Unknown by Unknown Read Free Book Online

way home, and then began to retrace her steps, her eyes scanning the ground all the time, walking back down the street along which she had just come.
    On the pavement it was possible to keep up a reasonable pace, but when she turned into the narrow road that passed the main entrance to the Manor, she stopped and bit her lip in frustration. So much ground to cover, and her first search had to be along the edge of the village pond.
    It was not a nice pond. For a long time now, Dani had been urging the parish council to have it dredged and cleaned, but so far her lobbying had fallen on deaf ears. Algae grew so thickly on it that she had thrown a small stone into the middle to demonstrate this to the children, and it had been a couple of seconds before the green crust on the pond had been sufficiently weakened to let the stone sink from sight. The children knew it well, of course, but Dani had stopped there to try and point out some of the small birds that made their homes in the trees that grew on the far side, and a couple of uncommon plants that were struggling for survival in their deep shade.
    If she had lost it around here, then she would probably never find it. Dani hunted along the edge of the pond and then promised herself that she would look again on her way home. The smell of rotting vegetation' made her wrinkle her nose in disgust, and once again she wondered how the village could stand having such an eyesore.
    Abandoning the search there for a while, she climbed the stile that led into the field she had so recently crossed with the children, staring around her in dismay at the acres of grass before her. It had seemed quite a small field when she had last walked over it, but now it only served to underline the enormity of her task.
    The sun beat down strongly on her back and penetrated the thin cotton of her blouse to heat her shoulders. She sat on the top of the stile and scanned the grass for a few minutes, looking for a reflection of the sun's rays off her watch glass, but she could see nothing. With an inward shrug at her own optimism, she climbed down and set off across the field, her eyes raking the greenness around her, and just occasionally raising her head to look at her destination so that she did not completely lose track of where she was going.
    It was more pleasant to search around in the spinney, when she finally reached it, because the leaves protected her from the direct glare of the sun. Yet it was also more difficult because it was hard for her to keep track of every single tree and shrub. She just could not be sure that she had not missed some vital piece of ground.
    Eventually she reached the shallow, slow-moving stream that wound its way sluggishly around stones and over weed. Prentice was right to want to have it cleared, she thought. It was not pretty in its present state, although a haven for tiny creatures that would be disturbed when it was invaded by men with spades and rakes.
    Dani could remember exactly where they had crossed the stream, and she sat down on the bank and let her eyes work for her, scanning every centimetre of grass and stones and mud, and then peering into the water. It was hopeless! She kept her eyes on the stream, unwilling to give up the search even for a moment, but she allowed her shoulders to droop and she rested her elbows on her bent knees and let her chin drop into her hand.
    'What are you doing?' The soft voice made her jump and she tilted her head back to see Prentice McCulloch a little further up on the other side of the stream, his hands in the pockets of his trousers as he watched her.
    'I've lost my watch,' she said simply. 'I'm just sitting here looking for a minute before I go back through the spinney. How did you know I was here?'
    'Saw you from one of the bedroom windows. I thought you seemed to be looking for something. Can I help?'
    'Oh.' Suddenly the tears were close, and she blinked them away furiously, knowing that it was the quiet concern in his