Eleven Things that Weren’t Written by Dorothy L. Sayers, VII

[nineveh_uk]

Spoilers and disclaimers (incl. for directly quoted text) as usual.

Have his Carcase

I

Harriet Vane looked out at the sweeping rain. She had started on a solitary walking-tour of the south coast: plenty of exercise, no responsibilities, and no letters forwarded. The time was June, the weather hitherto perfect. She had intended to spend the day walking the sixteen miles along the cliffs to Wilvercombe. But the sky was black, her lodgings comfortable, and she had had an idea for The Fountain-Pen Mystery. She turned her back on the lowering clouds and ran down the stairs to reserve her room for a second night.

II

Harriet watched Wimsey as he ran, bathing-suited, down over the sand.

‘And he strips better than I expected,’ she admitted candidly to herself. ‘Better shoulders than I realised, and calves to his legs, and really a very nice bum.’

III

‘I say, Peter! That’s not a bad idea for a novel.’

‘What?’

‘The blood. If one could contrive a situation in which the only evidence for the time of death was that the blood hadn’t clotted, and contrive some way that the blood wouldn’t clot, then the murderer could arrange a false alibi.’

‘Harriet!’

‘My God, Peter. You don’t think that Henry Weldon – ’

‘No. Not arrange it – you said that Henry Weldon was stupid. And arranging that sort of thing would require a good deal of ingenuity. But there is another possibility.’

IV

And dinner. And dancing. And so to bed.

‘Oh my Lord!’

***

Plus one or two extras in the comments courtesy of azdak.

Comments

[white_hart]

Coming back to this now I've actually read the novel. I particularly like 3, obviously ;-)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I have a great fondness for HHC - it's quite baggy, but I love its playing around with the whole business of writing detective stories and constructing narratives in real life. And I am convinced that if there were a modern TV series it would be the one in which fanfic writers created huge amounts of AU, most involving hurting Harriet or Peter, and sex.

[white_hart]

I think Harriet and Peter are lovely together in this. You get to see more of them together than in Gaudy Night, and at least some of the time - when they're writing out the lists of suspects and facts and so on, for instance - they do seem to be having fun.

At some point I really must carry on with the fic I started a few months ago. Harriet is currently sitting on a train somewhere in Switzerland; I leave it to you to work out her destination ;-)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

they do seem to be having fun

Yes. They get ratty with each other, and have awkward moments and so on, but when they forget to be angst-ridden, they are obviously having a very enjoyable time hanging around together (and being so incredibly obvious about things that Henry Weldon actually notices).

Yes, you must carry on with that fic!