Love (10 page)

No sooner had they
finished the pie and coffee then Adam was urging them all to go for a nice brisk walk on the beach.

Glenna groaned,
“I don’t think I can, not after all that food.”

But David pulled her to her feet and said,
“Go get your walking shoes on missus.”

“
You’re so bossy, I don’t know why I put up with you.” replied Glenna.

It was clear to Karen that they were very fond of one another. Their obvious affection for each other made a welcome contrast to the many other miserable couples Karen knew who were constantly putting each other down in public.

Heavy coats were not needed as the day was still relatively warm. Morgan kept them waiting by the door while she went to change. She had announced that she was not ruining her suit and she would simply have to put on something more suitable. Eventually, she reappeared in a pair of black wool trousers and a moss green jumper. She had on a pair of soft brown leather ankle boots which Karen eyed enviously. Karen took a second look at Morgan’s jumper. It looked surprisingly like the one Adam had worn the other day.

Karen
’s suspicions were confirmed when Adam said indignantly, “I see you’ve helped yourself to my best jumper.”

“
Adam, dear man, you don’t mind. Do you?” Morgan wheedled, putting her arm through his possessively. She kept a firm hold on Adam all the way down to the beach, leaving Karen with Humphrey as her partner for the walk. She almost felt like leaving them to it but Humphrey was so thrilled at the prospect of a second walk on the beach that she didn’t have the heart to disappoint the little dog.

As the others chatted in their cosy pairs, Karen was left to her own thoughts. Adam’s questions at lunch had disturbed her. She kept thinking of different things she could have said. She must have seemed so naive and babyish. What had he meant by saying there was a tension between them? Was it the physical response she was having to his touch? A sensation she had never had before. Did he feel it too? Still what was Morgan to him? They were obviously very close and she had been in his bedroom. Was she sharing his room and bed? Why was she such a bitch to Karen? Karen’s head spun with all the questions. The conflict raged. Why should she care about the answers to any of them? Did she care what he thought? Was she lying to herself? The words of the horoscope flashed through her head. She must stop this, now! Even superstitious rubbish was starting to play on her mind.

As they reached the flat of the beach Adam st
arted tossing a frisbee that he’d found washed up on the sand. Karen noticed that he was really quite athletic for someone who claimed to spend most of his time writing at a desk. His broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist.

“
Here!” he shouted to David. “Catch this, you used to be a rugby player!”

David caught the bright red
frisbee and threw it to Karen. For some minutes they all ran around wildly throwing the frisbee at each other. Humphrey ran excitedly between them, barking encouragement, until Morgan missed her footing and fell over him onto the sand.

“D
amn it! You stupid little mutt. Look what you made me do!” Morgan was livid. She was covered in damp sand and strands of malodorous seaweed.

Karen couldn
’t help snickering. How the mighty had fallen.

“
Oh, very funny. Ha, ha!” snapped Morgan. “You should control that dog. It’s a menace.”

“
Come off it Morgan,” said Adam. He went over to pick her up. “Humphrey probably got a bigger fright than you did.” He brushed the sand off her.

“
Leave me alone!” she said angrily pushing his hands away. “I’m going back to the house to have a hot bath and get rid of the stench of this foul seaweed. There better not be any tar on my trousers!” With this she turned and stomped back towards the path.

Some of the ligh
t-heartedness seemed to have gone from the afternoon with Morgan’s bad tempered display and though they tossed the frisbee desultorily for a while it had lost its charm.

David ended the game,
“Well, I don’t know about all of you, but I think that’s enough for me. We ought to be getting ready to head back up to London. The roads can be pretty bad with all the Sunday traffic. Even at this time of year and I think there may be fog closer to London.”

Karen
had heard on the radio that the road conditions were bad around London, “Freezing fog, I’m afraid. Hopefully, it will have disappeared by now.”

David and Glenna led the way back up to the house. Adam and Karen followed behind with the disgraced Humphrey.

As they reached Adam’s gate Karen said, “I had better say good bye here. Thank you, Adam, once again, for feeding me so well.” She turned to David and Glenna, “It was lovely to meet you both. Say good bye to Morgan for me.”

“
I’ll see you to your door. Don’t worry, David, I won’t be long, I’ll fish out those papers you wanted when I come back.” Adam took Karen firmly by the arm and headed for her cottage. Something in his grip told Karen it would be useless to argue with him.

“
I’m sorry I can’t spend the evening with you. I would have liked to finish our discussion about New Men. But I have some paperwork to sort out with David and Morgan before they leave and I don’t know how long it will take.”

Karen felt absurdly disappointed. Not that she had planned on spending the evening with Adam but she had hoped, at the back of her
mind that his friends would leave earlier rather than later. When they reached her door Karen turned to face Adam. She half expected him to kiss her. He looked thoughtfully down at her. He smiled a rather knowing smile and brushed a strand of hair away from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. Then he turned and was gone.

“Shit, fuck, shit!” swore Karen when the door was safely shut. Let’s face it she said to herself, you wanted him to kiss you. Just like you did the first time. It was so frustrating, his on-again off-again attitude. Her body felt feverish. One moment she had the feeling he really cared for her and the next he was disappearing to spend time with the seductive Morgan, no doubt. She wanted to know where she stood. She had a nasty feeling that he was playing some sort of cat and mouse game with her and she wasn’t the cat.

Karen, in an attempt to chase away the nagging presence of Adam, threw herself into painting with renewed energy and vigour. She presumed that Adam must be busy with the proofs for his new book as she had not seen him at all, not that she had been looking. She thought that she and Humphrey might run into him on their morning walk, but the only sign of life from his house was the light in his study window which seemed to burn for half the night. It just so happened that she hadn’t been sleeping very well and every time she got up she just happened to look across at his house and wonder what he was up to.

I
’m becoming a stalker she thought. She could get together with Mrs Pengelly and compare notes on the habits of the residents of Trelawney Cove. Perhaps this was what happened if you lived in the country. In London she seemed to have too little time to do anything whereas here she seemed to have too much time to think about things she really would rather forget about.

She wondered if she should invite one of her friends down from London to distract her from what seemed to be becoming an obsession with Adam. Perhaps her sister, Amanda, could be persuaded to take a break from her busy schedule and come down for a long weekend and restore
Karen’s sanity. Karen was used to seeing people regularly in London and this isolation seemed to be doing funny things to her head. On the other hand, having visitors would interfere with her painting and she simply must complete more work for her show in April.

Tuesday brought a letter from her grandmother. She was having a great time in Australia and the sun was doing wonders for her old bones. She wondered if Humphrey was missing her and if Karen had met Adam yet. Yes, Gran, said Karen as she put the letter down on the counter in the kitchen, I certainly have met him. Was it possible that her grandmother had organised this trip to Australia just to get her fixed up with Adam? No, even her wonderful scheming grandmother was not as devious as that. She thought longingly of the sunny weather down under, this cold was getting into her bones. She made herself a cup of tea with lemon and honey as her throat was dry and her head felt fuzzy. It was her grandmother’s remedy for all colds and perhaps if she drank it now, she could ward off anything worse.

She remembered that she had not asked her grandmother what she wanted
to do about the cottage and its proposed sale. Adam, when they’d talked about it, had thought that her grandmother was simply humouring Nick and had told him that she might as well have the free valuation done. She didn’t think she would tell Nick that. She would let her grandmother sort it out when she got back from Australia.

If it hadn
’t been for her date with Nick, she would have gone straight to bed after a hot bath. The studio had seemed particularly cold that afternoon with the wind banging away at the windows. Karen changed out of her painting clothes and slipped on her leggings and a dark red cropped jumper which revealed glimpses of her slender waist when she moved. She tied her hair back with a red and black scarf and decided against lipstick in favour of some shiny lip gloss. “Poor old Humph, another lonely evening in front of the Aga. I’ll make it up to you tomorrow,” she said to a woebegone Humphrey as she heard Nick beep his horn at the top of the driveway. Well, he’s not one of nature’s gentlemen, she thought to herself. The lazy arse could at least have come to the door!

She grabbed Gran
’s old sheepskin coat as she ran out the door. It had been much colder since the weekend and the wind had been howling outside the windows as she had dressed. She didn’t want to get too chilled as she seemed definitely to be coming down with a cold. The radio weatherman had predicted gales for their part of the coast with heavy rain also on its way. She wouldn’t need an umbrella, as she was going to be in Nick’s car. She had originally planned to take her camera and get some photos to paint from but she wasn’t in the mood. She didn’t feel up to the hassle of asking people’s permission.

Karen hurried up the drive to the car. Nick leaned over and opened the door of his shiny red Toyota from the inside. Karen climbed into the car. Nick had
Phil Collins blaring away on the car stereo. She cringed inwardly.

“
Hello, Karen. You’re looking gorgeous as usual. Ready to meet your destiny tonight? Want to hear what fate has got in store for you Karen?” Nick shouted over the music.

Karen grimaced and put her fingers in her ears. Nick turned down the music. She said,
“I’m not wild about all that mystical mumbo jumbo. I told you before when you asked me out that I don’t believe in all that stuff. What I wouldn’t mind is if someone predicted a bit of hot weather, my studio is freezing. I’ve been shivering in there for days. I think it’s already given me a cold. I hope it’s nothing catchy.”

“
I’ll take anything you’ve got sweetheart!” he joked in a bad imitation of an American accent. “Seriously Karen, though, I thought there was a wood stove in there? Those wood burners are amazing. I heat my whole house with one and it costs me peanuts. I get all the wood from my uncle’s farm.” Nick continued, “In fact, I’m sure I remember writing down a wood stove in the house details. I never forget a house’s details Karen.”

“Th
ere is. It’s just a pain to keep cleaning it out. I’ve had an electric fire on in there instead but it just doesn’t warm up the room in the same way. I shouldn’t be so lazy I guess.” Karen cast a wary eye at the speedometer. Nick seemed to be driving awfully fast on the dark country roads. He overtook another car on a bend in a rather reckless fashion.

Nick laughed, sensing her worry,
“Relax Karen. These roads are empty at this time of day. Besides you don’t strike me as the scared type.”

“Th
e roads aren’t that empty,” she said snippishly. Then, regretting her petulance she added, “Actually, It’s different when you’re the passenger. When I drive myself, I’m in control. I don’t know you well enough to know what sort of driver you are.”

“
Point taken,” replied Nick. “But let me reassure you: I have no points on my driving licence, I’ve never even run over a bunny rabbit. You’re completely safe with me. I’m always in control at the end of the day. If you know what I mean Karen?”

Karen smiled. Inwardly, she had a quick flicker of
anxiety. Adam’s warning about Nick came back to her. She didn’t want to get into an awkward situation with Nick. No, she told herself, you are being over-concerned. You’ve been on plenty of dates with all sorts of different men. She had been out with far tougher characters in London. You can handle Nick. It really wasn’t a good idea to spend so much time alone, perseverating about things. It just wasn’t healthy.

The Psychic Fair was being held in the Town Hall in Penzance and Nick found them a parking space in the lot at the back. They hurried inside as the promised rain began to fall. Nick placed his hand around Karen’s shoulders as they ran and Karen was pleased to note that she felt absolutely no electricity. Actually, Adam was the only one who had ever sparked that response. At least her body was returning to normal even if her mind was playing up on her. Perhaps it was the beginnings of a cold that was making her feel rather dizzy.