The Knapthorne Conspiracy by Malcolm Ballard (best english novels for beginners txt) 📕

intimacies with. Argued over boyfriends. Borrowed each other’s clothes. What on earth had she done to deserve Laura? They were more like members of two warring Mafia families than children of the same parents. Wasn’t there a saying about being able to choose friends but not your family? If only! But that was enough, there was work to be done, she reminded herself, and it was no good becoming depressed about Laura. Getting up from the armchair she knew she had to remain philosophical and take things as they came and she couldn’t afford to get obsessed by thoughts of what her sister might do. It was plain from her recent phone call that Bella had really put her nose out of joint by locking her out and also it was clear that Laura was convinced she and Ben were having an affair. Climbing the stairs she reflected on the fact, as she had many times before, that circumstances which occurred in life would hardly seem credible if read in the pages of fiction. At least the thought served to get her mind back onto her writing.

The following day Bella awoke in a most positive frame of mind feeling totally refreshed after an undisturbed night’s sleep. At last she was making real progress with the book and was exceptionally pleased with the previous day’s work, not finishing until nearly midnight. So pleased, in fact, she was almost tempted to ring Jane and give her a progress report but thought better of it. The prospect of Kyle’s visit put her in a good mood and she had yet to decide what to wear. It was still early, before seven, so there was more than enough time without getting in a panic. Something with a bit of style and a touch seductive she thought. Maybe a complete change of image might be the thing. Whether it was living in the village, or not, she wasn’t sure but she felt the need to break the mould of her existence of the past few weeks and spread her wings. Such an urge was typical of her and often resulted from a dislike of becoming embedded in routine. Bella’s boredom threshold was very low and Maria used to despair of her as a child because she became distracted so easily. These days only the creativity of writing kept her chained to the computer but it was often a battle.

It will be so disappointing if Kyle only calls in for a short time, she thought, swinging her legs out of bed and sitting on the edge of the mattress. What she really wanted to do was to go somewhere nice for lunch and celebrate. After the business with Alfie yesterday, for some inexplicable reason Bella experienced a sense of relief that was difficult to articulate. It was something innate, buried so deep in her emotions that it was impossible to identify its source. A gut feeling, would be the best way to describe it. There was no doubt in her mind that it was associated with becoming accepted as part of the village community, being seen as less of an outsider. Why the events of yesterday should have made her feel that way she could not explain but it added to her sense of well-being as she contemplated what the day was like beyond the bedroom curtains. Not for the first time, she studied the heavy brocade material with its red floral pattern thinking how awful the curtains were and wondered why she hadn’t done anything about them. Likewise the wallpaper. She hated wallpaper. Especially this wallpaper. It was creamy white with a strange pinkish tinge to it which could have been just its age and it was lightly embossed with a ghostly pattern of very dated floral arrangements. Each vertical strip of pattern alternated with a slimmer and slightly more heavily embossed vertical frieze of whimsical design. Overall, Bella felt, its effect lay somewhere between innocuous and insipid. Whoever would have thought of putting paper like that on the walls? Cruelly she pictured Cora Flint then mentally reprimanded herself for being petty. There and then she decided to redecorate the room, as time allowed, and the prospect filled her with an almost child-like excitement. Being Bella, now that she had come up with the idea she wanted to start on it right away but was sanguine enough to realise she would probably need to get decorators in if she wanted it done quickly. With a sigh that indicated her disappointment she drew back the curtains and was treated to a panorama of wispy, herring-bone clouds overlaid like a delicate lace tablecloth on the vast expanse of a cornflower blue sky. She couldn’t recall ever having taken so much notice of the sky and its moods. Not in Italy, as a child, and certainly not in London where it was accepted as simply another element of the chaos that was city life and largely ignored. Here she had marvelled at the dawn, been enthralled by the sunset and continually amazed at the ever-changing vista in between. Perhaps she’d caught the country mood, Bella mused, watching the slow drift of the clouds across the sky. Weather that would be considered merely a nuisance in urban areas could be the arbiter of success or failure to a farmer. In the countryside weather was as important to daily routine as e-mail to the city office and clouds were the harbinger of fortune, their messages blazoned across the sky for the knowing reader. The pace of life here allowed her to appreciate such things, not having to rush from one place to the next, head down, at a hundred miles an hour. Time was what made the difference. She immediately thought of Jane then looked at the ever-present display of the radio alarm. It couldn’t be coming up to eight-o-clock! In a trice she was out of the bedroom and heading for the shower.

Being on her own