Page 31 of A Very Bookish Murder (Ally McKinley Mystery #3)

Ally wasn’t sure she could eat another thing but noticed that no one else’s appetites appeared to have been affected by these recent confessions.

As they all ordered their choice of dessert, Ally decided to opt for some ice cream, not because she really wanted it, but so that she wouldn’t appear quite so conspicuous as she sat and listened.

Morwenna, now tackling a crème br?lée, happily confessed what she had already told Ally – that Jodi had had an affair with her first husband, causing more gasps.

At this point, she had to reassure them that it hadn’t broken her heart because their marriage was on the rocks anyway, and she’d moved on to a happier life, although she still kept in touch with her now ex-husband.

‘I felt sorry for Tom,’ she explained, ‘because he was devastated, and I’d moved to Penzance with our daughter, met my now-husband and was happier than I’d ever been.

Then Tom got in touch to tell me he was terminally ill with cancer, and wanted to see both myself and Jodi one last time. ’

‘So you actually went to visit him?’ Brigitte asked, frowning.

‘Yes, I did. I felt sorry for him. In a funny kind of way, both he and Jodi had done me a favour. I was also very interested to see her again too, after all these years, and also, of course, to try to persuade her to visit Tom.’

‘Poor Tom!’ exclaimed Penelope, loudly as usual. ‘Well, she won’t be visiting him now!’

Morwenna nodded. ‘No, but he knows, of course, that she’s been killed, and so he wants me to video the funeral on his behalf, and the ceremony or whatever it is they do.’ She looked around. ‘Do you have a ceremony if you bury someone at a natural burial site?’

Nobody seemed very sure about that, other than people might give eulogies or something. There followed much scraping of bowls and plates as everyone finished off their desserts.

‘I think we need some brandies now,’ Penelope announced, having demolished a huge plate of sticky toffee pudding, and looked around for approval.

Ally, glancing at all the empty wine bottles, wondered if that was wise.

She could only marvel at their alcohol capacity and wonder if they’d be in a fit state to make the ten-minute uphill walk back to The Auld Malthouse.

She herself had had three glasses of wine and was well aware that she’d had enough and so politely declined the offer of a liqueur with her coffee.

That, of course, did not deter Penelope, Laura, Morwenna and Brigitte from ordering cognacs, only Millie admitting that she, too, had had quite enough.

Brigitte was the only one who hadn’t spoken yet, and Ally hoped she might come up with something interesting, or at least something she hadn’t told Ally before.

Ally was trying to think of some way to get her to open up and gently prompted, ‘We still haven’t heard from you, Brigitte. ’

Brigitte looked a little uncomfortable. ‘Well, I’m interested in writing and I wanted to meet Jodi Jones…’ She tailed off quietly.

‘I can’t think why,’ Laura said, slurring slightly.

Penelope let out a loud belch and said, ‘Well, there’s one thing I definitely would like to discover.’ Here she dabbed her mouth with her napkin to suppress a further belch and continued, ‘What I really want to know is, where is this so-called love child of hers ?’

There was an outburst of incredulous gasps.

‘She had a child ?’ Morwenna asked.

‘She can’t have had a child!’ Millie said. ‘If she had, he or she would surely be here!’

‘How do you know she had a child?’ Laura asked.

‘Because I was at university at the same time as she was – I’m sure I mentioned that earlier – and for the first couple of months, we shared a room in some very grotty student accommodation.

One day I came in to find her sobbing uncontrollably and, after much probing on my part, out it all came.

She’d got herself pregnant at sixteen, banished from the family, had her baby adopted and that particular day was the baby’s first birthday. ’

‘How incredible!’ Millie gasped.

‘How sad,’ said Morwenna, sniffing.

‘How come you never told us all this before?’ Laura demanded at the top of her voice.

Several of the other diners, as well as the elderly couple, now looked round, and Ally found herself saying, ‘Keep it down, girls!’

‘It was irrelevant,’ Penelope said in a quieter voice.

‘I promised Jo – her name was Joanne then – that I’d never tell, but I don’t suppose that counts now.

She told me the father was a one-night stand who she never saw again.

However, after the birth, she went to live with a family who were looking for an au pair and they became very fond of her.

They helped her later to get to university, and it was the father of the family who collected her at the end of term. ’

‘It stands to reason,’ said Morwenna, ‘that if the child was adopted, he or she might not know who his or her real mother was. Not everyone who’s adopted wants to find out who their birth mother is.’

‘That’s true,’ said Brigitte calmly, ‘but Jodi Jones’s child did want to know.’

‘How on earth would you know that?’ Morwenna asked.

‘Because I happen to be married to him.’