Killing Cousins by Alanna Knight

stopped and looked at him earnestly. 'We all help each other out, you see. If help is needed in the house, we can always get someone in from the village.'
    'How do the bachelor gentlemen manage?'
    'You mean the minister and Captain Gibb?'
    'Yes, do they have servants of their own?'
    Annie shook her head. 'Not living in. The Captain said he had no call for a woman about the house. He was used to doing for himself on his ship.' She smiled. 'A typical old sailor, the Captain. As for Reverend Erlandson, my cousin Bessie, who cleans the church, cooks his meals and keeps the rectory tidy. I dare say when he and Miss Balfray marry there'll be a different arrangement then.'
    'A housekeeper, perhaps?'
    Annie frowned. 'Housekeepers are hard to keep on Balfray, sir, as Missus may have told you.'
    'Because of Mrs Bliss's unfortunate accident, perhaps?'
    Annie shuffled her feet and regarded them solemnly, searching for the right words, he thought.
    'She wasn't one of us, sir, she didn't know the island ways. She never realised how we all rely on each other. Sometimes she was, well, selfish, thoughtless.'
    Annie permitted herself a grim smile. 'She liked going into Kirkwall and meeting people. She did like the gentlemen,' she added delicately and then closed her mouth firmly in the manner of one who has already said too much.
    Faro was saved from further probing by the entrance of Miss Balfray. 'I thought I heard your voice, Annie, gossiping again. Oh, Mr Faro, I didn't realise.'
    As Annie scuttled out with a brief curtsy, Norma Balfray said, 'I hope everyone is looking after you. We are, I'm afraid, a little short on hospitality at this particular time.'
    As he assured her of his well-being, he was conscious of the intensity of her gaze. For once he found himself at a disadvantage, searching for the kind of conversation that usually came so easily to him.
    Next morning, the real motive behind Norma's most pressing concern regarding his presence at Balfray still troubled him as, beguiled by the sunshine, he walked briskly towards the cliff path.
    With a feeling that all his senses were sharpened by this brilliant light and a gleaming sea, he was not without hope of perhaps stumbling upon some small clue that they had previously overlooked.
    However, as he walked towards the sea wood he found that he was not alone. A girl emerged from one of the paths.
    No, not a girl. It was Inga St Ola.

Chapter Nine
     
    'May I walk with you? I feel a need to escape too on such a lovely morning,' Inga added sympathetically.
    It wasn't quite what Faro had intended. They walked in a silence he found both companionable and oddly comforting while he considered what useful information he might extract regarding Balfray and its occupants.
    Suddenly Inga said, 'I expect you've heard about Saul Hoy?'
    When he shook his head innocently, she smiled. 'Come along, Jeremy. It's common talk - I'm the speak of Balfray, as they say in these parts, living all these years with a bachelor who is not my husband.'
    She sighed. 'Saul's a good man, and I expect I would have married him, if he hadn't turned out to be my half-brother.'
    Faro wondered why he felt so pleased when she added, 'We've been very happy in our brother-sister relationship. Living with Saul has protected me from occasional outbursts - when a cow dies, or someone fancies she is being overlooked by a selkie, sometimes they've come to do me violence ...'
    She stopped, her eyes narrowing suddenly, as if reliving such incidents with painful clarity. 'But when they find they have Saul to deal with, it's a different story. Having a protector can be very useful, as I've discovered.'
    'I gather your Saul Hoy was devoted to his younger brother too.'
    'He was. But as for poor Troller, no one else existed in his world except Thora Balfray. It's sad that he died, but I think his life was over the very day she breathed her last.'
    'His death was very strange, bizarre even. You must have known him better than most. Have