A Match Made for Murder Iona Whishaw (pride and prejudice read .TXT) 📖

running his mouth across her forehead and then back to her lips.

Slapping him lightly on the leg, Amy smiled in the darkness and then whispered, “What other girls? I thought I was your girl.” She ran her hand along his leg, causing him to take a sharp intake of breath. He put his hand on hers and pressed it into his thigh. “You tell me. You seem to know everything.”

She pulled her hand away abruptly and sat back on the seat. “You were seen last summer with that Tina and who knows how many others. You got a reputation.”

Barney frowned in the darkness, feeling a flutter of alarm at her tone, but said lightly, “Like you said, last summer. Why you bringing her up? Wouldn’t I be with her if I wanted her? She’s cold. I’m with you.” He tried to pull her back to him, but she resisted.

“I just gotta check. She’s stuck up and she’s been acting weird. She knows about us, I just know it, the way she looked at me when I saw her in town. She’s disgusting, working in a garage like that! I don’t even know what you see in her.”

He grabbed the top of her arm suddenly and swung her so she faced him. “I don’t ‘see’ anything in her. Did she say anything to you?”

“You’re hurting me! No, she didn’t. She’s too stuck up to talk to anyone. People just know stuff.”

“What do you mean? What have you been telling people?” Anger competed with fear in his voice.

“What do you think I am? I haven’t been telling anyone anything. But it’s all gonna have to come out. You’re going to marry me.”

He let go of her arm and reached into his shirt pocket for a cigarette and lit it with his lighter, illuminating his face for a moment. He pushed the lighter into his trouser pocket and leaned out the window, blowing smoke into the night air. He didn’t offer Amy one.

“You can ignore me all you want. We’re getting married. You have to marry me.”

There was such a steel tone in this statement that Barney turned to stare at her. She was sitting with her arms crossed looking out the front window, her mouth set.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means I’m expecting, and it’s yours. Obviously. Did you knock her up as well?”

“Would you shut up about her?” Barney threw the cigarette out the window and put the car into gear, but it was only relief he felt. They’d been talking at crossed purposes. “I’m dropping you off.”

“You’re not dropping me anywhere. I’m staying right here till you marry me. If you don’t, everyone in this whole town, including your boss, is gonna know what you’ve been up to, going after all those girls in school.” This was a sore point with Amy. It wasn’t just Tina; she knew of several other girls, one as young as fourteen. But there was something special about Tina, she was sure of it, and she hated her for it. She had the upper hand now, though, and Tina was going to know it.

Tina looked up from where she was working, sweeping the inside of a truck being picked up later that day. It had been dry all summer, and a cloud of dust obscured the car coming down the road. She stood up, looking with growing fury and fear at the car. It was the cream-coloured ’33 Buick Barney Watts drove. She dropped the hand broom and sped toward the garage. She couldn’t see him. Her dad could deal with him. Just outside the bay door, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her handkerchief to put over her mouth. She felt like she might be sick. She rushed to the small toilet in the garage.

“Dad, get that!” she called desperately. She slammed the bathroom door shut and stood breathing heavily, trying to fight back the fear and nausea. Succeeding somehow, she leaned against the door. She heard her father come into the bay.

“Hey, Tina. It’s some friend of yours from school. She just wants to have a word.”

She? Tina opened the door, pulling out a bobby pin and pinning a lock of hair that had fallen forward. She strolled as nonchalantly as she could toward the car, parked right outside the door. Amy Donald was standing outside the car, one foot on the running board, gazing around at the property. She looked at Tina as she came through the door.

“Amy,” Tina said. Why was she driving Barney’s car? “You got a new car.”

“Very funny. You know perfectly well whose car this is. I just came to tell you I’m getting married. I thought you’d like to know.” She pulled a cigarette out of her purse and lit it, throwing the burning match into the grass.

Tina stomped on the match furiously. “You trying to set the whole place on fire? Why should I care you’re getting married? You never even finished school. I’m not surprised you’re getting married. What else can you do?”

“I won’t be going back because I’m having a baby.”

Her pride in this seemed nonsensical to Tina. “I gather it’s Barney’s work. I heard you were going out with him. He’s an ass. I wish you a long and happy life.”

Amy dropped the nonchalance. “I’m here to tell you to keep away from him. He’s mine now. You can’t pretend you don’t like him.”

Tina was knocked back by this speech and stared at Amy in genuine surprise. “I can’t pretend I do like him. I can’t pretend I do anything but hate him. You’re making a huge mistake. You have no idea what he’s really like!”

Amy turned and got into the car and revved the engine. She looked at Tina as she put it into gear. “Oh?” was all she said as she peeled into the turn that would take her back up to the road.

The evergreens were slightly smaller and more distantly spaced than the