The Inward Storm

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At seven o’clock Kate pulled off her apron with a tiny relieved sigh and went upstairs to luxuriate in the relaxing warmth of her bath. Kevin had just returned, later than expected, and he too was changing. Some impulse she wasn’t anxious to examine too carefully had prompted Kate into being generous with the perfume she had poured into her bath. A new one for her, ‘Opium’, which Lyla had sent her for Christmas, in a lavish coffrette which included body lotion, perfume and talc. As she stepped into the bedroom wrapped in her towelling robe her feet left damp imprints on the carpet, and as she glanced at her watch she was dismayed to see how long she had lingered in the bathroom.

‘Kate, are you decent? I can’t fix this damned bow tie,’ she heard Kevin mutter impatiently outside her door. ‘Can’t think why Rita insisted on all this formal gear …’

‘I expect she’s got a new dress she wants to show off,’ Kate told him lightly as she opened her door, her mouth creasing in a humorous smile as she surveyed Kevin’s harassed features. His mousy hair stood on end and his dinner suit, although well fitting made him look ill at ease. Kevin looked best in the ancient tweed jacket and casual trousers he wore for doing his rounds.

‘Come and stand over here under the light,’ Kate instructed him, following him as he walked towards the head of the stairs. ‘Now I can see what I’m doing.’ Because she was not particularly tall, it was still necessary for Kate to stand on tiptoe to reach upwards to fiddle with the intricate fastening of Kevin’s bow tie. She was just on the point of succeeding when they heard the doorbell.

‘Damn,’ Kevin swore, and swivelled his head automatically, undoing all Kate’s careful handiwork. ‘It’s only quarter to eight! Who the devil …’

Mrs MacDonald, who had expressed a formidable determination to stay and as she put it ‘help with the siding away’, bustled into the hall and called out to Kate, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get it.’ She opened the door, and Kate’s heart sank as she heard Rita’s familiar shrill voice.

‘Oh no, I’m sure you’re wrong,’ she was saying. ‘I know Kate told me seven-thirty …’ She paused on the threshold, peering round with extravagant bewilderment. Damn her, Kate thought grimly. She knew Rita of old, and she had no doubts at all that her early arrival was designed to cause an upset, but she had succeeded way, way, beyond her wildest dreams, Kate acknowledged dazedly as she looked down into the hall and her eyes meshed with the icy grey ones of the man who had followed Rita inside. Had he always been so tall? Six foot two, she remembered, and the fact that she was looking down at him ought to have diminished him, but it didn’t. He hadn’t changed at all, unless it was to look harder, more determined than ever, and the cold scrutiny in his eyes relayed its own brutal message as he studied the untidy knot of hair on top of her head, down along the curves of her body disguised by the robe she was wearing … down … down until Kate felt her toes curling into the carpet beneath the protection-stripping acidity of that scrutiny.

‘Kate darling, what on earth are you doing?’ If anyone could lace arch suggestiveness with coy innocence it was Rita, Kate thought, gritting her teeth.

‘Fixing Kevin’s bow tie,’ she replied coolly, ‘but now that you’re here perhaps you would like to do it for me, while I get ready.’

‘Oh, but of course, darling,’ Rita all but purred. ‘Poor you … did something go wrong, or …’ Her glance slid sideways from Kate’s set face to Kevin’s unaware one …’or did we arrive at a bad time?’

‘You’re early,’ Kevin told her. ‘You weren’t supposed to be here until eight, and I got back late.’

‘But, darling, you’re ready,’ Rita pointed out slyly. ‘Kate’s been here all day, and she isn’t. Having problems, Kate?’

‘Not really.’ She forced herself to smile calmly. ‘Drinks are ready in the drawing room, Kevin. I shan’t be long …’ She paused by the door to her room.

‘Staying the night, are you?’ Rita enquired. ‘Oh, don’t be shy with me, darling,’ she added sweetly, ‘we’re all adults here, although I can well understand why Kevin put you in a separate room. Mrs Mac, Kevin’s cleaner, is a regular pillar of the Church,’ she explained to Jake, adding, ‘Oh, Jake, poor darling—I haven’t introduced you yet, have I? This is Kevin, your host, and …’

‘Let’s let poor Kate get dressed before anyone else arrives,’ Kevin suggested, interrupting Rita hastily. ‘Sorry about this, Harvey,’ Kate heard him apologising to Jake as she closed her bedroom door. ‘It’s all Rita’s fault, if she hadn’t insisted on this damned formal dress …’

She couldn’t stay here cowering away all night, Kate told herself shakily, hardly able to bear to face her reflection in the mirror. She looked like a child who had been beaten. Defeat lay starkly at the back of her eyes, her skin as pale as skimmed milk. She stared at the dress hanging on the back of the door. She had bought it on a mad impulse in London. Matt black silk, it was American, Calvin Klein, with long tight sleeves and a neckline that dipped almost to the waist at the front, where the silk was caught up in a soft knot, the skirt of the dress caught up in the same way, so that it revealed the slender length of her thighs when she moved. It clung so tightly to her skin that all she could wear beneath it was a pair of fine silk panties. The choker of pearls Lyla had given her as a wedding present did little to make the dress appear more modest, but in reality it revealed far less of her body than Rita’s rustling boned-bodiced taffeta. But it was the way it hinted at what wasn’t revealed that made it a dress designed by a man for a woman with his own sex in mind, Kate reflected as she brushed her hair and let it settle round her shoulders in a heavy cloud, knowing there wasn’t time to do anything else with it. Black high-heeled satin sandals, and the careful application of enough make-up to give her a gloss of colour, completed her preparations, tiny diamond ear studs winking in her ears when she moved and the chestnut curls drifted languorously against her shoulders.

Instead of joining the others in the drawing room she went straight to the kitchen to check on the meal. The vegetables were all prepared ready for cooking when everyone had arrived. Heaving a faint sigh of relief that everything was under control, Kate walked unsteadily into the hall, smoothing slightly damp palms against her hips as she took a deep breath and walked into the drawing room. Conversation stopped. Out of the corner of her eye Kate was aware of Rita regarding her with barely concealed chagrin, Jake at her side, his enigmatical grey glance slicing towards her, warning her that he was not deceived; that he knew she was still the vulnerable child she had always been, despite the trappings of womanhood she was now able to assume.

‘Kate … Kate, you look magnificent,’ Kevin muttered, plainly stunned by her appearance.

‘My dear, you did go overboard, didn’t you?’ Rita said nastily. ‘Did you go down to London especially to buy it? You should be honoured, Jake,’ she told her companion. ‘Kate’s normal attire is jeans and an ancient woolly jumper. Kate runs our local craft shop.’ She made it sound as though she had straws stuck in her hair, Kate thought irefully. ‘She’s also a fantastic cook, unlike poor little me!’ Rita batted her eyelashes winsomely.

‘I bought the dress in London, the last time I went to New York,’ Kate interposed coolly. ‘Another sherry, Rita? You prefer sweet, don’t you?’ Heavens, what was getting into her? Kate wondered. She was being nearly as bitchy as Rita. Fortunately the doorbell rang before the situation could deteriorate any further, and as luck would have it Lisa and Richard had arrived at exactly the same time as the Crabtrees.

‘Kate, this melon is delicious,’ Mary Crabtree enthused when they were halfway through the first course. ‘I’ve never tasted anything like it. By the way, I’ve made Alan promise to buy me one of your lovely jumpers for Christmas, and I mean to make sure he does,’ she added, smiling at her husband. ‘Kate designs the most beautiful jumpers,’ she told Jake who was seated on her right. ‘She sells them in London and New York and has a regular circle of knitters working for her in Ebbdale.’

‘She’s also absolutely anti your power station, darling,’ Rita cut in bitchily. ‘I swear she’d have us all dancing around it like those Greenham Common women if she could, wouldn’t you, Kate?’

‘It’s no secret that I disapprove of missiles being based in this country,’ Kate agreed smoothly, her eyes meeting Jake’s down the length of the table. ‘I’m a firm believer in multilateral disarmament, and I’m sorry if you don’t approve of that, Mr Harvey.’

‘Are you?’ Jake challenged softly. Everyone’s attention seemed to be riveted on her, Kate realised, and she could sense that Rita was furious at this turn of events. Kate knew quite well that the only reason Rita had mentioned her anti-nuclear stance was to draw it to Jake’s attention, not to make Kate the centre of everyone else’s.

‘Well, I for one admire and agree with Kate,’ Lisa was saying. ‘Oh, I know you don’t agree with me, Richard,’ she silenced her husband, ‘but the thought of what could happen if a reactor went wrong gives me the shivers, and I can’t believe that adequate precautions are taken with the transport of nuclear waste. You only have to read the papers …’

‘Yes,’ Kevin broke in eagerly, ‘that’s one aspect of nuclear power that worries me, and it’s one I wanted to bring up with you, Jake. During your predecessor’s time we campaigned hard to tighten up the safety standards, but Henry was a bit of a diehard … Please don’t think we’ve dragged you here tonight to bombard you with arguments and persuasion but if you could spare the time to talk with me about the safety standards …’

‘I am always interested in discussions that could lead to an improvement in that quarter,’ Jake surprised Kate by saying smoothly. ‘In fact at the station I’ve been working on in the States, we found there was a marked decrease in antipathy towards nuclear power once we invited the local people in to see how it works. We ran several tours, gave talks, asked them for their views and thoughts, and set up a working committee comprised of some of our staff and the locals … and you mustn’t lose sight of the fact that these stations often bring work to areas of high unemployment …’

‘Work, ill health and the potential for death,’ Kate interrupted bitterly. He was mesmerising them with his voice, with his reasoned arguments and calm approach, but she wasn’t deceived, not for a moment.

‘That’s a typically female and if you’ll forgive me, rather hysterical reaction,’ Jake countered coolly. ‘Coal mining, engineering, and many other forms of employment are hazardous, but I’ve yet to see a bunch of hysterical women gathered round a pithead screeching for it to be closed.’

‘It isn’t just the manner of the work,’ Kate protested. ‘It’s everything that goes with it!’

‘If you mean missiles, that isn’t the purpose of Ebbdale’s station. It’s a nuclear power station only. Missiles are a separate entity, but again I can’t agree with you. They are a deterrent, whichever way you look at it. In a world of perfect human beings we wouldn’t need them, I’d be the first to agree, but unfortunately when Adam bit into that apple, he absorbed more than the mere knowledge of sex; mankind is its own worst enemy. For centuries we’ve systematically destroyed our planet and our environment …’

‘And now you’re prepared to go one step further and destroy it completely!’

‘Not personally,’ Jake assured her grimly. His mouth had tightened and she recognised the icy sparks glittering from the cold grey eyes. He had changed, she thought, watching him. There were the faint beginnings of grey in the matt darkness of his hair, hair she had loved to ruffle beneath her fingers, to stroke as he made love to her. ‘Try looking at the other side of the coin,’ he advised her harshly. ‘Nuclear power could free this planet from starvation and poverty, third world nations …’

‘Can’t wait to build missiles with it,’ Kate interrupted him huskily, ‘people are expendable, power is not!’

‘Oh, Kate, for goodness’ sake,’ Rita interrupted pouting a smile at Jake, ‘poor Jake came here for a meal, not to be harangued. Honestly, darling, you’d better watch it, you’re turning into a fanatic. Kate’s divorced, you know,’ she confided to Jake, making Kate feel sick inside as she forced herself to look into his implacable face. ‘Poor darling, she does tend to get dreadfully intense at times.’

Kate couldn’t bear to look at Jake. She excused herself stiltedly and rushed into the kitchen, half blinded by the tears of fury she couldn’t suppress. Lisa was behind her, her pretty face pink with sympathy and anger as she closed the kitchen door. ‘What a first-rate bitch Rita is,’ she announced. ‘Personally I’m sure she only did it because she could see how interested Jake was in what you were saying. She’s jealous that she might lose him to you.’

‘There isn’t any danger of that,’ Kate assured her, breathing deeply as she tried to regain control.

‘Oh, I shouldn’t be so sure,’ Lisa argued, helping her to load the heated trolley with the main course. ‘I saw the way he was looking at you, like a very hungry cat faced with a particularly delectable mouse, and Rita saw it too.’

‘Well, she needn’t worry,’ Kate said hardily, ‘He isn’t my type. I prefer men whose compassion isn’t in inverse proportion to their massively inflated male ego!’ She heard Lisa’s indrawn breath, and turned quickly, colour flooding her pale face as she saw Jake standing in the door frame, the look in his eyes telling her that he had overheard every rash word.

‘Ah, Rita was wrong, I see. She seemed to think you had made a bolt for the kitchen to indulge in a fit of feminine tears. As I seemed to have been responsible for causing them I thought it my duty to come and ensure that you weren’t crying saltily into our dinner.’

Kate could tell that Lisa was surprised. She was watching them round-eyed with awe, and Kate supposed that it did seem a highly charged exchange for two people who were only supposed to have met for the first time a couple of hours ago. She wasn’t to know that tears had often been her refuge from the acid lash of Jake’s tongue, during their marriage. She hadn’t cried since he left her, and she certainly wasn’t going to start now.

‘On the contrary, you’ll find your dinner is completely salt-free,’ she told him coolly, ‘it’s far better for one’s health.’

‘Gracious,’ Lisa goggled later when she was helping Kate to remove the main course and bring in the dessert and the cheese, ‘he must have heard every word we said! I can’t think what would have happened if the two of you had been alone.’

‘He’d have strangled me probably,’ Kate admitted with a commendable show of uninterest.

‘Either that or kissed you breathless,’ Lisa agreed.

‘And to think he’s being wasted on Rita! He makes me feel weak at the knees!’ She saw Kate’s hand shake faintly and pounced. ‘Ah, I knew you weren’t as indifferent to him as you seemed. If you want my opinion,’ she added slyly, ‘all that verbal sparring can have only one real conclusion.’

‘Yes,’ Kate agreed, hiding a small smile as she saw the speculation in Lisa’s eyes. ‘One of us is going to run out of words—but I promise you it won’t be me.’

‘Fantastic meal, Kate,’ Alan praised when they had all finished. ‘Kevin is bringing you to the Hunt Ball, isn’t he?’

‘Umm, I asked her last week,’ Kevin confirmed, ‘births and accidents permitting.’ There was general laughter, and Lisa explained to Jake that there hadn’t been a single year when Kevin had managed to stay the entire length of a Hunt Ball, without a call.

‘Do you hunt?’ Alan asked him.

‘I haven’t done, but I do ride.’

‘Well, you’ll have to join us one Saturday.’

‘Don’t forget next Saturday we’ve got a meeting of the Dale Rescue Group,’ Kevin reminded him. ‘Kate, would you take the minutes for us again this time?’

‘I always know winter’s on the way when the Rescue Group starts meeting again,’ Mary sighed. ‘Last year they must have had at least two dozen call-outs over the winter period, mostly from hikers and walkers who simply ask for trouble.’

‘Yes, and we’re one down this year,’ Kevin pointed out. ‘Sid Rowanthorpe has dropped out. He’s coming up for retirement, and he just doesn’t feel he can go on with it, so we’ll have to look round for someone else.’

‘What’s involved exactly?’ Jake asked, and when Kevin briefly explained that they needed an extra team member skilled in climbing and mountaincraft, to act as a stretcher bearer for the more severe accidents, he promptly informed them that he had some experience. ‘I’m not suggesting I’m up to your standards, it’s something I was keen on in my teens, and I’ve spent several holidays in the Alps and the Rockies.’

‘You sound like manna from Heaven,’ Kevin said fervently. ‘Why don’t you come with us on some of our practice climbs? We can see how we all work together as a team.’

Surely she didn’t resent the way Jake was fitting into her circle of friends, Kate thought incredulously a couple of hours later when Alan and Mary made a move to leave. She wasn’t as childish as that? No, she was still suffering from the strain of seeing him after so long. She had been prepared for it, but still it had been an ordeal, something she had had to steel herself for, and now she was feeling the strain.

‘Of course, you won’t be leaving, will you, Kate?’ Rita said sweetly as she stood up. ‘It was so funny when we arrived,’ she said to the room at large. ‘There was Kate still in her bathrobe, trying to fix Kevin’s bow tie …’

‘I’m not staying, Rita,’ Kate said evenly. ‘Kevin was kind enough to let me use his parents’ room to get changed in before dinner, so that I didn’t need to go home.’

‘Honestly, sweetie, it doesn’t matter,’ Rita assured her mock-sweetly. ‘We’re all adults, after all … I mean, it’s not as though you’re still sweet seventeen …’

‘Rita, that’s enough,’ Kevin expostulated, suddenly coming to Kate’s rescue. ‘What you’re suggesting is offensive to Kate, and to me. There’s no need for either of us to indulge in a hole-and-corner affair, and to suggest that we are is an insult to both of us.’

Rita looked put out, but still pulled a face and murmured, ‘Oh, darling, such a fuss about nothing!’

Kate was standing with her back to Jake, and the hair on the back of her neck prickled atavistically as she heard him murmur so quietly that only she could hear, ‘But you’re not, are you, Kate … free, that is? Are you lovers, Kate?’ she heard him ask.

She whirled round, not caring if anyone saw her, or what interpretation they might put on her behaviour. ‘It’s none of your damned business,’ she ground out through compressed lips.

‘Oh, but it is,’ Jake assured her smoothly. ‘You’re still my wife, remember? But you give yourself away, my little Cat,’ he added smoothly, ‘scratching instead of purring. Whatever our good doctor does give you, it isn’t satisfaction.’

‘Jake darling, are you ready?’ Jake was holding her hand and he raised it to his lips as an old-world gesture of courtliness that deceived everyone but Kate, pressing his lips lightly against her vulnerable palm, leaving her so intensely aware of their roughly warm imprint on her skin that she had to fight not to admit the memories that brief touch brought surging to life.

CHAPTER THREE

‘HEAVENS, I’d better rush, Matt will be here in half an hour. What are your plans for the weekend, Kate?’ As she spoke Meg put down the cloth she had been using to dry their breakfast dishes and rushed distractedly towards the door.

Sunday mornings were always a panic because invariably they slept later, and Kate obligingly moved to one side to let Meg through the door. ‘Kevin and I are going fell-walking. He’s been promising to take me for weeks. We did quite a bit of walking during the spring and summer, but the terrain changes so much during the autumn with all the bracken that Kevin thought it might be a good idea if we went out again. Besides, there probably won’t be many more weekends fine enough now that we’re into November.’

‘That’s true,’ Meg agreed, ‘and once the snow comes to the high ground you’d be mad to try.’

Kate acknowledged the wisdom of her comment. Matt, like Kevin, was a member of their local rescue team, and both of them had heard enough from the men to be fully aware of the dangers awaiting the inexperienced foolish enough to venture out on to the Dales during the winter months.

‘How did the dinner go, by the way?’ Meg asked conversationally. ‘I didn’t get the opportunity to ask last night and on Wednesday I must have been asleep when you came in.’

Meg had been spending a couple of days up at Matt’s farm which they were busy decorating in preparation for their marriage in the summer, and Kate grimaced slightly. ‘Oh, it wasn’t so bad, although Rita made a big thing of suggesting that Kevin and I were lovers.’

‘Oh no! But then that’s typical of her,’ Meg exclaimed. ‘But tell me about her new man. Is he as gorgeous as she said?’

‘He’s certainly very handsome,’ Kate agreed with a touch of acerbity, ‘but handsome is as handsome does. If you want my real opinion, they’re very well matched. Both of them are takers, if you know what I mean.’

‘Umm. It seems the two of you didn’t hit it off. Now that’s funny,’ Meg mused with a grin. ‘Mary was in here yesterday choosing a sweater—Alan’s promised to buy her one for Christmas, apparently. She said that our new Director of Operations couldn’t keep his eyes off you.’

‘Oh, you know Mary,’ Kate said weakly. ‘She dislikes Rita so much she tends to let her imagination run away with her.’

‘But he did follow you out into the kitchen when Rita upset you,’ Meg pressed.

Inwardly fuming, cursing Mary’s too sharp eyes and too ready tongue, Kate said lightly, ‘I suppose he thought it only good manners, although I wasn’t actually on my own. I was with Lisa. You’ve got fifteen minutes before Matt arrives,’ she reminded her friend. ‘If you stay here cross-questioning me much longer, you’ll never be ready.’

When Meg had gone Kate went to her own room and dressed slowly in her fell-walking gear. It could be cold out on the fells, especially when the temperature dropped sharply as it had a habit of doing and she dressed warmly in thermal top and tights, both in a pretty pink and white candy stripe which hugged her body revealingly—a far cry from the old-fashioned ‘combinations’ from which the thermal underwear had been derived. On top she wore a thin checked shirt and a sweater plus a pair of heavy jeans. Her quilted parka with its fur-trimmed hood lay on the bed, and as she bent down to lace up the sturdy boots Kevin had insisted on her buying she heard the phone ring.

Every time she had heard it since that fatal dinner party her stomach had lurched. Each time she picked up the receiver she dreaded hearing Jake’s voice. Some time they would have to talk, she hated the deceit she was practising on her friends, and besides, it was high time they talked about their divorce. With Jake openly squiring other women about he no longer had any reason to refuse to accede to it. Oh, her lawyer had told her that he could make her wait the full five years if he wished, but what was the point? Their marriage was over and she, for one, only wanted to cut away from the past completely—and how could she do that when she and Jake, while masquerading as perfect strangers, were in reality still man and wife?

She picked up the receiver with nervous fingers, expelling a faint sigh of relief when she heard Kevin’s voice. ‘Kate, I’m so sorry,’ he apologised, ‘but I’m going to have to cancel today. Laura Braithwaite’s gone into labour. The midwife’s already with her, but I’ll have to stand by. She’s insisting on having this baby at home, but I want to be on hand just in case there are any problems.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Kate assured him.

‘While you’re on I ought to tell you that Jake has set up a meeting at the station to look into the safety standards and I’ve been invited to attend.’

‘Marvellous!’ Kate knew she sounded less than sincere, but she didn’t care. It seemed that all her friends were enthusing about Jake, and absurdly she felt like a small child excluded from a particularly exciting birthday party.

Kevin rang off, and she paced the flat moodily. Outside the sun shone pale golden yellow from an ice blue sky, and restlessness stirred in her blood like wine. She didn’t want to spend the day indoors. She wanted to be outside, breathing in the cold, pure Dales air. Why shouldn’t she go for her walk alone? She wouldn’t go far. She hunted along the bookshelves until she found the book of local walks she had bought when she first came to the Dales. There was one that didn’t look too arduous and wasn’t too long, which looped round the Dale and brought her back into the village again. The book had been specifically written for keen walkers, and various small crosses marked the spots where shepherds’ huts had been turned into emergency rest-halts. The walks were picked out in differing colours to indicate their varying degrees of hardship, and the one Kate had picked was one of the easier ones. The time set for the walk was three hours, which meant that she should be back before dusk. Picking up the sandwiches she had made and her thermos, Kate tucked them into the pockets of her parka and zipped it up.

Half an hour later she was congratulating herself on her decision as she forded a small sluggish stream and followed one of the ancient drystone walls up towards the top of the hill. From its summit she surveyed the village spread out below her, carefully checking her map, knowing from Kevin how easily it was to lose the right path along these upland tracks. The air was so cold and pure that it stung her lungs and Kate gulped great breaths of it, feeling the tension ease out of her as she walked steadily along the track, pacing herself carefully as Kevin had taught her. One of the first faults of the amateur was to walk too quickly too soon, thus exhausting himself, he had explained to her on their very first walk, and as she climbed higher and higher through the Dale Kate paused regularly to look down the way she had come and to study her map. Because she was on her own she had decided against any fellwalking, knowing that if she did slip and sprain her ankle she would be completely alone, but she was still glad of the warm protection of her thick clothes as the afternoon wore on and the air grew colder.

At first she told herself that the chill was due to the greater height at which she was walking, but every time she stopped to take her bearings she noticed that the wind seemed colder. At two o’clock she stopped in the shelter of a small dip, and found a smooth stone to sit on while she ate her lunch. An inquisitive sheep ambled across to investigate her, closely followed by other members of its flock. Across on the other side of the Dale Kate watched a farmer and his dog working their sheep.

Sheepdog trials were one of the events of the Dales, and Kate thoroughly enjoyed going to watch these skilled animals cleverly manoeuvering their charges. Kevin had explained to her that the pups were often put in with an old ram, especially if they had a tendency to be boisterous, and that the dogs soon learned to mark down the leader of any flock and to control it through him.

The dog on the opposite hillside was obviously a young one, and Kate marvelled both at the patience of the farmer and the stamina of the dog as calls and whistles were repeated over and over again until the dog thoroughly understood the command. Owning a good working dog was essential to sheep farming, and Kate knew that these dogs were exported all over the world. She had been toying with the idea of getting a pup herself. Kevin had told her that since she wanted the dog as a pet she would have no trouble getting a bitch puppy from one of the farmers. ‘Bitches are harder to work with because they’re more emotional than dogs,’ he had told her with a grin, but Kate had refused to respond to the bait.

A sudden gust of wind reminded her that she had been sitting down longer than she intended, and she shivered as she stood up, glancing behind her as she stepped out of the protection of the hollow and discovered that the sun had stopped shining. A glance over her shoulder showed her why. While she had been eating her lunch and watching the farmer with his dog a thin mist had started to creep down the hillside. Already the hills above her were blotted out completely, and she felt a tug of nervousness in the pit of her stomach. Too often she had heard tales of the unwary wandering from the path in the heavy mists that shrouded the hills, losing their way completely, sometimes falling to their deaths as they strayed too far. Kate looked at her watch. She had come more than half way, but the remainder of the walk was more rugged, with sheer escarpments falling away to her left. On a clear day the track was perfectly safe and afforded magnificent views of the surrounding scenery, but in a thick mist … Kate looked anxiously behind her. Was it her imagination, or had the mist increased in the short space of time since she first noticed it? If it became any thicker she would be a fool to continue her walk, because she could easily lose the track and fall. On the other hand, no one knew where she was, and warm though her clothing was, it was no protection against a cold night spent outside on the fells. That left only one alternative. She would have to turn back. But that meant climbing again into the mist which was definitely thickening and creeping towards her.