Deadfall (52 page)

‘You cheeky wench!' Linc made her squeal with a
sharp dig in the ribs. ‘When we're married and you start producing the next generation of Tremaynes, I shall make sure they treat me with a little more respect! I won't have young Aloysius talking to me like that!'

‘Young what . . .?' Josie spluttered.

‘You know the family tradition for unusual names,' Linc reminded her, straight-faced.

‘Well, in that case, it's more likely to be Ermintrude,' Josie suggested. ‘Or Esmerelda. You know our family record for producing girls.'

‘It wouldn't dare! Father would have a fit!'

‘You can't fool me – your father's a dear.'

A few months before, Linc would have been highly amused at this description, but it had to be said that his irascible parent had mellowed significantly of late. At the ‘surprise' engagement party six weeks ago, when Josie and Linc had gathered family and friends at Farthingscourt to announce their happy news, they had been upstaged on the night by a similar announcement from Sylvester and Mary.

‘Linc, what do you think will win the next race?' Hannah wanted to know; she liked to keep everyone involved in the proceedings.

‘Number five,' he replied promptly.

‘But you didn't even look!' she protested. ‘You have to look first.'

Obediently Linc moved closer to the glass and made a pretence of studying the dogs that were being paraded below. The one wearing the gold number five jacket was fawn-coloured and looked fit and handsome.

‘Number five,' he repeated.

‘Abby's Dream,' Ruth exclaimed, looking at her race card. ‘Abby should cheer for that one, really. I prefer number three.'

‘We'll cheer for it together,' Linc said, smiling at Abby.

She smiled back, looking – to any outsider – like a normal, happy, healthy teenager. Only her closest family and friends knew that beneath the teenage uniform of flared hipster jeans and clingy, camouflage tee-shirt, the legacy of the assault lived on in a deep seated insecurity and an unwillingness to mix with strangers.

In due course, runners picked or allocated by Hannah, they settled down to watch the race with varying degrees of excited anticipation. It was a race for novices, comprising just one lap of the track, and the dogs left the traps like bullets, each sporting a different-coloured jacket for easy identification.

Number five started well and went into the first bend in second place, which it maintained all the way down the back straight. Coming into the last bend, Abby's Dream began to move up on the outside of the leader and it looked as though he would come into the straight ahead, but as the runners turned for home, number six muscled through between the first two, knocking Linc's hope wide. Even then, all was not lost. Abby's Dream made a game effort to recover and they crossed the line with only millimetres between them.

As the hullabaloo in the Hathaways' box died down, Abby looked hopefully up at Linc. ‘Did he win?'

Linc didn't think so, and after a few moments the action replay on the big screen confirmed it.

‘Oh, what a shame!' Abby cried. ‘He tried so hard!'

‘With a name like that, he really should have won,' her father said.

‘I know,' Linc agreed sadly. ‘He obviously didn't read the script. I shall have to have a word with his trainer, he'll be up in a minute.'

‘Who will?' Ruth queried.

‘The trainer, Barney. He'll come up. He said he would, anyway. You see, if this had really been a fairy tale or a movie, Abby's Dream would have won. I even ordered a bottle of champagne in case.' He paused, aware that he had everyone's attention. Abby in particular was regarding him intently. ‘You know what I'm going to say, don't you, Abby?'

‘I think so,' she said slowly. ‘But I thought it was just another of my weird dreams . . . Oh, of course! Abby's Dream! He's mine, isn't he? He really is!'

She scrambled up out of her seat and threw herself at Linc, who lifted her off her feet and swung her round, reflecting that the greyhound's considerable purchase price was quite possibly the best investment he'd ever made.

‘Well, actually we're joint owners,' Linc told her. ‘I promised your dad we'd share the training fees. He'll race for three or four years, all being well, then he'll need a home, but I promised Barney that if you didn't want him, then I'd have him,' Linc told her.

‘Of course I'll want him!' Abby declared indignantly.

Linc laughed and winked at her father, over her head. From the delighted reactions of the rest of the family, he gathered that his surprise was approved
of, the only voice of dissent coming, predictably, from Hannah.

‘Well, that's all very well,' she announced. ‘But I hope nobody expects
me
to walk it!'

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Epub ISBN: 9781409066088

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Published by Arrow Books in 2005

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Copyright © Lyndon Stacey 2004

The right of Lyndon Stacey to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

First published in the United Kingdom by Hutchinson in 2004

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ISBN 9780099463382