Rachel's Quest by Sheila Spencer-Smith

Author:Sheila Spencer-Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AudioGO
Published: 2012-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

“I shouldn’t have given you the silver coin, should I?” David said. “You see I thought Rose was Harry’s special name for your grandmother.”

Rachel shivered but said nothing. In the misty distance the hills looked pale. Nearer at hand the grass was beginning to show deep green. She moved her position slightly against the drystone wall.

“Do you think Harry and Sarah got married afterwards?”

“Does it matter? You can believe anything you want, and it doesn’t hurt anybody.”

“Because they’re dead? But it hurts me if I don’t know.”

Her hair fell forward as she bent her head.

“Rose and Harry had a son, Zachary. Simon said he was a bad lot. D’you think it spread down to Zachary’s daughter, and then to Brian?”

David looked at her closely.

“Brian been trying it on?”

“Not really.”

“He’d better not.”

“I didn’t mean that. He’s rotten to Julie, that’s what I meant. I think he hits her sometimes. It’s a shock, knowing Brian and I are related.”

“Does he know that?”

She shuddered.

“No way. I mean . . . I hope not. He’s horrible. I wanted to find out things about the past, but now I wish I hadn’t.”

David’s bushy hair shone fair in the sunshine, and his eyes were bright.

“We have to know about the past to make sense of the present.”

Rachel said nothing. The present made no sense, either. When Mrs Woodfield had phoned Mr Felpham yesterday evening he had asked to speak to her. For a moment, hearing his deep, familiar voice, tears had sprung to her eyes. He was a link with Aunt Sophie who had relied on him for advice. He had sounded hurt at first, and she couldn’t blame him. It was hard to explain why she had run off to take up a job in the North of England but in the end he had seemed to understand. Then he had blamed himself for giving her the diary in the first place when she was still so vulnerable.

“What’s wrong, Rachel?” David said. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”

She shrugged and then shivered. Give up what — this feeling that she didn’t belong anywhere? In any case, Mrs Woodfield’s back was so much better, and she fully expected the doctor to endorse her belief that her heart was no problem. She had Julie, and Nerissa was home every now and again. Mrs Woodfield didn’t need anyone else now so her own days here were numbered. There’d be no time to unearth anything else even if she wanted to, and she didn’t.

“Come on, let’s go. You still want to visit Garth Scar?” David said suddenly.

She hesitated, and then nodded. David had gone to a lot of trouble to arrange for the two of them to deviate from the planned route today and to join the rest of the group at a certain point later. He had done it in such a way through Ken that no-one made any funny remarks. If she changed her mind now the explanations could be embarrassing.

She followed him to the summit.

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