Death of a Gossip Read Online Free Page A

while Alice nervously held her rod upright and wondered what on earth she would do if she caught a fish. The day was warm and sunny, and she felt laden down
with equipment. Her long green waders were clumsy and heavy. She had a fishing knife in one pocket and mosquito repellent in the other, since clouds of Scottish midges were apt to descend towards
dusk.
    She had a fishing net hanging from a string around her neck, and from another string a pair of small sharp scissors.
    On top of her wool fishing hat, kept back from her face by the thin brim, was a sort of beekeeper mosquito net which could be pulled down over her face if the flies got too bad.
    Jeremy rested the oars. ‘Pooh, it’s hot. Let’s take some clothes off.’
    Alice blushed painfully. Of course he meant they should remove some of their outer woollens, but Alice was at an age when everything seemed to sound sexy. She wondered feverishly whether she had
a dirty mind.
    Thank goodness she had had the foresight to put a thin cotton blouse under her army sweater. Alice took off her hat and then her sweater after unslinging the fishing net and laying it in the
bottom of the boat. She kept her scissors around her neck. Heather had been most insistent that they keep a pair of scissors handy for cutting lines and snipping free hooks.
    ‘Well,’ said Jeremy, ‘here goes!’
    The water was very still and golden in the sun. A hot smell of pine drifted on the air mixed with the smell of wild thyme. Alice felt herself gripped by a desire to catch something – anything.
    She cast and cast again until her arms ached. And then . . .
    ‘I’ve got something,’ she whispered. ‘It’s a salmon. It feels enormous.’
    Jeremy quickly reeled in his line and picked up his net. ‘Don’t reel in too fast,’ he said. He picked up the oars and moved the boat gently. Alice’s rod began to
bend.
    ‘Reel in a bit more,’ he said.
    ‘Oh, Jeremy,’ said Alice, pink with excitement, ‘what am I going to do?’
    ‘Take it easy . . . easy.’
    Alice could not wait. She reeled in frantically. Suddenly the line came clear, and she jerked it out of the water.
    On the end of her hook dangled a long piece of green weed.
    ‘And I thought I had a twenty-pound salmon,’ mourned Alice. ‘Do you know, Jeremy, I’m still shaking with excitement. Do you think I’m very primitive, really? I
mean, I wouldn’t normally hurt a fly, and there I was, ready to kill anything that came up on the end of that hook.’
    ‘I don’t think you’re all that quiet and timid,’ said Jeremy, casting again. ‘Only look at the way you put down Lady Jane. I heard all about that.’
    ‘I can’t believe I did that,’ said Alice thoughtfully. ‘I’ve never used that sort of language to anyone in my life. But it was all so beautiful when we were having
lunch, I wanted it to go on forever. Then suddenly she was there, bitching and making trouble. She drops hints, you know. Almost as if she had checked up on us all before she came. She . . . she
told me you belonged to the Somerset Blythes.’ Alice bit her lip. She had been on the point of telling him the rest.
    ‘She did, did she? Probably one of those women with little else to do with their time. I hope she doesn’t make life too hard for the village constable. She probably will complain to
his superiors.’
    ‘Poor Hamish.’
    ‘I think Hamish is well able to take care of himself. And what policeman, do you think, would rush in to take his place? Hardly the spot for an ambitious man.’
    ‘What do you do for a living?’ asked Alice.
    ‘I’m a barrister.’
    Alice felt a pang of disappointment. She had been secretly hoping he did something as undistinguished as she did.
    ‘What do you do?’ she heard Jeremy asking.
    He was wearing a short-sleeved check shirt and a baggy pair of old flannels, but there was a polished air about him, an air of social ease and money. All at once Alice wanted to pretend she was
someone different,