Sue’s Reviews > Forest of Secrets > Status Update

The air sang with tension...so great that it was easy to imagine that it could be plucked like a lutestring and would emit a sound.

It was Monday, the twenty-eighth of July, and July was behaving well. We had awoken to sunshine and a few harmless white clouds, and a light breeze chasing their shadows across the cornfields round Minstead. The harvest had recovered from the rainstorm and was growing vigorously now. Poppies and cornflowers glowed amid the crop; and in the grass of the paddock where our horses...grazed..grasshoppers were chirping.

“My unconventional way of life had taught me to be prepared...and my luggage contained some unusual items for a lady. I had brought with me not only a tinderbox and a lantern that could be adjusted to show only the ground beneath one’s feet but also the dagger and picklocks... In addition, I had packed a pair of breeches, a man’s shirt and jacket, and a cap such as a groom might wear.”

Years ago, when I was on a journey to East Anglia, a flight of wild geese had passed overhead. The friend who was riding beside me said..that I had a wildness in me; that I followed adventure, as a wild goose follows the call of its kind. There had been some truth in that. But not now. I had outgrown my youthful wildness long ago. Weary after my latest adventure..thankful to have come through..safely, I wanted..rest.