A Species of Revenge Read Free Page B

sure Dermot would be delighted if you could manage it.’
    Mrs Bailey gave a satisfied nod and, having drawn breath, went on, ‘I do for Miss Kendrick and her brother as well – they live at Simla, next house along. Makes a change from the supermarket – I feel like a battery hen there, sometimes, and the housework gives me a bit of exercise, besides helping with the mortgage. I was determined we should go for one of the houses in the Close when they went up, but it’s a struggle, sometimes.’
    Sarah assumed she was referring to the cul-de-sac of newish houses which lay between this house and the next one in Albert Road, the one she’d called Simla. ‘Ellington Close, you mean? That’s convenient.’
    â€˜That’s right. They pulled a big old house down and built our houses on the site. Heath Mount, the house was called the Kendricks had lived there all their lives, their great-grandfather or some such built it, but you know what it’s like trying to keep places like that going. They sold it in the end and moved into Simla. Bit of a comedown for them, but I shouldn’t waste your breath feeling sorry for them, they couldn’t have done so bad out of the deal, my Bob says, and he’s in the building trade, painter and decorator, so he should know. Two sugars, m’duck, I know I shouldn’t but I use a lot of energy.’
    â€˜What are they like?’ asked Sarah, grabbing the opportunity to speak as Mrs Bailey paused to take possession of her tea.
    â€˜The Kendricks? All right. Bit on the snooty side. Clever, highbrow, you know. College types – Cambridge, I think it was. He writes books. And of course there’s Mrs Loxley, the other sister.’
    â€˜What sort of books does he write?’
    Mrs Bailey was vague. ‘About art, and that sort of stuff. His study’s full of pictures, not that I’m allowed in there, except to take him his coffee when his sister’s not there. She teaches maths at the Princess Mary – the girls are all terrified of her, but they respect her, if you know what I mean. She’s strict, but fair – got my niece through her maths GCSEs, and that’s saying something! Patti’s a lovely girl, and bright with it, but not when it comes to figures.’
    Doreen Bailey’s flow of chat was interrupted by the arrival of Dermot, Lucy hanging on his arm, Allie a step behind. ‘Do I smell tea?’ he demanded, smiling engagingly at the older woman who, in turn, was gazing admiringly at the handsome man with the tanned skin and the smiling blue eyes that exactly matched his open-necked shirt.
    Damn, thought Sarah, who’d sensed a rich vein of information waiting to be tapped in Mrs Bailey, now I shall have to wait to find out more about the tenants – though the obnoxious Mr Fitzallan could go and jump in the lake for all the interest she had in him.

2
    St Nicholas’s church, Lavenstock, was tolling its single melancholy note for eight o’clock communion as Harry Nevitt arrived at his council-owned allotment the next morning. The thunderstorms of the previous day had cleared the air, and it was a little cooler, though there was promise of returning heat later on. Meanwhile, the morning sparkled. Everything appeared clean and new-washed. Ruby beetroot leaves gleamed, celery stood erect and waved its bright green fronds, cabbages were diamond-studded. The earth was warm and damp and Harry was anxious to get cracking with the hoe, put paid to the weeds that would have come out in full marching order.
    He considered himself lucky that his allotment was in one of the prime positions, in a coveted spot which not only had the best of the sun but also allowed him to park his car nearby, since it ran alongside the narrow dirt road that cut through the middle of the site. He’d worked it for twenty-odd years, getting the soil into good heart and growing prize-winning onions and