The Harlequin by J.A. Mortimore
Author:J.A. Mortimore [Mortimore, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC031010 FICTION / Thrillers / Crime, FIC009100 FICTION / Fantasy / Action & Adventure, FIC050000 FICTION / Crime, FM Fantasy, FF Crime & Mystery
ISBN: 9781915304551
Publisher: Alnpete Limited
Published: 2024-06-15T00:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER TEN
After morning, which has the advantage of unfamiliarity since Iâm not by nature an early riser, my favourite time of day is dusk. Thereâs something romantic about the translucent light that softens hard edges and gathers tranquil pools of shadow in corners and under hedgerows, a feeling of anticipation, that anything can happen once full dark spreads its skirts across the land.
I lounged against a monument to some long-forgotten hero. The statue, all bronzed grades and tumbling planes of sculpted fabric, its notched sword held in symbolic challenge to the sinking sun, was the centrepiece of a small formal garden not far from the Great Arram Bridge, and I was waiting for Indira Fortune.
A small cloud of midges opaqued the view, dipping and swirling over the damp topiary. It had rained earlier, and the droplets still clung to the trembling branches, gathering up the strength for the long fall before splattering to oblivion on the soil beneath. A lone carriage clattered past on the street, its curtains drawn to conceal the occupant from mundane view, and the solitary figure of a lamplighter moved along behind, touching the fire he carried trapped at the end of a long pole to the stately lamps that lined the thoroughfare. The only other individual visible was an old drunk, curled up around his empty bottle in the mouth of an alleyway. A soft mist rolled along the ground, ephemeral and transient.
I leant against my forgotten warrior, attempting to pick out a tune on the set of pipes Iâd lifted earlier from an obnoxious merchant whoâd collided with me in the street. The mournful notes drifted out over the scene which, when the carriage had gone out of earshot and the lamplighter had followed, resembled more some artistâs painting than reality.
Okay, maybe Iâm being overly poetic, but I do like to set a scene.
I had come to the conclusion that the only reason Indira wanted me so badly was because she couldnât have me. The obvious answer to that was to give myself up to her and bear the consequences. Once I was no longer unobtainable, the desire should wane and free me from her concern. Iâd arranged, through her ubiquitous middle-men, to meet her here, and Iâd even gone so far as to send her flowers â a bunch of columbine, of course, my trademark. Indira had never struck me as the type to like getting flowers, but Iâve always been a firm believer in attending to detail.
A distant cryer called the segment of the watch, and she was there, materialising from the mist as if called into being by the dying rays of the sun. She still wore her leathers, but had made a cursory attempt to dress herself up by adding a jewel-encrusted girdle which caught the light and twinkled as if she bore around her midriff a band of captured stars. I myself was clad in motley. Iâd even considered wearing that infamous cravat of charming, but had settled finally on a more prosaic red one to keep the evening chill from my neck.
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