Free 3 A Reformed Character by Cecilia Peartree

for her.
    ‘She could leave Darren behind too,’ argued Jock. ‘He’s just some petty criminal who’ll never make anything of himself. Either he’ll go right downhill and end up in and out of gaol for the rest of his life, or at best he’ll go on the dole and get the chance to pick up litter once a week in exchange for his benefit money. She could have a life. She’s certainly got the brains for it, from what I remember.’
    Jock sounded more angry about Darren than about anything she had heard him talk about for some time. Ever, in fact. Amaryllis wondered what his interest in the boy was. Maybe he saw him as a kind of substitute son – one who actually needed Jock’s help instead of going off with his mother and hardly seeing his father.
    Old Mrs Petrelli came out of the kitchen with Christopher’s scone and coffee. At the last minute, just before she reached the table, Victoria darted out and grabbed the little tray out of her grandmother’s hands. ‘Here, Nonnina, let me take it.’
    Mrs Petrelli surrendered the tray, but Amaryllis thought her expression was still troubled as she gazed at her granddaughter. That would be something to follow up at the next Cosy Clicks meeting.
    Christopher, of course, was thrilled to accept his coffee and scone at the hands of Victoria, but if he had thought she would pause and chat to them any more that day, he was destined to be disappointed, since the girl rushed back to the kitchen as soon as she had unloaded the tray.
    It wasn’t until they were outside the café, walking along together in some random direction that seemed to be taking them on to the harbour wall, for want of anywhere better to go, that he said, a bit wistfully, ‘You’re right, of course. Both of you, I mean. She’s too good to be waiting on people like us.’
    Amaryllis and Jock exchanged glances.
    ‘Right,’ said Amaryllis briskly. ‘Who wants to come and see the Donaldsons with me?’
     
     

Chapter 8  Death-watch beetle
     
    The Donaldsons, whose address Christopher decided Amaryllis must have obtained by semi-legal means or alchemy, were out.
    'There'll be things for them to do,' said Christopher. He didn't specify the things, not even to himself. There were always grim things to do when somebody died. He started to worry about who would do them for him when he died, told himself it didn't matter anyway if he wasn't there to be bothered about it, and fell into a state of mild and mellow sadness which was quite unsuitable for the spring.
    'How did you know we were at the Petrellis?' said Amaryllis. It was an apparently idle conversational gambit, but Christopher knew from experience that she rarely asked anything idly.
    'I wasn't looking for you,' he said. 'I just happened to be passing. I've got to back to work on Monday, so I thought I'd go for a walk while I still could..'
    'So you just happened to be passing,' said Amaryllis. 'You thought you'd pass that way just in case Victoria happened to be about.'
    'What is it with you and Victoria?' said Christopher.
    'No, what is it with you and Victoria?' said Amaryllis, greenish eyes flashing, hair looking spikier than ever. They faced each other in the middle of the road.
    'With me and Victoria?'
    'And don't start that!'
    'Don't start what?'
    'Don't start repeating everything I say! It's really annoying!'
    'You started it!' he said, exasperated almost beyond bearing. Then he thought of something she had done before, and paused. 'You're trying to pick a fight, aren't you?'
    She looked more fiery than ever just for a moment, then laughed. 'Nothing gets past you, does it Christopher? I was planning to sneak off and try and have another look at the old railway yard.'
    'Another look?' said Jock, who had kept clear like the wimp he was while it looked as if there would be fireworks, and now joined them again.
    'Have you had a look already?' said Christopher. 'Without us?'
    He tried not to sound too much like a child whose mother had left him at home