Skeleton-in-Waiting by Peter Dickinson Read Free Book Online Page A

Doctor. You did say ‘Seriously’?”
    â€œFather writes a pious foreword. That gives the Palace a bit of a say, and Sir Sam can blue-pencil the iffy bits.”
    â€œIt’s all going to be iffy in Sir Sam’s eyes.”
    â€œTime he went.”
    Albert had spoken casually, as if adding a footnote to the conversation. Louise looked at him. He shrugged. The gesture, allied to the slumped, clubland pose, had a masculine ruthlessness about it which Louise found hard to associate with the Albert she had known all her life until they had moved into their separating marriages. Sir Savile seemed a large and unchanging object in her mental landscape, single-mindedly loyal, according to his lights. Now, in Albert’s eyes, it was time that bit of landscape was cleared. Soppy was right. Albert had changed in aspects less obvious than the cut of his beard.
    â€œIs there anything you’d like me to do about Soppy?” she said. “I could try and get her to talk if you want. I don’t think it would be much use just telling her to cut down on the calories.”
    â€œNo, of course not. I wanted to know what you thought, and talk about her a bit. There’s no one else, so I’m afraid you’ve got to bear with it.”
    â€œAll I can suggest is you might try getting back up on the hill-tops a bit. Perhaps she isn’t ready for ordinary country walks all the time. I know it’s difficult—no use if you’re faking it. Couldn’t you set up some kind of escapade, something that really felt like a break-out … I don’t know, smuggle her out to Argentina in a false nose and then arrange to turn up yourself, unbeknownst to her. She canters across at the end of the second chukka and there you are holding her remount.”
    Albert laughed, then sighed.
    â€œYou remember how we used to fantasise about what they could do to us?” said Louise. “Putting us in the Tower, and us appealing to the European Court of Human Rights? I mean, how would they physically stop you … ?”
    â€œYou’re not helping, Lulu.”
    â€œSorry. I know.”
    â€œMy fault. I oughtn’t to have bothered you.”
    â€œI really want to help. I like Soppy a lot, for one thing. So does Piers. Can I talk to him?”
    â€œIf you want to. I suppose he’s got an angle on what some of it’s like which we can’t have. What I’d like is next time she starts hinting about Aunt Kitty I’ll see if I can’t persuade her to talk to a psychiatrist, just to set her mind at rest. Then if she gets on with him …”
    â€œHer,” said Louise.
    â€œOh. Right. I’ll ask around. Time we were getting back?”
    They rose.
    â€œThanks,” he said. “You mayn’t think it, but that’s helped a bit.”
    â€œAny time. It matters more than most things.”
    â€œI know. Had I better take a squint at your Romanov friend? You never said what you made of him.”
    â€œHe’s got a lot of charm. It’s real. It was there for Aunt Bea, too.”
    â€œTalked to any of the others? They strike me as a rum lot.”
    â€œI was thinking about Granny. You know, she wasn’t really civilised. I wouldn’t have put anything past her.”
    â€œRight.”
    3
    â€œâ€¦ I thought we might be seeing him again anyway,” said Piers. “It’s not that often we bump into a chap who can get along in both our languages.”
    â€œLet’s have a supper in your flat. You can ask the Stokeses and Isabelle. Tracy and I can talk obstetrics while you four zoom around on the higher plane.”
    â€œIf you like.”
    â€œI’ll get Joan to find a hole in the diary. Not too soon, or Alex might smell a rat.”
    â€œIt’s you and your lot who are doing the rat-smelling, in my opinion. Alex struck me as a decent enough bloke.”
    â€œI thought so too, what I saw of him. You’ve