Moyra Caldecott - Tall Stones 01 by The Tall Stones

Author:The Tall Stones [Stones, The Tall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-03T17:42:53+00:00

Fern had not been with them during this discussion so at the first opportunity Karne went to visit her. Some days had passed since he had seen her last and, impatient to make up for this, he ran most of the way to her house. He slowed down just before he reached the curve in the path from which her garden suddenly became visible, and because of this he came upon her quite silently as she was stooping over a flower. He stopped and watched her for a moment, thinking how graceful she looked, feeling a sort of warm glow of pleasure welling up from inside himself as though the sunshine was coming from within his very inmost being this lovely golden day.

But the peacefulness of the scene did not last for long. Fern must have sensed his presence because she suddenly straightened up and spun round, her face momentarily quite distorted with fear and dislike. He was startled. He had never seen such emotions on Fern’s face before. She had always seemed so calm and poised on an inner centre of happiness.

‘Fern!’ he gasped, ‘What is the matter?’

As she recognized him she instantly turned her face away, her expression no longer the same, but still compounded of something Karne did not understand. She usually lit up with pleasure when she saw him. What had gone wrong?

‘Fern?’

She turned back to him now, and this time she was composed.

‘Why, Karne,’ she said. ‘I am sorry. You startled me.’

He was still puzzled. He had never known her to be startled like this before.

‘What is it?’

‘Nothing.’

He was close to her and trying to look into her eyes, but hers would not meet his. For the first time since he had known her there was the shadow of something held back between them.

‘There is something.’

‘No.’

He took her hands, but she still would not meet his eyes.

She tried to smile at him, to reassure him, but her smile was not very convincing. She pulled her hands away and drew back.

‘Come, Karne,’ she said brightly. ‘I want to show you something.’

‘You do not look well,’ he still persisted while he was following her down the little winding path that ran deeper into her garden, brushing aside trailing fronds of bracken as he walked. He had noticed that she was paler than usual, the healthy bloom of her cheek considerably reduced. There was also something about the garden, he could not make up his mind what it was but it somehow did not look as flourishing and vigorous as it normally did.

She noticed the frown in his blue eyes and took his arm. Her composure had returned. She smiled and kissed him lightly on his brown cheek and ran her fingers through his long, light hair.

‘Come on,’ she said laughing, ‘are you going to be as gloomy as this all morning?’

He looked at her bright face and there were no longer shadows there. He began to feel he had imagined what he had seen a few moments before.

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