Chapter 1
Chapter One
A SENSIBLE MOMENT TO STOP . . .
Hattie Mulberry typed out a notification on the administration page of her website and hit save, then checked the live site to ensure that her instructions were clear.
H I can easily find your replacement.’
‘Aye, but you won’t.’
Alf stood up and Ness thumped her tail against his leg. He removed the butt from behind his ear and lit it. ‘You’ll need to be out of t’way, for a week or two.’
‘What?’ Hattie’s mouth dropped open.
Alf raised his hand and ran his fingers along the spines of books that sat on the shelves lining one wall.
‘Get yourself away on a holiday,’ he said.
‘It’s not as though you’ve any current mysteries to meddle in.
’ He paused as he studied several volumes of Hattie’s favourite author and, after pulling one off the shelf, held it up.
Then, placing Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile before Hattie, he pushed it under her nose.
‘A Nile cruise, something different, that’s what you should do,’ Alf said. ‘Think on!’
Hattie thought on for several days. When her mind wasn’t occupied with ordering bathroom fittings, tiles and a posh toilet seat, she contemplated Alf’s advice.
She’d agreed that he should start work on the new bathroom by the third week in November, which gave her two weeks to decide where she would go while the work was carried out.
Hattie could stay with Jo, at one of her friend’s lovely country house hotels.
But she knew it would be impossible to relax in those surroundings, and she’d soon rope herself into work.
November could be a cold wet month in Cumbria, and Hattie felt that it would be good to go somewhere warm, to feel a bit of heat on her tired bones and refresh both her mind and body, ideally somewhere new.
She would return home, relaxed and ready to review any new cases that were waiting in her inbox.
Sitting in the garden room while rain lashed down outside and thunder crashed, Hattie flicked through holiday sites on her laptop, looking for last-minute inspiration.
A couple of weeks in sunny Madeira looked promising, with colourful flower markets and interesting walks.
Her eyes studied a snow-dusted winter chalet in the Dolomites where skiing the magnificent slopes was a highlight.
‘Not a chance.’ Hattie sighed, puffing out her cheeks. The thought of bundling up her ample body in a vice-like snowsuit and balancing on two tiny planks, to throw herself off the side of a mountain, did little to encourage a booking, although the après-ski looked tempting.
On the coffee table beside her, the book that Alf had chosen lay as though waiting for Hattie to pick it up.
Death on the Nile was her favourite, and Hattie knew that if she began to read it again, she wouldn’t stop.
Outside, a storm had gathered, and lightning lit up the sky in a jagged white flash, while thunder rolled in close.
Hattie snapped her laptop shut and stared at the book. Gilt letters on the cover flickered in the light of the storm, seeming to dance. Fascinated, Hattie felt a shiver as she turned a page. The story took place on a Nile river cruise. Was the tale inviting her in?
‘A cruise!’ Hattie exclaimed, her bright blue eyes wide open. ‘Of course, Alf was right! Why on earth didn’t I think of it before?’
Hattie loved cruising, and with her second husband, Hugo, in the brief two years of their marriage, they’d travelled to many far-flung destinations.
Yet somehow, a Nile cruise had never made it onto their itinerary.
She visualised the slow, sunlit river winding its way from Luxor to Aswan, gliding past golden temples, whispering palms and age-old buildings.
Just like a scene from her favourite novel.
She felt a ripple of pleasure at the thought of exotic sights and a canopied sundeck where she could relax and unwind as the ancient world passed by.
How Hugo would have loved such a holiday.
Hattie’s heart ached as she stared at the glossy pages and thought of her beloved husband, the only man she had ever truly loved, who had been taken from her too soon into their marriage.
His precious old heart had suddenly stopped, without warning, while they were enjoying a cruise.
Despite learning to live without him the ache was a constant, especially when she remembered the happiest days of her life.
With a sigh, Hattie opened her laptop again and began typing into a search engine for tour companies that offered such holidays. At least she’d be out from under Alf’s feet and away from the clatter of hammers and drills and constant clouds of dust.
Yes! Hattie thought with a satisfied smile, a river cruise on the Nile. A proper, well-earned holiday!