Tyack & Frayne Mysteries 01 - Once Upon A Haunted Moor by Harper Fox Read Free Book Online Page B

He had so much more to lose than I did, and...”
    “He was out. He wasn’t scared.”
    “No. He was ready to tackle all the flak we’d face here – the village gossip, the school, the church, my job, even...” Gideon paused, remembering old Pastor Frayne, his face like a stone-carved eagle’s even before his dementia had robbed it of expression. “Even my parents. I stopped him. I wasn’t ready at all.”
    Lee pulled up the blanket to cover them both more closely. “He must have loved you a lot, to agree.”
    “Oh, God, he never agreed. We fought over it all the time. But I made it... a rule, a condition of our relationship. Yes, he did love me though – to put up with it as long as he did. We both loved each other a lot.”
    “But he got tired of it.”
    “Yeah. I wouldn’t even touch him in public. And after all, it was such a bloody waste, you know? The whole village knew about us anyway. I was...” His voice broke. “Such a coward. Such a fool.”
    Lee shifted to lie over him. There was something so warm and uncompromising in his gaze that Gideon didn’t try to stop the sob rising up in him: let it tear free , the lonely sound of it harsh in the dawn silence. Lee’s brow creased in empathy. He kissed the tears off Gideon’s face. “If you know that now – if you told him, wouldn’t he come back?”
    “Not likely. He got married last month.”
    “Oh.”
    “To his new boyfriend. Biggest public ceremony you ever saw. I don’t think he meant to rub my nose in it, but... he was pissed off. He wanted to show me, I think – what I’d missed.”
    “He invited you?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you went?”
    “Yeah. I shook his hand. Jonathan’s, too. I wanted to wish them the best. What else could I do?”
    “You’re a good man.”
    Gideon had felt like a bad one for such a long time – and, since the child’s disappearance, a useless one. But when a verdict like that came from Lee, it wasn’t a guess, was it? Not just his opinion. He’d said that he could see . Gideon stared up into his face. “Maybe we weren’t the loves of one another’s lives either,” he said slowly. “Or... I couldn’t have treated him like that. I’d have got over myself.”
    “Or he’d maybe have settled for what he had behind closed doors.”
    “I could never have asked that of him.”
    A faint smile, wicked and sad at the same time, curled one corner of Lee’s mouth. “I dunno. I think sometimes a good man is worth staying in for.”
    He leaned in. Gideon arched a little way up to meet him, and they brushed mouth to half-open mouth, moth-wing tentative. “Does that,” Lee whispered, “answer more your idea of what a first kiss ought to be?”
    “Yes.” Gideon’s expectations for everything were being turned on their heads tonight, though. “Still, I like the one we had. Christ, Lee – I feel bad, lying here so warm and happy with you. I haven’t really slept since the kid went missing.”
    “I know. If it’s any comfort to you, if it’ll help you sleep... I really think she’s still alive.”
    Gideon frowned. He tried to resist the inward lift, the charge like ozone in the air, that came with this strange man’s pronouncements. “You see, this is why I tried to warn Sarah about you. You’ve got so much power. You say something like that, and people believe you. I almost believe you.”
    “I’d never say it to Sarah. I’ve never once in all my career told a relative or a friend their missing person was alive until I had real, direct evidence. I’m saying it to you because you’re strong. You’re smart and brave, and you can do something about it.”
    Gideon lay speechless. Tears were stinging his eyes. “Sleep now,” Lee told him, softly commanding. “I’ll be here. You know I can see off your monsters, just like you can help me with mine. Go to sleep.”

Chapter Seven
     
    A stormy Halloween morning broke over the moors. From the kitchen window, Gideon watched blue-black clouds