BURY ME DEEP an utterly gripping crime thriller with an epic twist (Detective Rozlyn Priest Book 1) by JANE ADAMS (best romantic books to read TXT) 📕

not hide there, among the reeds. They are high as a man’s head and dense too. This . . . it looks like something a child might do.”

Treven strode over to where he indicated. He lifted a branch from the trackside and prodded the ground.

“Ah,” Edmund agreed. “Wet enough to sink to the ankles at least.”

“From the point he chose, he could move swiftly,” Treven commented. “See her, wait for her to pass, then run out after. She would have heard him and turned.”

“So,” Edmund seemed reluctant, but perhaps felt he had to be fair minded, “the one who struck her need not have been known to her after all. She would have heard him, turned, and been struck down.”

“Possibly,” Treven was not convinced. “Look, the ground close to where she fell is wet. Her footprint is there, both pointing up the track towards the cottage and there see, she turns and stands. Both feet set square but facing back towards us.”

“Which means she turned and faced her attacker.”

“Which means she did not try to run.”

“It would have been dark,” Edmund mused.

“The moon is close to full, the nights have been clear and her eyes would have been accustomed to the dark, but even so . . . it must have been someone she would recognise at once, otherwise, startled, she would have taken at least a backward step.”

He frowned. “It is almost as if she paused and waited. As though she expected someone to be behind her.”

Hugh? Had she expected Hugh? Treven walked back down the path and called to the horsemen to come forward. He’d put Orsic and the younger, stronger servant, Strachen in charge of Hugh. They’d not bound him, but Osric had fixed a leading rein to the bridle of Hugh’s horse and wrapped it firmly about his wrist. Hugh chafed at such treatment, but Treven had insisted. He could not afford to be seen to show favour, not when he’d declared his interest only in justice.

Hugh dismounted.

“Where did you meet the girl?”

“I told you. I met her there, in that stand of birch. The trees meet well enough to give some shelter and we were screened from the path and the main track.”

“You’d met her there before. How many times?”

Hugh sighed heavily. “Five or six.” He looked uncomfortable speaking before Edmund and the others. “Treven, for pity’s sake, the girl is dead; must you drag her name through the mud, questioning me here before such witnesses?

“Her name was soiled long ago. You think it a secret, Hugh? Now, tell me, did you see anyone. Hear anything?”

Hugh shook his head. “I had hoped . . . she would have nothing to do with me. Struck my hand down when I tried to touch her. She said she would have no more to do with me. Told me about the child she carried and that she had informed her husband that he would be a father before Litha came next year. I was angry with her but I let her go. I returned to Theading and spent my night elsewhere. She was whole and unharmed when she left my side.”

“It did not seem right that you take her back to Theading? You say you spent time after with another woman, you must have passed Cate’s home, yet you left her here to find her own way back?”

Hugh was furious. “She swore she would not let me accompany her. That she had promised Eldred it was over between us and that if we were witnessed together it could be seen as her breaking that vow.” He stepped forward, hands outstretched, voice pleading. “Treven, what else could I do? She went from me, I untied my horse and went on my way.”

“Did you not pass her on the road?” Edmund asked.

Hugh hesitated, then shook his head. “No, but you are right, I should have done. God, had I realised then the significance of that, I might have found her.”

Treven watched his friend with narrowed eyes. There was much here that Hugh had not told, but for the moment Treven could not fathom the truth from the lies. The cramp in his gut had receded a little but it returned now and it was all he could do to stay upright and not double in pain. He caught his breath, hoping no one had noticed, but was aware of Hugh watching him closely.

“Come,” Treven said. “We will return to the Theading. I wish to examine the body now there is light enough to see.”

* * *

Treven had Cate’s body carried outside so that the full light of the sun could illuminate his search. He had the villagers assembled and with them but kept Hugh and Eldred well apart. Eldred was distressed. The women waited to prepare his wife for burial, but Treven had forbidden this until he returned. Eldred could not understand his reasons and it had been left to Kendryk to convince him that Treven must have good cause.

“At least, I hope you have,” the Abbot told him sternly. “It’s enough the poor child was killed so brutally, but for you to delay the proper rights becomes less and less forgivable the longer you take.”

“I know, I know,” Treven waved his protests away, “but when Osric tended her last night I glimpsed something I could not understand. I will hide nothing, Kendryk, which is why I call for this public display, distasteful though I know it is. In truth, I hope to shock some kind of response from one or other of them. I doubt either is telling the full truth.”

Kendryk looked displeased but nodded assent. “I’ve told her father,” he said. “Though I doubt the poor fool understood a word. I think we should spare him this exhibition, unless you have some purpose in his being here?”

Treven could not think of one. He came