Only the Cat Knows Read Online Free

returned to the bedroom. She was the only one I was going to share it with tonight.
    Sleep …? I lay there staring into darkness. How could I have imagined, even for one insane moment, that sleep would be possible? In a strange bed … in a strange house … surrounded by strangers?
    And isn’t that a definition of any hotel you’ve ever stayed in?
The reasonable side of my brain tried to calm me.
    Not quite
. I would not be soothed. In this place, one of the strangers was an enemy. Perhaps more than one. And who knew what else one or more of them might be?
    How many of them were there? What were they to Nessa? Or she to them? This was the first time she had ever taken on a residential job. Had she been enjoying it — or had she begun to regret it?
    I turned over restlessly and punched a dent in the pillow. It was too dark here, too quiet. At least, in a hotel, there were sounds of life around you. Normal life. Loud voices, laughter, the boom of a television set, an occasional snatch of drunken song … and unashamed footsteps noisily heading towards their rightful room.
    I found myself listening again for the furtive steps shuffling outside my door. Stupid, of course. Beloved had long since drifted away to his own lair. Secrecy seemed to be paramount; he would not want anyone to catch him loitering outside Nessa’s quarters.
    Outside, there were the sounds of the night. The wind rising, a splatter of rain — good, that would discourage any other incipient prowlers. In the distance, guard dogs barked … except for the one that howled. Another splatter of rain told me there was no moon for it to howl at.
    Night has a thousand sounds … and a thousand eyes. I could feel them watching me now. For an uneasy moment, I wondered whether there was a spyhole in one of the walls … or a hidden camera.
    A faint whisper of sound, close by, and
I
turned to find that the cat was crouching in the bedside armchair and was watching me intently … suspiciously.
    ‘Oh, come along,’ I said, patting the bed. ‘Come over and let’s get acquainted.’
    Oooops!
I had offended the Dowager Duchess again. Her head reared back, her eyes went icy. The temporary truce that had ensued when I ignored Beloved was over. We were back on barely nodding terms again.
    ‘All right, be like that.’ I turned over. ‘See if I care.’
    But I did. If we couldn’t reach a semblance of amity, if not intimacy, she might blow my cover. In her current amnesiac condition, ‘Nessa’ might not remember her cat, but the cat would be expected to recognize and welcome Nessa. A loving cat can only maintain a snit at her mistress for a limited time. If the Duchess didn’t come round soon, I could be in trouble.
    They say you never have a really sleepless night, it’s just an illusion; that, actually, you have a series of catnaps in between the periods of waícefulness. It’s because the wakefulness is so clear and worrying that it seems never to have ended.
    Perhaps I did sleep, after all. At some point, I must have drifted off. Suddenly, the room was noticeably brighter, the cat was gone from the armchair, and there were faint sounds of the world moving back into action in the distance. A car motor roared, a dog barked — a different kind of dog — not the deep menacing snarling bark of the guard dogs, this sounded like a more normal dog, one you might be able to reason with. Some sort of bird cried out plaintively … a seagull? How near the sea were we?
    No point in lying here any longer. Time to get up andface what the day might bring. Face … yes, a quick close shave first thing, before anyone came calling, and a light application of foundation cream, dappled with a judicious overlay of darker shades to simulate fading bruises.
    That accomplished, I did a quick survey of what was available in Nessa’s wardrobe. Luckily, we were both tall and had the same build, typical twins. The fit would be no problem.
    Especially with the full-length kaftans we