Free Unknown by Unknown

making no effort at all to set her at ease by making friendly conversation. If Catrin were here, what would be her summing up now? Davina wondered.
    She glanced sideways beneath her long lashes at the profile of the man behind the wheel. He was watching the road ahead, a slight furrow between his straight brows. Her eyes dropped to the shapely brown hands lightly holding the steering wheel. Had he got so used to having a large staff under his command that he had decided views on the way employees should be treated? If so, Davina thought grimly, Rex Fitzpaine was in for some surprises! A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay he was entitled to, but he was not going to trample all over her as well.
    Having reached a decision, Davina settled herself as comfortably as she could and gazed out of the nearside window, letting her thoughts dwell on plots for short stories and ignoring the remote attitude of the man at her side. Not that he was exactly easy to ignore, she realised, because he took up so much of the seat that his thigh touched her own every time he changed gear. It was a relief when eventually he pulled into a layby so they could stretch their legs and eat another snack mead before setting off once again on what Davina hoped was the last leg of the journey.
    It was tea time when Rex turned off the motorway at Scotch Corner and headed in the direction of Barnard Castle. The rain had stopped, but the temperature had dropped steadily as they travelled north, and Davina would have given a great deal for a cup of hot tea. But Rex had said he didn’t intend another break, so she tried desperately to hide the increasing discomfort she was beginning to feel, realising that in any case it was unlikely there was a cafe within twenty miles.
    They were now travelling bleak mountain roads, unfenced apart from occasional dry-built stone walls or rows of fence posts set at intervals to guide travellers in snowbound weather. They had passed Alston and though it was much larger than her home town of Llantarwyn, Davina saw that it was no more than a market town of probably some two thousand souls.
    As she tried to stifle a yawn Rex pointed ahead. ‘There’s Camshaw, our nearest village.’
    Peering into the distance, she could just see a huddle of grey houses with the short square steeple of a church rising above the slate roofs. Five minutes later Rex drew to a standstill before a shop which from the variety of goods displayed in the window catered for the needs of everyone for miles around. It was also the village post office, for a red letter box was set in the shop wall.
    With a brief ‘Wait here’ Rex got out and strode into the shop, and Davina was too tired to do anything but obey. She was thinking how cold, empty and unfriendly the place looked; even the door of the inn opposite was firmly shut. Rex returned carrying a large carton of groceries. He dumped it on to the luggage piled behind Davina’s seat and with a, ‘Hold on to that. It’s our provisions for the next few days and I don’t want to arrive with our eggs already scrambled,’ he got quickly into his seat and restarted the engine.
    He turned the Land Rover on to a road leading out of the village which was even narrower than the one they had travelled and for about a mile they passed only two cottages, both of which would have seemed deserted had it not been for the thin spirals of smoke coming from their chimneys. The moors stretched out in every direction, broken here and there by a gorse bush or a stubby tree bent by the wind into grotesque shape. A solitary house a little larger than the cottages loomed ahead, but Rex passed it by and at last, unable to keep quiet any longer, Davina burst out with, ‘Where are we going? If I didn’t know the earth was round I’d swear we’d be driving over the edge any minute!’
    She was torn between amusement and disbelief as she gazed ahead, for there was no sign of another habitation. One corner of Rex’s mouth