The Secret Path by Karen Swan (summer beach reads TXT) 📕

in her rucksack with all the food. She went through to the small room at the back and did the same with Jed’s clothes too, although his shirt was in rags now and she put that in the bin.

Alex stood watching her as she moved about busily. ‘Will he be okay?’

‘As long as there’s no further holdups, yes, I hope so.’ Her voice was brisk, her eyes anywhere but on him.

He watched her fasten her backpack, frowned as she hoisted it over her arms. ‘. . . What are you doing?’

It was her turn to frown. ‘Heading back. What do you think?’

There was a small laugh. ‘. . . What?’

She looked up to find Alex staring at her with an openly shocked expression. ‘I’m heading back. His wife needs to be told what’s happened. Why’s that funny?’

‘You can’t go trekking through this jungle on your own!’

There was a pause. ‘I think you’ll find I can do whatever I like,’ she said in an even voice. If he thought he could tell her what she could or couldn’t do, if he thought he was entitled to talk to her as though he knew her . . .

‘Tara, this isn’t . . . Hyde Park!’

‘I’m perfectly aware of that,’ she said coldly, not appreciating his condescension.

‘You have no idea where their village is from here.’

That was perfectly true. ‘Don’t I? And how would you know?’

He stared back at her, unable to tell if she was bluffing. He knew she’d come here throughout her childhood.

She tightened the straps on the backpack. ‘Thanks for your help. I’ll be sure to let my father know.’

She saw the insult register as she elucidated his place in the pecking order: an employee – albeit an important one – nothing more, nothing less.

She went to walk past but he blocked the door. ‘Twig—’ There was that shocked laugh again.

‘Don’t call me that,’ she said sharply, feeling her composure shake as he stood close to her now. She felt at the edge of her limits, her heart banging too fast. She knew if she were to take her pulse it would be high 140s, maybe higher. This was rapidly becoming more than she could bear. Now that the initial urgency of seeing to Jed was over, the shock of suddenly coming face to face with the man who had all but destroyed her life was overwhelming. She had promised herself she would never set eyes on him again. It was the condition she had set – sending it out into the universe – that had enabled her to get out of bed again after those first few desolate weeks . . . But now here he was, right in front of her. He worked for her father, of course, so she had known he would be at the handover this week – she had spent months refusing to think about it – but to bump into him in the middle of the jungle, in a land area of almost 20,000 square miles . . . she had thought her chances of avoiding him were pretty good.

‘Look. I’ll radio Jimenez and get him to go to Jed’s village and tell his wife, after they’ve handed Jed over. It’s not that far from the handover point.’

She shrugged. She could see, even if she would not admit it, that that was a much better solution. ‘Okay, fine. See ya.’ She turned away again so that he had to jump almost in front of her, blocking her path.

‘Tara, can we just . . . just take a second? Please?’

‘For what?’

He gave another baffled laugh, ran a hand through his hair. ‘Well, for one thing, I’ve not seen you in ten years. How are you?’

She blinked. And there it was – the easy lapse into pleasantries which in itself told her everything she hadn’t wanted to know: that he was happy to see her and therefore happy without her. He stood before her fulfilled, a man at ease, those three simple words drawing fresh blood and confirming all over again her conviction that she had never been to him what he had been to her; she had simply been his way to realize his lifetime ambition by the age of twenty-three. Of course he hadn’t looked back when he’d come here! Tasked with creating an entire national park, he wouldn’t even have looked up!

The plain fact of it was no less painful now than it had been then, even though she had gone on to make such a success of her life, excelling in her career, embracing the privileges she had once sought to hide, taking her place among the fashionable, good and great. She was wanted at parties and dinners, at keynote conferences and skiing trips. She had had a string of lovers who had been just diverting enough and now, of course, Rory, who made her feel so settled and content. And yet, standing before this man, it all felt like a mirage, a glittering image of a life but without any real substance. Three little words and she was exposed.

‘Goodbye, Alex.’ She walked past him, pushing the door so hard on its hinges it flew back and hit the wall. She was halfway down the steps back to the path when she heard him call out after her.

‘What about the boy?’

She didn’t stop. ‘There’s nothing that can be done now,’ she called back, not caring whether he heard or not. She just had to get away from here. She wouldn’t stay another minute.

Her heart advanced to a gallop as she got to the rough path that would – supposedly, eventually – take her off this mountain and back onto the flats, and then somewhere after that, the road. She saw how the track seemed to disappear into the leaves, but hadn’t they largely travelled in a straight line? She hadn’t been aware of any sharp left or right turns. She was pretty sure she could navigate her way back. Or, might she be able to catch the rangers? They were only, what, five, six minutes ahead of her? They’d set off at an almost-jog but she