Nearest and Dearest

Nellie and Eli have never been all that friendly, though up to now their relationship has never been actually murderous. But when Nellie stands to draw a useful sum in cash if anything nasty happens to Eli…Well, accidents will happen - especially to Eli.

Eli Pledge has been a dedicated bachelor for well over 40 years now, and it has never seemed a day too long. So when he breaks the habit of a miss-spent lifetime and brings home a fiancée, you can't blame his sister, Nellie, for feeling that there is something fishy about this romance. Any woman who is ready to take Eli for better or worse must have something to hide - and Nellie won't rest till she finds out what that something is.

Nellie Pledge is nobody's idea of a flighty piece, but one fine morning when Eli rolls home after yet another night on the tiles she decides that there must be more to life than bed and work. She wouldn't flit, would she? ""I'd flaming flit in a flipping flash"" threatens Nellie - and she does. But her new life as a bed-sit girl brings it's own peculiar problems...

When love walks into Nellie Pledge's life it is a safe bet that Eli Pledge is holding the door open with his foot. Romance comes to Nellie in the shape of a self-made tycoon with one eye for a pretty face and the other for a quick profit, and the quickest way to Nellie's heart is inevitably through Eli's pocket.

Disaster threatens Pledge's Purer Pickles when the workers start to stay away in droves. Nellie Pledge is disgusted. ""If the workers want to go in for this absenteeism"", she tells Eli, ""they ought to do it at home"". In the meantime, production must go on, so Lily and Walter are called in to keep the pickles flowing. But, though his intentions are honourable, Walter's methods seem destined to drop any reputable pickle works well and truly in the mire.