One Shot Kill - Robert Muchamore Page 0,66

the Morels can eat well. There wasn’t much wrong with Pippa’s cooking on campus, but Marc preferred French food to English and he bolted down onion soup, beef stew and more wine than was good for him.

Jae had warned Marc that her father looked unwell. The level of Morel’s physical decay wasn’t nice to see, but it was the change in status that Marc found most poignant.

All through Marc’s childhood, Morel had been an aloof and vaguely terrifying man. Slim, well dressed and with the power to do horrible things to scruffy orphan boys with a crush on his only daughter.

But now Morel accepted Marc’s position at his table, close to Jae. Morel had drunk too much and candlelight reflected off his bald patch as he listened to Marc’s news about the outside world. At fifteen, Marc was beginning to match many adults physically, but he’d never previously encountered a situation where a person of such authority looked up to him.

‘What happened to the Luftwaffe officers you had living here?’ Marc asked.

‘There were several assassinations by communists,’ Jae explained. ‘All Luftwaffe personnel now have to live on an airbase, or in Beauvais where there’s more security.’

‘Damned shame too,’ Morel added, slurring a little as he drained his fifth glass of wine. ‘They were always gentlemen. Plus they scared off Tomas, and got me out of lock-up a couple of times. I mean, how can a man live?’

Morel tailed off before shooting to his feet and erupting into a boozy rant. ‘The Requisition Authority sets me a production quota. Then it takes half my men away. Then they arrest me because I’ve not met my quota and accuse me of selling food on the black market. This farm was so beautiful. If my father or grandfather could see the state of things now it would kill them.’

Morel’s loud voice caused the cook to peer in from the adjoining kitchen as Jae stood up and put a soothing hand on her father’s back.

‘Maybe you should go to bed, Daddy,’ she said.

‘I’ll go to the library for a brandy,’ he said. Then a flash of the old Morel came through as he pointed accusingly at Marc. ‘And I may not be all that I was, but I’ll still come at you with a shotgun if you try sticking your penis into my daughter.’

‘Daddy,’ Jae said, through gritted teeth. ‘You’re so embarrassing.’

‘You’re a good boy really,’ Morel said, as his tone changed completely. ‘Admirable.’

As Jae helped her drunken daddy up the stairs, Marc turned to the cook.

‘It’s hard seeing him like that,’ he told her.

The elderly cook looked at the floor, as if commenting on her boss was some horrible sin. ‘The Morel men have always been drinkers, but the harassment and having no workers has done him in.’

Marc licked the cream out of his pudding bowl and drained his wine glass, then waited for Jae at the base of the stairs.

‘I didn’t realise he’d—’

Jae cut him off by pressing a fingertip to his lips. ‘Don’t,’ she said sadly. ‘Everyone talks about my dad all the time. I get sick of hearing it.’

Marc thought about saying sorry, but somehow sensed that Jae didn’t want him to.

‘I know you’ve got to catch an early train,’ Jae said. ‘But when I was with you at the lake last summer, I think it was about the happiest I’ve ever been.’

‘The lake,’ Marc said, smiling and a little tipsy from the wine he’d drunk with dinner. ‘Perfect.’

CHAPTER THIRTY

It was dark as Marc and Jae strolled out. The day had been warm, but the lake water was always cold and night-time brought a chill to the air. They swam naked and came out shivering, then lay against each other on a grass embankment.

They were both virgins. They’d kissed and seen each other naked, but their bodies had only touched through clothes before now. Marc wasn’t sure if the manly thing was to try having sex, but he didn’t want Jae getting pregnant in the middle of a war and knew that sex had killed off the relationship between Rosie and PT.

When Marc pushed his fingertips between Jae’s thighs, he was relieved when her head tilted backwards and she made a barely perceptible, ‘No.’

A second swim chilled Marc’s lust and after that they put clothes back on and cuddled. Marc tried to focus on here and now, but there was a clock in his head that he couldn’t shut off, constantly telling him how much time there was before he