Figures of Fear: An anthology Read Online Free PDF Page B

The kitchen floor was only half-finished and every time she wanted to go to the cupboard she had to step over a missing floorboard.
    ‘You should have booked a babysitter,’ he told her. ‘We could have gone to Isaac’s for dinner tonight, and given you a break.’
    Kate said, ‘You’re joking, aren’t you? I wouldn’t wish Kieran on anybody right now. Besides, we can’t afford it. And you look like you could do with an early night.’
    He intercepted her as she stepped over the missing floorboard and picked her up in his arms. ‘Hey!’ she said, with a wooden spatula in one hand and a jar of dried thyme in the other.
    ‘You’re the one who suggested an early night.’ He smiled, and kissed her on her perspiring forehead.
    ‘Not that kind of an early night. I’m totally flahed out.’
    ‘We’ll see.’ He kissed her again and let her go. She went back to stirring the lamb and he pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down to watch her. He never tired of it, she was so magical, even when she was hot and messy like this. Her red hair, her high forehead, her wide-apart blue eyes, so blue that they were almost indigo. Her little straight nose with the spattering of freckles across it.
    Most of all he loved her slight overbite, the way her top teeth rested on the moist pink cushion of her lower lip.
    She was small and trim with narrow hips and she could dance like a flame-haired fairy, her eyes full of mischief, spinning around and around and always seeming to be teasing him, because she shouldn’t be his, not really. Not that she should have been Sean’s, either.

    They ate on their laps in the living room, watching television. Upstairs, Kieran was sleeping at last, snuffling as he slept, his cheeks as red as tomatoes.
    ‘Did you sell that gorgeous house in Lover’s Walk yet?’ asked Kate, flapping her hand in front of her face because her mouthful of shepherd’s pie was so hot.
    Michael shook his head. ‘They wanted me to drop the price by another two thousand. I told them to stuff it. Not in so many words, though. Polite, like.’
    ‘How’s your old mamo?’
    ‘Oh, she’s grand, except for her knee.’
    ‘You should see her more often.’
    Michael didn’t answer. Calling in to see his grandmother in Glanmire had been his pretence for visiting Father Bernard at St Dominic’s Retreat House. He had confessed only to Father Bernard what he had done, nineteen years and two months ago. At the time, he had told the Gardaí what had happened, blurting it out between his tears, but he hadn’t told them that he had done it deliberately, nor what had provoked him to do it, and he had never admitted it to Kate.
    He had never told Kate what he had seen through Sean’s bedroom door, either. Sometimes he wondered what would happen if he did. But it didn’t take much imagination to realize that it would bring down every ceiling in the house, and their marriage would be over, and little Kieran, like Michael, would be fatherless.
    He placed two Sominex tablets on his nightstand, next to his alarm clock, just in case he really needed them, but Father Bernard had given him the courage to try to sleep without them. God has forgiven you , he told himself. Now you have to find it in your heart to forgive yourself.
    By the time he had climbed out of the bath and towelled himself, Kate had climbed into bed, switched off her bedside lamp and turned her back to him. The freckles on her bare shoulders looked like a faded map of the stars. He eased himself into bed, leaned over and breathed in deeply, just so that he could smell her. Chanel Eau Premiere, light and flowery.
    He knew that he wouldn’t be able to go to sleep immediately, so he propped his pillows up behind him and watched a nature programme about fishermen somewhere off the coast of east Africa, keeping the volume muted so that he wouldn’t disturb Kate. After a while one of the fishermen came walking along the glossy wet sand, holding up a feathery-looking