T Kinsey - A Quiet Life in the Country (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery Book 1)

Days passed.

Although she remained mercifully free of infection, she had not regained consciousness. She had lain there in the crisp, white linen sheets, her dark hair framing her face, neither moving nor uttering a sound.

I had wired Harry as soon as she was out of surgery, and he had come down on the next train. He stayed at the house while his sister was at Dr Fitzsimmons’s and helped to move her home, but he had had to return to London to make proper arrangements for compassionate leave. Today was his first day back.

I spent every waking moment with her, reading to her the telegrams and cards that arrived every day from her friends. I read from the newspapers, too, especially the unfolding story of the fall of the Seddon family and the collapse of their generations-old shipping business.

I led Harry into his sister’s room and went to the window while he sat on the bed next to her.

‘What ho, sis,’ he said, bending to kiss her cheek. ‘How’s the old girl?’

‘She’s not getting any better at all,’ I said forlornly.

‘But she will, won’t you, old thing?’ he said brushing the hair from her face. ‘She’ll be right as rain in no time.’

There was a rustle of linen and a croaky voice said, ‘I bally well will as well.’

Harry and I looked over in shock at the slowly awakening figure of Emily Hardcastle.

‘Now do stop being so maudlin, there’s a dear. Would you be a pet and fetch me a cup of tea? I’m absolutely parched.’

About the Author

T E Kinsey grew up in London and read history at Bristol University. He worked for a number of years as a magazine features writer before falling into the glamorous world of the Internet, where he edited content for a very famous entertainment website for quite a few years more. After helping to raise three children, learning to scuba dive and to play the drums and the mandolin (though never, disappointingly, all at the same time), he decided the time was right to get back to writing. A Quiet Life in the Country is the first in a series of mysteries starring Lady Hardcastle.

You can follow him on Twitter – @tekinsey – and also find him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/tekinsey.