Eye of the Wind by Jane Jackson

Author:Jane Jackson [Jackson, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Boatyards, Bankruptcy, General, Disguise, Young Women, Fiction, Upper Class
ISBN: 9780709069959
Google: tpuxNQAACAAJ
Amazon: 0709069952
Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd
Published: 2001-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

When Melissa arrived at the clearing on Monday morning the atmosphere was noticeably subdued. After offering a brief salute or mumbled greeting, the men went about their work in silence, the after-effects of two days of celebrations painfully obvious.

Seeing Joe wince and shudder at the crash of a falling tree, and glimpsing Billy bent over behind a bush, Melissa maintained a tactful distance, appearing not to notice pallid faces and hands that shook. It wasn’t difficult with so much on her mind, not least the prospect of seeing Gabriel again.

Following the direction of Ned’s trembling finger, she led Captain toward the newly felled trees beset by vivid memories: the meal she and Gabriel had shared, and their own private honouring of St Peter’s Tide.

In the short time she had known him, an unspoken agreement had evolved between them. When they were alone the guarded formality so carefully maintained in the presence of others might be lowered. How this had happened she wasn’t sure. But the ease with which she found herself confiding in him took her aback.

Rarely conscious of it at the time, it was only at the day’s end, when she lay in bed replaying their conversations, that it would occur to her how freely she had spoken. Then she was shocked at how much she had told him.

When she saw him with the other men he was as self-effacing as it was possible for a man of his size to be, remaining silent unless directly addressed. Yet when they were alone, though he volunteered little about his past, and virtually nothing of a personal nature, his posture, his speech, and his manner seemed to her to undergo a subtle change.

There was still constraint – given the difference in their circumstances how could it be otherwise? – but that too altered in a mysterious way, though a barrier remained beyond which she could not see.

He did not press her to talk. If some of his rare questions might, on other lips, have sounded impertinent, somehow from him they did not. His understanding, when she found herself blurting out her anxieties, was far beyond what she would have expected.

With his acceptance of responsibility and skilful organizing of men renowned both for their independence and their suspicion of strangers, he must surely have been a great asset to his previous employer. Why then had he left? Why had he gone to France? How had he ended up in prison? What secrets had he known and kept that warranted such dreadful torture?

Holding Captain while Ned unfastened the chains around the second log of the morning, she was almost knocked backwards when the big shire jerked his head up, ears pricked as he whinnied softly. Trying to ignore the sudden quickening of her heart, she released her breath, kept her face carefully expressionless, and waited, soothing the shire whose tense muscles quivered beneath her unsteady hand.

A moment later, she heard the thunder of galloping hooves and, glancing round, saw Hocking hurtle into the clearing on Samson.

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