Her hands! The state of her hands alone chilled me when I thought of my Margaret’s soft white hands and pearly nails, hands which belonged as much to her manicurist (as I once lightly told her) as they did to me. I do not know what I would have done then. Taken her home, bathed her, kissed her again many times, always gently, to show that I could overlook the loss of her beauty, cared for her—
But at that point I found myself waking from this dream, this delicious dream (for it was certainly no nightmare). And I felt the warm hand of my wife Margaret, lying beside me on the pillow between us in our bed. I could feel the nobbles and sharpness of her rings, the many rings which she never took off, even at night. I would like to have wrenched off those rings from her fingers, before I killed her, twisting her own silk scarf round her neck, twisting it many times as she herself was wont to twist her jewellery. I would like her to have lain dead there with curtain rings and cheap plastic on her beautiful fingers.
But there was no time. So I killed her as she lay, still in her jewels, I killed her for her treachery and her adultery and her mockery and her twisting, twisting fingers which even in death would not give up their sparkling secrets. Margaret, now my dead wife.
For Mike Shaw
with much thanks
for the criminological encouragement
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
QUIET AS A NUN
THE WILD ISLAND
A SPLASH OF RED
COOL REPENTANCE
OXFORD BLOOD
YOUR ROYAL HOSTAGE
THE CAVALIER CASE
JEMIMA SHORES FIRST CASE AND OTHER STORIES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANTONIA FRASER’s seven previous mysteries featuring Jemima Shore—the latest is The Cavalier Case—have been translated into many languages, as has her previous collection of short stories, Jemima Shore’s First Case. They have also inspired two television series, Quiet as a Nun with Maria Aitken and Jemima Shore Investigates starring Patricia Hodge. Antonia Fraser is well known as a biographer, was President of English PEN from 1988–89, and is also a past Chairman of both the Society of Authors and the Crime-writers’ Association.
Antonia Fraser, Jemima Shore at the Sunny Grave
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