Guilty One Read Online Free

tomatoes, you know. You haven’t tasted salad until you’ve grown it yourself. Come on, help me do these.’
    Daniel got up.His head was level with her shoulders and he felt tall beside her. She placed a chopping board in front of him and gave him a knife, then washed three tomatoes and placed them on the board in front of him, next to the bowl of lettuce leaves. She showed him how to slice the tomatoes into wedges.
    ‘Don’t you want to try one?’ She held a wedge out to his lips.
    He shook his head and she popped the slice of tomato into her own mouth.
    He sliced the first tomato, watching her as she put ice into a tall glass, squeezed lemon juice over it then emptied the remainder of a bottle of gin over the top. When she added the tonic the ice cracked and fizzed. She stooped to place the gin bottle with the others then returned to his side.
    ‘Well done,’ she said, ‘those are perfect slices.’
    He had thought about doing it since she gave him the knife. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he wanted to frighten her. He wanted her to know the truth about him right away. He turned and held the knife up to her face, the point about an inch from her nose. Tomato seeds bloodied its blade. He wanted to see her mouth turn down in fear. He wanted her to scream. He had tried it before with others and it had made him feel powerful to see them flinch and recoil. He didn’t care if she was his last chance. He didn’t want to be in her stinking house.
    The dog sat up in its basket and barked. The sudden noise made Daniel flinch, but Minnie didn’t move away from him. She pressed her lips together and sighed down her nose. ‘You’ve only done one tomato, love,’ she said.
    Her eyes had changed; they were not as friendly as they had been when Daniel arrived.
    ‘Aren’tyou scared?’ he asked, tightening his grip on the knife so it shook a little before her face.
    ‘No, love, and if you’d lived my life you wouldn’t be scared either. Now get that last tomato chopped.’
    ‘I could stab you.’
    ‘Could you, now …’
    Daniel stabbed the knife into the chopping board once, twice then turned away from her and began to slice the other tomato. His forearm ached a little. It had twisted when he stabbed the knife into the wood. Minnie turned her back on him and took a sip of her drink. Blitz came to her side and she dropped a hand so that he could lick her knuckles.
    By the time she served dinner he was starved, but he pretended not to be. He ate with his elbow on the table and a hand supporting his face.
    She was chatty, talking about the farm and the vegetables that she grew.
    ‘Where are you from?’ he asked her, with his mouth full.
    ‘Well, Cork originally, but I’ve been here for longer than I was there. I was in London for a while too …’
    ‘Where’s Cork?’
    ‘Where’s Cork? My goodness, don’t you know Cork’s in Ireland?’
    Daniel lowered his eyes.
    ‘Cork is the real capital of Ireland. It’s about half the size of Newcastle, mind you,’ she said, not looking at him as she cut up her salad. She paused, then said: ‘I’m sorry to hear about your mum. Sounds like she’s not very well right now.’
    Daniel stopped eating for a moment. He tightened his fist aroundhis fork and stabbed it gently into the table. He saw that she wore a gold cross around her neck. He marvelled for a moment at the tiny suffering which had been carved on to it.
    ‘Why’d you come ’ere then?’ pointing his fork at her. ‘Why leave a city for ’ere? Middle of nowhere.’
    ‘My husband wanted to live here. We met down in London. I worked as a psychiatric nurse down there, after I left Ireland. He was an electrician, among other things. He grew up here, in Brampton. It was as good a place as any to me at the time. He wanted to be here and that was grand with me.’ She finished her drink and the ice rattled. She had that same look in her eye that she had when he held the knife at her.
    ‘What’s a psychiatric