Paws for Alarm Read Online Free PDF

she did not actually choose her guests to match the decor; it was quite probable that they had been here before and had dressed for the occasion.
    â€˜Hazel Davies –’ We greeted her as the introductions were made. She was wearing a slim black sheath which could have been chosen by a House Beautiful photographer to set off the room.
    â€˜And Piers Alperton –’ So they weren't together. At least, not married-together. He was just as disconcertingly flawless in a pale silver-grey lounge suit. He was also quite devastating with his blond hair, pale blue eyes and thin aristocratic features. Around one wrist he wore a heavy chain which looked like silver but was probably platinum.
    â€˜That’s a fine old English name –’ Arnold blundered in like a bull in a china shop. ‘As in The Vision of Piers Plowman, eh?’
    â€˜Actually –’ the man did not actually wince, but he gave that effect – ‘my family were landowners. We’re in the Domesday Book.’
    â€˜Oh –’ Deflated, Arnold sank down on the matching sofa opposite them. I sank down beside him, feeling as though I were going down for the third time, Me, in my shrieking scarlet chiffon, looking as out of place as a pool of blood on the carpet.
    â€˜Piers was an old colleague of Richard’s before he went off on his own,’ Lania explained, bringing us drinks. ‘He’s an interior designer now.’
    â€˜Oh.’ A light began to glimmer at the end of a long dark mental passageway. I tried not to stare around the room too obviously.
    â€˜It’s beautiful –’ Hazel Davies had no such inhibitions. ‘Really beautiful, Lania.’
    â€˜Yes, I’m frightfully pleased,’ Lania agreed. She turned to us. ‘Piers uses me as a guinea pig for some of his ideas, I’m afraid. Not that I mind –’
    Richard, standing behind us, made a small indeterminate sound. It might have been a growl.
    â€˜One of my more successful efforts, I must admit.’ Piers took a bow.
    â€˜I couldn’t be more pleased.’ Lania looked around the drawing-room complacently. Her gaze wavered as it got to Arnold.
    He had decided that it would be a subtle compliment to wear his Black Watch plaid jacket matched with his dark green gabardine trousers. It was obviously a mistake in this room. It could have been worse. If Lania thought that outfit was bad, wait until she saw him in his Bleeding Madras Bermuda shorts.
    â€˜Fair do’s –’ Piers Alperton had an attack of modesty. ‘The lighting is an important part of the effect – and poor old Blake did a magnificent job.’
    â€˜Oh, you’re so lucky,’ Hazel sighed to Lania. ‘Here I am, with an absentee husband who seems to be permanently seconded to the Export Drive, and you’re surrounded by able-bodied clever men. That is,’ she amended, with a guilty glance towards our half of the house, ‘you were surrounded.’
    Suddenly, you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.
    â€˜Mmm, yes.’ Lania set her drink down on the glass table with a definite clink. ‘I think perhaps it’s time for us to go through to the dining-room. Mrs Thing must be ready to serve by now.’
    â€˜You’re not the only one,’ I told Hazel as we filed into the dining-room. ‘As soon as I let him off the leash, Arnold is going to disappear into the depths of London and all its specialist libraries and I’m going to be on my own, too.’
    â€˜Oh, good!’ she said, then recovered quickly. ‘I don’t mean that – I just mean perhaps we can get together once in a while. I’m very much the new girl in town and everyone else has their own schedules and routines. It would be rather comforting to join forces with another newcomer and moan together over a cup of tea once in a while.’
    â€˜I know just what you mean,’ I agreed. I had