“And, no, you mustn’t be overwhelming, mustn’t be too much around, when what he or she needs is space. It’s a good thing that you’ll have a bit of academic work to do, if things work out.”
“Maybe. Actually, I’m reconsidering that. I’m thinking of writing a book.”
“Oh, good. But no money in that.”
“A novel.”
Charlie’s mouth fell open.
“A novel! For Christ’s sake! Hasn’t your father put you off that?”
“My father writes rotten novels. Crap. Mine is going to be a good one. Maybe there will be more than one. There certainly will be more than one child. Now, getting down to the actual wedding . . .”
Later that night Charlie awoke from a very strange dream indeed, in which he and Felicity and the several children she had foreseen were out on a picnic and the whole thing was like a cozy advertisement of pretty people in Pre-Raphaelite green fields being gooily happy together with cows looking benevolently on. Sleepily Charlie felt across the bed and settled his hand on Felicity’s stomach, wondering if he could feel the little one’s presence yet. He decided he couldn’t, but was pleased in the knowledge that it was there.
“You’re going to have to get used to more reality than that,” he said. “Life’s not going to be all green fields and cows, little him or her.”
Also from Robert Barnard
A Murder in Mayfair
The Corpse at the Haworth Tandoori
No Place of Safety
The Habit of Widowhood
The Bad Samaritan
The Masters of the House
A Hovering of Vultures
A Fatal Attachment
A Scandal in Belgravia
A City of Strangers
Death of a Salesperson
Death and the Chaste Apprentice
At Death’s Door
The Skeleton in the Grass
The Cherry Blossom Corpse
Bodies
Political Suicide
Fête Fatale
Out of the Blackout
Corpse in a Gilded Cage
School for Murder
The Case of the Missing Brontë
A Little Local Murder
Death and the Princess
Death by Sheer Torture
Death in a Cold Climate
Death of a Perfect Mother
Death of a Literary Widow
Death of a Mystery Writer
Blood Brotherhood
Death on the High C’s
Death of an Old Goat
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2001 by Robert Barnard
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barnard, Robert.
Unholy dying/Robert Barnard.
p. cm.
1. England, Northern—Fiction. 2. Leeds (England)—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6052.A665 U54 2001
823'.914—dc21
00–047101
ISBN 13: 978-1-4391-5736-7 ISBN 10: 1-4391-5736-7
ISBN 13: 978-1-4767-3790-4 (eBook)
Unholy Dying Page 25