Mistress of Night and Dawn Read Online Free PDF

a nicer drink to wash away the taste of Siv’s gin.
    ‘Great,’ the ticket collector replied. ‘See over there, the large tent with the red canvas roof. That’s where the main bar is. Thirty minutes, okay?’
    ‘It’s a deal, Ginger,’ Siv said.
    ‘I have a name,’ he protested. ‘It’s—’
    ‘Shhhh . . .’ Siv interrupted him quickly. ‘I don’t want to know. To me you’re Ginger. And get rid of the monster mask. I never kiss men wearing masks . . .’
    She took hold of Aurelia’s hand and they walked away towards the heart of the fair.
    The wind had fallen.
    ‘Could we try the fortune-teller now?’ Aurelia suggested.
    ‘No way. Didn’t think you believed in all that mumbo-jumbo hippy magic. I want to fire a gun. Let’s go to the target range.’
    Aurelia agreed, but made a mental note to seek out the fortune-teller another time. She’d go alone, if Siv wouldn’t accompany her. All of a sudden, she had felt a strong compulsion to know what the future held for her, although, like Siv, she ordinarily had no truck for the irrational and its gaudy trappings.
    Siv was a good shot and ended up just a mere target away from the giant teddy bear grand prize, but was lumbered instead with a yellow and orange plastic duck, which she brought along to their assignation, flushed with pride.
    They had briefly debated whether to go, and Siv had first made certain that Aurelia had no personal interest in the ghost train attendant.
    ‘I’m sure that, given a choice, he would prefer you, you know . . .’
    ‘Not my type.’
    ‘You’ll still be a virgin by the time you’re twenty-five at this rate,’ Siv said.
    ‘I don’t care.’ Aurelia shrugged. She didn’t disapprove of Siv’s behaviour for any moral reason, but neither did she feel any kind of obligation to strike up a flirtation with someone she didn’t really fancy just for the sake of it.
    Siv nodded.
    ‘Well, I like him, and I’m not too proud to give him a try even if he did fancy you first. They all do, anyway.’ It was merely a statement of fact, not a complaint. Aurelia was the prettier of the two and always the one that men radiated to first, even if they soon learned that it was Siv who was inevitably the interested party.
    They entered the bar tent and began to pick their way through a sea of dropped plastic cups to the front where a line of customers, three bodies deep, were queuing for pints of cheap beer.
    They spotted Ginger, who was trying to hold a place for them near the front. There were rips in his jeans but he had ditched the rubber mask and even combed his hair into some semblance of tidiness. When he saw the two young women approaching at the appointed time, he smiled broadly, as if relieved they had come, not having believed until this moment they would actually do so.
    ‘Hi, Ginger.’
    ‘Hey, you made it.’ He offered them a flirtatious sideways smile. ‘I thought you might bail.’
    ‘We’re women of our words,’ Siv shot back.
    ‘So what are your names?’
    ‘She’s Tall and I’m Short. Will that do? No need to complicate things, surely?’ Siv said.
    A long trestle table with a red and white checked tablecloth had been set up against the far wall and they walked over, holding their plastic cups. Aurelia and Siv had chosen cider and Ginger ordered lemonade. ‘I have to drive home later,’ he explained, as Siv stared pointedly at his nonalcoholic drink.
    On closer inspection Aurelia reckoned the artfully dishevelled fair worker must be in his mid-twenties. Despite the difference in age, it was quite obvious the diminutive Siv was in charge.
    One hour later, on the pretext of getting some fresh air, Siv had lured Ginger to a patch of unlit grass under the shadow of a tall oak tree on the outskirts of the fun fair. Aurelia, bored to death, had left them to it and wandered off. But she had stopped ten yards away, enjoying the cool of the night air after the heat and noise of the bar tent.
    She glanced across and