A Room With No Natural Light by Douglas Lindsay

Author:Douglas Lindsay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blasted Heath Ltd
Published: 2015-07-14T04:00:00+00:00

33

For the second night in a row, Pitt did not sleep at all, although, on this evening, he did at least spend several hours lying in bed, Daisy next to him, wrapped in her familiar silence.

Pitt arrived home from Bristol at some time after ten in the evening. He had taken spare clothes, in case he had to change out of blood-stained, incriminating evidence. In the end there hadn’t been much blood, and he’d only had to change his shirt. The soiled one he would dispose of later. Others might also have had cause to want to so easily dispose of the images in their head. For Pitt, it did not matter.

When he returned, Daisy and Mrs Cromwell were watching television. He walked along the corridor behind them and went straight upstairs, had a shower and got into bed. When Daisy came up, he lay with his eyes closed and did not speak to her. It would have been too much to say that he pretended to be asleep, as Daisy was well aware that he was awake, as much as he was aware that she understood that he didn’t want to talk to her.

At some point she fell asleep, and he lay on his back, watching the dark of night gradually lighten, wondering what he was going to do with Ju, and how quickly he would be required to do it.

He got out of bed at 4:30 and went downstairs. Ju was not yet there. He made a cup of coffee, then sat at the table, staring straight ahead, unseeing, at the wall. Thinking about the cook. She could not stay here, with Mrs Cromwell vigilant and determined.

The door opened behind him. Pitt had not moved for over ten minutes, the coffee cooling before him. He glanced up at the clock and turned in the same movement.

Ju paused in the doorway. For once she looked Pitt in the eye. She had no idea what was returned in his look; face impassive, eyes as cold as they always were.

Her gaze dropped. She did not dare hope that Pitt was feeling the same things as she had been. A day and night of no sleep with an overactive mind had not allowed her to understand why he could still be interested in her. Now that he knew her secret. Yet, he had come for her and brought her back to his home.

Pitt glanced again at the clock. It was still very early for a Monday morning, but one could never tell when Daisy or Mrs Cromwell would first appear, wraithlike in the kitchen, dragging a cold wind in their wake. He did not have long.

Ju looked up as he moved towards her, caught another glimpse into his eyes, thought perhaps that she saw a light that was not normally there. He stopped in front of her, surprising her. Ju stared at his feet.

Pitt waited for her to look up, to look into those eyes from twelve inches away; to stand this close, to smell her and feel her, to engage her finally after all these weeks.

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