Lucia Triumphant

by Tom Holt

  ‘Now where’s she gone?’ gasped Georgie, hoarse with shouting. ‘It’s at least three minutes since she left the garden-room.’

  ‘Shout louder!’ yelled Irene. ‘Come on, Mapp. Shout!’ So they shouted.

  Lucia called Grosvenor and ordered tea and cakes for ten.

  ‘Very good, madam,’ said Grosvenor impassively. ‘Oh and, madam, your chain is not quite straight.’

  ‘Thank you, Grosvenor,’ said Lucia, and adjusted it slightly.

  She put her hand on the door handle and observed that the fingers trembled slightly. She frowned, and the trembling stopped. She opened the door and stepped out, her Mayoral robes sweeping the ground beneath her, the feather in her hat touching the lintel. A deafening cheer greeted her and, as the sun, emerging from behind a cloud, cast a sparkling light upon the Mayoral chain, she raised her hand for silence.

  ‘You dear people,’ she said. ‘How you all work me!’

  * * * *

  Tom Holt was born in 1961 in London, England.

  His first book, Poems By Tom Holt, was published when he was twelve years old. While he was still a student at Oxford he wrote two sequels to E.F. Benson’s Lucia series. After an undistinguished seven-year stint as a lawyer, he became a full-time writer in 1995 and has published over thirty novels.

  Tom lives with his wife and daughter in the west of England. As well as writing, he raises pigs and pedigree Dexter cattle.