Urn Burial Read Online Free PDF Page A

stepping back.
    ‘Is he a Christian?’
    ‘Yes, I believe so. Are you?’ asked Phryne gently.
    Miss Reynolds smelt trouble and intervened.
    ‘Miss Sapphira Cray is one of the Church’s most tireless workers. She’s always collecting for the missions.’
    ‘Is she?’ asked Phryne. ‘Miss Cray? I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll give you quite a lot of money for your mission if you never again refer to my exceptionally educated friend as a mission boy, and refrain from insulting him for the duration of our visit. Do we have a bargain?’
    Miss Cray shot Phryne a sharp look, considered whether to take offence or not, decided on the side of lucre, and nodded.
    Mrs Reynolds apologised as soon as they were out of earshot. ‘I’m so sorry about that, but she is a very good woman. She’s Tom’s second cousin, never spends a shilling on herself; always wears 26
    those dreadful old clothes, and gives everything she has to the heathen.’
    ‘Lucky heathen,’ said Phryne. They stopped at the border of the lawn, where two young men had abandoned their cricket and were strolling together, smoking cigarettes and laughing. ‘I’ve been told that they are Gerry and Jack.’
    ‘Yes, such nice boys. So well mannered. I think Mrs Fletcher had hopes that Gerry might take to her daughter Judith. They get on well together.
    Gerry’s the heir to the fortune, you know.’
    ‘No, which fortune?’
    ‘Oh, sorry, I should have explained. His great-grandfather Randall was a ship’s chandler, and he sold so well and cleverly that he made a huge fortune and had his own shipping line. Then his father married American money. I think it is so nice of the Americans to have money.’
    ‘It quite reconciles us to their accent,’ agreed Phryne. Her own grandfather had married a Chicago heiress. She had introduced steam heating, Parisian clothes and liquid assets into the Fisher family, to its eternal improvement.
    ‘Yes, but regrettably Gerry doesn’t get along with his step-mama. So he’s staying here until he goes to university in March – he’s reading law, I believe. His friend Jack Lucas comes from a very old family, but they’ve got no money at all – lost it all in the Megatherium crash. Jack’s going to start work as a clerk as soon as he leaves here. I feel so sorry for him, he’s just as clever as Gerry, but when I asked him what he wanted to be he 27
    laughed quite bitterly and said, ‘‘It doesn’t matter what I want to be, Mrs R, I’m going to be a clerk in an auction room.’’ So sad, poor boy.’
    Phryne felt a pang. She had been acquainted with the sole perpetrator of the Megatherium business, and she had let him run away to South America. Still, even if she had handed him over to the law, the investors would have lost their cash.
    Bobby had spent it all on infallible betting systems on horses which broke their legs as soon as they left the barrier – or even before.
    ‘There’s Miss Fletcher.’
    A robust girl ran up, tossing and catching a hockey ball in one square hand. She had short yellow hair and bright blue eyes and she cried,
    ‘Hello! You must be Miss Fisher! I saw them polishing your car – spiffing machine. Hispano-Suiza, isn’t it? Massive torque you must get from those pistons. I understand it did eighty miles an hour at the Chicago Brickyard. Magnificent design.’
    ‘Thank you. Would you care to go for a drive in her?’
    ‘Would you – perhaps you would let me drive?’
    The girl’s eyes lit with eagerness.
    ‘No,’ said Phryne. ‘No one drives her but me.
    Or my staff. Sometimes. Well, we’ll see,’ she said kindly, as the girl seemed very disappointed.
    ‘I know you wouldn’t want to risk her,’ said Miss Fletcher, ‘but I can drive. Gerry lets me drive his Bentley.’
    ‘Does he indeed?’ The girl reminded Phryne of Bunji Ross. ‘Do you fly, by any chance?’
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    ‘They won’t let me – yet.’ The strong mouth set in determined lines. ‘But I shall talk them