How I Wonder What You Are by Jane Lovering

Author:Jane Lovering
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Maraya21, Contemporary Women, Contemporary, Yorkshire, Romance, Literature & Fiction, Fiction, Women's Fiction
Publisher: Choc Lit
Published: 2014-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

As arranged, we met as the sun vanished behind the hunch of moorland, staining the clouds a bright red and the ground a sinister blueish tinge.

‘Through here.’ I led the way up the drive into the stable yard. ‘Here.’ The bolts slid open and Stan stepped towards us, half a haynet hanging from his lips, wearing the same expression that I would expect on the face of a lifer receiving an unexpected reprieve. ‘This is Stan.’

‘It’s a horse.’ Phinn hung around outside the loose-box, outside biting range. ‘An ugly one.’

‘He’s not that ugly,’ I said, affronted. ‘And he’s better than any kind of All Terrain Vehicle. He’ll get us up onto the moors faster than walking, and we can go direct up the bridle path instead of having to drive up the road and then walk. So? What do you think?’

Phinn’s eyes looked deep. He didn’t really seem to be listening to me or even seeing what was in front of him and his face had a haunted kind of look. ‘Er, yeah. Okay. I’ve never really liked horses much. Bit unpredictable. I deal with things that happen over millions of years, horses tend to act a bit quicker than that.’

‘Can you ride?’

‘Dunno. Probably. I can calculate wavelength shifts to two decimal places, so I shouldn’t think riding a horse can present much of a problem.’ He put the holdall he was carrying down onto the cobbles and took his time about straightening back up, flipping his hair away from his eyes with a gesture that looked unnecessary, as though he was trying not to have to speak to me. ‘Except for the horse element.’

‘Phinn, are you all right?’ I nudged Stan out of the way and took a step forwards. ‘If you’re upset about earlier … I said I was sorry.’

‘What? Oh. no, Molly, it’s not you. And there I was thinking I was being all subtle … no. This is … something else. Someone else.’

Stan poked his nose forward and showed his teeth, which made Phinn flinch.

‘And you’re not all right,’ I said quietly.

Phinn stared at the ground. ‘I just … oh, I probably misunderstood or something. It’s nothing, Molly, me being stupid, that’s all.’

I touched his sleeve. ‘But you’re not stupid, are you? You might be all those other things you call yourself, but you certainly aren’t stupid.’

He spun round to face me properly. The last light from the sun caught the angles of his cheekbones, made his face look wild and despairing. ‘Please let me be stupid, just this once. Let me be wrong, let me have jumped to a conclusion that won’t turn out to be right, just this once. Otherwise … everything’s gone.’

‘Phinn …’

‘Are we going to go look for the lights? Because we’ll need to be somewhere more open, somewhere we’ll see them coming, it’s too enclosed here with the roofs and everything.’ Speaking quickly he moved away, talking over his shoulder as he headed out of the yard and down towards the village street.

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