A Well Kept Secret by A. B. King Read Free Book Online

single occasion he had seen her.

    It was close to midnight when he realised that he was starting to feel quite tired. From force of habit he walked round the house checking all the doors and windows, completing his tour from the point where he had started, the study. From the window of this room he discovered that he could see the outline of the garage block, and noted that there were no lights in the windows of the flat above. No doubt the sensible Mrs Brent had retired some time since.   Satisfied that all was secure, he ascended the stairs to his bedroom, and eventually retired. It was only after he had climbed into the bed that he remembered that he had failed to take one of James’ pills, which he had inadvertently left in the bathroom. Having decided that the oversight would cost him a night’s sleep because he was too tired to go and fetch them, he drifted off.

    The sun was streaming in through the window when he woke. He felt pleasantly surprised that he had actually slept the whole night without being disturbed by dreams or wakened by depression. In itself that was quite an achievement; and to do it in a strange room and bed made it even more so. He lay quiet for a while, thinking of Alicia before shaking himself out of the beginnings of the familiar down swing that had become the pattern of his life. Rising from the bed, he ambled across to the bathroom where he shaved, showered and dressed in some of the older clothes he had brought with him for the purpose. Finally, he descended the stairs and went out into the garden. It was only about seven o’clock, and he felt like a stroll before facing breakfast and the redoubtable Mrs Brent.

    There was a pleasant freshness to the air he found invigorating, and he walked down past the fish-pond, through a maze of flowering shrubs and finally to the spinney that appeared to form the far boundary of the property. Many of the trees in there were quite old, and they towered to a considerable height. Fortunatelyt there was little undergrowth to impede his passage. He suspected that whoever tended the rest of the grounds also cared also for the trees. A squirrel came out and scolded him, and he saw that there were a whole variety of birds nesting high in the canopy. He had heard somewhere that walking among trees could be highly beneficial, particularly in times of stress. He didn’t believe in such old wives’ tales, yet he had to admit that by the time he had strolled the length and width of that spinney he felt remarkably refreshed and invigorated.

    Leaving the trees behind at last, he continued his stroll along winding but quite well kept paths throughout the rest of the rear garden. The air was filled with the sound of bird song, and the scent of blossom that he had noticed on the previous evening was once again heavy in the air. All manner of birds appeared and he noticed that there was also a rich variety of butterflies around the blossom and once he even saw a gorgeously coloured dragonfly.   Living, as he normally did, in a modern air-conditioned city property, he readily appreciated the advantages of the semi-rural location of the old house. It had been his original intention to remove whatever he wanted in the way of effects, and then to sell it by auction, but strolling round the grounds caused him to wonder for the first time if this was what he really wanted to do.

    He was still mulling this question over as he reclined in a chair on the patio when Mrs Brent appeared with a tray from which the appetising smell of bacon and eggs wafted in his direction. She was dressed in neatly pressed jeans and a loose, roll-neck sweater, with her hair once again pulled back tightly behind her head. Up to that point he had not really looked at her as a person; seen in the morning sunlight he decided that she didn’t quite match-up to the image of the dragon he had formed of her on the previous day. She looked younger than he had thought when he had first seen her;