Read Funeral Music for Free Online Page A

Sue was already there and in conversation with Derek Payne’s woman with the problem hair.
    ‘Hiya!’ Sue yelped at her from several yards away. ‘You’ll never believe it! This is my landlady!’ Sue beamed. ‘My Monday to Friday landlady, I should say. Cecily! Sara! Meet Cecily, Sara. Cecily, Sara!’ Cecily smiled without showing her teeth. ‘Cecily’s joining the thing tonight, just on impulse, aren’t you?’
    Cecily was trying to look relaxed. ‘I just thought I might stay. Someone’s picking me up later. There’s something on organic hair treatments. And the weight-loss bits, I’d like a look at those. I’m only here by accident.’
    Sara gave her an enquiring look which was supposed to convey complete ignorance of the circumstances of Cecily’s arrival.
    ‘I came with a friend. On another matter. But perhaps I should just go on a diet,’ she added sadly. The big round eyes could look abject as well as sultry. Sara felt certain that Derek had gone off in a huff, having not got his way with Matthew Sawyer. She had seen how short his temper was and guessed that he was easily peeved, although it was just possible that Cecily had been the one to be offended and make a stand, deferring their dinner and subsequent seduction until after she had salvaged some benefit for herself out of the earlier embarrassment. But she could hardly ask.
    ‘Oh,
dieting
doesn’t work,’ Sue said, landing happily on the familiar ground of the conversation. ‘You’ve really just got to stop eating
completely
, that’s the only thing that works for me. Willpower’s not a problem. I’ll do anything when I really want to. Paul hates me fat. Anyway, there’s a woman here who sorts the whole thing out with her hands. It’s a mind-body thing; she lays on her hands and it kind of disperses all the fat. It’s very gentle, apparently.’
    ‘Really? That sounds amazing,’ Cecily said, wide-eyed.
    ‘Yeah, it is. I mean, you’ve got to follow this eating plan as well. Obviously. Loads of water and fruit, to eliminate body toxins. No meat or fish. Or coffee, or fat or sugar,
obviously
.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Cecily wanly. ‘It’s a diet, then.’
    ‘I sometimes wonder where my body toxins are,’ Sara said. ‘And what are they, exactly? How much do they weigh? I mean, could I get a test tube full? When I die,’ she said importantly, ‘I am going to donate my body toxins to medical research.’
    Sue squealed with laughter. ‘Oh, you!’ she said, just as the hub of conversation in the room fell away.
    ‘Now I don’t intend to keep you standing here long,’ said the man on the platform, whom Sara immediately recognised as the tall pacifier of Derek. He had an unattractive, upper-middle-class accent of the kind which would have got him lynched in many parts of Britain although not, of course, in Bath. He introduced the ‘ladies’ with him on the platform.
    ‘...the President of the Natural Healing Arts Association’ – grinning, ample and kaftan-clad, Sara noted – ‘and my colleague Olivia Passmore who as Deputy Director of Bath Museums is responsible, with me, for this wonderful venue.’
    There was Olivia, obviously already dressed for the Pump Room, her short greying hair and strong features looking marvellous above a silvery-looking silk jacket. She was bound to be walking across town to the Pump Room afterwards, so they probably would go together, or would she have to go with Matthew Sawyer? Was that why he was wearing black tie?
    ‘Now I’m just a simple chap who’s worked in museums all his life, and I’m also jolly lucky because it’s my job to run all the museums in this wonderful city. And that means I have the pleasant duty of welcoming you all here this weekend and I hope that you’ll enjoy not only this very special building but also the many other unique features of Bath. Now of course Bath has long been a centre of healing. Before the Romans, the prehistoric peoples hereabouts thought the hot