The House on the Brink by John Gordon

Author:John Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2022-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

18

All true. They rode shakily between the fields until the green lane was lost.

‘I want to go home,’ said Helen, ‘and tell my mother.’

‘Yes,’ said Dick, ‘I know.’

Into the main road where the cars went to and fro.

‘She’d laugh at you,’ said Dick. ‘And me. She’d say it was me.’

‘But we’d take her and show her, if my father would come.’

‘A log,’ said Dick. ‘A black old log. It’s nothing more than that.’

‘You don’t believe it, then?’ She faced him, almost angry, made a fool of.

‘Some things fit together. But we need to know more.’

She saw he was pale, as frightened as she was, but he would never admit it.

‘Oh, Dick, can’t we just leave it?’

He did not answer immediately. But then he said, ‘Will it leave us?’

Worse than the green lane. Worse than that black smooth head. But it was the truth, and she started to cry. They stopped and he stood beside her as the cars went by. Her head was bowed, ashamed for him to see her face, and he waited, shielding her from the faces in the cars. At length, from her sleeve, she took a handkerchief, and dried her face.

‘Sorry.’ She blew her nose. Sniffed. She looked up. ‘I know I look terrible,’ she said.

‘Beautiful,’ he said. He kissed her. The salt of tears.

‘Somebody will see,’ she said.

‘To hell with them.’

A car came and he raised his hand to wave at it but she held his wrist.

‘I’ll do whatever you say,’ she said.

‘There’s only one person to see.’

She nodded.

‘We might as well get it over with,’ he said.

They were glad of the busy road and then the town that shut out the countryside. Helen was troubled about how she looked, but it was only her eyes that showed she had been crying and that very little. She forgot about it as they rode up to the big house.

The front door was a deep and glossy green. Dick’s hand rested on it as he pressed the bell. It burned like hot metal.

They waited. Dick pressed the bell again. ‘What if she’s not in?’ he said.

‘But she wanted to see you. Your mother said so.’ Helen was anxious to see her now. She stood back and looked at the windows. All were empty. In a big house like this it must be possible to get beyond the sound of the bell.

Dick said, ‘Let’s go round the back.’

Across the road the river ran low. They tried not to look at it as they rode to the corner that would take them behind the house. They were in the shade there, under the long wall which hid the gardens, and once again Dick found it difficult to pick out Mrs Knowles’s gate. They tried two. Both were locked.

‘Blast!’ Dick was angry. He pushed his fist against a pair of garage doors that stood in the wall. They swayed slightly. ‘Let’s try this,’ he said. He lifted the latch and the door opened.

He looked inside. ‘It’s her car,’ he said.

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