Murder on the Moor - C. S. Challinor [11]
“There will be other weekends. We should attend to the guests.” With a wintry face, Helen moved off toward the living room.
Rex glanced at his watch. It was only nine-thirty. The rest of the night would be murder. He would have to keep a careful eye on Moira and hope the situation did not blow up in front of his guests. Not that he really cared what they thought. Alistair, the only one who counted as a friend, would understand. However, he didn’t want to embarrass Helen. She had worked so hard in preparation for this party.
By the time he returned to the living room, Moira had a small entourage gathered around her, with all but the two youngest guests in attendance. Flora was watching the group from across the room while Donnie tried to puzzle out one of Rex’s multicolored Rubik’s Cubes.
Alistair handed Moira a glass of white wine. The woolly haired Estelle plied her with food from the table. Cuthbert sat on a footstool at her feet, listening to her recount the perils of her journey. The Allerdice couple and Rob Roy Beardsley had pulled up chairs and were all ears.
“You poor dear!” Estelle exclaimed when Moira told her audience how she had witnessed a head-on collision and seen bodies pulled from the wreckage.
“It was just like the car bombing at the market in Baghdad, only I wasn’t just a spectator that time—I was actually buried under a pile of rubble. An Australian photographer saved my life.”
“You should write a book about your experiences in Iraq,” Beardsley suggested.
“Perhaps I should.” Moira’s sharp brown eyes lingered on his face. “Do I know you from somewhere? You look familiar.”
The journalist looked abashed. “Och, I’m no famous yet.”
“Oh, well. You have a Glaswegian accent, so maybe we passed in the street years ago when I lived there. I’ve met so many people on my travels.”
“It was very brave of you to go to Iraq,” Shona Allerdice cooed in admiration.
“What were you doing out there?” Alistair asked, sitting forward in his chair.
“I went to help the Iraqi civilians. Our relief unit provided everything from food and uncontaminated drinking water to blankets and medical supplies. We equipped schools with the basics so the bairns could get on with their studies …”
Turning away, Helen raised an eyebrow at Rex. “She’s got them eating out of her hand,” she murmured.
“Aye, she can be very dramatic when it suits her.”
“She’s prettier than I imagined,” Helen said grudgingly. “You never told me she had such nice hair.”
“Och, I’d hardly call her pretty. You’re pretty. But she can look attractive enough when she’s in her element.”
“Well, she’s in her element now. Just look at Hamish and Cuthbert fawning all over her.”
“And Alistair, poor fool. I should warn him.”
Helen stared at Rex in amazement. “What do you mean? He’s gay! You can’t tell?”
“Really? Are you sure?” Rex trusted Helen’s intuition about these things. She was invariably right.
“Pretty certain,” she said.
Rex searched his memory. “That would explain why I’ve never seen him with a woman in all the years I’ve known him. He must be a closet gay. I’ve never seen any indication …” He thought for a moment. “Wait a minute. He did stay at the Loch Lochy Hotel with the young solicitor who did the conveyancing for the lodge. I wonder … I thought it strange they should both be staying up here. Most solicitors rarely venture out of their offices for their work.”
“There you are, then,” Helen told him. “So, where are we going to put Moira? I’m assuming she’s spending the night. I didn’t see a car.”
“She came by taxi. We’ll have to put her in the room with the leaky radiator, unless she can go with the Allerdices back to their hotel.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice.”
“If push comes to shove, Alistair could take the sofa in the library and she could have his room.”
“Oh, let her have the leaky radiator,” Helen decided. “I just hope the Allerdice crowd don’t have to stay over as well. The rain is coming down thick and fast.”
It could be heard pummeling the eaves and drilling into the expanse