Death of a Gossip Read Online Free

Hamish, ‘Are you being deliberately stupid?’
    Hamish looked horrified. ‘I would no more dream of being deliberately stupid, miss, than you yourself would dream of being deliberately bitchy.’
    ‘Fun’s over,’ whispered Jeremy to Alice. ‘Back comes Lady Jane.’
    She came crashing through the undergrowth. Her broad face was flushed, and she had a scratch down one cheek. But her eyes held a triumphant, satisfied gleam.
    John Cartwright hurriedly began to make arrangements to move his school on to further fishing grounds for the afternoon. Boxes of hooks were distributed. More knots demonstrated – a towel
knot and a figure of eight.
    This time even Lady Jane struggled away in silence to master the slippery nylon. The fever of catching fish was upon the little party.
    ‘Now,’ said Heather, ‘we’ll issue you each with knotted leaders, but have your own leaders knotted and ready for tomorrow morning. We have the Anstey River for the
afternoon. Carry this fishing permit – I’ll give you each one – in your pockets in case you are stopped by the water bailiffs. Marvin and Amy, I believe you have done some fly
fishing in the States. We’ll start you off on the upper beats. We suggest you keep moving. Never fish in one spot for too long. If you come back to the hotel before we set out, then
we’ll issue you with waders. John and I will show each of you what to do as soon as we’re on the river. We’ll need to take the cars. John and I will take Alice and Charlie. Daphne
can go with Jeremy, and I believe the rest of you have your own cars. Has anyone seen the major?’
    Lady Jane spoke up. ‘He was fishing about on the other side of the loch, pretending to be an angler. At least it makes a change from pretending to be an officer and a gentleman.’
    ‘The rest of you go on to the hotel,’ said John hurriedly. ‘I’ll go and look for the major.’
    ‘I wish you were coming with me,’ said Jeremy to Alice.
    She looked at him in surprise. She had been so obsessed with Mr Patterson-James that she had never really stopped to think any other man might find her attractive.
    As Jeremy moved off with Daphne, Alice studied him covertly. He really was a very attractive man. His voice was pleasant and slightly husky. He did not seem to have to strangle and chew his
words as Mr Patterson-James did. Her heart gave a little lift, and she unconsciously smiled at Jeremy’s retreating back.
    ‘No use,’ said Lady Jane, appearing at Alice’s elbow. ‘He’s one of the Somerset Blythes. Quite above your touch, wouldn’t you say? Daphne’s more his
sort.’
    Alice was consumed by such a wave of bitter hatred that she thought she would suffocate. ‘Fook off!’ she said, in a broad Liverpool accent.
    ‘Attagirl!’ remarked Marvin cheerfully.
    Lady Jane muttered something. Alice thought she said, ‘I’ll make you sorry you said that,’ but she must have been imagining things.
    Alice was prepared to find herself cut off from Jeremy for the rest of the day. But when they reached the river Anstey, which broadened out at one part into a large loch, Heather arranged that
Jeremy and Alice should take out the rowing boat and fish from there while the rest were distributed up and down the banks several miles apart.
    Before she allowed Alice to go out in the boat, Heather gave her a gruelling half-hour lesson in casting. Alice caught her hat, caught the bushes behind, wrapped her leader around the branches
of a tree, and then quite suddenly found she had mastered the knack of it.
    ‘Don’t keep worrying about all that line racing out behind you,’ said Heather. ‘Just concentrate on what you’ve been told. Now you’re ready to go. Jeremy,
you’ve obviously done this before.’
    ‘Yes, but very clumsily,’ said Jeremy.
    ‘Take the boat and row upstream and then drift slowly back down,’ said Heather. ‘You may not catch a salmon but you should get some trout.’
    He rowed them swiftly up the stream