Shadowplay by Portia Da Costa

Author:Portia Da Costa
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780753524435
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

Chapter Ten

In Sepia Tone

IN THE AFTERMATH, over a welcome but very odd-tasting cup of tea, made with powdered milk, they told one another a little about themselves. It didn’t seem at all odd that the sex should have happened first.

Even to her ears, Christabel’s own story sounded at least as outlandish as Daniel’s. She was just as much a rebel as he was – abandoning an academic future to become a model and a dancer, then marrying one rich, older husband after another – and it seemed that both of them were familiar with the realms of fantasy. Hers in the present; his in the past. Hers in technicolour and his in sepia tone.

‘I think I could break free if I knew what had happened to Eleanor,’ he said, cradling his cup and staring into it as if his answers were in there.

‘But surely there are clues … Something you could follow up on?’ suggested Christabel, tasting her own tea and grimacing. ‘Letters perhaps. Diaries. Eleanor’s address book. Anything like that.’ After the intimacy and the pleasure they’d shared, it troubled her to see him beginning to get unhappy again. She didn’t know whether to be sorry for him, or to grab him by the shoulders and give him a damn good shaking.

‘Oh, there is some stuff of Eleanor’s. Clothes and suchlike,’ he said, his brow furrowed beneath the wayward curls that were straggling forward over it. He was decently dressed now, and had put on socks and shoes and a long silk shirt with his patched and tattered jeans. ‘I saw it once when I was a teenager, and Gussie and I were exploring.’ For a moment, he rubbed his eyes with his fingers. ‘It was probably seeing it that started this whole business … Or at least partially …’ He sighed heavily. ‘But I don’t know where any of it is now. It’s stored somewhere, out of the way of the lessees. Probably gathering dust up in one of the attics.’

The urge to shake him grew stronger than ever. ‘Then, for heaven’s sake, why don’t you go and find it?’ Christabel exclaimed. ‘I’ll help you look through the attics or whatever. I’ve got precious little else to do, except get into more trouble for Nicholas to use as a lever over me.’ She put down her cup, having had sufficient of the dried-milk tea. ‘It’d be nice to be doing something that has nothing whatever to do with him … That would really flummox him.’ She chuckled, already enjoying the challenge. ‘And there’s no way he’d object to you spending time in your own house … He’s not like that. He won’t stand on ceremony about having paid for exclusive access, or whatever!’

‘I can’t go in the house.’ Daniel’s voice had lost all its rich timbre, all its cadence. Christabel looked at him more closely. She hadn’t altogether believed Gussie’s claim that Daniel couldn’t enter Collingwood but, studying him now, Christabel realised it was true.

‘I’ll be with you,

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