Читать книгу Draca - Geoffrey Gudgion - Страница 43

Jack frowned. ‘ The dragon wanted the sea … ’ Grandpa had imbued the carving with life and will. And what did he mean by ‘ the dragon knows his friends are down there … ’ ? Rán , Jack knew, was the Nordic sea goddess, who harvested the souls of drowned sailors. Perhaps the cancer had been in Grandpa ’ s brain earlier than they thought. Outside, the sun was on the water and a sailing breeze stirred the leaves; the wind was picking up. Inside, a fly beat itself against the window behind the net curtains : hum – smack, hum – smack, hum – smack. It evaded Jack ’ s efforts to brush it through an open pane, and found another square of glass to assault. No matter. Chasing the fly had only been an excuse to stand behind Charlotte ’ s chair and slide his hand into her shirt, but she pushed him away, tutting her irritation.

‘ Lottie, living with you is like being a kid in a sweet shop who ’ s told he can ’ t taste the goodies. ’

‘ I ’ m ‘ working from home ’ . ’

‘ Neither am I. ’

‘ Maybe later. ’ Her fingers danced over the iPad, and Jack gave up. Above the desk, tufts of bookmarks waved from a mighty tome of Nordic sagas. He pulled it down, opened it at random and grunted in frustration when he saw it was written in Old Norse, with margin and footnotes in Danish. A yellow, sticky note pointed at a single word, haugbúi , with a caption written in Eddie ’ s awkward scrawl : lit. ‘ cairn-dweller ’ . Ghost, undead man.

Jack put the book back, uncomfortable. Beside him, Charlotte stretched in her armchair, pulling her arms high and wide, and arching her back in a way that made him want to throw her bloody iPad out of the window.

‘ Let ’ s go and see George. ’

‘ I thought you were working. ’

‘ M ’ bored . Done enough to show willing. ’

‘ I can think of more exciting things to do. ’

‘ Let ’ s get it over with. ’

They couldn ’ t even flirt any more.