Free The Marriage Hearse by Kate Ellis Page B

inside was staring into the cottage and when he spotted Wesley at the window, he sped off suddenly.
    Perhaps, thought Wesley, Constable Dearden had taken the car number. But he wasn’t holding his breath.
    The large seaside resort of Morbay catered for all tastes and pockets. At one end of the social spectrum were the large hotels
     on the sea front, attracting conference delegates and well-heeled tourists with their restaurants, health spas and indoor
     swimming pools.
    In the middle there were myriad small hotels and guesthousesboasting a confusing array of stars and rosettes by their entrances, a sign that they’d been inspected and recommended by
     various august bodies. Proud little places which liked to consider themselves second to none on personal service, cleanliness,
     full English breakfasts and hideously patterned carpets.
    But the grandly named Loch Henry Lodge Guesthouse could claim none of these virtues. It stood, forlorn, in the centre of a
     terrace of crumbling stucco mansions on the shabby side of town. There were no signs by its entrance bearing recommendations
     from the tourist office, just a yellowing ‘vacancies’ sign fixed to the front door with peeling Sellotape. No holidaymaker
     in their right mind would stay at the Loch Henry Lodge. Social Services knew of its existence and occasionally placed homeless
     families in its not so tender care. The local prostitutes sometimes used it for assignations because nobody there asked too
     many questions. It was a place of last resort. And a good place to lie low.
    The man who stood watching the street from the upstairs front window ran his fingers through his raven hair and peered down
     anxiously. Since the wedding he had been nervous. Watching. Hoping.
    He came from a land where violence was an ever-present companion. It pervaded the air and the ground where its fruits lay
     buried, ready to germinate in seeds of vengeance even unto the next generation. His land was a place of knives and guns and
     he had lived with fear. But then he had seen her and everything had changed. She had given him hope. And now he thought day
     and night of her fragile beauty. He longed for her, anticipating the moment when she would come to him and their bodies and
     souls would be united.
    He was in England now and England would be good. England would be safe, he thought … not realising that death stalked everywhere.

Chapter 3
Nothing is known of Strong’s years in Devon and how he came to seek his fortune in the theatres of the capital. Perhaps the
     restlessness of youth made him seek a more exciting existence than that offered by rural Devon with its life dictated by the
     seasons and the Church calendar
.
    He abandoned this narrow, ordered country existence for London’s Elizabethan theatre which was as unrestrained and boisterous
     as the society from which it sprang. Rather like today, its audiences revelled in depictions of gruesome murder, madness,
     vengeance, violence and lust. From his work we see that Ralph Strong was a man of passion, a man of his age, and had he lived,
     perhaps we might regard him today as one of its foremost dramatists
.
    From the programme notes for
The Fair Wife of Padua
    It was the last week of term and Pam Peterson knew she would soon be free. Free of the routine of taking Michael to nursery
     each day and leaving Amelia with the childminder. Free of having to prepare lessons and write reports every evening. The thought
     made her heart lighter somehow. She knew she had been cool towards Wesley recently and had harboured uncharitable thoughts
     about her sister-in-law, Maritia, who had done absolutely nothing to offend her, apart from buying Michael pets that needed
     feeding and cleaning out. But when the school holidays came, when she wasn’t harassed and tired, she would try to mend her
     ways and make it up to everyone.
    The thought of the pub lunch she had enjoyed at the Horse and Farrier the day before brought a secretive