Now Missy lay panting beside me, lying on her side, satisfied at last, and touching some of the odd marks on my chest and face. "Tell me about this on... again," she asked, fingering my cheekbone."I don' remember the lie I told you last time," I said. "Was that where the king's dancing girl scratched me?"She kicked me in the knee and made a face. "You are truly a mess," she said. "Don' know why I put up with you 'cept I enjoy you. Sometimes it feels you're usin' some'in like a hoe handle, I. .. ?" They're enormous, Col. You gotta see them. How's about this weekend?"So it was all arranged. Davie was bringing Claudia round to Jessica's on Saturday evening. We would make a night of it, the seven of us, if you counted Baby and Acme."There's a link between coffee and the water softener ... That much is obvious. What's not so clear is why some women aren't affected," I said to Louise as we drove down the road that Friday night. If we could find out, we could do something about it."You. After a change out of her dirty jeans and quick spruce of her hair, Gill put the kettle on – she didn’t know if Steve, the adviser, wanted a drink but she knew she needed one. Right on the dot of 10.00 a car drew up outside and a guy got out. Tall & broad shouldered, he collected a briefcase from the car and approached the door. Gill let him into her home and after the pleasantries asked if he would like a coffee. Settling down across the long dining table, Gill started to relax a little as. She had a sudden thought. If Merle was so wrong about that,what else could she be wrong about? She decided that if Arthur hadspilt a lot of thinners, there should be marks on the sheets he used tocover the furniture. She knew that he was an exceptionally tidyworkman, so they shouldn't have more than a few spots of paint on them.She found the sheets in the room that Arthur had been using as aworkshop. She carefully unfolded them and to her relief, only theoccasional small spot of paint was.