The Neighbors
Chapter One
Silver dawn filtered palely through a fine autumn mist that cloaked
the streets of the Royal Borough and muffled the shadowy silhouettes
of a battalion of the Queen's Household Cavalry, clattering over
Campden Hill on their way back home to barracks after early-morning
maneuvers in the park.
"'Watch the wall, my darling, as the Gentlemen go by,'" chanted
Beatrice reflexively from somewhere deep in her dreams, then,
hearing the sonorous chiming of St. Mary Abbots, followed, seconds
later, by the more tinny echo of the Kensington Palace clock,
recalled she had an early meeting with the Minister so threw back
the duvet and prepared for flight. Lily, her flatmate, was already
up and about, sipping jasmine tea in the kitchen as she listened to
Radio 4.
"Golly," she breathed in her soft, melodic voice, "Guy Bartlett's
dead. Kil ... read full excerpt from The Neighbors ebook
