Meet Me at the Pier Head Read Online Free Page B

and Oxford? He stank as if he’d arrived via a farmyard and a boxing ring. Jeez, women didn’t half complicate life.
    When he returned ten minutes later, Miss Bellamy, no longer elegant, was on hands and knees beneath his dining table. Strands of her abundant hair had slipped their moorings, and she was trying
to coax Tyger out of retirement. ‘He’s difficult,’ he advised her. ‘A one-person cat.’
    She raised her head and banged it on the underside of Theo’s solid furniture. ‘Bugger,’ she exclaimed softly.
    ‘Did you learn that at Roedean?’
    Tia emerged, a grimace attempting to conceal her beauty. ‘You’d be surprised, Mr Quinn. We had our own curriculum to follow.’ She clambered to her feet, one hand rubbing her
head, the other releasing the rest of her hair, which tumbled over her shoulders. ‘Bugger,’ she repeated. ‘A Roedean girl’s education takes place outside the
classroom.’
    ‘Midnight feasts?’
    ‘And the rest. The trouble is, it’s difficult to get past the guards. They have machine guns, tanks and landmines. Limbs and lives have been lost; the four tunnels we were digging
collapsed and buried ten of us. It’s like a concentration camp but with stiffer rules. Well, at least I’ve made you laugh.’
    She flopped onto the sofa. ‘Water,’ she begged. ‘Oh, wait a minute. Why is one door locked?’ She pointed towards the hall.
    ‘Body parts,’ was his cool response.
    ‘Human?’ she asked.
    ‘Of course.’ He strode off to the kitchen. It was almost as if she was in charge of every situation; yes, she was a true product of a top public school, composed, alert, well groomed
and horribly competent. She was going to get on his nerves, wasn’t she?
    Tia accepted the glass of water and ice. ‘Thank you.’
    He tried not to look at her. With her loosened hair, she looked wild, wanton and truly beautiful. ‘I’m going to have a sandwich,’ he told her. ‘Will you join
me?’
    She glanced at her watch. ‘No, thanks. I have another place to see in case you turn me down. Perhaps I’ll be safer if you do refuse to house me.’
    ‘Oh?’
    She shrugged. ‘Body parts. I might go to pieces if I move in here. I’d hate you to see me in pieces.’
    Theo found himself grinning; she was almost as much trouble as Colin Duckworth. ‘I’ll see you Wednesday afternoon, then, Miss Bellamy.’ He stood up and held out his hand, but
she was busy tying back her hair.
    ‘I look a mess,’ she declared as she studied her reflection in the over-mantel mirror.
    ‘You look fine. Go and mither someone else, please.’
    ‘Mither? Your English is good for a foreigner.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    She completed her struggle with the abundant and disobedient mane of hair. ‘If I live upstairs, might my sisters be allowed to visit me?’
    He shrugged. ‘It will be your home, so treat it as such. It’s big enough for a family.’
    She shook his hand firmly. ‘I have as much to learn from your children as they have from me. After all, once I’ve done napkin folding and a ten-course place setting, I shall be out
of ammunition.’
    ‘You don’t fool me, Miss Bellamy.’
    ‘Hmm. We shall see about that.’
    He walked her to the door and watched as she folded herself into the sports car. She pointed to his green version. ‘Snap,’ she called before roaring off towards some other innocent
landlord. The legs were as good as the rest of her. Oh well, sandwich and a drink, then off to speak to the Chair of Governors, a local councillor with sense and backbone. ‘Do I need a no or
a yes?’ he asked Tyger. ‘Do we want her here, wise one?’
    The cat, aged and almost toothless, chewed languidly on a tasty morsel of ham. Inherited with the house, Tyger had decided of late that his hunting and running days were over. He swallowed the
ham, yawned and fell asleep on his owner’s knee. ‘I’m gonna miss you,’ Theo said. The cat didn’t mind if his master spoke Americanese. It would soon be