The Darkness and the Deep Read Online Free Page A

after living here for only three years. And in any case Rob’ll never be half the seaman Willie is, whatever state he’s in.’
    ‘Difference between spending your life at sea on a destroyer and being skipper of a trawler, I suppose. Still, don’t take any risks with your personal safety – or anyone else’s.’
    ‘Oh, I promise. But there isn’t anyone to touch him when it comes to tricky manoeuvres.’
    ‘Oh, I don’t know.’ He wasn’t looking at her, but he was smiling. ‘I rather fancy myself in that field as well.’
    ‘And that’s another one, away down!’ The woman reached the window a little too late to see the car which had passed on the road down to Fuill’s Inlat. ‘There must have been a gey lot of hammers forgotten, according to you, Ron!’
    ‘It’ll be rare exercise for you, Jeanie, jumping up and down all evening after they’ve sold those houses.’ He was in a thoroughly bad mood after his team’s defeat. ‘You’d better get used to it, that’s all I can say.’
    ‘And look – that’s someone else turning in off the main road!’ Jeanie’s voice was shrill. ‘One of these great big daft things like wee lorries on great big wheels.’
    He was almost interested. ‘That’ll be the Heid Bummer – that man Elder. He’s got one of those big Mitsubishis. They’ve that showhouse down there that’s opening soon – he’s maybe giving someone a wee keek at it.’
    ‘So we’re going to have to thole them being up and down the road all night as well as all day? The works traffic’s been bad enough but if it’s starting at night now too – well, I’ll just have to phone the Council again, though they’re nothing but a set of useless articles.’
    Suddenly, Ron jumped to his feet and went out of the room. She stared after him; he reappeared a moment later with a wodge of cotton wool in his hand.
    ‘Shove that in your lugs so you can’t hear them,’ he said brutally. ‘Either that or the next time I go to that bathroom cabinet I’m bringing back the sticking-plaster to put across your mouth.’
    He looked, Dorothy Randall thought, tired and somehow strained tonight, and the eternal flame of her hatred for her daughter-in-law burned that little bit brighter as she sat over supper with her son in her Victorian villa, The Hollies, up at the back of Knockhaven. She had lit the candles in the plate candelabra on the reproduction Georgian dining-table; the room, with its Regency-striped wallpaper, always looked particularly warm and welcoming, she thought, with the candles lit and the thick red velvet curtains drawn across the bay window.
    It had been a real scramble following his phone call, with all she had to do, but somehow she’d got his meal prepared and still had time to change into a smart blue twin-set, with her pearls of course, and its matching wool skirt, but she’d managed. She always prided herself on looking calm and well turned-out for her son – without, of course, in any way compromising her standards. Ashley’s idea of taking trouble over food seemed to consist of scooping a ready-meal on to a dish instead of serving it straight from its foil container, and Lewis, poor love, did enjoy proper home cooking, nicely presented.
    Tonight, with only a couple of hours’ notice, she’d just had to take an apple pie out of the freezer and put two steaks into the microwave to defrost. She didn’t like doing that, but at least it was quick, and she’d served it daintily with a sprig of parsley and a cheese sauce for the cauliflower – he’d always enjoyed that. And she enjoyed watching him eat, watching his clever, doctor’s hands slice so neatly across the grain of the meat. She devoured her son with her eyes, her own steak barely touched, as if the sight of him were sustenance enough. He was so beautiful, with his dark waving hair and blue eyes with those long, thick lashes like a girl’s – and such a good boy too, coming back to be near his mother in the