A Taste of Deceit by Valerie Keogh

Author:Valerie Keogh [Keogh, Valerie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
Published: 2022-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

After a night spent in the spacious rooms of the manor house, it was difficult to walk into my tiny, tiny cottage. I stood in the living room and felt the walls closing in, the furniture crowding me. I wasn’t usually given to panic but fingers of it prodded and squeezed until I couldn’t breathe. I needed to get outside.

Hurrying to the back door, I screamed every swear word I knew when the key wouldn’t turn in the lock, my hands trembling, fingers damp and slippery. ‘You shit!’ I banged the door, jiggled the key again. Violence worked, the door swung open, and I fell into the garden, taking noisy gulps of air as I stumbled forward.

The memory of Alan Brandon with his scary, skin-crawling dirt-topped digits and the gut-twisting stink of death was to blame. That was all. Nothing else.

Another few days and I’d be heading home. Our apartment in London wasn’t perhaps as spacious as the manor house but by city standards it was enormous. Once home, I could settle the situation with Kasper and start planning a better life for myself.

This creepy small town wasn’t for me.

And once I was gone from it, whoever was curious about me, whoever was trying to find my secrets, I’d be leaving them behind. Wouldn’t I?

I slumped onto the nearest garden chair. The storm hadn’t lasted or done much good. The grass was still burnt umber, the air still humid. Another hot sticky day stretched ahead of me.

A vague idea that I should go to bed and try to catch up with some of the sleep I’d missed over the last few days was quickly dismissed. There were too many jarring ideas rattling inside my skull to allow me to switch off. With a sigh, I headed inside. If I wasn’t going to sleep, I needed coffee.

I took a mug into the garden, sat with my elbows on the table as I sipped, my eyes growing heavy in the sunshine. Maybe I could sleep there. Like a cat in a sunbeam.

Pushing the mug to one side, I crossed my arms on the table and laid my head down. The warmth of the sun and the quiet of the garden worked in my favour. I drifted off on a dream of better days ahead, and of Kasper… always of him.

Slipping into the past, to when we were new together, hours of lovemaking, so much laughter. We often showered together, soapy hands exploring, sex against the wall as the water beat down on us. I could feel him, feel the water…

The water. My eyes flew open, and I jumped to my feet as the rain bounced off me and hammered on the table. My dress was already soaked through, my hair rat’s tail tendrils. A boom of thunder chased me to the house, a crack of lightning lighting up the doorway as I raced through.

British weather! I grabbed a tea towel and wiped it over my face. Another flash of lightning sent

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