Murder on the Old Road Read Online Free

doubling De Brito got his sword tangled up in his cloak.’
    Simon laughed. ‘That’ll be Matthew Moon, Lisa’s elder son. Derek, who’s looking after the bar for me, is the younger. Rotten typecasting. De Brito’s one of the chief villains, and Matthew’s the gentlest soul in the village.’
    â€˜Looks as if Becket’s life may be spared after all then,’ Luke commented.
    â€˜Take my Matthew away from his carpentry and he’d trip over his own feet.’ A pleasant looking elderly lady – perhaps in her late sixties, and with a cloud of white hair around a round rosy face – emerged from the kitchen area into the bar. Simon introduced her as Lisa Moon. Despite the stereotyped farmer’s wife appearance, Georgia was aware of shrewd eyes busy summing her up.
    â€˜You’re not in the play then?’ Georgia asked.
    â€˜Bless you no. Matthew’s in it, and my granddaughter Tess is too. That’s enough for one family. The rest of us get on with our work.’
    â€˜The Moons pretty well run this village,’ Simon joked. ‘Matthew’s wife Christine runs the village shop, Matthew’s the carpenter, Derek decorates and builds. Been here for centuries, haven’t you, Lisa?’
    â€˜Clive was the Moon, not me,’ she replied. ‘My husband, he was. As for me, I was an incomer way back. Lived all of six miles away, I did. Just about accepted now.’
    â€˜Tess, Lisa’s granddaughter, is playing Fair Rosamund, the king’s beautiful mistress, whom the wicked Queen Eleanor tried to poison, just like Snow White,’ Simon said. ‘Lisa—’ Simon broke off, perhaps aware that Lisa wasn’t laughing.
    â€˜Long time ago, Simon,’ she said.
    Georgia watched them curiously. There had surely been a note of warning in Lisa’s voice. More subtext?

TWO
    â€˜ C an we look in on Peter before we go home?’ Georgia asked.
    Luke nodded. ‘Fine by me. Will Janie be there?’ Janie was Peter’s fiancée, but the relationship was an up and down one. Luke was certain that Janie and Peter would make a successful long term relationship, whereas Georgia was none too sure.
    â€˜Try prising her away.’ She spoke more sharply than she had meant to, and when Luke looked surprised, she regretted it.
    Sure enough, though, as she rang the doorbell, then used her key (as was their standard arrangement), she saw Peter in his office on the left and a glum-looking Janie watching TV in the living room on the right. In her late forties, Janie was about ten years older than Georgia, but they got on well, which was surprising given how different they were in most ways. Janie favoured the romantic approach to life, although that hid a very practical side indeed, while Georgia was aware that she herself took life head on, hiding her own romantic side. She longed to sweep around in floating romantic dresses as Janie did, but never had the nerve.
    â€˜Hi,’ Janie got up to greet them. ‘Come to join me in my solitary confinement?’
    â€˜I need a word with Peter first,’ Georgia said apologetically, knowing she would be delaying him even longer. That was easy enough, and she wondered how many evenings Janie spent like this. She wasn’t living here permanently, and therefore had to travel over each time, only to find, no doubt, that all too often Peter considered the computer more interesting – as Janie must view it.
    Peter tore his gaze away from the offending computer as Georgia went in. ‘Ah,’ he said complacently, ‘I wondered if you’d pop in. Fingerprints?’
    â€˜So you knew.’ Georgia was indignant, but not greatly surprised. ‘You might have warned me about that wood.’
    He looked hurt. ‘I didn’t know. Anyway, if I had warned you, it wouldn’t have been a fair test.’
    â€˜What of?’ She knew all too well the answer to that