River of Destiny by Barbara Erskine

Author:Barbara Erskine [Erskine, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780007455652
Google: UJhQOZBdBFUC
Amazon: 0007302320
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2012-07-04T23:00:00+00:00

The cars for all four properties were garaged in a range of converted cart sheds some fifty yards up the drive. There was space for at least ten cars; Rosemary and Steve’s blue Nissan Micra, and Jackson’s black Corsa were there, as was Zoë’s small silver Audi and Leo’s ancient Land Rover, but there were several empty spaces. Zoë was about to climb into her car when Leo appeared round the corner of the garages. He had his own car key in his hand. He glanced round. ‘Ken?’ he said.

She shook her head. ‘He went out early.’

‘I need to talk to you.’ He ducked into the shadows. ‘We have a problem. Jade saw us on the boat.’

‘Oh God!’ She threw her bag onto the passenger seat of the Audi and leaned on the car drumming her fingers on the roof. She was thinking hard. ‘Did she see us doing anything incriminating?’

‘Yes.’

‘And she’s going to tell?’

‘She’s considering her options.’

‘Shit!’

‘As you say.’

‘What do we do?’

‘I shall try and head her off at the pass. But meanwhile we need to deny everything and get our story straight. Yes, you did come on the boat with me. No we didn’t do anything we need be ashamed off. She misconstrued the situation, that’s all. Will Ken believe that?’

‘I’m not sure.’ She sighed.

‘Where is he today?’

‘Ipswich. He won’t be back till late.’ She no longer believed in the business contact in Ipswich, but she found she didn’t mind. Leo was grinning suddenly and she felt her heart begin to thump with excitement.

‘Feel like an assignation? Then we can get our story straight at the same time,’ he said.

She nodded. ‘For some insane reason I seem unable to resist your invitation.’

‘Ditto. I will meet you in an hour at the car park in Woodbridge. Give me five minutes to get away now in case she’s watching.’ He opened the door of the Land Rover and hauled himself in. Raising his hand he drove off in a cloud of blue smoke. Zoë glanced round warily. Was someone watching – Jade? Jackson? The whole place seemed deserted.

The turning area in front of the garages was still cobbled. She walked out, feeling her shoes slipping uncomfortably on the stones, and turned round in a full circle, scanning every bay of the cart shed, every shadowed corner. A spray of sow-thistle nodded against the wall, the seed heads white and fluffy, the flowers a vivid yellow against the old red stone.

There was no one there. When she climbed into the car ten minutes later and drove slowly out onto the driveway through the fields she was fairly certain no one had been watching.

‘Have you ever made a sword?’ Lying in Leo’s arms, Zoë was staring at the clouds racing overhead.

‘Why do you ask?’ He glanced across at her.

‘I don’t know. I just wondered.’

He grimaced. ‘I have, as it happens. Or at least, I helped someone make one, a long time ago. He was an Anglo-Saxon re-enactor, and he was determined to do everything accurately so he brought me the instructions and we made the thing together.

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.