Read Online Bright Hair About the Bone by Barbara Cleverly - Free Book Online

won’t do. We’re going to have to go inside to get our information.”
    â€œNo! Look properly! They’re being beastly to that poor old man. Can’t you see? His nose! It’s bleeding! They’ve been hitting him.”
    â€œI do believe you’re right. Well, why don’t you go and remonstrate with them?”
    â€œYou know very well they’ll take no notice of
me
! Oh, he’s limping! They’ve been kicking him!” Esmé’s pity was turning to anger. She pointed an accusing finger in their direction. “Go for them, Letty!”
    â€œReally, Esmé! Where is this going to end? You had me rescue a three-legged tortoise from the market, the runt of a litter from the puppy van, and the knife-grinder’s asthmatic donkey, and now you’re trading up to human flotsam and jetsam.” She sighed. But Esmé noticed that while she was speaking, Letty’s back had straightened, her chin had come up, and she was watching the three men coming towards them with a searching eye.
    The two girls positioned themselves side by side, blocking the pavement in front of the constables and their prisoner.
    â€œMay I help you, ladies?” one asked as they halted in surprise.
    â€œYou most certainly may, Officer. Release that gentleman! We, as members of the public whom you serve, take exception to the manner in which you are handling him. Observe, Miss Leatherhead, would you, the nosebleed, the limp in the left leg, the bruise appearing on the left cheekbone.”
    Esmé moved closer to the prisoner, dutifully observing the alleged wounds as they were itemised, and tut-tutting primly.
    â€œMay I suggest, ladies,” said the constable, exquisitely polite, “that if you are easily affronted by scenes of this nature, you do not loiter in the doorway of the local nick? A pleasant walk in the Botanic Garden may well be more in tune with your sensibilities. They do say as how the peonies are a sight to behold at the moment.”
    â€œOh, I dare say, Officer,” agreed Letty. “Unfortunately, we have business with the Chief Inspector. I have been charged by my father—Sir Richard Talbot, Justice of the Peace…you are aware of Sir Richard?—with the delivery of a most urgent message. Here’s my card.”
    One officer wiped his hand on his trousers and took the proffered card, glancing at it briefly. He nodded lugubriously at his companion.
    â€œAnd now, perhaps you would care to enlarge on the problem you are having with this man?”
    â€œHe’s a down-and-out, ma’am. No visible means of support. Picked him up in the graveyard behind St. Mary the Less. Just routine. We’ll take him in to the desk, book him, and he’ll be sent up Castle Hill to spend a week in the House of Correction.” He gave a conspiratorial grin. “That should convince him it’s time to move on away from Cambridge.”
    â€œIf ’e can still move, after a week in the Correction!” chortled the second constable.
    Letty flinched but retained her polite smile. She shook her head. “Something tells me you may have misconstrued this matter, gentlemen. Can you be quite certain that he is penniless? Or have you merely assumed as much from the state of his, er, toilette?” She reached a gloved hand into the pocket of the man’s filthy greatcoat. When she pulled it out again, a silver half-crown piece glittered between her thumb and forefinger. “There! Visible means of support! The price of five days’ accommodation at sixpence a day. You ought to have declared it,” she reprimanded the tramp. “They’ll add wasting police time to your charges if you’re not more careful.” She dropped the coin back into the man’s pocket.
    The policemen looked at each other glumly over the prisoner’s head. Then, without a word exchanged, they released him. “Very well, ma’am,” said the