. “It’s all under control. I’ll set my alarm for four thirty – be up bright and early to get everything done.”
    Tessa nodded approvingly then turned to Graham and me. “And what are you two going to do?”
    “Help Mum if she needs us,” said Graham. Sally looked rather alarmed at the prospect so he added, “We can lay the tables if you want.”
    “Hmm,” grunted Tessa. “Well don’t get under her feet. Things are going to be hectic enough around here without a couple of kids in the way.”
    She didn’t wait for us to reply but turned on her heel and clicked back down the staircase without another word.
    I was so tired that I crashed into bed without even bothering to brush my teeth and quickly fell into a deep sleep. But towards dawn I started to dream. I was in the audience – right in the front row – of one of those huge Roman amphitheatres, and all around me the crowd was baying for blood. Down in the ring two gladiators were fighting, but they weren’t big, burly soldiers in armour. It was Josie and Angelica circling in the dust, swords pointed at each other’s throats, spitting and snarling like wild animals. Beside me Bill fell to his knees begging them to stop, but they couldn’t hear him over the noise of the crowd. Even if they had, I knew he was wasting his breath.
    I could see in their eyes that both women intended to fight to the death.

venus and adonis
    Bill and Josie’s Big Day dawned as bright and sunny as you’d expect on a Greek island in the middle of summer. By the time I woke up, Sally was already hard at work. I got out of bed and pulled back the blinds to see that Tessa had been telling the truth: the view was spectacular.
    The villa was perched right on the edge of a cliff – if I’d jumped out of my window, I’d have plummeted straight down into the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean. Or at least I would have done if there hadn’t been a balcony jutting out from the floor below. I could see Angelica sitting on it, wrapped in a bathrobe, staring out to sea, motionless as a block of ice.
    I craned my neck to the left and realized that the island consisted of two mountains rising from the sea like a pair of badly made sandcastles. We were perched on the top of one, and a chapel balanced precariously on the other. A cobbled street led from our villa down to a sandy bay, where white houses were strung out like a line of beads. Then the street climbed again, finally reaching the chapel in a series of sharp bends.
    The main beach looked pretty crowded, but there was also a tiny cove nestling at the foot of the cliffs about a hundred metres away. A narrow path zigzagged down to it and there was a creaky-looking pedalo pulled up on the sand. It was a people-free zone.
    We ought to check on Graham’s mum first, I thought, but if she really didn’t need our help, this would be the ideal place for us to Keep Out of the Grown-Ups’ Way. I started rootling around for my swimming stuff, just in case. The prospect of a quiet swim seemed very appealing.
    But it turned out that fate had other ideas. Suddenly there was a loud banging on my door, and before I’d even said “Come in”, Tessa burst through clasping a weakly protesting Graham tightly by the shoulder. She was closely followed by a tearful Josie.
    “What’s going on?” I asked indignantly, uncomfortably aware that I was still in my pyjamas. “Are you OK, Graham?”
    When she saw me, Tessa released Graham and crossed the floor with terrifying speed. She looked me up and down, then spun me around and made a rude remark about the size of my bottom.
    “What’s going on?” I repeated, looking at Graham for some clue. He shrugged, baffled, but said nothing.
    “Yes,” said Tessa to Josie as if I