The Cold Road (Book 1)

Chapter Six

The inn seemed to still and freeze. Catching the Captain's eye, James saw his bemused smile. Behind him, James could sense Cindy Carleton walking through the room. He imagined the statute of perfection she had once been. It the quick second he had seen her, she had only grown more beautiful. Long black hair that fell past her shoulders and cascaded down her back, a pale face with rosy cheeks. Her blue eyes with the gold speckles that deformed her iris still radiated from her face.

'I'm sorry, sir, there's just someone I don't want to have to meet,' he explained quietly, wincing as he heard a man's voice speak and then her laughing reply.

Rupert Plant chuckled. 'That's all right, James. But she is heading this way, you may want to decide what to do soon.'

'If she comes this way, can you distract her long enough for me to get away?' he pleaded. The last thing he wanted to do was have a public display,in public. His heart quickened its beats as he became able to pick out the sound of her voice in the excited babble.

Rupert laughed loudly, clearly amused by his young detective's plight. 'I don't promise anything,' he said. 'If she approaches after you, there's not much that I can do short of arrest her. She's a determined young woman when her heart takes her.'

Groaning softly, James risked a peek over his shoulder. She had her back to him, chatting to Mrs Montgomery. She was in between him and the door. He caught Mrs Montgomery's eye and his heart almost stopped as he read the next words that came out of her lips. Cindy turned and their eyes met instantly. In that moment, James wished fervently that he were in the morgue watching a fresh autopsy.

She turned and he rose, awkwardly, wobbling and knocking his glass over. She ignored it, only having eyes for him. They blazed and he looked away.

'Run for it,' Plant whispered, rising to his feet and turning from the table. Plant moved towards Cindy, where he stopped, smiled, and said something that James could not hear. James moved, slipping between tables and jostling past people as he escaped. He walked past Cindy, ducked her sweeping hand as she made to grab him and then he was out, through the doors and walking rapidly down the street.

A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead despite the cold and he wiped it away. It was not that he did not want to talk to Cindy, it was just that he feared what they would say. They had not parted on the best of terms. He felt himself unfit to be with her, that she deserved better and more. As it always seemed to happen, in stories or movies, only the person breaking up thought that.

For more than four years, they had been together, right out of high school, through the police force for him and through college to study journalism for her. They had been a good couple, the relationship had progressed so far that James had actually moved into Cindy's house. He had not proposed, but everyone was waiting for him to do so. He was thinking about it, it had been one of the most pressing matters at the forefront of his mind every waking moment.

He crossed the street, ducking into a side alley before coming out the other end and continuing down back towards the station. Their engagement had been such a pressing matter that one day he woke up next to her and realised that he was no longer thinking about it, his mind had made itself up. It was just a decision that no one was going to like.

Crossing the street again, his back hunched and hands deep in his pockets for warmth, James reflected on what they had had. It was not, he argued, that marriage frightened him. If it did, he would not have thought about proposing. The morning he decided to break up he spent wondering how he was going to do it. Would he tell her plainly, just outright, or would he take her out quietly on a date and then explain? There was just no definite reason forwhyhe was going to break up with her. He no longer felt he was right for her. Everyone was hinting that he should propose, but once marriage had taken place, what was supposed to change? What was so different in marriage that was not already what they had?