Free In the Blood by Steve Robinson Page B

something he wanted to show her, but it could wait...
    “I’ll show you in the morning,” he’d said.   “It’s late and we’ve an early start tomorrow.”
    Amy remembered the fire being low in the grate.   She was sitting where she was now, Gabriel beside her with an arm around her.   She knew he was teasing her - he loved to tease.   But this time she’d sensed an edge of seriousness in his tone.
    “Show me now,” she’d said.  
    “In the morning ... it’s no big deal.”
    Amy recalled giving Gabriel a playful dig in the ribs.   “So show me then.”
    “I can’t - really.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because it’s a secret!”
    Gabriel laughed then, and Amy remembered his strong hands grabbing her wrists and pulling her onto him.   She remembered the mischief in his half-Irish eyes, letting her know that he would never show her until he was ready.   When morning came, Gabriel went out early, leaving her at the cottage with a sleepy kiss on her forehead.   She’d forgotten to ask what he’d wanted to show her and he had forgotten to say - or maybe he’d planned to show her later.
    But later never came.
     
    Apart from Amy’s bedroom, the sitting room was the only safe place in the house; the only place left to any peace since the decorators moved in at the start of the week.   Two days of banging and scraping had done nothing for her nerves, but she was trying.   A fresh look, someone had suggested.   Clear out the old cobwebs - the ghosts.   Though it tortured her, she still wanted the reminders around her; still needed them.   She thought she might leave the sitting room alone - some part of the house still left to her memories.
    The house was called Ferryman Cottage.   It was constructed from flint and stone and located at Treath, a tiny hamlet of just a few cottages half a mile along the river from Helford Village on the south bank.   Set back from the water, it had its own quay and mooring directly opposite Helford Passage.   Secured to the mooring was a teak motor launch: their pride and joy.   It was ideal for trips down the river when the tide was in, or to follow the coastline in search of a secret cove when the sea was calm.   The coastal path ran between the house and the river, which was often busy with walkers during the high season, but not to such an extent that it detracted from its charm.
    A covenant existed tying the cottage to the Helford Ferry, which at one time ran from Treath.   It ensured that whoever owned the business would have somewhere local to live.   Neither could be sold without the other, so when Amy and Gabriel bought the business three years ago, they also bought Ferryman Cottage.   The house retained most of its original features and, although smaller than they were used to, in many ways it was well suited to the quieter lives they sought - lives that had since proved to be anything but.
    Amy might have burst into tears again were it not for the ten-pound hammer thumping into the wall on the other side of the fireplace.   The whole house shook.   The decorators were back at the wall again, knocking through into a side annexe that was used to store things that had no obvious place to go.   It was proving a difficult task, but they were nearly done.   It would give the room more space, but more importantly, the view from the window in the annexe offered a lovely second aspect along the river, back towards Helford and across to the inlet that ran up to Porth Navas.
    The real reason she was having it knocked through was because Gabriel had wanted it.   Gabriel would have taken that wall down the day they moved in, but there was enough to think about back then, when they had owned and operated the ferry service themselves.   Now Amy had Martin to run things, and a string of hired assistants that seemed to change with the tide.
    The house shook again and Amy winced.   Beyond the wall to the left of the fireplace, she could hear the floorboards being