The Edge of the Light by Elizabeth George Read Free Book Online Page A

gathered and when they stood together outside Ralph’s house, having a look at the scope of the work they’d taken on, they had to admit it couldn’t be accomplished in the two and a third days they had blocked out for it. There was too much to be done, and a lot of it had to be accomplished out-of-doors, where daylight in January was in short supply.
    â€œSheesh,” had been Seth’s reaction, and although his thoughts were fuller, they made the same point.
No way José
had been foremost in his mind, followed by . . .
I don’t do this and he ends up getting booted because that’s what she’ll do to him depend on it.
    Becca was pleased by the amount of whispering she picked up from Seth as they stood together. Time was that she’d only heard fragments. Working with Diana Kinsale to block out people’s whispers when she didn’t want to hear them was also improving her ability to hear them when she wished to do so.
    â€œWe can make a serious dent in it, can’t we?” she asked Seth.
    â€œS’pose,” he said.
    â€œThen what’s left, you and I can do next weekend. Prynne’ll come back, I bet.”
    Prynne was Seth’s girlfriend: Hester Prynne Haring. She was one of Seth’s fellow musicians, and she’d grown up west of Whidbey Island in the vicinity of the Hood Canal, which stretched its length between the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas. She and Seth had been together for several months now, and from what Becca had picked up from whispers, things were pretty serious. At least that was the case on Seth’s part. On Prynne’s part . . . Becca wasn’t so sure.
    Prynne came out of the house, followed by Jenn McDaniels and Squat Cooper. Squat was wearing a BOB THE BUILDER baseball cap over his thick, rust-colored hair, and somewhere he’d found a pair of workman’s overalls to go with it. He’d scored tools from his mom’s garage as well, leftovers from before his dad had deserted the family for his receptionist. Despite his appearance as a worker, Squat represented the brains of the group. The rest of them represented the brawn.
    That included Derric, who was up above on the area where the driveway would go in. The trees there had been felled and hauled off by professionals. The profits from selling the downed wood to a lumber mill were being used to buy what they needed to fix Ralph’s house. Two trees, however, had been left where they’d fallen. Seth’s plan was that they would be turned into firewood for his grandfather. They needed to be sawed into manageable lengths, chopped into fireplace logs, and set in covered stacks todry. Derric had asked for this project. Becca could tell from the roaring of the chain saw that he was deep into it as the rest of them gathered on the front porch of the house.
    It was a frigid day. Seth’s words came out in puffs of vapor as he assigned them their tasks.
    â€œJenn and Squat,” he said, “you’re with me on the ramp. Beck and Prynne, you’re doing all the rails for the house. They’re already cut but they need to be stained. The brackets are ready, too. We got stainless steel for the shower, and those’re in the downstairs bathroom ready to mount. Everything else is in Grand’s shop. Everyone okay with that?”
    â€œWe live to serve,” was how Squat put it. He extended his arm to Jenn, adding, “Shall we, dearest?”
    â€œDon’t make me hurl,” she replied with a roll of her eyes.
    Becca and Prynne headed for Ralph Darrow’s shop, which stood at the foot of the hill down which the new driveway would descend. Overhung with a winter bare wisteria, the shop wasn’t a large building, but it had served Ralph well. It was the first structure he’d put onto his property, and from it he’d built the entire house in which he and wife had lived.
    Inside, Becca and Prynne found the rails