A Silver Lining by Christine Murray Read Free Book Online Page A

around her waist and pulled her back.
    Rose struggled to keep hold of the box which was wet and slippery from the rain.
    ‘All my stuff is getting wet!’ she giggled. ‘Let me in!’
    Daniel managed to get in the door ahead of her and ran up the stairs two at a time. She followed him, determined not to be beaten. Daniel was halfway down the corridor when the bottom of the box, made soggy by all the rain, finally gave up the ghost and tore. Books, DVD’s and photo frames tumbled onto the floor. The sight of him standing there with a panicked look on his face, her prized possessions littered the ground made Rose start to laugh. She laughed so hard that she had to lean one hand against the wall to support herself. Daniel’s face looked horrified as he bent down to check that nothing was broken. He looked up and caught her eye, beginning to laugh too.
    ‘If you’ve broken anything, you’re replacing it,’ Rose said with a smile on her face.
    A door opened across the hallway and an elderly woman looked out at the pair of them, her face creased in disdain. She looked them up and down with narrowed eyes, disapproval radiating from every pore. Having seen enough, she slammed the door shut.
    ‘Well that’s us blacklisted! Come on, let’s get you inside before you cause any more damage!’ said Rose, walking and placing her box on the floor, leaving Daniel to clear up the mess in the corridor. She looked around the apartment, light and airy but a little bit different than the way it had looked earlier. When Daniel’s friend Emmett had lived here it had been a complete bachelor pad, but Daniel had unpacked some of her stuff, instantly making the place look more feminine.
    ‘I won, you know’, said Daniel as he carried the last of her things into the apartment. ‘I got to the door first.’
    ‘You were disqualified’, Rose said, walking towards him and putting her arms around his neck. ‘Boxes have to be in one piece when crossing the finish line.’
    ‘Says who?’ he asked kissing her neck.
    ‘Says me,’ said Rose, closing her eyes.
    ‘You know your clothes are soaking, right?’ Daniel murmured into her neck.
    ‘Funnily enough I had noticed that.’
    Daniel kissed her deeply. When they came up for air he looked at her, mock concern etched on his brow. ‘I’m worried you’ll catch your death in that coat.’
    ‘Do you want me to take it off?’ Rose asked softly.
    ‘That might be best. For your own health, of course,’ he said with a serious expression on his face.
    ‘Of course.’ Rose shrugged out of her coat, and Daniel lifted her dress over her head in one swift movement, letting it fall to the ground.
    ‘Excuse me, that dress was perfectly dry!’ Rose said in mock indignation. Then Daniel began to kiss her again, and she stopped protesting.
    Later on, listening to Daniel’s rhythmic snores and unable to sleep, Rose walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. She needed to get back to sleep quickly; she was in work the following morning. Her eye caught the package of letters on the top of one of the boxes and she picked them up. She ran her fingers for a moment over the address scrawled in black ink. She brought them back into the bedroom with her and placed them in the bottom drawer of her locker, closing it with more force than was necessary. Today was a new beginning, after all. She didn’t need to be reminded of her past.

CHAPTER TWO
    Rose felt her heart sink as she turned into Ravensfield housing estate the next morning. Ravensfield was what most people considered a ‘rough area’, comprising of hundreds of identical grey and brown council houses. The green areas that were meant to add a hint of natural beauty to the place sported black scars from bonfires and burnt out cars. There was litter everywhere, beer cans, syringes, rusting shopping trolleys, and an almost palpable air of depression. Nobody visited the estate unless they had to.
    Which Rose did. She was a teacher in St.