A different woman
‘What was all this about skeletons? She talks so fast I can’t understand her half the time.’ This was the natural moment to tell Henry about it – lightly, for their joint amusement. The excuse...
Category: John Christopher
I expected nothing
He closed the door to the vault. She stood, waiting for him to lead the way back up the steps. Instead he put his hands on her shoulders. She felt his strength, as he pulled...
I handled him very well today
‘Old married couples generally joke about the length of time they’ve been married, in a specially cynical tone of voice.’ ‘Do they? Do you think I will?’ ‘Probably. Providing you have a sense of humour.’...
How clever of God
Late in the afternoon pretence of work was abandoned. The sun had dropped behind the shoulder of Sweeney’s Hill, but it was very hot. They lay on a carpet of tattered palm leaves, and drank...
The Caves of Night
Five people enter the Frohnberg caves, three men and two women. In the glare of the Austrian sunshine, the cool underground depths seem an attractive proposition – until the collapse of a cave wall blocks their return to the outside world. Faced with an unexplored warren of tunnels and caves …
Like animals, or like gods
The aftermath of the typhoon found Marriott with a feeling of weakness and helplessness much greater than following his fight with Billy. The battering the elements had given him had been less violent but, going...
Over the rim of the world
‘Hello, Katey.’ She put her bundle down at the mouth of the cave. ‘I’ve brought you a few things,’ she said. ‘Some fruit, and cooked yams, and a gourd of wine.’ ‘That’s very kind of...
Cut yourself a piece
She cut meat for herself from the carcase while Billy watched, a glass of wine tilting in his hand. He motioned to Susan and Toni, and they followed suit. Then he made the same peremptory...
Much fonder of the main course
Surely Marriott could not think that having the others out of the way would make her any more willing to tolerate his silly innuendoes and advances? She had made it plain from the beginning that...
Under the bright stars
There was another storm, about a month after their arrival on the island; it was more violent than the first and lasted all one day, and the night, and the morning of the day after....