Somewhere Beyond the Sea by Miranda Dickinson

Author:Miranda Dickinson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Books

Chapter Forty-Two

Jack

‘It’s really great you could help with this,’ my brother says as I help him lug a great lump of rock onto his tractor’s trailer.

We’re shifting old granite chunks from the corner of a fallow field he’s clearing for a daffodil crop next year. I came as soon as Ness went to school and I’ll be back there in less than an hour. Owen’s offered to pay me for my time. I declined, naturally. Family jobs are free. Even if the money would have been useful . . .

‘No problem,’ I puff, wishing my back wasn’t complaining as much as it is. The last thing I need is an injury if Rectory Fields gets the go-ahead. I think of my meeting with Brotherson tomorrow – where I’ll find out the architect’s response to my proposed change on the building – and hope I’ll be upright enough to look capable. ‘What are your plans for this lot?’

My brother gives me a look that suggests he’s bracing for a lecture. ‘I hadn’t planned anything. Probably just lob them down the hillside or something.’

‘Great plan.’

‘Ha ha, Stink! Your face.’ He reaches across the corner of the trailer and ruffles my hair with his grubby gloves – something that never fails to wind me up. Owen’s winning move in every childhood argument was to play the big brother card: a pat on the head, a chuck under the chin, or the dreaded patronising hair-ruffle. Which is annoying enough when you’re six, but downright unfair thirty years later. ‘If you can use ’em, you can have ’em. Not sure Jeb will be too happy with this little lot piled up by the chalet, though.’

‘Cheap shot.’

‘Sorry.’

‘I might need them if this job comes off. Can you hold them for me?’

‘Sure.’ Owen chucks his gloves into the back of the trailer and claps the dust from his hands. ‘Do you reckon Brotherson will let you, though? I don’t see a lot of local stone in his builds.’

‘True, but he hasn’t had a build managed by me yet.’ I hope I sound this confident tomorrow. ‘Besides, this development’s a bit different from his usual projects with the moral covenant. I think it merits a more sensitive approach.’

For a few seconds, my brother looks impressed. Then, it’s business as usual. ‘Get you, being all master-buildery. Anyone would think you know what you’re talking about.’

He pulls two bottles of water from the tractor cab and throws one at me. I’m grateful for it, the growl of my stomach giving away the gnawing hunger I’ve been battling all day. I didn’t have time for breakfast this morning as I was too busy dealing with a Mexican standoff with my daughter because she wanted to take that seaglass bracelet to school and I wouldn’t let her. By the time I managed to get her into the car we were already running late. It’s a good job the teacher out on playground duty this morning is sympathetic to us. He held the

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