Nightshades by Tanith Lee

Author:Tanith Lee [Lee, Tanith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780747208778
Google: 5l6LHAAACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Headline Books
Published: 1993-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

But you didn't give us much notice. And right now, August, and such good weather, we're booked right up.'

'I understand. It was kind of you to find me this room. I was lucky, wasn't I? The very last one.'

'It's usually the last to go, this one.'

'How odd. It's got such a lovely view of the sea and the bay.'

'Well, I didn't mean there was anything wrong with the room.'

'Of course not.'

'Mr Tinker always used to have this room. Every year, four months, June to September.'

'Oh, yes.'

'It was quite a shock last year, when his daughter rang to cancel. He died, just the night before he meant to take the train to come down.

Heart attack. What a shame.'

'Yes, it was.'

'Well, I'll leave you to get settled in. You know where we are if you want anything.'

'Thank you very much, Mrs Rice.'

Mr Tinker, she thought, leaning on the closed door. Tinker. Like a dog, with one black ear. Here, Tinker! Don't be silly, she thought. It's just nerves. Arrival nerves. By the sea nerves. By yourself nerves.

Caroline crossed to the window. She stared out at the esplanade where the brightly coloured summer people were walking about in the late afternoon sun. Beyond, the bay opened its arms to the, sea.

The little boats in the harbour lay stranded by an outgoing tide. The water was cornflower blue.

If David had been here, she would have told him that his eyes were exactly as blue as that sea, which wasn't at all the case. How many lies there had been between them. Even lies about eye colour. But she wasn't going to think of David. She had come here alone, as she had come here last season, to sketch, to paint, to meditate.

It was a pity, about not being able to have the other room. It had been

larger, and the bathroom had been 'contained' rather than shared and across the hall. But then she hadn't been going to take the holiday flat this year. She had been trying to patch things up with David. Until finally, all the patching had come undone, and she'd grasped at this remembered place in a panic - I must get away.

Caroline turned her back to the window. She glanced about. Yes. Of course it was quite all right. If anything, the view was better because the flat was higher up. As for the actual room, it was like all the rooms. Chintz curtains, cream walls, brown rugs and jolly cushions.

And Mr Tinker had taken good care of it. There was only one cigarette burn in the table. And probably that wasn't Mr Tinker at all.

Somehow, she couldn't imagine Mr Tinker doing a thing like that. It must be the result of the other tenants, those people who had accepted the room as their last choice.

Well now. Make up the bed, and then go out for a meal. No, she was too tired for that. She'd get sandwiches from the little café downstairs, perhaps some wine from the off-licence. It would be a chance to swallow some sea air.

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