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The Gate House :: Demille Nelson
Страница: 446 из 490Happily and luckily, the second Saturday in August was available, so Susan booked it for an outdoor wedding reception – details to be discussed at great length for the next two months.
She hung up and said to me, “This is perfect. We’ll spend our wedding night in a guest room at the club, then the next morning, the four of us will sail off in our new yacht for a two-week honeymoon.”
“Are your parents coming with us on our honeymoon?”
“No, John. Edward and Carolyn.”
“Oh, right.” I reminded her, “They didn’t come on our last honeymoon.”
She ignored that and said, “We’ll go to L.A. the week before, spend a few days with Edward, and bring him back with us for the wedding.”
“Good plan.”
So that sounded like a wonderful summer. Then, if things were resolved here, I’d find a job in September, and we’d live happily ever after – in a smaller house, without the Stanhope paydays every month. In the meantime, all we had to do was not get bumped off.
I was sitting at my desk in my home office with the door closed, composing an e-mail with misinformation to Elizabeth about Susan and me going to Istanbul – we needed to decide where it was that we were supposed to be going – and returning in three or four weeks. At that time, we’d settle Ethel’s estate.
I also reminded her, gently, about the letter, and asked her if we could meet today before I left early the next morning. I then called the gatehouse and told them to let Elizabeth Allard pass through.
As I hung up, a blue Ford Taurus pulled into the forecourt, and out stepped Dick-Brain and Ditsy. I should have told the guard to put them in chains, but apparently Susan had pre-cleared them.
I watched them through the window as they walked to the house, and they were speaking to each other as though they were doing a last-minute rehearsal. They looked a little grim, so I assumed they hadn’t been visited by an angel in the night who’d told them that God loved all humanity, except them, so they’d better not cut off the bucks to their family or they’d go straight to hell.
The doorbell rang, and I could hear Sophie greeting the Stanhopes. I was surprised that Susan hadn’t answered the door herself; in this world, you don’t let a household employee greet family or close friends, unless you’re truly indisposed. So, Susan was sending them a message – or busy sharpening a meat cleaver.
I heard the door close and the air suddenly became cold, and black flies appeared out of nowhere, then green slime began oozing out of the walls. The Stanhopes had arrived.
She hung up and said to me, “This is perfect. We’ll spend our wedding night in a guest room at the club, then the next morning, the four of us will sail off in our new yacht for a two-week honeymoon.”
“Are your parents coming with us on our honeymoon?”
“No, John. Edward and Carolyn.”
“Oh, right.” I reminded her, “They didn’t come on our last honeymoon.”
She ignored that and said, “We’ll go to L.A. the week before, spend a few days with Edward, and bring him back with us for the wedding.”
“Good plan.”
So that sounded like a wonderful summer. Then, if things were resolved here, I’d find a job in September, and we’d live happily ever after – in a smaller house, without the Stanhope paydays every month. In the meantime, all we had to do was not get bumped off.
I was sitting at my desk in my home office with the door closed, composing an e-mail with misinformation to Elizabeth about Susan and me going to Istanbul – we needed to decide where it was that we were supposed to be going – and returning in three or four weeks. At that time, we’d settle Ethel’s estate.
I also reminded her, gently, about the letter, and asked her if we could meet today before I left early the next morning. I then called the gatehouse and told them to let Elizabeth Allard pass through.
As I hung up, a blue Ford Taurus pulled into the forecourt, and out stepped Dick-Brain and Ditsy. I should have told the guard to put them in chains, but apparently Susan had pre-cleared them.
I watched them through the window as they walked to the house, and they were speaking to each other as though they were doing a last-minute rehearsal. They looked a little grim, so I assumed they hadn’t been visited by an angel in the night who’d told them that God loved all humanity, except them, so they’d better not cut off the bucks to their family or they’d go straight to hell.
The doorbell rang, and I could hear Sophie greeting the Stanhopes. I was surprised that Susan hadn’t answered the door herself; in this world, you don’t let a household employee greet family or close friends, unless you’re truly indisposed. So, Susan was sending them a message – or busy sharpening a meat cleaver.
I heard the door close and the air suddenly became cold, and black flies appeared out of nowhere, then green slime began oozing out of the walls. The Stanhopes had arrived.