Evans Above Read Free Page B

thirsty as we are. No sense in going back in there just for one
last hymn, is there? Might as well get our orders in first next door.” He nudged Evan again. “Give you a chance to be alone in the pub for a while with you know who.”
    His lean body shook with silent laughter.
    Evan sighed. Ever since he had come here a year ago, the entire valley had tried its best to play matchmaker. Betsy, the barmaid in the Red Dragon, had made no secret of the fact that she fancied Evan.
    â€œGet away with you now, Charlie,” Evan said, flushing with embarrassment. “Betsy’s a nice girl and all that but not exactly my type, you know.”
    â€œYou could do worse, Evan boy.” Charlie chuckled. “I hear she’s ready, willing, and very able.”
    â€œThat’s the trouble, Charlie,” Evan said with a grin. “She’s too ready and too willing. If I so much as say hello to her, she takes it as encouragement. She’s always on about taking her dancing in Caernarfon.”
    â€œAnd what’s wrong with that?” Charlie asked.
    Evan shook her head. “You’ve never seen me dance,” he said. “They tell me I look like a dying octopus. Besides, I’m not ready to get involved with anybody yet. Only just got here, haven’t I?”
    He had his back to the street and hadn’t heard anyone coming, so he jumped when a soft voice said, “Good evening, Constable Evans. Not in chapel tonight, I see?”
    Evan spun around to see a slim young woman smiling at him. She was dressed in khaki pants and a linen shirt. A dark green sweater was draped around her neck and brought out the green in her eyes. Her hair hung down her back in one lustrous braid. As always Evan felt tongue-tied in her presence.
    â€œGood evening, Bronwen Price,” Evan stammered. “I see you’re not in chapel yourself either.”

    Bronwen took in Evan’s jacket and tie. He must have been intending to go to chapel anyway, she thought. He wasn’t the kind of person who wore a jacket when he didn’t have to. Usually he was the old-jeans-and-sweater type. Out of uniform he looked quite handsome, she thought. She liked the way his dark hair flopped down boyishly across his forehead when he wasn’t wearing his policeman’s cap.
    â€œI’ve just got back from an all-day hike,” she said. “Did you know that a red kite is nesting up there now? Isn’t that wonderful news?”
    â€œUp above Llyn Llydaw? I saw it myself,” Evan said, his face lighting up.
    â€œYou did?” Bronwen looked surprised. “When were you up there?”
    â€œEarlier today.”
    â€œYou were? Pity we missed each other.”
    â€œGreat pity,” Evan said with feeling. Then, suddenly awkward again with Charlie Hopkins looking on, he stammered, “Two babies in the nest, wasn’t it?”
    Charlie looked from Evan to Bronwen. “I’ll just nip on ahead to the Red Dragon then,” he said. “Let them know you’re coming.”
    Evan looked at Bronwen. “You feel like a drink?”
    â€œOn a Sunday?” At first Evan thought that Bronwen sounded genuinely shocked, but then he noticed that her eyes were teasing. “What would my pupils say if they saw their teacher going into the pub on a Sunday night?”
    â€œI thought it might be thirsty work, all that hiking,” Evan said.
    â€œYou’re right, it was,” Bronwen agreed with a smile.
    â€œThen the drink is for medicinal purposes,” Evan said. “It’s a known fact that you have to replenish fluids after strenuous
exercise—and we’ll go the back way by the footpath. Nobody will see you.”
    Bronwen laughed. “There’s nothing they don’t see or know in this village, but I’ll come along to keep you company, if you like. Not that I approve of playing hookey from chapel.”
    â€œI’ll have you know I was