River of Destiny. Barbara Erskine

nail identical to the first.

      She reached down and picked it out and put it with the first one in the bowl, then stood for several moments looking down at them before putting the bowl back on the very top shelf of the dresser.

      Leo watched them leave next morning with a sardonic grin. Obviously they hadn’t listened to the forecast. Walking away from the window, a bowl of cereal in his hand, he went into his studio and stood looking at the work in progress. It was proceeding well and he had to admit, albeit grudgingly, he was pleased with himself. There was a rattling noise from the kitchen door.

      ‘Come in!’ he called. ‘I saw you there.’

      The door opened and a face peered in. ‘Hi, Leo.’

      ‘When did you come down?’ He hadn’t looked round.

      ‘Yesterday.’ The face was heavily freckled beneath a thatch of fiercely red hair. ‘Mum drove me and the boys down. It’s half-term, in case you didn’t know.’

      ‘I didn’t.’ It meant the Watts family, occupants of The Summer Barn, would put an end to the reasonably civilised peace of the area for at least a week. He sighed.

      ‘What are you doing?’

      ‘Working.’

      ‘Boring.’

      ‘No. Exciting. As you would know if your father had anything like a decent work ethic.’ He often wondered where the family got their not inconsiderable pots of money from. Better not to know, maybe.

      ‘What’s an ethic?’

      The child moved into the room and stood staring down at Leo’s work. She had a can of Coke in one hand and a wire led from some hidden pocket to the small earphones which dangled round her neck. Otherwise her wardrobe consisted of shabby jeans and a Simpsons T-shirt, probably a castoff from one of her brothers. It seemed inadequate for the chill of the morning but she didn’t seem to notice.

      ‘Drop a millilitre of that stuff anywhere in this house and you are toast,’ he said equably.

      ‘You’re more likely to spill that stuff you’re eating. What is it? It looks gross.’

      ‘Muesli.’

      ‘What’s that?’

      ‘Bit like an ethic.’ He turned to face her. ‘Have you come for a reason or are you just here to annoy me?’

      She shrugged. ‘Bored.’

      ‘Is your mother not taking you shopping?’

      ‘There’s no decent shops.’

      ‘Ah. I see the problem.’ He didn’t bother to ask what decent shops consisted of in her opinion.

      ‘And your brothers won’t play with you?’

      She stared at him. ‘Play?’ She seemed shocked at the word.

      ‘I know. I am sorry. It’s not a concept you are acquainted with. What are they doing? Should I be barring the windows and calling the police?’

      She giggled. ‘Probly.’

      He frowned. ‘Jade, do me a favour, love. Tell those vile pigs who are your siblings to keep away from the new people in The Old Barn. OK? They are nice people and we don’t want them being chased away like the last lot.’

      She grinned. ‘That was good. They was real scared!’

      ‘Jade!’

      ‘I know.’ She sat down on the couch and took a swig from her can. ‘This is shabby. My mum thinks you must be very poor.’ She was fingering the torn throw which covered the worst holes and frayed edges in the upholstery.

      It was his turn to laugh. ‘Your mum is a wise woman. But fortunately I don’t mind being either poor or shabby.’

      She looked at him thoughtfully. ‘You’ve got a boat, though. Can I come out on her?’

      ‘Have you learned to swim?’

      She shook her head.

      ‘Then you know what the answer is.’

      ‘My dad says sailors never learned to swim ’cos if the boat sank, then they drowned quickly and there wasn’t time to get eaten by sharks.’

      Leo nodded, trying to hide a smile. ‘Sounds good logic to me. OK, if I go out I will take you, but only if one of your parents signs something to say I have their permission to drown their child. And I want no brothers.’

      ‘Nor do I.’ She beamed at him. ‘Can we go today?’

      ‘No. The wind is going to get too strong.’

      ‘They’ve gone.’ She nodded vaguely behind her. Leo took her to mean Zoë and Ken.

      ‘I know. But I think they are experienced sailors. You are not.’ He folded his arms. ‘Right; this visit is concluded. Can you go home, please, Jade. I am busy.’

      ‘OK.’ She stood up, seemingly happy with the cursory dismissal. ‘Can we go tomorrow then?’

      ‘We’ll see! Out!’ He jerked his thumb towards the door.

      He watched her as she wandered back through his garden, through the gate, leaving it wide open, and up the grass towards The Summer Barn. He couldn’t see it from here, but he could imagine the scene. From peaceful emptiness it would have changed to noisy chaos. The huge people carrier would be parked as closely as possible to the front door, which would be open. Noise, lurchers and general mess would have spread exponentially across the front garden and into the communal grounds, and his peace would be shattered for the next however many days they stayed. He gave a wry grin. He liked Jade, and her parents were decent enough, if congenitally noisy and untidy, but her brothers were the pits! He gave a deep sigh. The first thing he had to do was go out and close his gate against those damn dogs.

      Rosemary was standing in the field below the barns, a carefully folded Ordnance Survey map in her hand, turning it round first one way then the other, her eyes narrowed against the wind. It was cold and her hands were turning blue but she had forgotten her gloves. She looked round again, carefully noting the lie of the land. There was no footpath marked, but there had been one on the old map she was looking at this morning in the library. The field lay diagonally to the river; almost at its centre there was a roughly circular area of scrub, which was fenced off from the rest of the field with rusting barbed wire. On the map the footpath would have gone through the middle of this patch, followed on down the slight hill and debouched onto the lane below the hedge. When you thought about it, it was the logical place for a path to go, otherwise it was necessary to veer left up quite a steep slope towards the gate in the top corner of the field and then walk down the far side of the hedge to join the lane several hundred yards further on. She reached into her pocket for her notebook and folded it open, fighting the increasing wind as the pages flapped wildly for a moment until she smoothed them flat. She drew a quick sketch and began carefully to pace the line of a possible path down towards the scrub. When she reached the barbed wire she paused, staring into the undergrowth. Why had it been fenced off? Squinting, she tried to see if there was a pond or feed bins or maybe a sign that there were pheasant-rearing cages in there. That was always reckoned to be a good enough reason for farmers to close off access. There was nothing that she could see, just a substantial mound of earth, brambles, nettles and several small skimpy trees. She began to circle the wire, sure there would be some means of access on the far side. There wasn’t. After getting badly scratched by brambles and mauled by the wire she gave up and stood, frustrated, staring down towards the river. The wind was rising. She could hear it roaring through the trees and, out of sight, on the moorings she could hear the clap of metal halyards against a metal mast. Briefly she wondered if Zoë and Ken had come back yet. She had seen them walking across the grass early this morning laden with a sail bag and basket, and each with a serviceable-looking day sack on their back.

      Turning with her back to the water, she stared up the line of the missing path and saw through