The Shadowcutter Read Online Free Page A

cool and remote, every inch the professional man.
    Yet as he descended the stairs, she broke into a melody of such gorgeous intensity and played with such obvious finesse and feeling, he had to catch his breath. He paused on the bottom step, wondering if he had better go and see Martinez instead rather than go in and be alone with her.
    Sukey came out of the drawing room.
    “Sukey, don’t go just yet,” he said. “Mrs Vernon may want you. Come and sit with us.”
    “I’ll just fetch my sewing,” she said, slipping past him.
    He went in as quietly as he could, attempting not to disturb Mrs Vernon. But she heard him, and stopped at once.
    “No, don’t,” he said, seeing her rise from the piano. “Please, not on my account. I was enjoying it.”
    “You were?” she said, smiling, and he realised that was the wrong thing to say. “I have been working hard at it, just as you suggested.”
    He took care not to respond to that. Instead he pulled out a chair for her at the round table that was used for meals, and waited there for her to come to sit down. It was only good manners to do so, yet he wondered if it might be better to act the boor with her and take the seat for himself, and begin eating as if she were not even there.
    “Shall we have some lunch?” he said.
    She nodded and came and sat down, but used the excuse of his standing there to slip past him, like a cat circling his legs. Her skirts brushed against him, and as she sat, she twisted her head and looked up at him, with a look that was so terrifyingly full of gratitude that he was tempted to walk straight out of the room.
    But he had a duty to make her eat and the power to accomplish it, for as he offered her the plate of ham and the bread and butter, and the radishes, she took her portion, anxious to please him. She ate too, not just pushing the food about the plate, as was so often the case. In fact she consumed a full slice of ham, three radishes and two pieces of bread and butter which was quite astonishing.
    “This spa water makes one hungry,” he said, taking some more ham for himself. “Even if it does tastes so foul.” He had grabbed a cup from the Bower Well to quench his thirst after he had walked up the hill.
    “I did have two cups,” she said. “Just as you told me.”
    “Then you must go and take it again tomorrow,” he said.
    “Yes, I would like that,” she said. She looked down at her empty plate, surprised by it. “Have I not done well?”
    “Very well.”
    “It is only because you are here,” she said. “It is not the water, it is because –”
    The door opened and Sukey came in, with her work-basket.
    “Yes, what is it?” said Mrs Vernon, looking round at her with some hostility “I did not ring for you, Sukey.”
    “Mr Carswell asked me to come in, ma’am,” said Sukey.
    “Why?” Mrs Vernon said, staring across the table at him, as he had betrayed her horribly.
    “Because I have to go out now and see a patient,” Felix said, throwing down his napkin and getting up “And –”
    “Am I not your patient?” she said, also rising from the table.
    “Yes, but Mr Martinez is in a terrible condition and needs me.”
    “And I don’t?” she said, with a slight sob.
    “I shall be back as soon as I can,” he said. “Do some more piano practice. You are getting on so well with it.”
    “You do not care one iota, do you?” she said. “Not one!”
    And she ran out of the room, pushing past Sukey, the door banging behind her.
    “Oh God!” Felix could not help exclaiming. He stared helplessly at Sukey.
    “Two steps forward, one back,” she said. “You said that yourself.”
    “But this, this is –”
    “You woke her up from the dead,” Sukey said. “She’s bound to be grateful.”
    He nodded.
    “I had better go and see Martinez,” he said.
    “Of course. She will be all right. I’ll get her busy with something else. Don’t you worry about it.”
    “I will try.”
    It was not the first time that her