she started the engine he told her through the open window, "I still
think that you should stay over here at the Hall. It must be an
hour-and-a-half's drive across to Brandsbury - each way that's three
hours a day. We are going to have a lot of work to do before we can even
think of leaving for Africa."
"What would people think?" she asked, as she let out the clutch.
"I have never given a damn about people," he called after her. "What
time will I see you tomorrow?"
I have to stop off to see the doctor in York. He is going to take the
stitches out of my arm. I won't be here before eleven," she stuck her
head out of the window to yell back at him.
The wind tossed her dark hair around her face. His fancy had always run
towards dark-haired women. Rosalind had had that mysterious Eastern
look. He felt guilty and disloyal making the comparison, but the memory
of Royan was hard to shake off.
She was the first woman who had interested him since Rosalind had gone.
The admixture of her blood drew him.
She was exotic enough to pique his taste for. the oriental, but English
enough to speak his language and understand his sense of humour. She was
educated and knowledgeable about those things that interested him, and
he admired her spirit. Usually Eastern women were trained from birth to
be self-effacing and compliant. This one was different.
eorgina had phoned her doctor in York to make an appointment to have the
stitches removed from Royan's arm. They left after breakfast from the
cottage in Brandsbury. Georgina was driving and Magic sat between them
on the bench seat.
As they turned into the village street, Royan noticed a large MAN truck
parked down near the post office, but she thought no more about it.
Once they were out in the countryside they found there were patches of
heavy fog that in places reduced visibility to thirty yards, but
Georgina made no concessions to the weather, and sent the Land Rover
rattling and whining through it at the top of its speed, which Royan
reflected thankfully was on the right side of sixty miles an hour.
She glanced over her shoulder to check the road behind them, and saw
that the MAN truck was following them, Only the cab rose above the sea
of low mist that surrounded it like the conning tower of a submarine.
Even as she watched it, a bank of fog intervened and swallowed it up.
She turned back to listen to her mother.
"This government is a troop of incompetent nincompoops." Georgina
squinted her eyes against the smoke from the cigarette that dangled from
her lips. She drove singlehanded, stroking Magic's flowing silken ear
with her free hand, "I don't mind ministers boiling themselves into a
stupor, but when they start fiddling around with my pension I get really
mad." Her mother's pension from the foreign service was her sole source
of income, and it wasn't much.
"You don't truly want a Labour government, now tell the truth, Mummy,'
Royan teased her. Her mother had always been the arch Conservative.
Georgina wavered, and then avoided the choice, "All I say is, bring back
Maggie."
Royan turned slightly in her seat and glanced through the dirty rear
window again. The truck was still behind them, looming out of the fog
and the trail of blue exhaust smoke that Georgina was laying behind her
like the vapour trail of a jet aircraft. Up until now it had hung back,
but suddenly it accelerated up behind them.
"I think he wants to pass you," Royan told Georgina mildly.
The massive bonnet of the truck was only twenty feet from their rear
bumper. The radiator was emblazoned with the chrome logo "MAN' and stood
taller than the cab of the Land Rover, so that she could not see the
face of the driver from where she sat.
"Everybody wants to pass me," lamented Georgina.
"Story of my life." She held the centre of the narrow road doggedly.
Royan glanced back again, and saw that the truck was creeping still
closer. It filled the rear window completely.
The driver declutched and revved the gigantic engine menacingly.
"You' better give over. I think he means business."
"Let him wait,' Georgina grunted around her cigarette butt. "Patience is
a virtue. Anyway, can't let him through here. There is a narrow stone
bridge ahead of us. Know this stretch of road like the way to my own
bathroom."
At that moment the truck-driver sounded his klaxon so close that it was
deafening. Magic jumped up on the rear seat and barked in outrage.
"Stupid bastard," Georgina swore bitterly. "What does he think he is
playing at? Write down his number plate. I am going to report him to the
York police."
"His plates are covered with mud. Can't make it out, but it looks like a
continental registration. German, I think."
As if the driver had heard her protest he slowed slightly and fell back
until a gap of twenty yards opened between the two vehicles. Royan had
swivelled right round in the seat to watch him.
"That's better," Georgina said smugly. "Ruddy Hun learning some
manners." She peered ahead through the fog, "There is the bridge For the
first time Royan was able to see up into the driver's cab of the truck.
The driver wore a balactava helmet that covered all but his eyes and
nose with dark blue wool. It gave him a sinister and evil aspect.
"Look outV Royan screamed suddenly. "He is coming straight at us!" The
engine beat of the great truck rose to a bellow that engulfed them like
the sound of a gale-driven sea. For a moment Royan saw'nothing but
glittering steel and then the front of the truck smashed into them from
behind.
She was thrown half over the back of her seat by the impact. She dragged
herself up and saw that the truck had picked them up like a fox with a
bird in its jaws. It carried the Land Rover forward on the steel bull
bars that protected the shining chromed radiator.
Georgina wrestled with the wheel, trying to maintain control, but the
effort was futile. "Can't hold her. The bridge! Try and get clear-'
Royan hit the quick-release buckle on her safety-belt and reached for
the door handle. The stone walls of the bridge were racing towards them
at a terrifying pace. The Land Rover was slewing across the road,
completely out of control.
The door burst open in Royan's grip, but she could not push it all the
way before the Land Rover was flung into the solid stonework columns
that guarded the approaches PI to the bridge, The two women screamed in
unison as the vehicle crumpled, and the impact hurled them forward. The
windscreen shattered as they bounced off the stone columns, and the body
of the Land Rover flipped over as it went down the embankment and began
to roll.
Royan was catapulted through the open door and flung clear. The slope of
the bank broke her fall, but it knocked the wind out of her. She bounced
and rolled down the incline and then dropped into the icy waters of the
stream below the bridge.
Just before her head went under, she found herself looking up at the sky
and the bridge above her. She caught one last glimpse of the truck
before it roared away. It was towing two huge cargo trailers. The tall
bodywork of the trailers stood higher than the guard rail of the bridge.
Both of the trailers were covered by a heav green nylon tarpaulin roped
down to the lugs on the body. She had only a subliminal glimpse of a
large red trademark and company name painted on the side of the nearest
trailer, but before she could register the name she was plunged below