Read Online The Art of Retaliation by Arabella Kingsley - Free Book Online Page A

was
straddling the wall and began to use it to slowly climb up the wall.   The action was more of a struggle than
she thought it would be.    The
vine felt like melting plastic in her sweating palms and was slipping through
them, threatening to snap.   She
eventually gained a foot hole in the wall where there was some small erosion
and thankfully found others that led to the top.

 
    Worn out she sat astride the wall wiping moisture from her
brow.   All she could see were fields
of sunflowers swaying in the breeze and fingers of corn stretching far out into
the distance, and a solitary farmhouse that stood at the foot of the
fields.   There did not appear to be
any signs of life but the market garden at the side of the house appeared to be
well kept.   Her heart sank, but what
if no one lived there and only came back now an again?   It was a chance she would have to
take.   Further doubts rose to be
displaced by new ones once she had retracted them.   If the farmhouse wasn’t occupied there
was nowhere else to go and the afternoon was late.   She would end up in the dark on her own,
besides she couldn’t leave Maxine.

 
    But it didn’t stop the burning temptation to climb down the other
side of the wall and run to the farmhouse screaming bloody murder.   She would tell Maxine and they would go
together.   Satisfied her decision
was correct, she climbed down and began the lengthy
walk back to the house.

 
    After passing the canal she caught the sound of water from a
fountain hidden in the nearby trees.   It was one she hadn’t already inspected and she chose to investigate
further.   She walked along the path
that led into the trees, glancing at her map, towards a leafy everglade opened
in the middle by a fountain.   A
large bronze fish sat upright in the middle of a pond releasing a jet of water
from his mouth upwards to the sky.   The smell of stale water and algae that emanated from the fountain told
her that it was not turned on very often and must have been for visitors Stephane would have been entertaining.

 
    The water spurted high into the air nearly reaching the top of the
trees from a jet inside the fish’s mouth twisted skyward.   Four statutes of men and women in all
states of Greek undress flanked the round pond in circular fashion, positioned
at the ends of four stone seats.   She sat down on one of the seats feeling her dizziness return, glad of
its hard but refreshingly cool surface next to her bare skin.   Alarmed at the malady’s determination
she lay down curling up patiently waiting for it to pass.   She closed her drowsy eyes listening to
the soft noise playing a soothing tune on her senses, the water’s spray
covering her body with what felt like fine strands of silk to cool her with the
aid of the breeze that was picking up through the leaves on the surrounding
trees that stretched over her body shielding her skin from the harsh sun ..   A few minutes
later nature lulled her into the comfort and safety of sleep.

 
    Several hours later she woke from her slumber into a blanket of
darkness, only the small lights around the fountain that was now still,
providing a beacon.   At first she
was unable to work out where she was and what happened, when the truth dawned she
was concerned.   She must be a mile
from the house.   There would be no
way she could follow the map and find her way out of the small forest and back
onto the path.   A sudden blue flash
lit up her surroundings making her jump.   She folded her arms around her body and bent her head cringing at the
customary clap of thunder.   Ever
since a child she had been scared of thunder and the thoughts of being out in a
storm alone were terrifying.   She
stood rubbing her arms finding that they were numb with cold from the wind that
had swept over her in sleep.

 
    Mara fumbled on what she thought was the right path leading out of
the forest keeping her panic under strict control.   The first heavy