Deadfall by Lyndon Stacey Read Free Book Online

leaning down to look inside.
    â€˜I know that, dammit!’ she said through gritted teeth. ‘I haven’t got the choke out.’
    â€˜D’you want me to have a look?’ he offered.
    â€˜No, it’s always a bugger when it’s hot. I’ll have to let it cool down. Mind out!’ She thrust the door open briskly and Linc had to skip back smartly to preserve his kneecaps.
    Following her into the house, he caught Ruth’s reply to her query.
    â€˜I’m sorry Josie, you can’t. It’s loaded up with my gear for the exhibition tomorrow. I daren’t let you take it to the hospital. I’ve packed it up as best I can but I’m going to have to drive at about ten miles an hour. I’m really sorry.’
    â€˜Damn! I’ll have to call a taxi.’
    In the doorway, Linc cleared his throat.
    â€˜I could give you a lift, if you like?’ He didn’t know why he’d said it. He certainly didn’t relish the idea of driving twenty miles or so back the way he’d just come with an antagonistic female in the passenger seat. On top of which, Farthingscourt was entertaining the sponsors of his watermill project that evening and he was a fair way to being late already.
    Josie looked at him in surprise. ‘Why? Are you going that way?’
    â€˜I can do, if it’d be any help. I
was
going to give Ruth a hand with the horses but I expect she’ll forgive me . . .’
    Ruth nodded vigorously.
    â€˜If you’re sure . . .’ Josie wavered, looking all of a sudden very tired.
    â€˜â€™Course. No problem at all.’
    After a mile or so, Linc could see that it was going to be up to him to break the silence.
    â€˜You’ve been working in London, then?’
    â€˜I got back half an hour or so ago,’ Josie confirmed. ‘Mum phoned me from the hospital this morning.’
    Her tone signalled no significant unbending andLinc wondered what he’d done to upset her. It surely couldn’t all be down to his blocking her in. The silence stretched on again, fairly buzzing with unspoken thoughts.
    â€˜Ruth says Abby went down to the stables to meet you,’ Josie said at last, voice unmistakably accusing.
    â€˜Ah,’ Linc said, realisation dawning.
    â€˜What d’you mean,
ah
?’
    He ignored the question. ‘Yes, she did. She was going to help me plait.’
    â€˜But you were late.’
    â€˜Unfortunately, yes.’
    A pause, then, ‘If you’d been there on time, none of this would have happened.’
    â€˜Probably not,’ he agreed. ‘I guess it’s all my fault.’
    Another pause.
    â€˜Haven’t you got stables at Farthingscourt?’
    â€˜Yes, but there aren’t any teenage girls there to fetch and carry for me.’
    Linc felt rather than saw the contemptuous look directed at him but it seemed Josie had exhausted her bitterness for the moment and the remainder of the journey passed in hostile silence. He dropped her off at Odstock Hospital, where she thanked him with icy politeness, and turned wearily for home. The spark of neighbourly kindness that had prompted his offer had been effectively extinguished.

3
    SUNDAY AT FARTHINGSCOURT was always a busy day and Linc spent most of it doing the rounds with Geoff Sykes, his second in command, whom he valued both as a colleague and a friend.
    Stocky and bespectacled, with a weathered face and not much gingerish hair under a flat cap, Geoff was a born under-manager, confident enough to make decisions when the need arose but unwilling to take on the ultimate buck-stops-here responsibility of the top job. His father had been the gamekeeper until he retired to live in one of the estate cottages and Geoff had lived and worked on the estate all his forty-eight years. His experience was worth a mint to the Tremayne family, and his unambitious dedication made him the best deputy Linc could have hoped