A Well Kept Secret (56 page)
Well, when she came out of it, she was sitting in his car, and I gather it took him some minutes to calm her down. He seemed to know all about you and June, so she blurted out the whole story of what had happened. I don’t think he really believed her at first, but she insisted that he had to do something. I think he wanted to make sure that she wasn’t imagining things, because they both sneaked back into the grounds to investigate. They were pretty close to the front door when they heard raised voices, and a threat to hurt someone with a knife! She told me that convinced both of them that something pretty serious was happening!
Mr Perkins didn’t have his mobile phone with him either, because he’d left it at his girl friend’s house at the top of the lane. Isn’t always the same? Whenever you really want one, there’s never one to be found! Anyway, the pair of them ran back to his car, and they drove down to a phone box just outside Wellworthy, and raised the alarm. Afterwards they drove back to the house, but parking just a little way back from it. Perkins wanted Georgie to stay in the car, but by this time she had got over her fit of ‘wobblies’, and insisted on staying with him.
Now, although Georgie didn’t know it, whilst all this was going on, I was still in the garden with this horrible man. He was really frightening, and kept putting his hands on me in a funny way. I suddenly thought of all the warnings I’ve had been given about men like that who fancy young girls and I wanted to be sick. Then suddenly he grabbed me and started trying to get my jeans off. I couldn’t scream because he had his other hand over my mouth. Then suddenly I heard a loud crack, and he went sort of limp and fell down.
It all came about so suddenly I couldn’t at first understand what had happened. Then a figure emerged in front of me, a man I didn’t know, a man with a beard. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what another man was doing there at that time of night, and honestly, I was too frightened to even try. He could see how upset I was, and he helped me up and spoke to me in a very nice way, and I suppose I calmed down a bit. I told him what had happened; yet I kept looking at the man lying on the ground. I just couldn’t believe I’d just seen someone killed!
He told me that he was a special agent, which was why he carried a gun. A sort of real-life James Bond, he said. He was very nice to me. He said that he would see what the other man was up to. I had to go with him in case there were any other criminals about, and to do everything he said. That’s when he went into the house, and that’s when he shot the man who had grabbed me in the garden.
Well, like I said, while this was going on, Georgie and Mr Perkins had been to Wellworthy and come back from the phone box. They sneaked up the side of the driveway, and hid behind the garage block when they saw the man that Georgie recognised as Mr Edwards leaving. Georgie wanted to come into the house as soon as Mr Edwards had gone, but Mr Perkins said it might be too dangerous. Suddenly, they saw the man that had grabbed me coming out of the door, he was staggering, and hadn’t gone more than a few steps when he fell and lay still.
They waited a few moments, and then advanced to see what they could do for the man who had collapsed, but when Mr Perkins saw flames flaring up all over the lower floor he dragged Georgie back, and it was then that the fire brigade and the first police car appeared. The flames spread very quickly, and then they saw June dragging me out of the door, and before they could do anything to stop her, they saw June diving back into the flames again!”
She suddenly paused as the true enormity of what she was relating really hit home.
“I thought you were dead,” she said in a very tight voice, and she suddenly ran round the bed and flung her arms round June.
“I love you,” she blurted out. “You risked everything to save my dad. I’ll never forget that,
never
!”
“And if your dad hadn’t broken down that cellar door, none of us would have been saved,” June said quietly, “you were just as brave; in fact if I ever had a daughter, I would like her to be just like you.”
“Then please say that you will marry me,” Martin said, looking up at her earnestly. “You are a free woman now. All you have to do is say ‘yes’ and then you will most certainly have a daughter just like her!”
“Please, PLEASE
PLEASE
say yes,” Beverley pleaded. “I will cry for ever if you don’t say yes!”
June looked at the pair of them. “Is that what you both really want?” she asked. “Truly?”
“We won’t let you leave here until you agree!” Martin assured her with mock severity. “Bev, lock the door and get the thumb-screws out!”
June looked from one to the other of them and back again, and what she read in their eyes was the final proof she needed.
“Then I suppose I’d better say yes then!” she said at last.
Beverley’s squeals of sheer delight were so loud that a startled nurse looked in to see if everything was all right.
“I must tell go and tell Georgie or I’ll explode!” Beverley cried, and raced off, leaving June and Martin together.
For a while they looked at each other, but said nothing. In a way there was nothing to say that hadn’t already been said before. They sat there, holding bandaged hands, and each in their heart knew that they had found their destiny.
“What did Edwards mean when he said that Charles had suggested that you should make me ‘an offer that cannot be refused?” June asked at last.
“I think he was talking about me offering you an inflated price for the lease of the flat.”
“I see,” she remarked in a slightly dubious tone of voice. “Somehow, I’ve a feeling he may have been hinting at something else?”
“I expect he was indulging in a bit of mind reading,” Martin answered smugly, “because I’d already thought of a much better option.”
“Oh, and what was that?”
“A proposal of marriage.”
There was a brief silence.
“I hope he and I were both right?” Martin asked tentatively.
“I guess he was at that.”
She smiled, and laid her head on his breast.
The End.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- A. B. KING
‘A.B. King’, known to his friends and associates as Tony is a retired professional hypnotherapist, who now divides his time between writing, working as a volunteer at a local community hall, and caring for his family.
Born in England's premier Naval Sea-Port of Portsmouth, the second son of a regular Royal Marine NCO, he remained as a child in the city throughout the Second World War, witnessing much of the devastation and hardship associated with this period in history. He openly admits that due to chronic ill-health and the exigencies of the war he left school very poorly educated to work as an office boy in a brush factory. It was not until he was called to do his National Service that he finally managed to catch up on his education. Most of his service life was spent in Germany, where his life-long penchant for writing and reading books was recognised when he was appointed unit librarian. Returning eventually to civilian life he found it difficult to settle, and tried his hand at a wide range of careers from engineering to salesmanship before he found his true forte as a qualified Therapeutic Hypnotherapist.
Although he started writing stories very early in life, he recalls that his first effort was at the age of about nine years old. His first full-length story he wrote when he was eleven, and it ran to fifteen exercise books before it was finished. These dog-eared relics are still in his possession, and although obviously the work of a child, give clear evidence of the imagination inseparable from successful creative writing. He broke into print with a book on Self Hypnosis in 1986, although prior to this he had innumerable articles and short stories published in various magazines. Having spent so much of his professional life helping people to resolve personal problems he has a keen insight into what motivates the people around him, and this is often illustrated in the incidents he relates in his tales.
He still enjoys writing, but he maintains that a work of fiction should be aimed solely at entertaining the reader, and nothing else.
Now, in the twenty-first century, with the ease of digital publishing and the pressure of his fan-base behind him, his works have been made available to a wider audience than ever before on 'Kindle'.
Also by A B King
Disaster books
CATACLYSM
Genre - Disaster
When an emerging volcano threatens to destroy Southern England a small group of people fight for survival in a world gone mad.
Detective/Mystery Books
A WELL KEPT SECRET
Genre - Mystery
Inheriting a large country house complete with a very acid housekeeper thrusts the new owner into an ever deepening mystery that centres on a twenty five year old crime that suddenly places him face to face with death.
DEATH AT WILLOWS END
Genre - Detective
A reluctant private detective and an erratic young woman business executive try to unravel the riddle of her twin sister’s death.
THE BROMLEY INHERITANCE
Genre - Mystery
When her parents die in mysterious circumstances a teenager has no-one to turn to but a stranger when death comes
THE KISS OF LIFE
Genre - Mystery
A mysterious and beautiful young woman appears and vanishes. Is she real, or is she a spirit of someone who needs help. In a desperate race against time only one man can prevent a callous murder.
THE VALENTINE STRANGLER
Genre - Mystery
He was the only one who could save his wife from a serial killer, but the police thought that
he
was the killer.
THURSDAY’S CHILD
Genre - Mystery
Grant’s father had scarred him for life, and even from beyond the grave he was leading his son into the biggest danger he had ever been required to face.
THE WISE CHILD
Genre - Mystery
Trying to discover her unknown origins brings a young heiress close to madness as the horrors of her past unfold. Only one man can save her, but will he be in time?
Thrillers
AN ILL WIND
Genre - Thriller
A number of people become trapped in a remote moorland hotel, only to discover that a killer is hiding amongst them, a killer determined that before another day can dawn, death will finally triumph.
THE WRONG KILLER
Genre – Suspense Thriller
Alana’s sister had been brutally murdered, and then when she started to ask questions someone decided that she had to die as well.
Fantasy books
MOONSPEAR TO COMETFALL
Genre - Fantasy
Projected into a parallel universe as a slave on an unbelievably huge airship, Garnet must conquer a world in order to rescue the one person who means more to him than life itself.
THE PEOPLE OF THE CRYSTAL
Genre - Fantasy
A crystal of unbelievable power becomes separated in time. All the parts must be re-united, and only one man can do this. But he is not the only one who wants it!
SHANI
Genre - Fantasy
Faced with extinction from the results of a global catastrophe and the appearance of an alternative life form, the few remaining humans on Metanya have to rely upon an Earthman who has become marooned on their world.
Supernatural books
THE GREY LADY OF HAVENRIDGE
Genre - Supernatural Mystery
Inheriting a fortune and a remote Elizabethan house, a highly sceptical young school teacher realises that there is truth to the legend of the family ghost. Death stalks the ancient house, but who will be the final victim?
THE CRY OF THE BEAST
Genre - Supernatural Mystery
A beautiful young woman who vanishes without trace, an unknown killer that stalks the night, it all centres on a man who must find the answer before it is too late.
Children’s books
THE SWORD, THE RING AND THE MIRROR
In 6 volumes
Genre - Children's Fantasy Adventure
.
A young boy called John is sent on a perilous mission into the Land of the Faerie in order to save the people of Happy Valley, but there is an evil faerie who will stop at nothing to see him fail.