by DH Smith
She’d come back for him.
He knew too much, and not quite enough. He hadn’t allowed that she was in on her father’s murder. Didn’t want to allow it. There was the maddening truth of it.
Ellie, oh Ellie.
He hated the woman that had rowed him to the island. He loved the woman who’d come for him.
A little later, Mia and Alison came. Alison wore a summery yellow dress and was bearing flowers, Mia had a bag of cherries. He was oh so pleased to see them.
Alison picked up the flowers lying on the side. ‘Look at these! Whoever left them there?’
‘George, the caretaker, came,’ he said.
‘Men!’ She blew out her cheeks. ‘Does he think nurses have the time to put flowers in vases and wash grapes?’ She picked up the grapes too. ‘I’ll get some vases and wash the fruit. Give me the cherries, Mia.’
Mia handed them over and Alison left them. Mia sat down.
‘We came the other day, Dad, and we had to go away as you were having an operation.’
‘Yes, they put a pin in my leg. To hold the bones together.’
‘Why do you get into all this trouble?’
Mia always gave him the tough questions. Not that he could deny it was a fair one.
‘Because I’m stupid,’ he said.
‘I read in the paper that a woman tried to kill you,’ said Mia. ‘Was it the woman I saw you kissing?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘She tried to stop it.’
Not strictly accurate, or, rather, true at one point if not at another.
‘It was all very complicated,’ said Mia. ‘I saw it on the news and read it in the paper. Three women in one family dead, and one man badly injured. You.’
‘Famous at last.’
‘I don’t want you famous for being dead, Dad.’
‘Oh, thank you so much, Mia.’
‘Would you like me to read you something?’
‘As long as it’s not gruesome.’
Mia took a big, fat book out of her backpack. ‘It’s the book I borrowed from that school library. Do you think I should take it back?’
‘Keep it,’ he said. ‘You had a hard time there too.’
‘I don’t want to ever go back to that place,’ she said.
‘Nor me.’ Though he knew there’d be a last visit, a month or so hence, to pick up his tools and van. To make his living again.
When Alison returned, with two vases full of flowers and the washed cherries and grapes in a bowl, Mia was reading to Jack Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Thank you!
I am grateful to every reader who finishes one of my novels. I have taken you on a journey which I hope you have enjoyed. There are plenty of things you could have been doing, other than reading this book. So, thank you for your time.
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Books by DH Smith
DH Smith is the name I use for my Jack of All Trades series. The books are all standalone novels and can be read in any order.
Out Now:
Jack of All Trades
Jack of Spades
Jack o’Lantern
Jack By The Hedge
Coming Soon:
Jack in the Box
Jack on the Tower
Jack Be Nimble
Mystery Novels
Murder at Any Price
Books by Derek Smith
All my books, other than the Jack of All Trades series and Murder at Any Price, are written under the name Derek Smith.
Fantasy
Hell’s Chimney
The Prince’s Shadow
Elektra
Other
Strikers of Hanbury Street (short stories)
Catching Up (poetry)
Young Adult Novels
Hard Cash
Half a Bike
Fast Food
Frances Fairweather Demon Striker!
Children’s Novels
The Good Wolf
Feather Brains
Baker’s Boy
For Younger Children
The Magical World of Lucy-Anne
Lucy-Anne’s Changing Ways
Jack’s Bus
About the Author
I live in Forest Gate in the East End of London. In my working life, I have been a plastics chemist, a gardener and a stage manager before becoming a professional writer. I began with plays, working with several theatre companies, and had a few plays on radio and TV, as well as on the stage. In the early 80s I became involved in running a co-operative bookshop and vegetarian café in Stratford, learning to cook, and having my first go at writing a novel. The first was a mess, and, after too many rewrites, binned. The transition from drama to novels took me a couple of years to get to grips with. My first success was a young adult novel, Hard Cash, published by Faber. Buoyed up by this, I stuck with children’s work, did school visits, and made a hand to mouth living as a full time author, topped up with some evening class work in creative writing at City University and the Mary Ward Centre in Holborn. A few adult fiction titles appeared from time to time, between the children’s list, and I have since been working more in that direction with my Jack of All Trades series.
My full name is Derek Howard Smith. I write as DH Smith for my Jack of All Trades series; all other books appear under Derek Smith. Earlham Books is my own imprint.
www.dereksmithwriter.com
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