Deep Water, Thin Ice by Kathy Shuker

Author:Kathy Shuker [Shuker, Kathy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kathy Shuker
Published: 2014-02-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

‘Did it not occur to you that I might worry?’ Theo said when Alex returned home. She’d rung him that same evening, anxious to hear his voice. The trip to London, the enforced absence, had put things into perspective. She had missed him. ‘One bloody text to say you were all right and you’d be in touch. That was nearly two weeks ago. No answers to my calls or messages. Nothing.’ His voice had an edge she hadn’t heard before.

‘You’re cross,’ she said. ‘I can understand that. And I am sorry Theo. But I needed to get away and think it all through. I should have told you, explained or something. But I was so confused. Forgive me?’

‘I thought we were so happy together. That night we spent together…’ He paused and she could hear the emotion in his voice when he spoke again. ‘…it meant so much to me Alex. I’d hoped it would to you too.’

‘It did Theo. But I think that’s why I ran away. It was all happening too fast. I was scared.’

There was silence and she wondered if he was still angry but he sounded calmer when he spoke next.

‘Alex, this isn’t a casual thing for me; you do understand that don’t you? But I don’t want to get hurt either. Don’t toy with me will you?’ His voice dropped low. ‘We need to cherish each other; cherish what we have together. It’s been good so far but we could be so much more yet.’ The softness of his voice in her ear was warm and tender. ‘If you really care for me, promise me you won’t run away like that again. Promise me you’ll talk to me if you have worries or anything. There’s nothing we can’t work out together you know, you and I.’

And she’d promised and meant it, relieved to have made peace with him. The emptiness of the house in London, rendered more stark by the presence of Simon’s things, had brought into focus how much she enjoyed Theo’s company. She was determined to embrace the decision she’d made and, as Francine had put it, ‘stop drifting’.

On the following Monday morning, keen to catch up with what was happening there, she walked down to the reserve.

‘Hello stranger,’ Mick said, appearing from the sheds at Susie’s barked greeting. He looked her over for a minute with his usual inscrutable expression, and added: ‘There are jobs to be done if you’re stopping.’

Suppressing her perverse disappointment that he didn’t appear to have missed her, she followed him round to the sheds to collect bags and secateurs and then they went harvesting seed heads from the reeds. He did it every year he said, so that he could raise new reed plants and expand the reed beds without having to buy them. Mick wore waders while Alex wore his wellingtons which were too big for her and slid up and down as she walked.

‘You stick to the edge of the bed,’ he told her, wading out a couple of feet.

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