Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley

Author:Susanna Kearsley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 1402258704
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Published: 2012-10-02T04:00:00+00:00

XX

"Ye've telt him." Wally Tyler wasn't asking a question. He slowly lit a cigarette and nodded like some ancient sage pronouncing judgment. 'Tis well ye did. It'll take his mind off Nancy, some."

I took a seat beside him on the low stone wall that ran around the small neglected garden at the side of the house, and watched while he threw a stick for Kip.

Already it was early afternoon, and the betraying shadow on the sundial at the center of the garden shamed me for sleeping away half the day. Not that I could have helped it. When sleep had finally found me in the hours after dawn, it had claimed me with a sure and final vengeance. But I was sorry to have missed what must have been a lovely morning.

Without the wind, the sun would have felt exceedingly hot; even as it was, my plain outfit of jeans and T-shirt seemed too warm. Spring had nearly faded into summer. Come Saturday week, it would be June. Which left us three full months still, in the digging season. Time enough to prove our theory. Our theory ... I smiled faintly, raising a hand to rub my tired eyes. When I'd begun this, I had thought it Peter's theory, and his alone.

"Actually," I confessed to Wally, "he wasn't much surprised to learn what we'd been up to. He'd figured most of it out already, on his own."

"Aye." Wally nodded. "Thought he might. I had a feeling, ken."

"God." I sighed in mock exasperation. "Don't tell me you're psychic, as well."

The wizened features smoothed into a smile. "No, lass. There's only Robbie has the sight, and he didna get it fae my side o' the family."

Kip trotted back toward us, stick in mouth, and Wally patiently tossed it out again across the garden.

Another voice intruded unexpectedly. "You'll make the dog boak, if you keep that up." A smooth voice, not unpleasant, but not the one I'd been hoping to hear. Brian McMorran's hair shone silver in the sunlight as he sauntered over to join us.

"Away wi' ye," said Wally, flatly. "And mind your language."

"Aw, she doesn't know what boak means, do you?" Brian looked to me for confirmation. "See? Of course she doesn't know. She wants to come out on the Fleetwing with me and the lads, when the sea's a bloody roller coaster, then she'd know what boaking is."

"That's enough." Wally's eyebrows lowered, and Brian grinned, exposing a line of wolfish teeth.

"All right, all right. Sorry if I've shocked you." But he didn't look the least bit sorry as he settled himself on the garden wall beside me. "I am," he confessed, "a rotten bastard, as Wally will no doubt have warned you. Cigarette?" He drew a battered packet from his rolled-up shirtsleeve, and I shook my head.

"No thanks. I don't smoke."

"Bloody filthy things," said Wally. Since he himself was smoking, I deduced that he was talking, not of cigarettes in general, but of Brian's in particular. They were a foreign

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.