The Flour Mill Girls by Anna Cliffe

Author:Anna Cliffe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction

Chapter Fifteen

Daisy gave it until about two o’clock, and then she closed the tea room early.

She headed for the photography studio in Crumford, but wasn’t able to go inside as an ancient man was balanced precariously up a ladder directly in front of the door, painting the sign above the shop window in black script on a cream background.

‘Grover Bros. Photograp’ was as far as he had got.

But the signwriter was helpful. He told her that Silas was back from Canterbury and was down near the sea, where lots of birds nested, to watch local wildlife and try and work out how he might photograph it.

Daisy looked around, just in case Mrs Lang really was keeping watch from somewhere nearby, but she couldn’t see her or anything else suspicious.

Then Daisy headed seawards promptly, taking a short cut that she remembered from when she was little. She wandered about, remembering when she had cried for William’s death, as now she scanned the horizon back and forth trying to pick out Silas’s outline.

The chalk fen looked desolate and empty, and Daisy pulled her coat close as the breeze was sharp in the lengthening shadows.

She’d never been particularly interested in the waders and the wildfowl that Asa had told her were abundant in this area, and for a moment she thought how much her eldest brother would love to be standing beside her as she surveyed the scene.

It was a lonely sight before her. Few people wandered these parts, and especially now that nobody had time for birdwatching. There was the odd metallic clanging noise drifting across the flats which Daisy thought would be to do with the new secret jetty system that was being built for the ferries. But Daisy couldn’t see any evidence of this from where she was standing.

She wasn’t exactly surprised that the view before her felt so uninhabited, but she had expected to see Silas before now, if he were on the flats as she’d been told.

It was at that moment that she almost trod on him.

He was well camouflaged upwind of Daisy, obviously having taken care to conceal himself as best he could. He was lying down propped up on his elbows upon a waxed canvas tarpaulin as he stared out to sea through binoculars.

‘Ahoy, Silas,’ she said cheerfully. ‘I bear news.’

He gave a massive start and dropped the binoculars in fright, so Daisy guessed he hadn’t heard her coming up behind him.

‘For God’s sake, Daisy, keep your voice down! You’ll be the death of me,’ he snapped at her out of the side of his mouth.

His face had the annoyed expression that Daisy had seen previously, and her heart sank a little as she’d hoped they’d moved beyond that stage now.

But obviously not.

‘And stop standing up, woman. You’re advertising the fact we’re here.’

He reached up to yank her hand, and the next thing Daisy knew was that she was kneeling on the tarpaulin right beside Silas.

She began to protest as his behaviour, but he gave a firm ‘Sssssh!’ as he placed a finger on her lips.

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.