The Taxidermist's Daughter by Kate Mosse

Author:Kate Mosse [Mosse, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781409153757
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2014-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28

Blackthorn House

Fishbourne Marshes

For a moment, Connie emptied her mind of everything. Then, gradually, the familiar outline of the workshop came back to her – the wooden counter and the silver tools, the glass jars, the paint – and she sighed. Here, at least, she felt safe.

‘Miss Gifford?’

Connie turned in her chair to see Harry standing in the doorway.

‘May I come in?’

She exhaled. ‘Yes, do.’

‘A boy claimed you’d sent him to fetch me,’ he said, inching further into the room. ‘But I won’t stay if I’m intruding. If you’d rather I went, just say.’

‘Davey,’ she smiled. ‘No, I’m pleased you’re here. Come in.’

Harry stepped tentatively into the room. ‘Are you all right?’

She nodded. ‘I slept badly last night, as you might imagine, then the policeman . . .’ She stopped, reliving the wave of panic that had swept through her. ‘It was all rather too much.’

She looked at Harry’s face and realised he was struggling not to stare at the skinned inside-out jackdaw beneath its protective glass dome. With regret, she realised she would probably have to let this one go. She had left it untended for too long.

‘I saw you from the window,’ she said, taking pity on him and throwing a cloth across the glass. ‘I thought it might be better if you didn’t come to the house while Sergeant Pennicott was here.’

‘I must have looked very peculiar out there.’

‘Given that you were standing in amongst the reeds, rather than on the footpath, you did rather.’

‘I was on my way to see you, to make sure you were quite recovered from your ordeal yesterday. Then I saw Pennicott, and I thought I had better stay out of sight . . .’

Connie raised her eyebrows. Harry flushed.

‘The thing is, there have been one or two occasions when high spirits got the better of me – Christmas and the like, you know – and he comes down hard on . . .’

‘He’s a teetotaller. Davey told me.’

Harry nodded. ‘I was knocked off my stride to find Pennicott skulking around – all the way out here – and I suppose I thought it would be awkward if he saw me. Require all sorts of explanations I’d be disinclined to give.’

‘So you hid,’ she said bluntly.

Harry reddened. ‘Well, yes.’

‘Not very well.’

‘Evidently not.’

For a moment, they held one another’s glance. Then they both started to smile, his expression mirroring hers, transforming their anxious faces. An instant of uncomplicated camaraderie. Harry broke contact first, looking round the workshop with naked curiosity. Connie watched his changing expressions and was surprised at how reluctant she was to spoil things by telling him what Pennicott had said. Why he’d come to Blackthorn House.

‘What an extraordinary place,’ he said.

Connie gave a sigh of relief, grateful that he was not plunging straight in either. He had passed a test she had been unaware of setting him. If he had tried immediately to question her, she would have seen it as a lack of good faith.

‘It’s one of the reasons we took the house.

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.