A Dream of Wessex

A Dream of Wessex Read Online Free PDF

Book: A Dream of Wessex Read Online Free PDF
Author: Christopher Priest
Tags: Science-Fiction
Dorchester Harbour the water-level, which all afternoon had risen only a metre or two, now came up quickly. The grounded pleasure-yachts lifted steadily, their hulls colliding gently with the supporting pontoons, and outside the harbour the waiting fishing boats started their engines and circled round, entering port one by one. By the time the last had tied up beside the fish-sheds the hydrofoil had arrived, and was nosing slowly towards its own berth. In the tourist part of the harbour not much had changed, except that those who idled on the decks were now in full view of those who strolled around the harbour; the commercial side of the port, by contrast, was bustling and noisy. Several of the boats had started to unload their cargoes of fish, and the tradesmen’s carts and drays had moved forward to pick up the supplies brought from the mainland by the hydrofoil.
    The horse-drawn Post Office van clattered through the crowds in Marine Boulevard, and turned down the ramp towards the hydrofoil berth.
    Then Cro played a high card; perhaps it was a trump.
    ‘I hear the man’s an historian,’ he said. ‘Would that be so?’
    ‘Possibly.’
    Cro’s most recent bureaucratic acquisition was supervision of the Commission’s archives; it had been his triumph of the year before. If Harkman was an historian, he would certainly be working with Cro as a consequence.
    As Mander finished his beer and stood up, he could already imagine the petty power-struggles of the weeks ahead.
    He and Cro walked slowly across the Boulevard, and went towards the commercial side of the port.
    By the time the first two passengers - an elderly couple from the States - had stepped ashore from the hydrofoil, Mander and Cro were waiting beside the fish-sheds, with a clear view of the landing stage.
    More tourists stepped down from the boat, helped ashore by the cabin stewards. Mander looked at each of them as they appeared, wondering what Harkman would look like. He was impressed in spite of himself, and irritated because of himself, by Cro’s political advantage.
    A figure dressed in a plain brown garment walked slowly past the two Commission men; it was the girl who had been serving at the craft stall, the girl from Maiden Castle. She stood a short distance in front of Cro and Mander, facing towards the hydrofoil.
    Mander was distracted by her presence, as he always was when he happened to see her at the stall. From where he was waiting he could see her face in quarter-profile, and he could understand simultaneously why people like Cro thought of her and her community as a vague threat to the ordered existence of Soviet Wessex, and also why Cro and the others were wrong. At first glance the young woman seemed degenerate and wanton, giving off an aura of anarchy and irresponsibility: she had long, tousled hair, her dress was loose and immodest, and her legs and feet, clad in thin rope sandals, were dusty. But she also stood with poise and a certain elegance, her features were regular, and her eyes held a deep intelligence. In the same way, the other people from the Castle, who were occasionally seen about the town, behaved with a dignity and unobtrusiveness inconsistent with their primitive appearance, and the goods they sold were well made and distinctive.
    Cro suddenly pointed towards someone who had just stepped down from the boat: ‘That’s our man. That’s Harkman.’
    ‘Are you sure?’ Mander said, narrowing his eyes, but he knew Cro was right. The man was quite unlike anyone else on the quay. All the other passengers on the hydrofoil were obviously tourists or tradesmen; the former looked around uncertainly, seeking transport into town or help with their baggage, the latter immediately blended with the bustle around them.
    Harkman, though, stood at the edge of the quay and looked appraisingly across, the harbour towards the town. He seemed genuinely interested in what he saw, shading his eyes with his hand. Then he turned, looking away from
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

Urban Wolf

Zerlina Valinski

A Meeting With Medusa

Arthur C. Clarke

Hawk (Stag)

Ann B Harrison

Forbidden Dreams

Judy Griffith; Gill

Trained To Kill

Emily Duncan

Hometown Legend

Jerry B. Jenkins

o 922034c59b7eef49

Allison Wettlaufer