AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Iris turned her head toward the terrace, but before she could register that anything was wrong, Esme had thrust Hamish into her arms and was hurrying across the lawn toward Hugh. Alarmed, Iris caught Gabriel’s eye, and her heart dropped at the desolation on his face. Moving Hamish to her shoulder, she took comfort from the warm, sleepy weight of him and, as she began rubbing his back, her eyes fixed worriedly on Hugh and Esme, he obligingly expelled little pockets of milky air. And then a wail started, and at first she thought it was coming from Hamish.
But it wasn’t Hamish, it was Esme, weeping brokenly in Hugh’s arms.
67
“Do you think we’re jinxed?” Gabriel asked. “Pierre, Laure, and now Joseph. Three deaths in the space of three months. And that’s not counting Charlie.”
“Stop it, Gabriel,” Iris said sharply.
But he couldn’t. It was a death too many. Joseph had blown himself up while drunk. Nobody was sure what had happened, but it seemed he’d turned on the gas and had forgotten to light it. The police said that he must have gone back to sleep and had either struck a match when he’d eventually come around, or turned on the light. Either way, there had been so much gas in the room that the explosion had been violent and deadly.
The remains of an empty whisky bottle had been found amid the debris.
“He must have had a secret stash hidden away,” Iris said, when Gabriel had told her. “Because it certainly wasn’t in sight when Hugh and I were there. We would have taken it away from him.”
When Hugh had checked their drinks cupboard, he’d found a bottle of whisky missing. From the remnants of glass found in Joseph’scottage, the police had been able to establish that it was the same brand as the missing bottle. He’d had keys to the house, so the conclusion was that he’d taken it.
Gabriel hated himself for it, but there had been a moment when he’d looked at Hugh and thought—What if?He wouldn’t have had that thought if Iris hadn’t told him about Esme and Joseph. But when he remembered that, he then thought about Laure’s death and found himself wondering about Esme, because how well did they really know Hugh and Esme? They’d only met them a few months ago. He and Iris had met Pierre and Laure twenty years ago and had spent countless weekends and holidays with them, and it turned out they hadn’t known them at all.
“I’d better go up and check on Beth,” Iris said.
Gabriel raised his head. “Do you want me to go?”
“No, it’s fine.”
He let out the breath he’d been holding in. It was the first time he hadn’t felt up to comforting Beth because he wasn’t sure what he could say to make her feel better. She had barely stopped weeping since she’d found out about Joseph.
Admittedly, it had been brutal. She’d come running down from her bedroom, still in her pajamas, drawn by the sound of Esme’s sobbing.
“What’s happened?” she’d asked, her eyes on Esme. “I heard the explosion, I was trying to work out where it came from.”
“It’s Joseph,” he’d said, still in a state of shock himself. “He blew himself up.”
“What?” Her face had bleached white and he’d just had time to catch her before she hit the floor.
“No,” she’d wept. “No.” And then her voice had risen to a scream. “No!”
Gabriel looked over at Iris.
“Do you think her reaction to Joseph’s death was a little over the top?” he asked.
“Whose? Beth’s or Esme’s?”
“Beth’s.”
“Not really. She’s been through a lot this summer.”
“Has she said anything to you? About Joseph?”
Iris leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. “We were right to be suspicious. She was going to meet up with him in Thailand. But she said they were just friends.”
“Do you believe her?”
“Yes. But she’s young, and maybe she hoped their friendship would develop into something deeper. It doesn’t matter now, does it? He’s dead. Through his own stupidity, he’s dead.”
“Not just his stupidity. Mine too. It’s my fault he’s dead.”
Iris stared at him. “What do you mean?”
