Free More Than Meets the Eye by J. M. Gregson Page A

apprentices drive off with the older gardener in his car. The lads looked spruced up and excited, as if they were anticipating a lively evening. She wished for a moment that she could spirit fifteen years away and be back at that age, when everything seemed new and vital, and life had stretched invitingly before you as a challenge.
    She smiled as she heard Oliver’s shrill voice. She rounded the end of the hedge and found her son holding the tennis ball above his head in both hands, celebrating the catch he had just unexpectedly held. ‘You missed it, Mum! I caught Dad out!’ he said. Then he flung the ball as high in triumph as his six-year-old body allowed him to do. It was no more than a few feet in the air, but no doubt it seemed much higher to him.
    Jim Hartley smiled at his wife and Hugo Wilkinson invited her politely to join in the game. ‘We can always use another fielder, though you’ll have to be good to catch it like Oliver.’ Sam, who was pacing out his run with the intense seriousness of an eight-year-old as he prepared to bowl to his father, directed her imperiously to field at mid-on.
    â€˜Sorry, chaps, I’m not available. I have to go out.’ Julie turned towards her husband’s interrogative face. Jim stood looking a little ridiculous with the boy’s bat which was so much too short for him. ‘I’m sorry, but Sarah left some library books in the car when I gave her a lift home. I’ve no idea when I’ll see her again, so I’d better take them round. Shan’t be long. Read you a story, boys, if Dad doesn’t keep you out here too long. Bye!’
    And she was gone as suddenly as she had appeared. The smile disappeared abruptly from her face as soon as she was out of sight. She was appalled at how easy she had found it to lie.
    It was no more than three miles, but you couldn’t rush it, with the narrowness of the lanes and the innumerable blind bends. These roads had been designed originally for horses and carts. She glanced impatiently at the car clock. It was after half past seven already. She mustn’t stay long. She really shouldn’t have come at all.
    Julie Hartley rapped hard on the door of the cottage, felt the familiar, absurd surge of pleasure as she heard the steps inside, then saw the surprise on the fresh-skinned face as the door opened. She followed Sarah inside, scarcely waited until they were in the living room to seize her shoulders and turn her. She kissed her, first gently and then more fiercely, running her hands up and down over the familiar shoulder blades, sliding her hands under the blouse on to the smooth skin beneath it.
    The pub in Cheltenham was much noisier than Alex Fraser had expected. The party had its own room, but to Alex it quickly became an overcrowded box. As things got rowdier it seemed that everyone except him knew everyone else in the room. He was an interloper, and he shouldn’t have come here.
    He went out to the Gents, then tried a door in the corridor and found himself outside, in a little courtyard behind the building. It was almost dark now, though above the wall he could see the purple of the western sky where the sun had set. It was probably private ground here, but he was doing no harm, was he? He just needed a few minutes in the open air, a little period to gather his resources together. Then he would paste on his determined smile and rejoin the boisterous celebrations he could hear twenty yards away.
    â€˜You with Matt Garton?’
    The voice came from the shadows behind him, near the door he had used himself to get here. He hadn’t heard it open and shut to admit the mystery newcomer. Alex turned to look at him, his hand automatically in his pocket, feeling the reassuring touch of metal. ‘What if I am?’
    The newcomer stepped forward. Alex was pleased to see that the mystery man looked younger than he was himself. More to the point, he seemed even more nervous. ‘I