Read Online Point Blanc by Anthony Horowitz - Free Book Online Page B

house, soaked and freezing, Fiona had politely fetched him a towel and
offered him a cup of tea.
    "You
tried to kill me!" Alex said.
    "Don't
be silly." Fiona looked at Alex with something like pity in her eyes.
"We would never do that. Rufus is a very nice boy."
    "What?"
    "It was
just a game, Alex. Just a bit of fun."
    And that was
it. Fiona had smiled as if everything had been explained and then gone to have
a swim. Alex had spent the rest of the evening with the files. He was trying to
take in a fake history that spanned fourteen years. There were uncles and
aunts, friends at Eton, a whole crowd of people he had to know without ever
having met any of them. More than that, he was trying to get the feel of this
luxurious lifestyle. That was why he was here now, out riding with
Fiona--she upright in her riding jacket and breeches, he bumping along
behind.
    They had
ridden for about an hour and a half when they came to a tunnel. Fiona had tried
to teach Alex a bit of technique--the difference, for example, between
walking, trotting, and cantering. But this was one sport he had already decided
he would never take up. Every bone in his body had been rattled out of shape,
and his bottom was so bruised he wondered if he would ever be able to sit down
again. Fiona seemed to be enjoying his torment. He even wondered if she had
chosen a particularly bumpy route to add to his bruises. Or maybe it was just a
particularly bumpy horse.
    There was a
single railway line ahead of them, crossed by a tiny lane with an automatic
gate crossing equipped with a bell and flashing lights to warn motorists of any
approaching train. Fiona steered her horse--a smaller gray--toward
it. Alex's horse automatically followed. He assumed they were going to
cross the line, but when she reached the barrier, Fiona stopped.
    "There's
a shortcut we can take if you want to get home," she said.
    "A
shortcut would be good," Alex admitted.
    "It's
that way."
    Fiona pointed
up the line toward a tunnel, a gaping black hole in the side of a hill,
surrounded by dark red brick. Alex looked at her to see if she was joking. She
was obviously quite serious. He turned back to the tunnel. It was like the
barrel of a gun, pointing at him, warning him to keep away. He could almost
imagine the giant finger on the trigger, somewhere behind the hill. How long
was it? Looking more carefully, he could see a pinprick of light at the other
end, perhaps half a mile away.
    "You're
not serious," he said.
    "Actually,
Alex, I don't usually tell jokes. When I say something, I mean it.
I'm just like my father."
    "Except
your father isn't completely crazy," Alex muttered.
    Fiona
pretended not to hear him. "The tunnel is about one mile long," she
explained. "There's a bridge on the other side, then another gate
crossing. If we go that way, we can be home in thirty minutes. Otherwise
it's an hour and a half back the way we came."
    "Then
let's go the way we came."
    "Oh,
Alex, don't be such a scaredy-cat!" Fiona pouted at him.
"There's only one train an hour on this line and the next one
isn't due for..." She looked at her watch. "...twenty
minutes. I've been through the tunnel a hundred times and it never takes
more than five minutes. Less if you canter."
    "It's
still crazy to ride on a railway line."
    "Well,
you'll have to find your own way home if you turn back." She kicked
with her heels and her horse jerked forward, past the barrier and onto the
line. "I'll see you later."
    But Alex
followed her. He would never have been able to ride back to the house on his
own. He didn't know the way, and he could barely control his horse. Even
now it was following Fiona with no prompting from him. Would the two animals
really enter the darkness of the tunnel? It seemed incredible, but Fiona had
said they had done it before, and sure enough, the horses walked into the side
of the hill without even hesitating.
    Alex shivered
as the light was suddenly cut off behind him. It was cold and clammy inside.
The air