The Betrayal - A Novel by Laura Elliot

Author:Laura Elliot [Elliot, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: urn:ean:9781910751336
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 32

Karin was still sleeping when he pulled on his tracksuit and moved silently from the bedroom. The front gates of Sea Aster screeched as he pushed them open. He must remember to oil them. The house and grounds needed constant attention, one chore leading to another and demanding more of his time each week.

He jogged along Mallard Cove. The air was filled with a sea-weedy smell, slightly rank but not unpleasant. The ducks were still sleeping, heads tucked under wings, and the swans formed ghostly silhouettes as they glided through the hazy air. He breathed evenly, his body moving to a relaxed rhythm. When he reached the remains of an old jetty he sat on the stone surface and recovered his breath.

Reactions to the gig had been amazing. Bookings were coming in and tours being planned into the future. Shard could become the poster band of the recession, Mik Abel believed. The ‘Collapsing the Stone’ video had received numerous hits and Jake’s songs, chronicling the destruction of an economy, were being discussed in print, on radio and on music blogs. Everything was so immediate these days.

Karin was possessed by that same immediacy. This time it was all or nothing. Soon after the Shard gig she presented him with the key to her apartment, boxed and tied with a red bow. She had watched, a half-smile playing around her lips, as he felt through the layers of tissue and his fingers closed over the cold metal. His first inclination was to hand the key back. It was too soon for such an exchange but he had promised her a relationship and this was her commitment to it. He used Eleanor’s ownership of Sea Aster as an excuse for not being in a position to give her a key to his apartment. It was a weak excuse but she seemed willing to accept it for the time being. What she was not willing to do was hide in the shadows of his family life.

‘It’s the perfect opportunity to introduce us,’ she said when Jake casually mentioned that he had booked a meal for two for Eleanor’s birthday. Over the past fifteen years she had celebrated her birthday in Louisa’s Loft with the family, Nadine and Rosanna, Ali, Brian and the twins, the eight of them sitting around the circular table in the centre of the restaurant. Gradually the numbers decreased and this year it would be just the two of them. He imagined Eleanor’s eyebrows rising, her acerbic comments or, worse still, her chilling silence if he introduced Karin to her. The idea was unthinkable.

‘It’s too soon to meet,’ he said. ‘We have to take one step at a time.’

‘What step is that?’ Karin asked. ‘As far as I can see we’re not moving at all.’

The sun rose beyond the distant viaduct, a dazzling rim that streaked a crimson vertebrae across the sky. He had better return to Sea Aster. Karin was an early riser. In Alaska there was no dawn to watch, he thought, just a midnight sun to blood the opening of a new day.

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