His Vampyrrhic Bride Read Free Page A

curly, blonde hair, and always wore a nigh-on impossibly broad smile. The man was clumsily playful, endearing, and nobody could ever actually bring themselves to be angry with him. He was in his early twenties, and he worked with his father at the village tool-hire store. Come to that, you could get anything repaired at the Kenyons’, from a computer to a combine harvester. The people in small, back-of-beyond communities like Danby-Mask tended to be versatile. Even to the point of being a little self-contained world all of their own.
    Tom almost told Chester about accidentally getting high on fumes in the cellar and then hallucinating like crazy as he chased some non-existent woman through the woods. After a moment’s thought, though, Tom decided against sharing the anecdote. Chester would tease him relentlessly for months to come. Chester was a great guy. Tom liked him. However, Chester believed his mission in life was to keep all his friends laughing. And sometimes that would mean endless micky-taking. Chester might be the warmest-hearted guy in the world, yet sometimes he had the sensitivity of a charging bull.
    Chester opened the back doors of the van. Tom helped the big man lift the mower on to the drive. After that, he hauled out the chainsaw while Chester unloaded a fuel can.
    The gentle giant chatted in that amiable way of his as he dealt with the paperwork. ‘It’s the first time I’ve been back to the house since your aunt died.’
    ‘I’d never been here before, either,’ Tom confessed. ‘It amazed me how big the place is. It’s a proper mansion.’
    ‘Dad said your aunt was a good customer . . . always paid her bills early.’ As Chester wrote on the clipboard he glanced round the garden. ‘So you landed the job of getting the house ready for your parents to move in?’
    ‘It’s a full-time job, too. For some reason the house is full of chairs. You know, the straight-backed kind? I think my aunt must have been a bit nutty about them.’
    ‘She was a nice lady, Tom. She’d set out the chairs on the back lawn and invite local people to cream teas.’ He held out the clipboard for Tom to sign. The rental agreement was covered with Chester’s big oily fingerprints. ‘I’m glad somebody will be living here again. I’d hate to see the place fall apart.’
    ‘Lately, I’ve been concentrating on moving all those chairs into the garage, so there’ll be space for the new furniture.’
    ‘And cutting the grass.’ Chester nodded at the mower.
    ‘My mother wanted the garden tidying so Owen will have somewhere to play.’
    ‘Owen?’ Chester’s eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘Owen Gibson? Your aunt’s son?’
    ‘Yeah, my parents inherited a chunk of my aunt’s money. They also inherited her kid.’ Tom paused. ‘That sounds a bit brutal. I didn’t mean it to come out like that.’
    Chester shrugged. ‘I’m always saying stuff that comes out wrong. Last week I told Grace Harrap that she didn’t look a day over forty.’
    ‘Chester. She’s twenty-six.’
    ‘I know.’ He gave a pained sigh. ‘Grace took the ice out of her drink and rammed it down my shirt.’
    ‘Maybe she’s flirting?’
    ‘Flirting? I fell over a chair and nearly smashed my head on the pub’s fireplace trying to get that flipping ice out.’
    Tom handed the clipboard back. ‘Owen’s only ten. I’m not sure how to talk to him. Sometimes he doesn’t say a word for days.’
    ‘It’s going to be hard on him losing his mother at ten years old.’ Suddenly, the man that Tom thought of as being the giant toddler sounded so mature and wise. ‘Owen’s going to need a lot of love and patience. He found the body, didn’t he?’
    ‘The coroner said she’d died of a heart attack out here on the drive.’
    After a pause, Chester was the one to change the subject this time. ‘How you doing with your diving school? Any sign of going to live in Greece yet, you lucky sod?’
    ‘We’re getting there. Chris found some premises