Free The Ten Commandments by Anthea Fraser Page B

burnished the polished floor. No fitted carpets at the villa, just the lovely old boards and a selection of pretty, if faded, rugs.
    She particularly loved the house on these family days, when it really came alive. It was a house meant to echo with running footsteps, voices calling, laughter. She supposed it was too big for their present needs, but could imagine living nowhere else. No modern flat could hold all their treasures, amassed over a long and happy lifetime, let alone their large furniture, which varied from valuable antiques to shabby but equally loved pieces bought at the salerooms in the early days of their marriage. And Frederick, she thought fondly, would wilt if his desk was moved from the window overlooking the green.
    She frowned suddenly, remembering her husband's account of his previous day's sleuthing. It was all very well to concern himself with crimes which had been neatly rounded off and their perpetrators either locked away or dead. She was not so happy with his probing a live one, as it were, one which, following through the metaphor, might go off in his face.
    She gave a little shiver, then told herself she was being fanciful. If the entire Broadshire police force had not tracked down the murderer over the last six years, it was unlikely in the extreme that Frederick would stumble over him.
    Except, added that inner voice worriedly, that the case had been resurrected with this new murder. Even if two different killers were involved, it was a reminder that the first one was still around.
    The lunch went well. Alex chatted and laughed, Roy was almost defiantly relaxed, Gilly and Hugh were their usual dear, dependable selves. Loveday looked uncannily as Gilly had at her age, Edwina thought; the same clear blue eyes and that silver-blonde hair hanging down her back. They had both inherited Frederick's colouring, Alex and the boys hers. Looking round the table, she felt an almost unbearable love for them all. Please keep them safe, she prayed spontaneously, then instantly mocked herself. What was the matter with her today? The next thing, she'd be reading tea-leaves.
    'If you children have finished, you may leave the table,' she said, as she always did before the coffee was served.
    'Thanks, Gran.' Toby and Jack slid off their chairs and disappeared in the direction of the garden. Edwina turned to her granddaughter. You're also excused, dear, if you'd like to go.'
    Loveday, who jealously maintained her four years' seniority over the twins, flashed her a smile. Caught in the in-between stage and bored equally by her young cousins and the conversation of her elders, she was grateful for her grandmother's understanding.
    'I did bring a book with me,' she admitted.
    'The lounger's under the apple tree.'
    'Brilliant!' And she, too, was gone. On cue, Mrs Davidson, who had been with the Maces for the last twenty years, brought in the coffee cups.
    'I hope you're all coming to Frederick's talk on Tuesday,' Edwina said, pouring the strong, dark liquid. 'It's at the Central Library, eight o'clock.'
    'Good gracious me,' Frederick protested, 'it's not a command performance! There's no compulsion about it.'
    Gillian laughed and laid a hand on his arm. 'Of course we're coming, Pop! Try keeping us away. What's the title of it?'
    ' "Murder Under the Microscope". It's a dissertation, really, on the way I examine crime.'
    'With questions from the floor afterwards?'
    He grimaced. 'Unfortunately, yes. I usually enjoy that part, but they're sure to ask about the pub murders. It's my own fault, for allowing myself to be drawn on television. I should have known better.'
    'But what's wrong with discussing them?' Alex asked.
    'Well, I'm studying the first for my new book, and as you know, I dislike talking about current work. As for the second, I don't know any more about it than anyone else. Anyway, the police might take a dim view of my holding forth.'
    'I don't see why; it's no different, surely, from all the speculation in