I Have Something to Tell You by Susan Lewis

Author:Susan Lewis [Lewis, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2021-07-15T12:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

During the drive to Cirencester the following day, Jay found herself fighting the urge to talk to Joe about her father. She knew, if she did, he’d happily chuckle through a dozen or more anecdotes, some of which he’d heard before, and he wouldn’t stop until she changed the subject herself. In some small way it would be like having her father back, but what good would it do? None, was the answer.

So, instead, gazing around at fields, trees, more fields and more trees, she asked, ‘Do you know this area?’ They seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, if they discounted an old coaching inn they’d just passed a few minutes ago, and a handful of signposts to well-hidden places with names as quirky as they were quaint.

‘Not well,’ Joe replied. ‘Actually, as I recall, your dad had a client who lived around here, son of a duke or earl or something, always in trouble for drugs or drunk-driving or disturbing the peace. I think the lad topped himself in the end, but don’t quote me.’

Frowning, Jay said, ‘Wasn’t Vanessa Blake’s father the distant cousin of a duke?’

‘They’re all related to each other around these parts,’ Joe informed her knowledgeably. ‘They like keeping it in the family. It’s what makes them the way they are.’

Having to laugh, Jay decided not to ask him to elaborate on that and turned left into yet another narrow country road that wound through hedgerows and small dense woods, past a working farm, over a cattle grid and through a sprawling hamlet with no one around.

In five hundred yards you will reach your destination.

‘Thank goodness for that,’ she commented, ‘I thought we were never going to get there.’

Joe said, ‘Remind me what Blake told you about this woman.’

‘Sounds like she can be quite tricky, my word not his; he also called her untrustworthy – said she lies a lot.’

Joe blinked. ‘Well, that’s helpful. Have you told him about the unidentified DNA yet?’

You have reached your destination.

‘I haven’t had the chance, but I’m seeing him tomorrow.’

‘Well, that should make his day.’

Certain it would, Jay slowed up, searching for signs for Sayley House. Finding none, she took the only turn available into a tunnel of trees so tightly bound overhead that no sun could get through. Twenty yards on, they broke out into daylight, and ahead of them was a narrow, winding track through a magnificent flow of wild poppy meadows.

Jay followed it for at least half a mile and, as they reached the brink of a low rise in the landscape, she braked at the unexpected sight of such a splendid old house spread out like a shimmering mirage before them.

They’d come upon it so suddenly that it was a moment before she realized how ramshackle it really was, with its crumbling castellated roofs, ruin of a gothic tower and cracked stained-glass windows. In its day it might have been a property of some standing, the seat of a nobleman, perhaps the retreat of a minor royal.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.