14

Unable to sleep, Lou got up at six and dressed. She made her way down to the kitchen, intending to make tea and toast to keep her going for the time being. Surprised to find Evan already sitting at the table reading the paper, she started to leave, rather than disturb him.

“Morning,” he said. “You don’t have to leave. There’s a large pot of fresh tea on the table.”

“Thank you. I had a hankering for tea and toast.”

He grinned as the toaster popped. “So did I. I’ve made enough for two if you want to share. And before you say anything, you won’t be depriving me. Mrs Jefferson will do her usual mammoth breakfast at eight thirty.”

“OK, thank you.” She sat next to him. “I really want to go around your maze. Does it have floodlights?”

He nodded. “I had the gardener clear the paths yesterday. I had a feeling you’d want to explore it.”

“I love a good puzzle. I always have.” She poured some tea, adding milk and sugar.

Evan brought the toast across and sat. “Help yourself.”

“Thank you.” She covered the toast with butter and marmalade.

Evan folded his paper to the crossword. “Was the bed not comfortable?”

“I’m sorry?” She frowned in confusion.

“For you to be up so early,” he explained. “The guest rooms aren’t used that often and the beds are quite old. I could put you somewhere else if the bed is too uncomfortable for you to sleep.”

“Oh. No, the bed’s fine. I get nights where I don’t sleep. Either my mind is too active and won’t switch off long enough, or I have nightmares, and I really don’t want to go back to sleep.”

“Which was it last night?”

“Bit of both. AJ and I worked quite late, so I was still mulling things over, thinking about today’s dive, and then there’s the fact it’s September.” She finished the toast.

“Do you have something against the month?”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her hands on her jeans. “So I figured I’d get up and maybe go around the maze. Fancy coming with me?”

He frowned. “I told you, I haven’t been in it since I got lost.”

“We won’t get lost. And if I don’t find the middle after fifteen minutes, we head back out.”

“And how will you do that?”

She grinned. “I cheat. Come with me, and I’ll show you.”

He worried his bottom lip for a second and then agreed.

~*~

Evan stood at the entrance to the maze. This must be the craziest thing I have done in a long time. He tugged his coat collar around his neck. The autumn morning was decidedly chilly and still dark. The floodlit maze yawned before them. “Are you sure we won’t get lost?”

Lou nodded and produced a large ball of brightly coloured wool from her jacket pocket. “As I said, I cheat.” She tied the end of the wool to the sign at the maze entrance. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” he muttered. “And you are way too cheerful for oh-dark-thirty.”

She grinned. “So I keep being told.”

Evan shook his head, trying to push aside the demons associated with the maze and walked beside her. The tall hedges towered over him, making him seem much smaller than his six-foot-two frame. He shivered.

Lou glanced at him. “Who built this maze?”

“It’s been here as long as the house,” he said. “Started life apparently as small box hedges and grew as they do. Small hedges would make it easier.”

She shook her head, back tracking as they reached a dead end. “You’d have thought so, but no. They can be even more annoying, because you can see where you need to go, but still can’t get there.”

Evan turned right. He stood still as Lou headed left. “Where are you going?”

“Behind us is a dead end, right? If you go right, you can see the wool, so that’s the way we came, therefore we go left.”

He nodded slightly, whirling to face the other way.

“What’s in the middle?”

“I have no idea.”

She grinned. “We might never find out. I set the alarm on my phone, so we know when to head back.”

“Or we might find out and regret it.” He paused as they reached another junction. “Left.”

Lou nodded and wrapped the wool around a branch. “Left it is. Regret it how?”

“It might be a bottomless pit. Or a madman with an axe.”

She laughed. “He’d be a bit old by now. It could be buried treasure. Or a book to sign to say you’ve completed it. I’ve done several like that. Do you have any aerial photos of it?”

“No. Why?”

“Because then you’d have an accurate map of it. You wouldn’t need the string and would never get lost.”

He smiled. “That is a very good idea. I shall organize one for this afternoon.”

She tilted her head. “You can do it that quickly?”

“I have my own plane.”

“Oh, how the other half lives,” she chuckled. “I own my car, but that’s it.” Her alarm rang. “Time’s up.”

Evan gazed at her. Never mind being lost in the maze. He was lost in her eyes and would quite happily stay there. “Leave the wool. We could continue at another point if you wish.”

Lou smiled. “I’d like that.”