Dead Man Riding Read Online Free PDF Page A

Roman law for three whole terms. It cured me.’
    â€˜Possibly one of the few cases on record of a university lecturer doing something useful.’
    â€˜Your lectures are useful. You challenge things.’
    I said that because it was true, not meaning to flatter him. He took it without embarrassment so I risked another comment.
    â€˜I’m surprised you’re coming with us. I’d have thought you had a lot of other things to do.’
    â€˜I’ve got a book to finish and Oxford smothers me sometimes, especially in July and August. I want fresh air and light-hearted company.’
    â€˜I hope we come up to scratch then.’
    This time he didn’t smile, just looked at me as if the remark had said more than I’d intended.
    â€˜You think there might be some failure of light-heartedness?
    â€˜I think there might be tensions.’
    â€˜Ah.’ He took a long drag on his cigarette. ‘Beston, you mean?’
    â€˜He is fathoms deep in love. I think Kit may be as well, but he hides it better.’
    I was amazed to find myself saying it to him, as if we’d been on close conversational terms for years. He grimaced, but it seemed to be at the thing itself rather than at me for saying it.
    â€˜Odd, don’t you think, that we’ve managed to convince ourselves that that’s an enviable state. The ancients didn’t think so. Being in love was a madness the gods wished on you, like an illness.’
    â€˜Yes.’ I stared out of the window, thinking about something I certainly wasn’t going to tell him about. Then I saw, from our reflections, that he was looking at me as if I had.
    â€˜Luckily most people seem to recover,’ he said. Then, after a little silence, ‘So you think that’s all that’s worrying Beston?’
    â€˜Should there be anything else?’
    â€˜It struck me that the nearer we get to his uncle’s place, the more nervous he’s becoming.’
    â€˜Perhaps it’s because we’ve all built the old man into a kind of mythic beast. He’s probably not half as interesting in reality and Alan thinks he’ll come as a disappointment.’
    â€˜It struck me that he’s not quite sure we’ll all be welcome.’
    â€˜But his uncle sent him a telegram and told him he could bring his whole tribe.’
    â€˜Is that the telegram he’s carrying around with him?’
    â€˜Is he?’
    â€˜He dropped it on the floor when he was getting out his penknife and scooped it up as if he expected it to run away from him.’
    I thought of Alan’s face in the torchlight. Meredith obviously decided not to press the subject.
    â€˜We must be getting near Carlisle. Will you excuse me if I go and start getting my things together?’
    *   *   *
    We’d been told that it would be easiest to go all the way up to Carlisle then change on to the line that went south-westwards down to Maryport on the coast. The nearest town to where Alan’s uncle lived was about halfway along the line. There was nearly an hour to wait for our connection so we piled our bags and cases and hampers on the platform and strolled up and down in the afternoon sun. A line of coal wagons clanked past, a reminder that this little corner of the country had mines as well as farms. It was a part of England I’d never set foot in before but the pleasure of being on the edge of a new place was clouded by wondering about Alan. I saw him standing on his own at the far end of the platform staring down the line and went over to him. He turned round, looking alarmed.
    â€˜Everything all right, Nell?’
    I decided to come straight out with it. ‘What exactly did your uncle say in that telegram?’
    His eyes went to Imogen, sitting with Midge on a bench at the other end of the platform.
    â€˜Has she asked?’
    â€˜No. But there’s some problem, isn’t there?’
    â€˜It depends what