Jam and Jeopardy Read Free

dogs.’
    ‘Nor people,’ Barbara muttered under her breath.
    ‘I sent her away with something to think about, anyway.’
    Stephen cleared his throat nervously. ‘I’m sorry, Aunt Janet, but we’ll have to be going. We’ve some friends coming for dinner at seven and Barbara’s still a lot to
prepare.’
    ‘You always consider other people, never me. I’m only the old aunt with all the money.’
    ‘Now, that’s not fair!’ Barbara couldn’t stop herself from saying it, and the other woman wasn’t to know that the dinner was a trumped-up excuse. ‘Tonight was
the only night they could come.’
    Janet Souter screwed up her mouth. ‘Huh! Arriving late and leaving early. You’ll soon not bother to come at all. I’d better keep an eye on that arsenic in my shed, in case you
try to finish me off.’
    Stephen gave a nervous laugh, and tried to soothe her hurt feelings. ‘No, Aunt Janet. We love coming to see you, and we’ll be back next Sunday.’
    ‘Come at a decent time, then.’ She was only slightly mollified, and they could hear her muttering to herself as they went out. ‘Dinner, if you please. Supper’s not good
enough for them.’
    As their old Escort rattled out of Ashgrove Lane on to the High Street, Stephen started humming.
    ‘Why the sudden good humour?’ his wife asked, suspiciously. ‘You’re usually just as cheesed off as me when we’ve been to see the old bitch.’
    Even the last word failed to irritate him at that moment. ‘I’ve found the answer to everything.’ He smiled smugly.
    ‘What d’you mean? Really, Stephen, you can be so annoying at times.’
    ‘I’ve thought of the perfect solution to all our troubles, and that’s all I’m saying.’
    Janet kept standing at her back door, smirking to herself as she recalled the seeds of temptation she had sewn in the minds of her nephews.
    ‘You’re looking pleased with yourself.’
    Startled by the voice, she looked up to see Mabel Wakeford regarding her inquisitively.
    ‘It’s just something I said to the . . .’ She broke off, then went on, ‘I may as well tell you. I’ve given Ronald and Stephen something to chew over. I told them
about the arsenic . . .’
    ‘Oh, Janet, are you trying to see if they’ll use it? Do you think that was wise? You told me they were both short of funds, and they might . . .’ Mabel, too, broke off but
hastened to add, ‘No, no, your nephews would never think of anything like that. They wouldn’t want to hurt you in any way.’
    Janet gave a most unladylike snort. ‘You think not? Well, let me tell you that the thought has crossed both their minds, I can vouch for that. And I hope they do try. The thing is,
they’ll both be disappointed. I have a trick or two up my sleeve, you see.’
    She turned away abruptly but was chuckling as she closed her back door behind her. Stephen and Ronald were surely mad enough at her now to do what she hoped they would do. She had told them both
about the arsenic, and where she kept it, so now she’d just have to wait till next weekend.
    She trusted that one of them would make an attempt to poison her. They were both such nincompoops, but surely at least one of them would have the nerve. If one of them did try, though, she
intended leaving him all her money. It would prove that he had some willpower of his own, some drive, some spunk. If neither of them had a go, she’d instruct Martin Spencer to make out a new
will leaving her entire estate to some charity. That would show them what she thought of them.
    She was under no illusions about why they came to see her every weekend. They were making sure of their inheritance, and family loyalty and affection didn’t come into it.
    Barbara was a common trollop, really, but she was the only one of the four who ever showed any spirit, and that’s why the Drummonds had been given the twenty thousand pounds a few months
ago. Barbara would occasionally answer back, or have an argument with her, and Janet