Winterbringers Read Online Free Page B

nothing.
    “Let’s have a look then,” said George, pulling his car keysfrom his pocket. Josh wondered what he was doing until he saw a little torch like Callie’s attached to it. He strode into the cave.
    Callie turned to follow him. “Are you coming?”
    “In a minute. I just want some fresh air.”
    She gave him another funny look, then followed George. Left alone on the beach, Josh listened to his heart slow down to something like normal.
    He ought to go back in.
    His feet didn’t seem to want to take him.
    Come on. You’re being stupid
.
    He forced himself into the mouth of the cave just as Callie stepped from the passageway.
    “The torch is fine,” she said, waving it. “I think you’re right about the ice,” she wrinkled her nose, “but I don’t understand how it can be doing that.”
    “Very interesting,” said George, emerging behind her. “I’ve never seen that before, or heard of such a thing. We’ll ask Rose, Callie. She knows lots of things that I don’t. We’d best be getting back now anyway. I’ll take you round to the cottage Josh.”
    The rain had gone off. As they walked back along the beach towards the car Callie looked sidelong at Josh. “Are you all right? You were really pale when you came out of the cave and bumped into me.”
    “I’m fine. I bashed my elbow really hard on a rock when I dropped the torch. That must be why I was pale,” he lied.
    She didn’t look convinced.
    He couldn’t tell her the truth. She’d think he was off his head. He couldn’t tell her what had frightened him so much that he’d dropped the torch, because obviously she and George hadn’t seen it, so obviously he’d imagined it.
    Obviously. But it still seemed real. He’d shone the torchacross the ice, and for a moment, he’d seen a man’s face behind it, watching him.
    ***
    Rose listened intently to George and Callie’s description of the mysterious ice in the cave, brows drawn together in concentration.
    “What do you think, Rose?” said George.
    She dusted flour off her hands. “It all sounds very interesting.”
    “But what do you think could be causing it?” asked Callie.
    “Causing it? I’ve got no idea.”
    Later, when they were eating their soup at tea time, Rose said suddenly, “George, did I remember to tell you I’m meeting the girls for coffee tomorrow?”
    “I don’t believe you did, my dear. Or perhaps I just forgot. Usual time?”
    “Yes. Pass the bread please Callie.”
    ***
    All that evening, the image of what he’d seen in the cave drifted through Josh’s mind, and he could do nothing to dislodge it.
    “I got a lot done today,” said Anna. “I think I’ll give myself tomorrow morning off. We’ll go into St Andrews and do something. I take it lunch wasn’t as bad as you expected?”
    “No. Callie’s okay when you get talking to her. And I hardly saw the dog.”
    “Told you.”
    “I hate it when you say that.”
    “I know.”

    ***
    Unobserved by anyone now, the ice advanced to the end of the narrow passage then beyond, hour by hour, inch by inch, until the moonlight gleamed off a great slab of ice that filled the cave mouth. A trickle of water came from it and sank immediately into the sand.
    As the night wore on, the trickle of water continued and the ice slowly receded, retreating back to the passageway, leaving behind in the centre of the outer chamber what it had carried with it.
    A man.
    Curled on the floor, icy and soaked, barely breathing, hair darkened by water, his hands clawed into the sand as if to hold himself to the earth, so that the ice could not carry him back again.
    After some time he gathered the strength to raise his head.
    “Come back,” he whispered.
    Come back.
    The words floated into the middle of Josh’s dreams. Fast asleep, he saw the face of the ice-man.
Come back
, he said, and Josh woke with a jump, his heart pounding.
    ***
    It was frosty the next morning, white tips to every leaf and blade of grass.
    “Frost in