Read Online (1992) Prophecy by Peter James - Free Book Online Page A

her hands on the tablecloth, reached out awkwardly for her glass, then stopped as she realized there was nothing left in it.
    I’m not sure there is such a thing as a meaningless coincidence
.
    ‘Mozzarella for the signorina!’ A waiter placed their plates in front of them, then brandished a pepper grinder above Oliver’s minestrone. He gave the handle several sharp, crunching twists.
    Another waiter appeared with a bottle of wine, which he ceremoniously opened. Frannie looked at her plate, but her appetite had gone. She wanted someone to tell her that it was quite safe to fall in love with Oliver Halkin. She looked across the table at him. He was tasting the wine, holding the glass with one hand, the other lying on the table, large and solid, the winder of his watch nestling in the hairs of his wrist. The sadness had returned to his eyes and she felt an urge to put her own hand out and touch his, to reassure him, to reassure herself.
    Her attraction towards him was growing, but herunease grew with it. Almost as if he were reading her thoughts, he smiled at her.
    They talked deeply throughout the meal, which Frannie managed to pick at, mostly discussing their views on the meaning of life, and carrying on their arguments from where they had left off at lunch on Tuesday. She found him challenging to talk to, and he opened her mind further to the world of mathematics and physics. Starting to relax, she told him she had tried to read
A Brief History of Time
but had abandoned it halfway through, and he laughed and told her he’d abandoned it a quarter of the way through, and talked her through the theories in a way that made more, if not total, sense to her.
    Frannie had two Sambucas with her coffee, and was pleasantly drunk as they left the restaurant shortly after one; she felt on safer ground with him now. As she fumbled with the seat-belt she was vaguely aware that it was she who had done most of the drinking tonight. She had not even noticed whether Seb Holland was still there or had left.
    Oliver dropped her home and escorted her down the steps to her front door. She hoped he would not make an advance because she would find it hard to resist him if he did, and she wanted it to be special when they made love, and she was too drunk for it to be like that now. ‘Would you like to come in for a coffee?’ she said.
    ‘I – ought to get back – it’s pretty late.’ He looked awkward suddenly. ‘I was wondering – Edward’s coming back tomorrow – this is his last weekend at home before he goes back to school.’ In the haze of the street-lighting Frannie could see that he was blushing, and wasn’t sure what was coming next. ‘If – if you’renot doing anything, would you – like to come down to the country for the weekend? He took a bit of a shine to you at King’s Cross.’
    She tried to think of the implications, but her heart overruled everything. There was a party tomorrow that she was not particularly looking forward to, and she was meant to be going to her parents for Sunday lunch, but had already been thinking of ducking out of that. After the fracas of last Sunday, she could do without seeing her parents for a few weeks. ‘I’d love to,’ she said.
    He looked really pleased. ‘How about if I pick you up at about ten?’
    ‘Do I need to bring anything?’
    ‘Some wellies. I don’t know what the forecast is. We’re very informal. And swimming gear.’
    ‘I’ll be ready at ten.’
    He held her gaze for a moment, gave her a light peck on the cheek, walked back up the steps, and stood waiting until she was safely inside.
    As she closed the front door and pressed the latch, she felt as if she had been scooped up and put on a pedestal. Her emotions came to the surface so that her earlier fears were buried by a glow of pleasure and a sense of anticipation. The very word
country
conjured an image in her mind of a ramshackle farmhouse, with a flagstone floor and log fire, acres of fields and woods. She