Read An Inquiry Into Love and Death for Free Online

her hand. “And this is my daughter, Julia.”
    Both women were dressed for walking; and indeed, with the gate open, I noticed a path behind the property that skirted the woods. Mrs. Kates was perhaps thirty-five, her hair cropped very short and fashionably marcelled. Over this she had placed a cloche with a wide ribbon, under the brim of which only the well-placed ends of her hair could be seen. She wore a dress of faded blue silk, decorated with beads along the neckline, under a coat with a worn fur collar. The daughter, a step behind her, was no more than sixteen, in large shoes and a tweed coat that went to her knees. She had elected to wear her long hair in a braid down her back, from which wisps of frizz escaped.
    As I greeted them, I realized I must look a perfect fright. My hair was wild, my man’s sweater was wrapped around me, and my legs and feet were bare. I’d never thought anyone would see my studying outfit. “I’m sorry,” I said, looking down at myself and up again. “I was just out here a moment—I didn’t realize—”
    “Of course,” said Mrs. Kates, smiling. “We’ve intruded. But I couldn’t help but introduce myself. I’m the landlady here, you see.”
    “Oh.” I looked back at Barrow House, then turned to her again. “I’m Toby Leigh’s niece. I’m here to clean out his things.”
    “Yes, I had a letter from the solicitor. I’m so sorry about what happened to your uncle. Such a kind man.”
    This was said with such cheer I could only stare for a second. “Yes, well, thank you.”
    “Though he was rather a hermit,” she went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “I barely saw him. He prepaid the rent for the month, so you mustn’t worry about that, truly. Though I did have to write the solicitors when I sent them the key, to mention that he is paid only to the end of the month. I must admit, when they wrote me that his niece was coming, I pictured a married woman. Are you alone?”
    My mind spun with the changes of subject. I glanced at the daughter, but she was no help; she merely looked at me and waited for an answer. “I’m alone,” I admitted. “My parents could not come.”
    That stopped Mrs. Kates, but only for a moment; the daughter’s jaw dropped visibly, as if I’d just shed my clothes.
    “Why, how very modern!” Mrs. Kates exclaimed. “We don’t get much of that here. Are your parents ill, perhaps?”
    It was well-meant, but both Mr. Hindhead and Edward Bruton had already commented on my single status. I was beginning to feel like a two-headed cow or a bearded lady. Was a girl alone so very freakish? My parents had always been too busy or preoccupied to coddle me. “They’re not ill. I’m twenty-two; I can care for myself, I assure you.”
    “Well, I certainly wouldn’t know.” Mrs. Kates lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I went straight from my father’s house to my husband’s when I was seventeen, and then I had Julia. People say we look more like sisters than mother and daughter.”
    “You do,” I said politely, though it was altogether true. Mrs. Kates wore a great deal of makeup, skillfully applied, but under it she was blessed with unlined skin, as if she’d never had a worry or a day in the sun. Julia, with her unvarnished face and ungroomed brows, looked like an alternate version of her mother.
    “I don’t know much about modern girls,” Mrs. Kates was saying. “Marry and have children, that’s what’s always worked just fine, as far as I know. Is that motorcar yours? Are you married?”
    “No,” I said, rubbing the bottom of one bare, cold foot over the top of the other and contemplating the chilled air on my knees. “I’m a student at Oxford.”
    This was greeted with a thunderous, surprised silence, as if I’d announced my intention to run as MP. I plunged ahead into the gap. “Look, I’d ask you in for tea, only the stove’s not lit, and I haven’t looked at the supplies. Perhaps—”
    “Oh, no, dear.” Mrs. Kates regained