Unknown by Unknown

only she could know in which direction safety lay. He got up with her, standing with hands on hips, whistling.
    ‘Well, aren’t you going to say anything?’ she demanded.
    ‘Of course I’ll say something,’ he returned, with that monstrous grin on his face. ‘The weekend was a great success. I have finally managed to solve Eloise’s problem. She’s staying over in Atlanta to buy her trousseau. I’ve given her a big cheque, and she’ll be along on Tuesday or Wednesday for our little local celebration. Aren’t you happy for her?’
    ‘Yes,’ she whispered, knowing that her heart denied it, knowing that the fairy garden had just turned into a deep, dark chilling cavern. Knowing that, despite the brightness around her, the moon had fallen from the sky and had broken into a million dusty pieces. ‘Yes,’ she repeated, ‘I hope that—that she—and—I hope—’ The words were too much for her. She turned on one silvery heel and fled into the darkness towards the house, holding her tears in check until she was safely in her room, with the door closed. And then she cried silently for all her unrealisable dreams.
     

CHAPTER FIVE
    After putting behind her a weekend that left her feeling somewhat lower than a snake’s belly, Katie made every effort to keep out of the way. On Monday her efforts were successful. After a breakfast of cereal and silence, he disappeared for the rest of the day.
    ‘Gone inventing,’ Aunt Grace commented. ‘Down cellar.’
    Katie sighed, and busied herself with Jon, the kitchen, and housekeeping chores, in that order. That night Harry was absent from the supper table, for which Katie gave another sigh of relief, until his aunt spoiled the world with another one-line comment. ‘Gone down to Johnson City,’ she commented. ‘To pick up Eloise at the airport.’
    Katie hurried Jon through his supper, then packed him off upstairs, locking their door behind her, and never once stirring outside for the rest of the night—not even when she heard the car return, and Harry call up the stairs for her.
    I’m asleep, she told herself, diving under the covers to prove it to herself. Her doorknob rattled as she hid in the darkness, and then footsteps went away. Eventually she was able to sleep.
    But on Tuesday her luck ran out. She had sent her negatives to Erwin to be processed, since colour was beyond her meagre equipment, and one of the films had been returned with a flicker of movement in its corner. She found Harry alone in the kitchen, and screwed up her courage to ask.
    ‘Go back to the same place?’ he repeated. ‘Easy, Katie.’
    ‘I wouldn’t ask, except it’s right in the middle of the panorama,’ she stammered. ‘I hate to ask you—’
    ‘Why don’t we go right now,’ he suggested. ‘Aunt Grace could watch Jon for a couple of hours, and Eloise won’t wake up until noontime, at the earliest.’
    So once again they were in the Jeep, riding up the side of the mountain, and out on to the flat saddle where they had stopped before. Ten minutes of walking, with only two cameras to weigh her down, brought them to the edge of the cliff. Rather than take another chance, Katie set up the Hasselblatt and re-took the entire panorama. But there was something in the distance that intrigued her: a little notch in the opposite hills through which the Nolichucky River ran, on its way to join the French Broad, and eventually to become the Tennessee River.
    ‘I want to get one more shot with the Minolta,’ she called to him, ‘but I can’t quite get the angle.’
    ‘How about up on this cairn of rock,’ he suggested. She looked at the natural pile that stood out from the rest of the area, like a pillar from a ruined Greek temple.
    ‘I don’t think I could climb it,’ she said hesitantly.
    ‘It’s not so bad,’ he laughed. ‘Watch. ’ He went around to the back. She could hear his hands and feet scrabble against the sides, and a grunt or two as he powered his way up, then