Truth Will Out Read Online Free PDF Page A

just browsing but it took his eye right away. He knew the name Cope and also recognized the landscape. He was determined to have it.’
    ‘That’s wonderful news! Well done, Lionel!’ The encounter in the garden was already fading from her mind. ‘So when does the gallery want the next batch of pictures?’
    ‘In a few weeks’ time. I don’t want them to be too readily available. Let the clients wait for them! Maybe next month.’ He loosened his tie and unfastened his collar as he headed for the stairs. He would change from what he called his ‘business clothes’ into something more casual and was looking forward to his evening meal.
    In the kitchen Biddy was stirring the leek and tomato soup, which would precede a chicken and bacon pie. Her mind, however, was busy replaying the incident of the intruder. Something about it jarred but she couldn’t put a finger on it. The whole story seemed odd. Why should anyone send a dim lad like Jem to deliver a few brochures or leaflets or whatever they were? All the way from Hastings to Folkestone? And why had he come creeping in over the fence instead of coming straight to the front door? Perhaps he was fantasizing, making out that he was spy on a secret mission. Boys liked to do things like that, she imagined, and although he looked older he might have been a bit backward. A bit childish, even . . . She tested the soup, pushed the saucepan to the back of the stove and replaced the lid. As she did so the nagging worry became clearer. How had the young man known that if the women folk were lying about Lionel being in bed with a fever, there was a chance he was in London and would return by train? In other words, why had he waited for him at the station to hand over his package?
    Biddy wiped down the table, trying to remember what she had planned for the evening meal, to follow the soup. Stepping into the larder she surveyed the shelves in the hope that something would jog her memory. She believed that so far nobody had noticed that she was becoming very forgetful and had decided to keep a little notebook somewhere so that she could make notes and refer to it, but so far she had forgotten to buy the notebook.
    Seeing some cold chicken she smiled. Chicken and bacon pie! Of course. As she carried it from the larder and set it on the table, Alice came into the kitchen in search of her gardening gloves.
    Biddy pounced. ‘You’re always losing them, Alice. You should return them to the potting shed after you use them.’ It made her feel better to know that someone else, someone younger , also had a faulty memory. Before Alice could reply she went on, ‘Funny “how d’you do” this morning, wasn’t it? I can’t rest easy in my mind. That strange young man and—’
    ‘It was odd, true, but Mr Brent seemed to understand it all. You should forget about it. We all should. I’m not letting it bother me.’ She opened the dresser drawer and found the gloves. ‘I thought I’d give Maude a hand. She’s trying to tidy up the roses, which have gone a bit straggly.’
    ‘But how did he know he should wait at the station? We didn’t mention it.’
    ‘Whoever sent him must have known he works in London some days. He was set on earning that shilling and can’t have been as daft as we thought.’
    ‘But we said Lionel was ill in bed.’
    Alice grinned. ‘We’re obviously terribly bad liars! Quite a compliment in a way. Anyway, who cares? I’m quite looking forward to a week here alone. I mean, just the two of us. We can get up later than usual and—’
    ‘I expect we’ll find plenty to do,’ Biddy told her firmly. ‘We could sort out the linen – maybe even turn some of the worn sheets sides to middle. The days will drag if we do nothing.’
    ‘I hate sewing! I’m paid to be a companion.’
    ‘You can’t be a companion to someone who’s not here and they’re hardly going to pay you for a week for sitting around!’
    ‘I didn’t ask them to go away. I’d go