HIGH TIDE AT MIDNIGHT by Sara Craven, Mineko Yamada Read Free Book Online Page B

across and laid it on the desk. Her own
    equivalent, she thought wryly, of putting all her cards on the table.
    There were some newspapers and magazines piled rather untidily at one end
    of the sofa and she riffled through them casually when she sat down again.
    They were an odd mixture, she thought, giving little clue as to the tastes and
    personality of the subscriber.
    There were some local newspapers as well and Morwenna unfolded one of
    these and began to glance casually through the news items on the front page,
    but the newsprint had a disturbing way of dancing up and down in front of
    her eyes, and at length she gave up the effort, acknowledging that she was
    more tired than even she had guessed.
    The door opened and the women came in carrying a tray, which she placed
    down on the sofa table. Again Morwenna was the recipient of one of those
    searching looks.
    'Is—is something wrong?' she asked.
    'You have a look of someone I know. Can't bring to mind who it is, but I
    daresay it'll come to me.'
    Morwenna's heart skipped a beat. Was it her mother that this woman
    recognised in her? She was quite aware that there was a resemblance, but
    before she could ask further, a door banged nearby and Zack's voice shouted
    pettishly, 'Inez!'
    The woman tutted and moved towards the door. 'Dear life, doesn't he go on,"
    she remarked placidly, and went out closing the door behind her.
    Morwenna studied the tea tray with slight amusement. It had been laid with a
    tea towel, and bore in addition to a fat brown earthenware teapot, a cup and
    saucer, neither of which matched, and a small plate holding two buttered
    cream crackers. But the tea itself was strong and fragrant, and by some
    miracle not made with teabags. She sipped it as if it was nectar.
    When she had finished, she leaned back against the shabby, comfortable
    cushions and closed' her eyes. She felt warmed through, and oddly at peace
    in spite of her inner uncertainties. All kinds of curious images began to
    dance behind her shuttered eyes, and it was pleasant to lie back and
    contemplate them while the warmth of the fire began to dissolve away some
    of the ache from her tired limbs.
    Trees danced in the wind, and dogs with eyes as big and golden as the
    headlamps on a car went bounding through the night, baying at the moon.
    And somehow Biddy was there too, the wind filling her black cape. 'Private
    road,' She seemed to be saying over and over again. 'Private road. Keep out.'
    Morwenna had no idea how long she had been asleep or what had disturbed
    her, but she was wide awake in an instant and sitting up startled. It was much
    lighter in the room and she realised that someone had switched on the
    powerful lamp which stood on the desk.
    It was a man, and she knew as soon as she saw him that it was the man she
    had encountered in the lane. Her instinct, she saw, had not misled her. He
    was dark, as dark as r the stormy night outside the windows, tall and lean.
    His face was thin and as hard as if it had been hewn from the granite
    cliffs—a high-bridged nose, a jutting chin, firm lipsand dark, hooded eyes
    that stared down at her mother's paintings spread on the desk in front of him.
    Men who looked like that, she thought dazedly, had once sailed ships
    bringing contraband from Brittany into the coves along this coast under the
    noses of the Excisemen. And men who looked like that could even have
    hung lanterns on lonely rocks to lure unsuspecting shipping to a terrible
    doom.
    He must have sensed her eyes on him because he looked up, and Morwenna
    found herself shrinking from the mixture of angry disbelief mingled with
    contempt that she saw in his face.
    She tried to tell herself that she was still asleep and that her dreams had
    crossed the frontier into nightmare, but then he spoke and she knew that it
    was all only too real.
    'Who the hell are you?' he said. 'And what are you doing here? You have two
    minutes to answer me before I have you thrown out.'

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