The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian

Author:Cat Sebastian
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

On the third day after Rob left, it began to snow.

Marian and Netley did their best to keep the cart horse warm in the stable as the snow continued to fall throughout the day, gathering in hillocks and waves across the garden and piling high against the kitchen door. It was the sort of wet and clumpy snow that didn’t want to be swept and left sheets of ice in its wake.

Marian tried to reassure herself that Rob wasn’t delusional enough to think that this was acceptable traveling weather. He would stop at an inn, flirt with everyone and everything, pet a dog, hold a baby, and wind up spending all his money on rounds of drinks for his new friends. A snowbound inn was probably Rob’s idea of a grand time. She really didn’t have to worry.

She didn’t like to think about why she was worrying in the first place—Rob, after all, had triumphed over greater dangers than inclement weather and had the scars to prove it—so she set about clearing out a room that seemed to exist only to store old and broken bits of furniture. She sorted out what could be sold or given away, then put aside the rest to have broken down for firewood. That accomplished and the room empty save a serviceable bedstead, a mostly functional wardrobe, and a couple of other odds and ends, she dragged up the mattress from the tiny ground-floor bedroom that had been too cramped for Rob to sleep in. This room was much bigger and airier than the room downstairs and perhaps wouldn’t make Rob feel quite so closed in. She liked the idea of him sleeping in this room she had arranged for him with her own hands.

He might not come at all, of course. He might have decided that he preferred being in London, where he belonged, not in the country in a ramshackle house with a woman who caused him nothing but trouble. That would be eminently sensible of him. She would congratulate him on having finally allowed reason to prevail for once in his life.

When night fell, Marian lit a lamp and read aloud to her father, who thought it peculiar that a literate stranger was in his midst but treated her with the cordiality and kindness with which he had always treated everyone. Occasionally she caught him looking at her as if he thought she was just a little familiar, like someone he had met in passing a long time ago. She caught a glimpse of herself reflected in the darkened window and had what she imagined was the same sensation, catching a glimpse of the person who had once been Marian Hayes.

When her father fell asleep, she extinguished the lamp, and the landscape outside the window suddenly became visible. The moon wasn’t full, but it reflected brightly off the snow, giving Marian a view clear down the length of the drive until the wind picked up, concealing everything but a veil of swirling snow.

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.