The Forgotten Holocaust (Ben Hope, Book 10) Read Online Free PDF Page A

now?’
    ‘Wherever. Nothing permanent.’
    ‘A rolling stone.’
    ‘Not by choice,’ he replied. ‘That’s just the way it is.’
    ‘So where to after this?’
    ‘No plans. Sooner or later, I’ll move on. Don’t know where.’
    They walked a little further. Kristen seemed about to say something, then reached for her bag. ‘Excuse me a moment. I really need to check my messages.’ She dug in the bag, and Ben got a glimpse of the small laptop inside.
    ‘You carry that thing around with you everywhere?’ he observed with a smile.
    ‘Never know when the muse might strike.’ She took out the slim leather pouch that she kept her notebook in and unzipped a little pocket on the front. Inside were two mobile phones. She took one out, gave it a quick check and then tutted to herself and shook her head as though disappointed. ‘Damn it,’ she muttered, zipping the phone back inside the pouch and replacing it in her bag.
    ‘Something important?’ Ben asked.
    ‘Oh, it’s just about my research,’ Kristen said quickly, and he thought there was a slight evasive tone in her voice, as well as a momentary nervousness in her expression. ‘Someone I was hoping to hear back from.’ She shrugged. ‘Never mind.’
    ‘Is that what brings you to Galway, research?’
    She nodded. ‘I’ve been travelling around a few places, the last ten days. Killarney, Limerick, Athlone, all over really.’
    ‘Useful trip?’
    ‘Oh yes. Very much indeed. And in ways I couldn’t have imagined.’
    ‘I won’t ask.’
    She smiled. ‘And I won’t tell. Trade secrets. Don’t take it personally.’
    ‘Never,’ he said.
    The wind from the sea was rising. Ben looked at the sky. Those dark clouds were nearing ominously. ‘We might have to make a run for it. Weather’s coming in faster than I thought.’
    ‘Hardly feels like August, does it?’
    ‘Must be the global warming they keep promising us,’ he said.
    ‘Yeah, right.’
    ‘So what’s the book about? Or is that part of the trade secret?’
    ‘No, the book I can talk about. Historical stuff. A biography.’
    ‘Someone I might have heard of?’
    ‘Lady Elizabeth Stamford. Nineteenth-century diarist, novelist, poet, educator, considered one of the first feminists. I won’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of her.’
    ‘I can’t say I have,’ Ben said. ‘But from the name and the fact that you came here for your research, I’m guessing she was married to Lord Stamford, owner of the Glenfell Estate that covered about a million acres near Ballinasloe, just a few miles away.’
    ‘Ten out of ten. Nothing like local knowledge.’
    ‘More like local legend. You still hear the old story of the tyrannical English lord who went mad and burned his own house down with himself inside. But that doesn’t make me an expert. So Lady Stamford’s the subject of your book?’
    ‘Yeah … she is.’ She gave a non-committal kind of shrug.
    ‘You don’t sound too sure.’
    She looked at him. ‘Don’t I? I suppose not. That’s because … well, the fact is that I don’t really know that I’ll be writing it any more. Something else has come along in the last couple of days that makes me think …’ Her voice trailed off and she frowned up at the clouds. They were directly overhead now and more threatening than ever.
    ‘Here it comes,’ Ben said. Moments later, the first heavy raindrops began to spatter down, quickly gathering force.
    Kristen drew her fleece more tightly around her. ‘Christ. We’re going to get soaked.’
    He glanced back over his shoulder. They’d walked quite a distance from the flat rock. ‘Listen, we’re closer to my place than we are to the guesthouse. If you want to shelter from the storm …’
    ‘Lead on,’ she said, nodding.

Chapter Four
    They ran. The rain was pelting down now, carried in gusts by the wind, as the path led them away from the pebbly beach and between the rocks to the cottage. Ben creaked open the gate in the little picket