The taxi turned left when it should have turned right.
“We’re going the wrong way.”
“No, we’re not,” said Gratia.
“This is the road to the harbour front.”
“You’ve remembered then?”
“What are you up to?” he said warily.
“Me? This isn’t my idea.”
“What’s not your idea?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
Matt was unconcerned at the mystery. He was near home, close enough to his personal sanctuary to be able to relax. And there was something else. He couldn’t describe it but felt as though there had been a sea change of mood in the air, a shift in atmosphere. Something happened, or was about to happen, which could only be new and positive. And then he saw it.
Welcome home Matt Durham.
“What the hell …”
“It appears the people of the island are not so indifferent towards you after all.”
The door of the car opened and the band struck up …
He’d lost count of the number of times a local had shaken his hand, the number of alcoholic drinks pressed into his grasp at each bewildering turn.
“Hey, Durham,” said a woman’s voice. “It’s good to have you back on the island.”
“Officer Danbridge?”
“Marcie,” she said.
For the first time she gave him a warm smile and reached forward to peck his cheek.
“Any nuisance callers, let Dan or I know and we’ll come over and sort them out.”
“Thanks, though I can’t see it happening.”
“It’ll happen. Let us know and we’ll put the squeeze on.”
“She means it, Matt,” added her colleague, offering a hand of friendship. “Try to avoid match nights though,” he added, whispering into Matt’s ear.
“Thanks Dan,”
“Don’t expect me to be at your beck and call,” said a fresh voice, launching into a full blown embrace.
“I wondered where you’d got to, Jenna.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I need a very long holiday,” said Matt.
“I agree,” said Jenna. “Just don’t go to Atlanta.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Too much temptation,” she said. “Will took me there for a long weekend recently but instead of getting the romantic treat I expected he ended up spending an entire night playing the tables. I went to bed and left him to it, but he won’t do it again in a hurry I can tell you.”
“Look,” said Gratia suddenly. “The mayor has arrived. We had better go and say hello.”
She dragged him by the sleeve and pushed him towards the waiting Mayor.
“Be nice,” she said.
“Gratia ...” he protested.
Throughout the night Will evaded him. There was always tomorrow he kept telling himself, though in truth he already knew the answer to the question.
Moonlight had lit up the placid, almost lifeless, ocean bar the ripples of gentle waves meandering to shore. A mesmerising sight he had long forgotten. Gratia’s comforting arms circled his waist from behind and he felt her head rest between his shoulder blades.
“How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” he said.
“We could retire. You don’t have to stay up.”
“Not just yet. I want to watch the moonlight dancing on the waves for a while.”
“Very poetic,” she said softly. “You’ve missed this place, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
They stood motionless for some time.
“I keep seeing their faces, the team. Rosa in particular,” he said. “Was I wrong, to get involved?”
“If you’re asking if it was wrong for you to risk everything we have here then the answer is an emphatic yes. But that is a personal perspective. If you’re asking if it was wrong to try and uncover what you subsequently did then no, it was the right thing to do.”
She sensed there was something else on his mind.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Munich, Schafen,” he said.
“What about Munich?”
“I was wondering when you’d be going back.”
“Go back, why?” she asked, circling his frame to look into his eyes.
“It’s your natural environment, where you belong. I realise that now,” he said. “I want you to go back.”
“Why have you said this?”
“I want you to be where you’ll be happiest, what is best for Gratia Fuchs.”
Her rich eyes covered the contours of his serious face, and then she smiled.
“This is my environment, the place where I am happiest,” she said. “I knew where I wanted to be from the moment you told me the ridiculous story about Sam and Genevieve. And I can think of no better place to raise a family.”
“Gratia …don’t, please,” he said.
She answered him with the warmest of smiles, the richest of gazes.
“I have news,” she said. “I am not as well organised as we both believed. And you were not infertile in London.”
His body tensed and she saw the muscles tighten in his face. In anxious silence she felt his hold on her loosen and he stepped away. Without another word he turned and bolted to the lawn striding in massive leaps to the far end of the garden, up to the sea’s edge where he knelt on one knee and remained motionless.
“Matt?” she said, approaching cautiously.
His shoulders rose and fell without answering.
“I’m sorry. I should have waited.”
She saw his head shake.
“Are you okay?”
His head shook again.
“I mean yes,” he said quickly.
“Do you want me to leave you alone?”
“No,” he said, shoulders continuing to rise and fall.
Gratia slowly stepped into his path and knelt down in front of him, seeing the tears rolling down his cheeks.
“Why does the man who cannot cry now weep before my eyes?” she said softly.
He peered to the left, then to the right, his body trembling with raw emotion.
“The news upsets you?”
“No,” he said.
“Then what is it?” she whispered. “Tell me what is in your heart, what it is which distresses you so much.”
At first the words wouldn’t come.
“I thought I’d blown it,” he said, tears falling from his eyes like rain from the clouds. “You, me, children …I thought I’d screwed it up.”
She wrapped him in her arms, light and tender kisses to his bowed head doing their best to provide comfort from his inner tempest.
“It is fine, everything is fine now,” she said softly into his ear. “You nearly blew it. But I’ll make sure you won’t get another chance to do it again.”
Other books by this author;
The Milieu Principle
Mike Daniels cared little for close human relations. He cared less about the environment. Life was about to change.
An unmarked memory stick arrived in the post. He hadn’t been expecting anything so paid the object little attention. Mike wasn’t to know it held details of a plan to resolve global overpopulation by decimating human numbers on the planet. He soon discovers however that the owners of the memory stick want it back, and with no loose ends. Now he must run.
Using the false identity of Matt Durham he starts afresh in Canada. Here he learns about friendship, about the environment, and closes his mind to what brought him to this new place.
When he is found, Matt is confronted by a stark choice. Does he run again, or fight back against his enemies? In truth, he has only one option. Matt realises he must take on the overwhelming odds ranged against him. To do this he must cross the globe undetected, suffering loss and betrayal along the way. He would also have to learn how to kill.
He had to, because he wanted to live. And the lives of billions of other people depended upon his surviva
l.
ISBN 978-0-9566944-0-9
Milieu Dawn
First there were the missing funds. Then a murderous attempt on a friend as a plane went missing in the sea. Next, it was the turn of the night intruders. What were the chances of such happenings being unconnected, or were they merely a series of unfortunate events?
Matt Durham was trying, unsuccessfully, to rebuild his life. He had returned to Victoria after the mysterious deaths of his friends, and now lived alone. The community treated him largely with suspicion and distrust, particularly as he had inherited the estate of one such friend. To many, this seemed to hold sinister undertones. So he couldn’t be sure who, exactly, was behind the series of misfortunes that befell him.
His subsequent investigation would lead him down a path that would force Matt to confront his past once more. A past he was trying hard to forget. And as the layers of deceit are revealed, Matt determines he must put an end to the dark forces in play against him once and for all.
ISBN 978-0-9566944-1-6
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