The Cleverness Of Ladies [Quick Reads] Read online

  La went outside and looked up at the sky, where there was still a glimmer of light. Feliks’s little boy was with her, but she had almost forgotten him. He does not understand, she thought, which was just as well.

  15

  She had put Feliks and his son in the spare room at the end of the corridor downstairs. When she awoke the next morning and went into the kitchen, she saw that the two of them were already up and out in the garden. Feliks was showing his son the shrubbery, which reminded her that he had planted some of those shrubs, still there after all those years.

  He wanted to show his son where he had lived, and so he took him off after breakfast, in his car. She stayed behind. She was giving coffee to a number of members of the orchestra who had travelled down for the concert and would be leaving later that morning.

  ‘Well,’ one of them said, ‘I hope that helps. I doubt it, though. Isn’t it awful?’

  ‘Music helps,’ she said. ‘Even if … even if …’ But she could not bring herself to finish the sentence.

  Then they heard the news. It came on the radio, in the kitchen, and it was shouted out. Somebody said, quite simply, peace. She sat down because she thought that she would pass out. She held her head in her hands. ‘Oh,’ she said. Just: ‘Oh.’

  She wanted to find Feliks immediately and tell him, but she made herself wait until he came back. Then she went out to the driveway. He saw her through the window of his car, and she realised that she must smile or he would think that it was bad news. She smiled. Then, to underline the point, she waved her hands in the air.

  He said, ‘Good news? Is it good news?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes.’

  He turned round and embraced his young son and kissed him. The boy looked surprised, even embarrassed. Then Feliks took La’s hands in his. He did not kiss her, but squeezed her hands, as if sharing some secret good news.

  ‘Your orchestra, La,’ he said. ‘Your orchestra saved the world. Again.’

  She thought about this later. He had said again, and then she knew what he meant.

  They went inside, where she had made coffee. The last time they had been together there had been no real coffee; now, such luxury. There would still be coffee, and water to make it with, and people to drink it. Those things had been threatened, but now the threat was gone.

  ‘When do you have to leave for Glasgow?’ she asked.

  He hesitated, and she realised that there were times when something must be said, something wildly inappropriate – forward, really.

  ‘Don’t go,’ she said. ‘Stay. Just stay. We could get the orchestra going again.’

  He looked at his son, and then looked back at her. She rose to her feet and picked up the little boy and kissed him.

  Quick Reads

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  THE NO.1 LADIES’

  DETECTIVE AGENCY

  Alexander McCall Smith

  The multi-million bestselling phenomenon

  If you’ve got a problem and no one else can help you, then pay a visit to Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s finest – and only – female detective and proud proprietor of the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Her methods may not be conventional but she’s got warmth, wit and intuition on her side, not to mention Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, the charming owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. She’s going to need them all as she sets out on a trail that will lead her into some sticky situations and more than a little danger in this first novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s much-loved series.

  Abacus

  978-0-349-11675-4

  Discover the world of Alexander McCall Smith and sample his other books at