Read Online The Final Curtain by Priscilla Masters - Free Book Online Page A

of turning around to kiss him she stayed where she was, staring out of the window at the silver streaks in the sky that heralded the approaching dawn. He was clipping her wings already. She could feel her shoulders bunch up, feel the words line up, ready to say, sharply, that
she
would be the one to make this particular decision, whether she went to work on her bike or in the car. She could feel by the tension in his fingers that Matthew sensed this struggle too and was holding his breath, waiting for her to resolve it. She turned around then and challenged him with a direct stare. His mouth was in a firm line. He said nothing. He was still waiting.
    She smiled, somehow feeling that she had gained the high ground here but not quite sure how. ‘You’re probably right,’ she capitulated. Then, ‘But I really
must
go out on my bike on Sunday, Matthew, otherwise I’ll seize up.’
    â€˜Umm,’ he said awkwardly.
    She just knew what was coming next.
    â€˜I meant to talk to you about that,’ he said, the words tumbling out too quickly, as though they had been gridlocked in his brain and were frantic to escape. ‘I thought it’d be nice to have Eloise over for the day.’
    She looked at him, feeling her face and her words freeze. Eloise was Matthew’s daughter with whom Joanna had a less than cordial relationship. ‘Nice for whom?’
    And watched as his eyes grew as cold as her voice. ‘Nice for all of us,’ he said carefully. ‘I thought it would be nice for all of us.’
    â€˜Well, it doesn’t stop me from going out on my bike, does it, Matt?’
    â€˜No, it doesn’t.’ There was an edge to his voice and she recognized, with a feeling of despair, that the icicles were already forming between them.
    â€˜Good,’ she said, planning an extra-long route on Sunday whatever the weather. ‘Because I can’t wait to get on it.’
    His eyes flickered. It was no more than that. A simple flicker, a small yellow light in both green irises. But she read it and felt resentful all the way into work.
    Did you really think marriage would solve any of your problems
,
Piercy?
she scolded herself as she manoeuvred the car along the road into Leek.
    Korpanski’s black Ford Focus was already parked up outside the station when she arrived and he was sitting at his desk, his computer switched on. She hung her jacket up on the hook on the back of the door. ‘Morning, Mike. Any more calls from our …?’
    â€˜Her companion’s rung in to say that our friend is going away for a little holiday.’
    She sat down and switched her screen on. ‘To the funny farm, I hope.’
    â€˜She didn’t say so but she did ask if we could possibly go out there before they went.’
    â€˜What for?’
    Korpanski shrugged. ‘Search me.’
    â€˜Shall we both go?’
    He stood up with little enthusiasm.
    The wind was up and the chilly atmosphere even penetrated the interior of the car as they drove across the moorlands. ‘I’d hate to live out here,’ Korpanski said. ‘It’s so cold and miles from anywhere.’ His eyes scanned the barren landscape. ‘Nothing to look at.’
    â€˜I’d love it,’ Joanna responded, her eyes sweeping the panorama, empty apart from a few stray sheep, pale winter grass and drystone walls. ‘It’s so wild and fantastically bleak and lonely. I’d
love
it,’ she said again. ‘But it does take a particular sort of person to live out here. They need to be private, self-sufficient.’
    Korpanski grinned at her. ‘Like you?’
    She had missed this idle banter. ‘Bugger off, Korpanski,’ she said good-naturedly. ‘Actually, I wasn’t thinking of me but our friend Mrs Weeks. Now she wouldn’t have struck me as someone who fitted the profile of a moorland person. She seems much more of a townie. And her clothes and tastes