Ghostwriting by Traci Harding Read Free Book Online

escape. ‘Are you all right?’
    Amy did her best to avoid him, but when she couldn’t get past she backed up. ‘I’m being set up and I don’t want any part of it. Olivia would neverhave entrusted me to complete her greatest work! Hell, I couldn’t delete a comma without consulting her first. She hated the way I reworded her sentences and she never supported my aspirations to be a writer.’ Amy panted in the wake of her little outburst, taking a moment to get a grip. ‘Sorry, that had to be said … I feel better now.’
    â€˜You didn’t find the conclusion, I take it?’ Liam attempted to guide her back toward the sitting room, but Amy would not be led.
    â€˜I can’t do it, Liam. Not only is it impossible, it’s not right! This isn’t just some work of fantasy that you can guess the outcome of.’
    â€˜You don’t have to justify your reasons to me, Amy,’ Liam assured her. ‘I’m sure Asta will find someone to finish the manuscript —’
    â€˜You wouldn’t let her do that, would you?’ Amy was even more horrified by that notion.
    Liam held up both palms as if to say, What choice do I have? ‘Mother’s ghost must be appeased.’ He retrieved his bags and headed for the kitchen.
    â€˜Why don’t you do it?’ Amy trailed him. ‘You’re Olivia’s son, that would be appropriate.’
    Liam offloaded his dance bag on to the kitchen floor, and his keys and groceries on to the servery bench. ‘I’m not a writer.’
    â€˜Neither am I.’ Amy felt her reluctance diminishing by stating this.
    Liam smiled a knowing smile. ‘But you aspire to be.’
    â€˜A fiction writer. I am not enlightened with your mother’s insight and wisdom. In fact I can’t even get inspired by my own ideas.’
    â€˜Have you read the manuscript?’ Liam began unpacking the contents of the bags on to the counter.
    â€˜Parts of it,’ Amy replied warily, seeing where this line of conversation was leading. ‘Don’t say it!’
    â€˜What?’ Liam smiled at being caught out. ‘What have you got to lose? You might even get inspired!’
    Amy’s soft brown eyes narrowed as she looked at Liam in a new light. Her knight-cum-saviour image of him was dissolving rapidly; now he seemed more like the devil’s advocate, come to lead her straight into the depths of hell.
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    The Grail Seduction traced the spiritual mysteries and symbolism in the Grail legends from the early Vedic, Egyptian and classical myths from which the motif of these sacred vessels had derived, through to the Christian – Arthurian saga, and the Grail’s absorption into Rosicrucianism, alchemy and our modern world via Jung.
    Amy became more and more engrossed, not by the subject matter so much as the red underscored sections of the handwritten text. These parts of the work were accompanied by notes — Olivia had been working on the conclusion.
    Before Amy realised it she was in front of the photocopier, copying the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle she was to put together. Perhaps the challenge would not prove so nightmarish after all — there was certainly no harm in giving it a shot.
    She piled all the photocopied pages together, returning the original manuscript to the box. As she did so, she found Olivia’s gold pen lying in the bottom of the carton. This was surprising, as the pen lived on a chain around Olivia’s neck and Amy had rather thought Olivia would have been buried with it. A smile graced Amy’s face as she held the golden pen up to the light, her dream of writing a bestseller wafting her away to a heavenly space.
    She was snatched from fantasising about book launches, literary lunches and awards by the phone ringing. Amy set the pen aside on the desk to take the call. It was Olivia’s agent calling to see if she’d had any luck in finding the missing