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vegetable casserole topped with grated cheese, her father had the
roast of the day, beef, with Yorkshire pudding. He had a plum pie
dessert, too, but Prue skipped that and just had coffee.
Her father had nodded to several other customers who kept staring
across the little restaurant at their table.
'They're wondering where I picked up the pretty girl half my age!'
James Allardyce said complacently, winking at her.
They probably knew she was his daughter, thought Prue. She was
beginning to know these people! Gossip moved at the speed of light.
A secret whispered at one end of the valley at breakfast had reached
the other end by lunch time; no doubt wildly distorted!
Did they all know, or at least guess, about her father and Lucy
Killane? And if not, how on earth had the two of them kept their affair
a secret for so many years? Or was it simply that everyone took their
relationship for granted after so long? Had time made it respectable?
Her father dropped her off half a mile from the Killane house. He had
wanted to drive her all the way there, but Prue was early and preferred
to walk the rest of the way, to arrive exactly on time.
'Sky looks nasty,' her father said, glancing upwards at the mass of
cloud moving their way.
'It won't rain before I get there!' Prue said firmly, and he shrugged.
'Maybe,' he conceded. 'Give us a ring and I'll come and fetch you after
tea.' He re-started his engine, then looked at her a little pleadingly.
'Enjoy yourself,' he said, but what he really meant was . . . be nice to
Lucy Killane!
She smiled without promising and he drove on. Prue was in no hurry
to cover the half a mile of meandering lane. She walked slowly,
admiring the sculpted contour of the green and brown hills which
made up the skyscape; the line of them rather like the outline of a
woman lying down, the proud peak of a breast here, then the deep
hollow of the waist in a green valley, rising softly to the smoothly
undulating hip, and all of them cut clear and sharp against the sky
which was gathering clouds; grey, misty, thickening with rain.
Closer at hand the countryside was starker: the rough pasture veined
with grey drystone walls, sheep ambling in them, very few trees and
most of them bare black skeletons rattling in the rising wind. Thorn
trees bent in agonised attitudes from a lifetime of the prevailing wind;
all one way, their long fingers scratching the sky. The colours here
were all quiet, muted, with the faded harmony of the furniture in her
father's house.
She stopped to watch a ewe scrambling up the wall, only to tumble
back again. They were always escaping on to the road, she knew from
her father. Stupid creatures, sheep,' he said, every time he got a call
that some of his sheep were straying, or had had some sort of
accident. 'I don't know why I don't just give up on them and breed
budgerigars!'
Prue didn't look at her watch until she was within sight of the Killane
house, and then she was surprised to see how long it had taken her to
walk the half-mile from where her father had dropped her. She was
going to be late! She quickened her steps just as a car came shooting
down the drive, heading her way. Recognising it, Prue felt a jab of
pure nerves. She had hoped Josh would be out, but this was his car.
He pulled up with a squeal of brakes and leaned over to open the
passenger door. 'Get in!'
Prue resented the brusque tone. 'I can walk, there's no need to stop for
me. You're obviously in a hurry to get somewhere.'
'I was in a hurry to find you!' he snapped. 'As you hadn't arrived, I
rang your home and your father told me he had dropped you at the
crossroads and you should have got to our house by now. Where the
hell have you been?'
'I was enjoying the view!'
'And in no hurry to arrive!' he accused.
'I just didn't notice the time!'
'Is this the way you keep your promises? To the letter, but not abiding
by the spirit?'
She bridled. 'What about you? Have you kept your promise? Have
you talked to your sister?'
'Yes,' he said, tight-lipped.
Prue frowned at his glowering expression. 'Did you convince her?' [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]