Page 40 of Sparring Partners
“Look, erm, make yourself at home. I won’t be long and then we’ll go.” Adrian was already moving in the direction of the kitchen.
“On our romantic picnic?” Luca called out, grinning when Adrian answered with something that might have sounded likesmart arse.
CHAPTERNINETEEN
The Land Rover juddered to a stop at the end of a rough track, and Adrian switched off the engine. They’d climbed higher and higher, the land around them turning from rich green fields to heathland and scrub, the barely there track he’d taken not marked on any map. He glanced at Luca, who peered through the windscreen, and suppressed a smile. Luca didn’t have a clue what was waiting for him. To many, the land beyond the vehicle was bleak and harsh. To Adrian, it was untamed and wild, and all the more beautiful for it. He just had to convince Luca of the same.
“It’s, erm…”
Adrian laughed as he jumped out of the car. “Come on, I want to show you something.” Pulling out the cool box he’d hurriedly packed when Luca had agreed to his spontaneous suggestion, he nodded towards the crown of the hill. “This is as far as I can take the Land Rover, so we’re going to have to walk for about twenty minutes.”
Adrian looked down at Luca’s feet. Not hiking boots, but what he was wearing was sturdy enough for where they were going.
The wind was warm, but brisk, and Luca pushed his hair away from his face. “It’s so different up here. It’s like another world.”
“It’s what I like about it. You need to choose your time carefully because the weather can change for the worse with no warning. Very few people come up here and of those that have some haven’t made it back when nature’s turned against them.”
“Thank you for bringing me to a place of danger and death. And there was me thinking I’d be tucking into a ploughman’s in a pretty meadow filled with colourful wild flowers. Your choice of location is, at least, original.”
They didn’t speak much as they made their way up the hill. The ground was mostly dry, but pitted with holes that could catch the unwary and inattentive. Reaching the crown, the wind whipped them both, grasping at shirts, plastering jeans to thighs.
“Oh my god,” Luca breathed.
Adrian said nothing as he studied the man next to him, lost in what lay before them. Luca’s lips were parted slightly, and his chest rose and fell from the short but steep walk. His hair whipped around his face, the sunlight making it shine like gold. Luca turned to him and smiled, his eyes bright with wonder.
Beautiful, so damn beautiful…A weight pressed hard on Adrian’s chest, forcing the air from his lungs, making it hard to breathe as Luca smiled into his eyes.
“Is it real?”
“What?”
Luca nodded to the clearing, looking to Adrian for an answer.
“Yes, it is.” Adrian’s voice scraped his throat, rough and gravelly, but if Luca noticed he gave no indication as he turned his attention back to the clearing.
“Incredible,” Luca whispered, as he gazed in awe at the ring of standing stones taking centre stage in a steep dip in the middle of the crown.
They picked their way over worn ridges in the land; the wind dropped and fell silent as they reached the earthwork enclosed stones.
Twelve standing stones, some with lintels still in place, encircled a pock marked slab mottled with bright patches of lichen. Supported by smaller stones, it was about the size of a large dining table.
“Are you sure this is real?” Luca asked, walking around and inspecting the henge. “It could be a folly.”
“No, it’s real. The stones might have been reset in place at some time, I suppose, but there’s nothing to suggest it. Very few people come here because they’re so out of the way and the land gets heavily water logged, which can be lethal for the unwary. There’s also a lot of dark folklore attached to them. All of it superstitious nonsense, but it’s surprising how strong a grip it has even now.”
“Dark folklore? A place of sacrifice or witchcraft?”
“Something like that. Whatever, it keeps the crowds away, which is just how I like it.”
Luca smiled. “So I’m privileged to be brought here? Thank you.”
They unpacked the food on the slab, an eclectic and tasty mix.
“It’s like an altar. I can imagine it being used for ritual sacrifice.” Luca scooped up hummus onto a piece of bread.
“Hmm, of city boys who were foolhardy enough to wander too far from Zone One on the underground.”
Luca spluttered, grabbing at his apple juice to gulp some down.
