The Splendour Falls by Unknown, Rosemary Clement-Moore Read Free Book Online Page B

standing stones?’
    â€˜My dad was interested in everything that anyone ever did to decorate a landscape.’ The words were brusque, but I couldn’t keep the warmth of memory from my voice, for those weeks spent visiting famous gardens and ancient sites, Dad explaining them with the fervour of a pilgrim.
    Rhys gave a considering nod, then went on in a tour-guide sort of voice that amused me. ‘Then you know the barrows in Britain are smaller than this. Andolder. They’re burial chambers, from as far back as four or five thousand years.’ He glanced up, towards the apex of the structure. ‘The people who built these lived here as recently as five hundred years ago.’
    â€˜I love how you British think that’s recent.’
    He turned back to me with a raised brow. ‘We Welsh think it’s recent, and it is – to everyone but Americans.’
    My lips curved at that offhand nationalist disdain, even though it should have annoyed me. I mean, everything annoyed me lately, yet there I was, sparring with this stranger, feeling a slowly uncurling warmth that I couldn’t even name. When I met his gaze, the moment seemed to hang in time, as it had in the door at the airport. Except instead of coming or going, in or out, I was weighing amusement against my usual misery, inexplicable attraction against confusion and cynicism and common sense.
    Well, not inexplicable. I liked his strong features and confident bearing. Maybe I was just intrigued by the mystery, because he was so miserly with personal details, and there were so many enigmatic contradictions. He had the body language of an alpha dog, as Gigi’s trainer would say, but he was spending a slacker summer working for his dad. He talked like a college guy, but he had the hands of a labourer. There was probably a very boring explanation, and if I knew it, this unsettling … whatever it was … would go away.
    Gigi stretched and yawned in my lap, making me wonder how long we’d been sitting there. ‘We should start back,’ I said.
    Rhys winced. ‘I’m surprised Paula hasn’t used thehorn.’ He descended the ridge, then held out a hand to help me. ‘Don’t forget your shoes.’
    I sighed and put them on. The right one was tight on my still swollen foot, but I’d live until I got back in the SUV. Instead of taking Rhys’s waiting hand, I dropped the end of Gigi’s leash into it and made my way off the slope by scooting on my rear end. Might as well make the back match the front.
    Gigi scampered happily down, and I reclaimed her leash from Rhys. He gestured for me to go ahead of him on the path. It wasn’t far, but the vegetation was thick, with dense, broad-leafed vines encroaching on even the cleared areas, creating a wall between this eerie world and the prosaic one where Paula waited in the car.
    â€˜So, who’s Clara?’ I asked, mentally, as well as physically, returning to the road ahead.
    Rhys held back a branch, looking amused but answering helpfully. ‘Paula’s business partner. She handles the cooking. She and her daughter live on the property.’
    â€˜And this Teen Town Council?’ I ducked under his arm. ‘What kind of fifties throwback is that? Are Wally and Beaver members? Do they put on shows in the barn?’
    He paused on the path, just before the last bend that would put us in sight of the car. I stopped too, and turned to find him studying me again. ‘You truly don’t know any of this?’
    It was more of a voiced realization than a question, but I pointed out testily, ‘I wouldn’t be cramming like the five minutes before a pop quiz if I did.’
    Gigi waited impatiently at the end of her leash. It was nothing compared to how impatient I expected Paula to be. Still he held me back with a question. ‘But … it is your ancestral home. You have no interest in that?’
    I felt a hard jab of