The Loner
Josephine Cox
Language: English
Pages: 310
ISBN: 0060897082
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Davie Adams wasn't quite an adult the night he lost it all. His mother gone forever and his father on the run, Davie knew that he could no longer stay in Blackburn, the only home he'd ever known. He made his way to London with little more than the shirt on his back, desperate to escape his haunted memories and sure that he could survive anything.
But life on his own is not what Davie expects. His search for his father proves fruitless, and the loneliness eats away at him. Anxious to reunite with the people he left behind, he returns to his anguished grandfather and his childhood love still pining for him in Blackburn—where he discovers that only his own fears can keep him from learning the truth about what tore his family apart.
grandfather turn against his own flesh and blood. He held her close until she’d said her last words to him, then before I knew it, he’d leaped off the cart and was running into the forest, as if old Nick hisself was after him. Oh, I called for the lad time and again … told him to come along of us and that we’d take care of him, but I haven’t seen him since. I had to get his mammy away, don’t you see? There was the police to deal with and all sorts. Afterwards, I went back, and I scoured the
over there – somebody’s climbing the fence.’ ‘You gormless bugger, there’s nothin’ out there!’ Pete said, going to urinate against a tree. ‘You must be seein’ things.’ The two of them went away laughing. ‘You never could take your booze, could yer, Josh. One sip of Newcastle Brown and your imagination runs riot.’ Pete’s raucous laughter echoed across the site. ‘It’ll be monsters coming out the sky next.’ ‘Ssh! Stop your noise. I’m taking over from the night-watchman in half an hour, and if
and walk up to Derwent Street.’ Don held out his loose change. ‘King Street it is then.’ Taking the correct number of coins, the tram-conductor dropped them into the leather pouch around his waist, and proceeded to roll off the ticket. ‘My own wife comes from County Cork,’ he went on. ‘Her grandfather came to England looking for work years ago, and the whole family followed.’ He sighed. ‘My Rosie is a real beauty. When she was young, her hair was red as fire … it’s faded a bit now, more’s the
bad?’ Lucy could see he was worried. ‘Will she be all right?’ ‘Not if Seamus has anything to do with it. It’s real bad, Lucy. The infection has gone right down into the soft flesh. There’s a mass of pulp and the hoof was tightly swollen under the shoe. We’d best get the vet out straight away. She’s in a lot of pain.’ Following him to the yard office, Lucy waited anxiously while Dave telephoned the vet; he was in the middle of describing the mare’s symptoms, when Lucy’s father arrived. Standing
answer he gazed down on her face. ‘You’re not falling asleep on me, are you?’ he asked softly. ‘No.’ For a moment he was silenced by the dark uplifted eyes that gazed back at him. Then she whispered: ‘Dave?’ ‘Yes?’ Giving no reply, she kissed him full on the mouth – a long, lingering kiss that woke too many emotions inside him, emotions that both frightened and excited him. Within them was guilt and passion. Guilt for this betrayal of Judy, and the passion of a youth wanting and needing to