The Revenge of Captain Paine Read Online Free PDF

Her voice was close to breaking.
    His eyes had adjusted to the darkness now and he saw that she was standing next to what looked like an open grave.
    He walked across and was about to peer into the hole when she pushed him away with her hands. ‘Didn’t you hear what I said? I don’t want you here.’
    ‘Is that why you insisted that your husband buy a country estate bordering on land belonging to my wife’s family?’ He glanced across at the hole. It wasn’t large enough for a full-sized body.
    This time her expression softened a little. ‘It’s eerie, isn’t it, that we’re both living off our respective wives and husbands.’
    ‘I don’t take a penny from my wife.’
    ‘But you get to play the country gentleman.’
    ‘Except I hate the countryside. I’ve always preferred the city.’
    ‘But you’re here, aren’t you?’
    He waited to see whether she was going to explain where ‘here’ was but she just threw her head back and laughed.
    ‘What’s so funny?’
    ‘It’s funny you’re here with me. It’s funny we’re neighbours. It’s funny because we’re both such a long way from St Giles.’
    ‘Neighbours,’ he said, carefully. ‘Except that isn’t a coincidence, is it?’
    She looked at the house in the distance, silhouetted against the starry sky. ‘Do you sometimes think that people like us don’t actually belong in places like this?’
    ‘I don’t know. You seem to have adapted well enough, Marguerite.’
    ‘Think what you like, Pyke. I’m not the same person you once knew.’
    He watched her face twitch in the darkness. ‘I’m not sure I knew that person very well in the first place.’ He waited for her to respond, and when she didn’t, he added, ‘But you’ve married a good man. That tells me something.’
    A bitter laugh spilled from her. ‘And I find out you’re married, as well.’ The moonlight played over her features. Her dimples vanished together with her smile. ‘Perhaps we should all play happy families one of these days.’
    ‘And I’m meant to think it’s just a coincidence, you turning up here after all these years?’
    ‘Work it out for yourself, Pyke. You never did trust other people’s logic.’
    ‘Are you going to tell your husband we knew each other in the old days?’
    ‘Are you going to tell your wife?’ When Pyke didn’t answer her, she added, in the same tone, ‘Eddy knows about my past. He’s under no illusion about the kind of woman I am. I hope for your sake your wife is robust enough to take you for who you are.’
    ‘And who’s that?’ he asked, feigning amusement.
    Briefly their eyes met and a tiny spark of attraction passed between them.
    ‘It’s good to see you after all these years.’ She wound her finger around a coil of her curly blonde hair. ‘I was nervous when Eddy first mentioned your name and told me you lived close by. He said that he’d recently moved his account to your bank and that he planned to invite you for dinner. I knew I’d have to see you again and I didn’t know how I might feel.’
    ‘And how do you feel now you’ve seen me?’
    ‘That’s just it,’ she said, turning around to face the house. ‘I don’t feel a thing.’
    ‘Then nothing much has changed, has it?’
    Pyke had never been able to tell what colour Marguerite’s eyes were; they seemed to change with her mood. But when she turned to confront him they were as black as coal, and for a few moments she struggled to contain her indignation.
    ‘You always did know how to make a lady feel good about herself.’
    Pyke let her walk off towards the house but shouted after her, ‘The Maggie Shaw I remember wasn’t a lady.’
     
Pyke always woke early, a product of the many years he had lived in the vicinity of Smithfield Market, where the bleating and lowing of frightened creatures being herded through narrow streets by drove-boys and their dogs could have roused a dead man. For a while, he watched Emily while she slept next to him. Her