An Inquiry Into Love and Death by Simone St. James

Author:Simone St. James
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

Twenty

Outside, the dark was beginning its slow reach over the water and under the eaves of the trees as the last of the sun slipped toward the horizon. I came out the back kitchen door of William’s house, crossed the small now-dead garden, and let myself out the gate, closing it behind me. From here I could take the path behind the house, along the edge of the trees, back to Barrow House without having to take the main road.

There was no sound in the purpling dusk but for the wayward call of a few early-evening birds. At the edge of the path my step stumbled, my ankle turned, and I nearly fell. I felt my shoe come loose, and I knelt in the cool grass to rub my ankle and refasten the buckle.

As I knelt a sound came from the house behind me, the click of a door and, surprisingly, voices. I halted. William and I had been alone in the house. But it was certainly two male voices, talking low. They seemed to come from around the house, by the front door.

I don’t know what possessed me to stop and make my way back to the garden gate. It was sudden suspicion, prickling and unsure. Perhaps the conversation I’d just had with William had unsettled me more than I realized. But instead of going back to Barrow House I moved quietly through the twilight, trying to get closer to the voices.

I had closed the gate behind me, but I reached over the low wall and unlatched it, letting it swivel open. I slid through the resulting crack and along the shadowed wall. At the garden shed I paused, taking shelter behind it, berating myself for a nosy fool, slinking around like a nighttime thief. I was stuck there now behind the garden shed, with no way of getting out without risking making noise and exposing myself; well, it was only as much as I deserved. With nowhere to go but onward, I peered ’round the shed and found I had a slanted view of the front of the house.

A beam of light spilled from the open front door and onto the stoop. It was broken by a moving shadow just inside the door. The voices were raised in tension and anger now, though they stayed hushed—two men arguing and trying to keep quiet about it. I realized I had come to William’s door in a frightened rush, and he’d not said anything, but William had already had a visitor all along, who had moved into some other part of the house while we’d been talking.

The voices quieted, and a shadow broke from the doorway and resolved into the figure of a man. He stepped out onto the stoop into the light, and I clearly saw the tall frame and long features of Aubrey Thorne. From inside the door, William grasped Aubrey’s arm, and he stopped and turned; apparently their conversation was not quite finished.

I couldn’t hear everything, just a few words.

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