Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley Read Free Book Online Page B

water below. On either side the trees rose tail and thin and ghostly pale, their naked branches faintly smudged with fuzzy green. They grew at all angles, like straws set into shifting sand, forming a screen that blocked our view of Rosehill House.
    Adrian turned to settle himself against the stone barricade. "It wasn't even my idea, to begin with," he defended him- self. "It was Fabia's. She thought it might be nice to give the old boy some encouragement."
    I sent him an icy look, unsympathetic. "Can you even spell the word 'ethics'?"
    "I don't know why you're so angry about it."
    "I'm not angry. I'm bloody furious. You're supposed to be a professional, for God's sake. Professionals don't fake their data."
    "They might if they worked for Quinnell. Saves effort, really, because he'll dig the field up anyway, no matter what the tests show. Quinnell doesn't need me, or my surveys, to tell him where to dig. He'll use his little psychic friend for that."
    "I don't believe this." I rubbed my forehead with a heavy hand. "I really don't believe you dragged me all the way up here from London, for nothing. Of all the rotten—"
    "Who says it was for nothing?"
    I glanced up, irritated. "Oh, come on, Adrian! Roman soldiers walking on the hills?"
    "I'll admit it's a bit weird to dig a field up just because some kid watched Ben-Hur one time too many, but—"
    "Did anyone take aerial photographs?"
    "Yes."
    "And did you see a marching camp?"
    "No, but that field is in permanent pasture, and you know as well as I do that pasture hides quite a lot. It can take years of photographing—different seasons, different times of day— and even then you might not see a thing. Doesn't mean that nothing's there."
    "Look me in the eye," I challenged him, "and tell me you honestly believe there's a Roman camp at Rosehill."
    In a way, it was a trick question. I knew Adrian well enough to know that if he looked me in the eye at all, he was lying.
    Instead he surprised me by looking away, squinting thoughtfully into the shadowy tangle of leaning, leafless trees. "I believe," he said, "that Quinnell believes it. And for the amount he's paying me, I'm prepared to play along."
    "Of course, I should have known. It all comes down to money, doesn't it?" I studied him. "Do you know, I'm almost tempted to take the job, if only to protect Peter Quinnell from the lot of you."
    Adrian smiled at my disapproving expression. "Is that why poor old Fortune wasted no time disappearing, when I met you in the drive? Did you tear a strip off him, as well?"
    "I don't know the man well enough to tear a strip off him. But he's well aware of what I think." He hadn't kept me long at Rose Cottage, not after I'd seen the picture of the Roman legionary. Jeannie McMorran had offered us tea and biscuits, but he'd merely flashed his handsome smile and made some excuse about work to be done and guided me out of the warm little house, out into the crisp morning air that smelled cleanly of fresh earth and flowers and sunshine.
    He had known, of course, that I'd be disappointed. Known it all along, and still he'd taken me to meet Robbie, had let me hear the whole fantastic tale. And as we'd trudged back up the curving drive, he'd offered no apology. "So now you ken as much as I do," he'd told me, and his eyes had held an understanding. "It's your choice, to stay or to go, but I will tell you one thing: Quinnell's set his heart on your staying."
    He'd said that last bit almost... well, almost as if it went against his better judgment, and I'd had the curious impression that David Fortune would be happier if I didn't stay. But before I'd fully registered the thought, a sleek red sports car had roared up the drive—Adrian's car—and with a final, unreadable glance, the big dark Scotsman had turned to climb the final hundred yards or so to the low-slung stables on the ridge, where that perfectly appointed office waited patiently for my answer.
    "Damn, damn, damn." I spoke the words aloud now