Masters And Lovers 1-4 novel Chapter 67

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An hour later, we’ve made good progress. My brother is a strapping figure and between us we have made short work of the mess of brambles, thorns and aggressive undergrowth.

“Time for a break,” I say, mopping at my forehead.

Something delicious wafts by, and my nose turns the rest of me bodily around to follow the source.

“I thought you gentlemen might enjoy a break from all that.” It’s Sally, carrying two trays of something enormous. She passes one to me with a smile; the other to Ben, giving him a cool look as she does so. Sausage, bacon and eggs all in a bread bun big enough to play frisbee with. And two beer cans dripping condensation.

I love a woman who understands men….

“Ah, Sal. That’s perfect. Thanks.”

“Anytime, Michael. I’ll send someone out for the plates in a while.”

The gargantuan sandwich clutched in both hands, I take a huge bite, hastily wiping at my mouth as a yolk bursts, back-splashing me with yellow gunge.

It's delicious and just what I'm ready for. Ben is chewing just as happily. The sandwich poised double-handedly to stop it falling apart, I chew through enough calories to keep a family of four going for a week, washing it down with beer cold enough to freeze the throat.

Hard work, food and beer and, oddly enough, the company of my brother. We were never close, even as boys, and it feels good to…. To what? To make contact, I suppose.

Does it get any better?

…. The hairs on the back of my neck rise….

I'm not superstitious, but....

We're being watched….

I'm being foolish….

…. Surely?

All the worries flood back….

The spy?

Gulping down, I look left and right, trying to be casual about it.

Nothing….

I let my eyes roam the various windows above us: the back of the hotel. There shouldn't be anything there. All the glass at that angle is frosted: bathrooms and cloakrooms. But....

Still, I see nothing to raise that prickle on my neck.

But there is something on my radar….

Be rational….

You’ve seen something, but not consciously….

Something subliminal….

Ah….

I look down. A pair of black button eyes looks up; a gimlet stare fixed on me. Scruffy's stump of a tail raises small dust clouds.

When he sees he has my attention, he grins and the stare drops, eyes and nose triangulating on my sandwich. The grin splits his face, displaying enough teeth for a hyena.

The last time I saw that many teeth like that was in the mega-shark section at the dinosaur exhibition….

With a sigh and the flick of a dirty thumbnail, I flick a sausage from between and down. It moves through the air in a brief parabolic flight and vanishes, with a chop for eternity.

Ben coughs. “Needs to be loyal, eh?” But there’s a rare twinkle in his eye.

“Alright, I like him too.”

I’ve served my purpose. Scruffy shifts his butt, angling instead to Ben, who peels out a slice of bacon and drops it to him. “Thought you didn’t like the look of him?”

I shrug it off. “None of us can help the way we’re made, can we?”

“Tell me about it,” he mutters.

What’s that supposed to mean?

The humour in his eye has vanished, his usual morose expression morphing in and I think about how to lighten the mood again.

“Y’know might be no oil painting,” I say, “but he reminds me a bit of Archie.”

Ben squints down at the terrier. “I’d not thought of that, but you’re right. It’s around the nose, isn’t it. That tuft of hair that’s sticking up.”

“Is that what it is? Hair? I thought you’d lost a toothbrush.”

He laughs, his face lightening again. “Hey, d’you remember that time…. we were just kids and Mom took us shopping to that butchers. Archie saw that chicken hanging from the hook with about a dozen others and jumped for it. Took the whole lot down and she had to pay for the lot….”

“Sure I remember it. We were eating chicken for weeks.”

Still laughing, beer-can in hand, he waves towards me. “Or that time there were those builders working in the place at the back and one of them had his dog with him and she was in season. Archie got to her and they were humping away when Dad dashed out and yelled SIT!”

“…. SIT!”