A Lesson of Intensity: Season of Desire Part 2 (Seasons Quartet) Read Online Free PDF

happened. I’ll have to call her when we get out of here, make sure she knows I’m all right.’
      I can feel my emotions being dragged down into the darkness. This is partly why I keep so busy, why I keep on the move so much. So that I don’t have to think about the things that hurt me. I say in a low voice, ‘Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if my mother hadn’t died. If I had someone who really cared about me.’
      When Miles speaks again, his voice is softer. ‘Hey, your father cares about you. I’m sure he’s frantic with worry about you.’
      ‘You don’t understand how we live,’ I say, my tone bleaker than ever. ‘There seems to be so little holding us together since we lost my mother. It’s as though an explosion blew us all apart and we’ve never been able to get back together again. My father was always so busy and now he’s got a girlfriend, he’s got even less time for us.’
      ‘Wait a moment,’ Miles says, sitting up straighter. ‘I’ve not been working for your family for long, but I’ve noticed one thing: your father is obsessed with your security. He keeps tabs on you girls, all the time. Wherever you are. He’s going to be moving heaven and earth to get you back home safely, I guarantee it. I can only guess at what it’s like to lose your mother so young, but you’ve got to believe that your father cares about you.’
      I sigh again. ‘I’m not sure if all the watching and monitoring is because he cares – or because he’s afraid.’
      ‘Afraid of what?’
      I say nothing. I can’t talk about it.
      ‘He’s afraid of losing you,’ Miles says gently. He watches me for a moment and then says, ‘We’ll be all right. I’m going to get us out of here. I don’t intend ending my days in this hut, glad though I am to have found it. I’ve still got things I want to do.’
      I turn to look at him. ‘I don’t know much about you at all.’
      ‘Why should you?’
      ‘I’m interested.’
      His eyes flicker with dark amusement. ‘Really?’
      ‘Yes. I want to know about you. And we can’t sit here in silence for the entire time, can we?’ I sit up so I’m facing him. ‘Tell me about yourself.’
      ‘There isn’t all that much to tell,’ he says, but I sense that what he means is that there isn’t all that much he wants to reveal.
      ‘Well, where are you from?’
      ‘You can’t tell from the accent?’ He raises that right eyebrow at me again.
      ‘Scotland, obviously – but where in Scotland?’ I’m going to persist, damn it. I’m going to get him to tell me something.
      ‘I had no idea you were familiar with the geography of Scotland.’
      ‘There’s lots you don’t know about me,’ I return pertly. ‘As it happens, I’ve been to Scotland once or twice. I stayed near Inverness.’
      ‘Well, I’m not from there. I’m from a small village about ten miles from Edinburgh.’
      ‘I’ve been to Edinburgh too,’ I say quickly. ‘It’s beautiful.’
      ‘Aye. It’s fine.’ His accent strengthens the moment he mentions Scotland. ‘But I’ve not been back to Edinburgh for a long time. It’s probably quite different now.’
      ‘When did you leave?’
      He gives me a bemused look. ‘Are you seriously interested?’
      ‘Yes! Of course I am. Tell me. I want to know.’ I shuffle forward in my sleeping bag, leaning towards him and fixing him with an earnest look. ‘Please.’
      Miles looks almost suspicious, as though I’m playing some kind of trick on him but he says, ‘Okay then. If you must know, I left when I was a lad to go into the army. I was about nineteen and pretty desperate to escape. Home was all right, don’t get me wrong, but I needed to see the world. I was never going to be happy staying where I was and living a life like the one my pals were happy with. The army was my ticket out. I joined as a private and worked my way up to sergeant. It was tough but I loved it, and