Snowbird, extract chapter36 (standard:romance, 2737 words)
Author: Brian Cross	Added: Jan 27 2003	Views/Reads: 3806/2451	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
An extract from my novel Snowbird

350                     CHAPTER THIRTY SIX 

Graham Stone left the musty basement cells and climbed the stairs to the
ground floor. He crossed his arms and stood back in the shadows as he 
looked through the opened door across Market Square. Stone knew 
Charlotte would arrive, not to see him of course but to see Danny 
Wilson. To acquaint herself with the circumstances behind the actions 
which had lead to the killing of her father. He couldn't understand why 
she bothered with Wilson, let alone understand why she hadn't shown the 
tiniest interest in him. After all he held a dignified and responsible 
position in the community, and always kept his appearance smart and 
respectable. None of these were qualities that could any longer be 
ascribed to Danny Wilson, if they ever were at all. 

And yet she'd come, as sure as hell she'd come. Then it would need to be
quick for he was expecting at any moment to receive the prisoner escort 
that would take Wilson to Birmingham court where he'd stand trial for 
her father's murder, and where presumably, if he were not very 
fortunate indeed, he would hang. 

Stone only hoped that he'd be there when she arrived, that he wouldn't
be assigned to some trivial matter of minor deception of which he'd 
encountered a good many of late, time wasting episodes where 
prosecution wasn't even a consideration, and yet it was something which 
would wrench from his grasp the last opportunity to gain her 
confidence, a prospect that deep within he knew to be remote, but that 
still, in his conscious mind, assumed total importance to him. He was 
not disappointed in one respect: he was there when she called. She'd 
strode through the front entrance and despite his anticipation of her 
visit she'd still taken him by surprise. His back turned, he'd swung 
round to encounter her. Her stature was second to none. 

She was erect, and with long auburn hair flowing from her broad head
down the sides of her flawless face and across her wide shoulders she 
epitomised health and beauty. Her very presence seemed to propel him 
into another world inhabited by this same woman, but now she might be a 
warrior goddess, fierce and intimidating. Hadn't that very vision 
always been reflected by the intensity in her expression? He didn't 
know. It only served to make his desire for her become so potent that 
it troubled his soul. 

But she hadn't come here to see him and the very formality with which
she announced that fact made it hard for Stone to stem his jealousy. 

‘Good morning Sergeant,' she said, as if he were just another
commonplace serving member of the public, ‘I've come to see Danny 
Wilson. Would you show me to him please?' 

Just like that. So dismissive of his own presence and Graham Stone was
boiling now, so much so that he could hardly contain his rising 
jealousy. 

No I damned well can't, he was transported to Birmingham fifteen minutes
ago. How he'd love to be able to utter those words in the face of her 
casual dismissal of him. But why couldn't he do that? Just what was 
preventing him? Nothing. Because who the hell would know? In just a 
short time Wilson would be going anyway. 

‘I'm afraid that won't be possible, ‘ Stone replied, his face both
hardening and reddening at the same time, but he was also gloating at 
her anticipated disappointment.  ‘You see he was transferred to 
Birmingham only a short time before your arrival - I'm sorry.' 

Her bearing remained just as resolute and forceful as ever as she met
his cold stare. There was something uncaring and yet demanding about 
this man. Moreover, she didn't believe him. She raised her head as a 
shaft of sunlight shone through like a huge conical needle and inflamed 
her hair for a second. Stone felt then what he'd always known, that she 
was the most desirable woman he'd ever encountered. And yet she 
despised him, he could tell it in her manner and it angered him deeply. 


‘Danny Wilson killed my father so you say, in which case I'd like to be
certain that he's suffered the last couple of days in the squalor he 
deserves.' She raised her head even higher, squaring her fine 


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