The Fall Girl (20 page)

“Hey – I didn’t want this cottage, or Elizabeth’s money. We might have been desperate, but we would have survived.”

“I don’t just want to survive. I want to have fun. Not spend the rest of my life icing other people’s wedding cakes.”

“So, your game plan is to marry the first man that comes along with a bit of money. No matter whether you love him or not?”

There was a silence.

Gabrielle’s voice trembled now. “I’m no good at anything, Rowana. You know that. Apart from icing cakes. And I hate cakes. It’s all right for you, you’re good at
other stuff, like painting.”

“Try something,” came Rowana’s voice. “You never know.”

“Like what?”

“I dunno. You’re pretty good at making clothes, when you can be bothered.”

“Big deal.”

“Don’t knock it. You heard what Lexy said about your sarong.”

Gabrielle seemed to consider this. “I suppose she must have been telling the truth, because... she’s got no reason to like me.”

It was a good point, well made.

Lexy heard a creak from the stair. She scuttled back to the bathroom, and dived in, shutting the door behind her and locking it.

Then she turned around.

Steve was already in there, unbuttoning his shirt.

“Hello,” he said.

“Ah – sorry.” Lexy dragged the bolt back, trapping her finger. “I forgot something. I’ll pop back later. When you’re done. Sorry.”

She darted out, then trod more slowly down the stairs, clutching her bruised digit. She waited in the hall until she heard Steve leave the bathroom, then crept back up. It was warm and steamy
from the shower. She ran it hot herself and stepped under, trying not to think about him in his open shirt. With his flat stomach.

What she really ought to be doing was running the damned shower cold.

Lexy set her alarm clock for five-thirty, put it under her pillow and clicked the table lamp off. Kinky was already asleep, curled up at the end of the sofa, so she
couldn’t stretch her legs out. She lay awake in the darkness.

Only four and a half hours until she had to get up.

After what seemed more like four and a half minutes the muffled alarm woke her. Lexy snapped it off. Every part of her was shouting ‘bad idea’, and the temptation to stand Tyman up
was almost overwhelming. But she had a duty to seize every opportunity she could to discover what had happened to Elizabeth, not least because she didn’t want to consider the prospect that
Steve had something to do with it. She slid out of her sleeping bag.

Kinky grumbled through the darkness.

“You stay there, pal,” she whispered. “I won’t be long.”

Ten minutes later she was dressed. She quietly unlocked the kitchen door, and made her way out through a chilly pre-dawn mist across the lawn to the back gate.

It would probably be Tyman standing her up, she thought. But when the gate came in sight, he was waiting silently beside it.

In the half-light Lexy could make out that he was wearing a green camouflage jacket. He was carrying something over his back in a long holder. A telescope?

He held open the gate. “Morning.”

“Morning.” It went against the grain to be friendly to him, but she had to try. “Are we going spotting?”

He patted the holder. “Well, you never know what you might see.” He touched her arm. “I wasn’t sure whether you’d turn up.”

“I always keep my word.”

“That’s good to know.”

“So, what do we do?” Lexy rubbed her arms. She was only wearing her denim jacket over a t-shirt and it was freezing. If she’d had any sense she’d have packed a jumper. No
– if she’d had any sense, she would have turned Rowana Paterson down flat at that first meeting. Then, instead of standing here, she’d be safe in her bed in her fisherman’s
cabin at Clopwolde quay.

Then she remembered Gerard.

She couldn’t win.

“We go up the hill to the King Oak at the top of this main path and gather in the last green leaves.”

“Right, the King Oak it is,” Lexy said, taking a step forward.

Tyman took her arm. “The villagers always used to race up there.”

“You didn’t tell me that before.”

“Didn’t want to put you off.”

What did he think – she was some sort of out of shape townie? “You haven’t.”

“OK. I’ll give you a one minute start.”

Lexy was tempted to say she didn’t need it. But the footpath was only just visible, and he knew the terrain a lot better than she did.

He let go of her arm.

“Right. Go!”

Lexy hared up the path, pushing her way through the overgrown bracken. He’d never catch her – not weighed down by the jacket and that ’scope.

But it seemed like only seconds had passed before she heard him pounding along the path behind her.

For a moment Lexy couldn’t believe it. How had he got there so fast? Was he superhuman? Her legs suddenly felt almost too weak to support her. Then she realised that she was right back
inside that nightmare of hers again. Except this time it was for real. And her pursuer was no longer faceless.

He was going to catch her. The blood roared in her head as she struggled on. He was almost on top of her.

Lexy opened her mouth to let out a shriek, but his hand clapped straight over it, cutting off the noise, and she was yanked off the path into the wood, half-carried, half-dragged over a fallen
tree trunk, then forced to the ground.

He lay behind her, pinning her against the tree trunk, his hand still over her mouth.

Lexy struggled wildly.

“Sssh,” he hissed, gripping her free arm which was flailing uselessly, and locking his leg over hers.

Effectively overpowered, Lexy lay still, her heart crashing against her ribs. What a complete, naïve, sodding idiot she was. She should have known something like this was going to happen.
This was Tyman’s way of sorting out the problem she posed. He was going to quietly dispatch her and then bury her in the woods.

He pushed Lexy over on to her back. She recoiled in shock.

It wasn’t Tyman.

It was Ward.

Her first thought was that the two them must have planned this together and she’d walked straight into it. Run straight into it, actually. Ward really was going to deal with her this
time.

She gave one last, violent jerk, using all the strength she had left.

He cursed and rolled back, releasing her.

“What the f... ?” she spluttered.

“Sssh,” he murmured, placing a warning hand on her arm. Moments later they heard the sound of running feet. Tyman was yelling for Lexy. He sounded almost panic-stricken.

Lexy stared at Ward. Somehow, the expression in his eyes stopped her shouting out.

Tyman’s voice receded into the distance.

“Is this some kind of stupid bloody game with you two?”

Ward shook his head.

“What, then?”

Ward made a hand sign, so slight that Lexy almost missed it. He’d crossed himself.

“He can’t be trusted.”

Lexy remembered Bruce’s words outside the pub.
Any road, keep Tyman away from her. You know what he’s like.

“How do you mean, can’t be trusted?” she demanded.

“I’m just saying it’s best you stay away from him.”

“What’s he going to do, then?”

Ward’s mouth set. “He can be... unpredictable. He’s a bit unbalanced.”

“Tyman’s unbalanced?” she almost shouted. “What does that make you?”

“I know how this looks,” he said.

“I don’t think you do.”

Ward squinted through the trees, now silvered with dawn light, and got up. He grabbed Lexy’s wrist, heaving her unceremoniously up beside him. “Come on – I’m taking you
back to Four Winds.”

“Oi!” She jerked her hand away from him. “I only came up here with your brother because I wanted to talk to him.”

“What about?”

She was too furious to be evasive. “Elizabeth Cassall. And her accident.”

Instantly, his eyes became guarded. “What’s that got to do with Tyman?”

“That’s what I want to know.”

Ward grasped her shoulders. “Listen – we don’t know who you are, or what you’re doing at the cottage, but you ask a lot of questions. Too many. Do yourself a favour
– leave it alone.”

“Or what? I get pushed over an upstairs balcony?”

He dropped his hands. “Is that what you think happened to Elizabeth? That Tyman shoved her out?”

“Well, did he?”

“Of course not, idiot. She fell by accident.”

“Like your mother fell off a high wire by accident?”

She thought he was going to hit her. “Who told you about that?”

“Tyman, actually.”

Ward’s mouth set. “So, you know the truth, in that case.”

“I only know what he told me.”

Ward took another look around and grabbed her arm. “Come on. Enough said. I’m getting you out of here.”

She tried to shake him off. “I don’t need an escort.”

“No? Well, you’re getting one. Move it.” He gave her a little push and she stumbled.

She turned and squared up to him.

“Just do it, will you, or I swear I’ll carry you down there over my shoulder.” He gave another quick glance behind.

Lexy stared at him incredulously. He made a move towards her.

“All right, all right – I’m going. God.” She set off swiftly down the path, unable to believe the colossal nerve of the bloke.

In the distance they heard Tyman give another shout.

Lexy glanced back. “Sure you’re not just jealous of little brother?”

“Just go!”

Lexy found herself jogging down the hill with Ward at her heels like a camel herder.

“Sounds like he’s in a right state.”

“Good,” muttered Ward. “He deserves to be.”

“So I’m meant to thank you for this, am I? What was he going to do, anyway?”

He hesitated before answering. “Like I said, he’s unpredictable.”

“So you’ve had trouble with him before? Him and women?”

The grey stone walls of Four Winds came into sight, tinged with rose from the sunrise.

Ward was silent. They slowed to a walk.

“You can’t protect him forever.” Lexy bent forward to relieve a stitch. “And if he so much as looks at Rowana again, I’m straight on to the police.”

She strode across the lawn to the kitchen door without turning, aware all the same of him standing there waiting until she was inside.

“Bastard. Couple of bastards.”

Lexy examined the bruises she had acquired when Ward had bundled her over the fallen tree. She turned at the clicking of claws on linoleum.

“Kinkster.” She knelt down to stroke him. “I’ve been taken for a ride.” A rough one, perhaps, if Ward hadn’t intervened. Tyman obviously had only one thing on
his mind, and it hadn’t been collecting green leaves from the King Oak.

Lexy pulled a face. Even after all Ward had said, it was still hard to believe. Tyman just wasn’t the type. But as she had this thought, she imagined Milo admonishing her.
Believe me,
there isn’t a type.

She supposed she ought to feel lucky that Ward had been on hand. Had he overheard the whispered arrangement she and Tyman had made the previous night, and decided to follow his brother? It
struck Lexy that it was the second time Ward Gallimore had acted as her protector. First the escaped bull, now this. The joke was, he’d been the one threatening to deal with her. The hard
way.

Then in another twist, she had Mrs Mangeot ready to swear blind that the Gallimores were shining examples of humanity incapable of harming a fly.

Lexy rubbed her chin. Ward made the sign of the cross before he’d accused his brother. Some kind of Catholic protection against lies, like crossing fingers. She snorted. Sex didn’t
come into it. He’d been keeping her away from Tyman for an entirely different reason. It all came back to Elizabeth’s fall. Tyman knew something, and Ward was very concerned he was
going to spill the beans.

“Blimey, what happened to you?” Lexy hadn’t heard the kitchen door open. Rowana stood there wide-eyed, in blue pyjamas, looking about twelve years old.

“Don’t ask,” said Lexy, pushing herself up and making for the kettle.

“You’re all damp. And you’re scratched and bleeding.”

“Yeah. Kinky’s a demanding dog to walk.”

“You didn’t take Kinky. You were with Tyman.”

Lexy spun around.

“I saw you meet him at the gate this morning at ten to six.”

Lexy shrugged. “What can I say? What were you doing up, anyway?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I heard a noise, so I got up to look out of the window.” She eyed Lexy. “What were you doing?”

“Old pagan custom,” said Lexy.

“Oh, yes?” Rowana looked disapproving.

“No. Straight up. It really was. Bringing in the last of the summer’s green leaves. You have to do it at dawn on the eve of September.”

“I saw you run off, then he ran after you.”

“That’s part of the tradition, according to Tyman.”

Lexy went to the larder and tore open a packet of Doggy Chomps for Kinky. The smell made her feel queasy, and she realised that the events on the hill that morning had shaken her up more than
she thought.

“Thing is, I went because I thought that if we were on our own he might open up about Elizabeth.”

“And?”

Lexy shook the chunks into a dish, grimacing.

“He didn’t.”

Rowana pulled a face. “Things are pretty bad on the Gabrielle front. I reckon she’s losing her marbles. She’s now decided she’s going to marry Ward.”

Lexy just stopped herself from saying “I know.”

“Can you believe it? She hasn’t even... you know... done it... with him yet.”

“Rowana, I doubt that Ward Gallimore has the least intention of marrying your sister, whether or not they do it first.”

“You don’t know how determined she is.”

Any further conversation with Rowana was curtailed by Steve coming into the kitchen in overalls.

“Morning, sweetheart.” That was for Rowana. He gave Lexy a searching look as he took in her appearance. “You all right?”

“Fine. Just look a bit of a mess. I went for a walk earlier and tripped over. I’ll... er... go and clean up.” She brushed past him out of the kitchen and escaped to the
bathroom.