TIME QUAKE by Linda Buckley-Archer Read Free Book Online Page A

handsome.’
    ‘Actually,’ said Kate, ‘he looked pretty good when we last saw him . . .’
    ‘Kate!’ exclaimed Peter.
    ‘Well, he did!’
    ‘What miracles your century can work,’ said Gideon. But he did not smile.
    After perhaps a quarter of an hour of fruitless searching, Kate asked if they could stop for a moment for her to get her breath back. They found themselves outside a canvas tent, its entranceguarded by a burly figure in the costume of a Turk. The man stood erect and motionless, his arms folded across his impressive chest, although when a woman from an adjoining stall brought him a tankard of ale, it was with a Cockney accent that he replied.
    ‘Bless me,’ he said in a nasal voice. ‘I am heartily glad to see you. I did not imagine that standing still would bring on such a thirst.’
    At that moment the door of the tent flapped open. A black-haired woman in an exotic silk dress and with something of the gypsy about her escorted a doe-eyed girl from the tent. The girl turned around and Kate saw her swelling belly.
    ‘Bless me, madam, if I didn’t forget to ask you how many children I shall bear!’
    ‘To foretell the future, sweet child, is a terrible burden and costs me dear each time I step into that mysterious realm. But cross my palm with silver and I shall tell you anything your tender young heart desires.’
    The girl pulled open her purse and peered inside.
    ‘Perhaps it is best not to know . . . Upon my life, it wouldn’t do to go frightening my husband! Fare thee well, madam, and thank you.’
    The fortune-teller shrugged her shoulders and bade the girl farewell.
    ‘What am I paying you for?’ she snapped at the keeper of the door, nodding at his tankard. ‘Three customers a night won’t pay for that beer!’
    Peter and Gideon continued to scrutinise every face in the crowds that filed past them but Kate’s gaze happened to fall on the fortune-teller. The woman, who had been on the verge of re-entering the tent, suddenly stood stock-still and stared directly at Kate without blinking. Then, after a moment she took an uncertain step backwards, putting her hand to her mouth. The colour haddrained from her face. It was fear that Kate read in those dark eyes. She pointed a scrawny finger at Kate and then backed slowly into the tent, tugging violently at the canvas door flap to close it. No one else witnessed the woman’s reaction. Kate’s heart thumped in her chest. The only thought that came into her head was
she knows
.
    ‘Ouch!’ cried Peter. ‘There’s no need to dig your nails in!’
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ Kate replied. ‘I didn’t realise I was.’
    Gideon turned to her. ‘Do you feel recovered enough to continue awhile, Mistress Kate?’
    Kate nodded and Gideon strode on ahead. He stopped again, however, after only a few paces when a booming voice called out to him.
    ‘Mr Seymour!’
    Gideon turned to look at a man of majestic proportions advancing towards him with a broad smile on his face. Gideon walked over to greet him.
    ‘Mr Featherstone! It is good to see you! Though I am astonished to find you here! Who attends to your customers at the Rose?’
    ‘The Rose is three-quarters empty on account of the fair, Mr Seymour. So I said to myself, why the devil
shouldn’t
old Featherstone seek out a little diversion? Come, will you drink a glass with me?’
    ‘On another occasion with a good will, Mr Featherstone, but you find me in search of a certain person and I must not tarry lest his trail cool.’
    ‘A pity. I should have enjoyed your company. But who is it that you seek, if I might be so bold as to enquire?’
    ‘Blueskin.’
    Featherstone laughed out loud. ‘In which case you shall behappy indeed that Fortune caused our paths to cross. I exchanged a word or two with Blueskin not five minutes past!’
    Gideon was a good head shorter than the porter of the Rose Tavern but he grabbed him by the elbows and half lifted him into the air.
    ‘You have spoken to