1 Aunt Bessie Assumes Read Online Free Page B

there.  
    “What happened?” the other woman continued
to press Bessie.
    This time Bessie sighed audibly.   It wasn’t as if she hadn’t told the
story hundreds of times before, it was just that she had already begun to
dislike this flashy vulgar woman who wasn’t behaving at all the way Bessie
thought she should.   Bessie simply
didn’t feel like sharing any personal information with Vikky Pierce.
    “Any chance of a cuppa with the story?”   Vikky seemed oblivious to Bessie’s
thoughts and she seemed to be recovering from her sudden bereavement strangely
quickly.
      “Tea?   I’m surprised you have the stomach for
it,” Bessie said a bit snappishly as she turned on the kettle.
    The woman looked startled for a moment and
then began to shake.   “You’re right,
of course; I can’t imagine what I was thinking.”   Tears began to fall at an impressive
rate as Bessie found mugs and filled her teapot with a couple of teabags.  
    “Now, now,” she muttered towards the
sobbing woman.   “Everything’s going
to work out in the end, you’ll see.”
    “How can it, with Danny dead?” the woman
asked miserably.
    “Oh, I’m sure you’ll get over Danny
eventually,” Bessie replied.   She
wasn’t usually so determinedly rude to guests in her home, but she really
couldn’t find anything to like in this woman.
    “Oh, sure, eventually,” the woman agreed
as she wiped her eyes on a tissue from the box that Bessie handed her.   “But that could take months.   I’m ever so devastated now.”
    Bessie forced herself to count to ten
before she replied.   “I’m sure
everything will work out in the end,” she repeated herself.     “The police here are
excellent and I’m sure they’ll find out what happened to your husband in no
time.”
    “He must have drowned, or had a heart
attack or something,” Vikky said, her eyes filling with tears again.   “I should have been with him.”
    Bessie poured out two cups of tea and
found a box of biscuits that she quickly emptied onto a plate.   Then she joined the young woman at the
table, choosing a seat opposite her guest.   She handed the woman her tea and a small plate to use for her biscuits.
    “There probably wasn’t anything you could
have done,” Bessie muttered a polite response that was at odds with her actual
thoughts.   “Anyway, the police are
very good at their jobs; I’m sure they’ll figure it out quickly enough.”
    “I hope you’re right,” the woman said
intently.   “I have to know what
happened to Danny.   I feel like this
is all my fault.”
    Bessie nodded.   “I’m sure that Inspector Rockwell will
be able to answer all of your questions in due course.”
    “He spent his summers here just about his
whole life,” Vikky told her.   “They
used to stay in a bed and breakfast in Ramsey before they bought the land and
built the cottage here.   Danny and
his whole family love the island so much.   We even talked about moving here.”   The widow’s voice broke as she spoke and tears began to fall again.  
    Bessie stared at her, puzzled and
unsettled by her behaviour.   “Drink
your tea,” Bessie counselled.   “And
then we can find you something to put on.”
    Bessie watched the woman blush under her
heavy makeup.   “I wanted to look
nice for Danny when he got back,” she explained.   “I did my hair and makeup and put on my
sexiest nightie.   We had, well, we
had a bit of a disagreement last night and we needed to patch things up.”
    “Yes, well, I’m sure I can find something
for you put on that will be more suitable for being out and about in this
weather,” Bessie replied.  
    They finished their tea in silence, Vikky
nibbling her way through half a dozen biscuits, and then Bessie and her guest
headed upstairs.   Bessie had always
been slender, and she wasn’t about to let age become an excuse for letting her
figure go.   She should have plenty
of things that would fit the young widow.