Meadowland
Page 28
I nodded.
‘I could wait for you. Or come back and pick you up.’
‘No, I’ll walk down.’
Fallen leaves, crunched underfoot as I strolled, unhurriedly but with a certain briskness in my step, towards the gate at the far end. I leaned against it for a while marvelling, as though seeing it for the first time, at the familiar view of hedges, fields and woods. Or, rather, at the sense of space.
Less than a year since I first came here, convinced – that day in February – that my journey was a mistake. Smiling, I struggled with the spring latch on the gate and pushed it open sufficiently to allow me to squeeze through. I walked forward to the spot where Father had chosen, in his painting, to place me.
I flung my arms wide, stretching out towards horizons blurred against the mid-November sky. My mental reach encompassed the oak under which Andrew and I had sat that first time we’d come here together, the ponies grazing further down the slope, the rooftops of Cotterly – the chimneys of Wood Edge now identifiable among them – and the hills rising all around. In the stillness of a lull in the breeze, I could almost swear I discerned the sound of the stream bubbling through the dip below. I opened my mouth and breathed in the autumnal smell of nature resting after the activity of summer. I let the taste out gently. ‘Thanks, Dad,’ I said.
I stood for a moment or two longer, relishing the air smoothing across my face. Then I turned. Andrew, and Flora and Ginny too, were waiting for me.
About the Author
Alison Giles graduated from Leeds University in the early 1960s and later trained as a psychodynamic counsellor, working mainly with young people. Now, settled in Kent and with her family grown up, she has turned to writing. Meadowland is her first novel.
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada
www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com