Palmer-Jones 03 - Murder in Paradise Read Free Page A

course her children would not be difficult or deaf.
    She smiled at Agnes.
    “Don’t upset her,” she said. “ There will be plenty of time for Mary and I to become friends. I’m sure that we will be.”
    Behind her mother’s back, Mary was sticking out her tongue and rolling her eyes, but Sarah pretended not to notice.
    When Sarah moved on to greet another group of islanders, Mary left her mother and ran along the quay to where George Palmer-Jones was standing. He was nervous of her unpredictable behaviour, but during his holidays on Kinness she seemed to have become attached to him and his wife. She always came to the school house to visit them at least once during their stay. He usually left his wife to deal with the child and now he did not know what to say.
    “That’s a very pretty scarf you’re wearing, Mary,” he said. It was pretty. It was green silk with a batik pattern in black and white. “Where did you get it?”
    She understood him immediately.
    “It’s a secret,” she said. Then, after a pause: “Do you like secrets?”
    “Very much.”
    “So do I. Will you be at the party tonight?”
    “Yes.”
    “Will you dance with me? Nobody else will, except Daddy.”
    “Of course.”
    “I’ve another secret too. I’ll tell it you at the party. I want to see Uncle James with the lorry.”
    She was gone. She ran down the road which led to her home, without waiting for her family, long legs and pigtails flying, the green silk scarf streaming behind her like a banner.
    The men had finished unloading the boat. The diesel, gas, and provisions were stacked on the tractor and trailer. Jonathan Drysdale, the teacher, had been working with them. He left the other men, without a word, and joined George Palmer-Jones.
    “Sorry to keep you waiting,” he said. “We’ll have to hang around a bit longer if you don’t mind, until James comes with the lorry to take away the newlyweds. It’s all nonsense but I’ve been told by some upstart in the Education department in Baltasay that I should participate more in community affairs.”
    They did not have long to wait. The lorry was big and very old. It had once been a coal lorry on the mainland. It had been on the island since Palmer-Jones had begun to visit. When it came down the hill to the quay now, driven by Jim’s uncle James, George could see that it had been transformed into a vehicle of magnificence. There were heart-shaped balloons tied to the cab and the whole base of the lorry was covered in pink and white paper flowers. There was a throne of flowers for the couple to sit on, and their names were sprayed in silver paint on the bonnet. It had become a carnival float of a lorry.
    How embarrassing! thought George Palmer-Jones as the young people were carried on to the lorry. But the girl’s loving it. I hope that she doesn’t expect it to be like this always.
    “I’m sorry about all this,” Jim said to Sarah. “I didn’t expect quite so much fuss.”
    “It’s lovely,” she said.
    It’s over the top, Jim thought. They never did this when Alec brought Maggie back to the island. What are they trying to do?
    Then he saw a face in the crowd which he recognized. She’s here, he thought. I didn’t see her before. She must have been avoiding me. No one told me that she was here. So that’s why they’re making so much fuss. It’s their way of saying sorry.
    The lorry pulled away to take them home. Small children in their Sunday-best jerseys ran beside it and cheered. Sarah threw paper flowers to them and released the balloons.

Chapter Two
    When the lorry disappeared over the horizon, the people at the quay began to disperse. Most of them walked home. The tractor and trailer would deliver most of the goods, then end up at Kenneth Dance’s post office and stores. He would sort the mail and deliver it later. An old man and his sheep dog perched on the back of the trailer to get a lift down the island. The women and children walked back slowly together.