The Bell Tower by Sarah Rayne

Author:Sarah Rayne
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780107226
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2015-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Nell slept deeply and dreamlessly in the soft wide bed, woke up to soft early sunlight, and contemplated with pleasure the prospect that she would be waking up in this bed tomorrow morning with Michael next to her.

The dining room provided a delicious, disgracefully unhealthy breakfast, which Nell thoroughly enjoyed. She wondered if Beth and her friends had managed their midnight feast, and hoped that if they had, it had not been too indigestible. But when she checked her phone, there was an exuberant text from Beth, shamelessly timed at one a.m., reporting a double-brilliant feast; they had eaten absolutely everything, somebody had dropped a piece of birthday cake and trodden in it, so they had had to sneak out to find cloths and soapy water to clean it up.

Nell grinned, sent a suitable reply, and having finished her breakfast collected her jacket and shoulder bag. She considered taking the car, but she wanted to investigate the narrow side streets, and perhaps even walk towards the cliffs to see if she could identify the places Andrew had written about, so the car might not be practical. She would enjoy a brisk walk, anyway. The helpful receptionist at the desk provided directions to the cliff paths, and gave Nell a tide table.

‘It’s hotel policy to make sure guests have them when they walk along that path,’ she said. ‘But it’s low tide at the moment, and it won’t turn for several hours, so you aren’t likely to be in any danger.’

It was still quite early, and the next Revels event was not until midday, when there was some kind of dancing display. Nell did not particularly want to see that; she would rather try to peel back a little more of Rede Abbas’s past. Cliff House should be easy enough to identify – it was almost certainly the gloomy building she and Beth had seen on the way here. It sounded as if Andrew’s monastery had been quite close to it, along with the old graveyard and the Glaum mausoleum.

She followed the hotel’s directions, and after about ten minutes’ walking found herself beyond the little cluster of shops and the straggle of houses, with a narrow road ahead, signposted, ‘To The Coast’. It was uneven and rutted, just about wide enough for a car, but probably primarily a walkers’ path. It was quite steep, and twice Nell had to pause to catch her breath. Good exercise, though, said to elevate the heart-rate and send the blood scudding around the system. She would bring Michael up here tomorrow. He would probably pause several times, pretending to be searching for an apt quotation while he got his breath back. Dear Michael.

The path snaked around tortuously, and Nell began to lose her bearings slightly, although there was no danger of getting lost, because it was a single track. Then a final corkscrew turn brought her into sight of the clifftop house.

Theodora’s house, thought Nell, standing still and looking towards it. Thaisa’s house as well, presumably.

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