This Haunted World Book One: The Venetian: A Chilling New Supernatural Thriller Read Free Page B

front of them, Rob rolling his eyes at the prospect.
    “Lou, you’re being embarrassing again,” he complained.
    “Oh, shut up and smile,” Louise admonished and he did, albeit reluctantly.
    After she’d got the picture she wanted, they continued walking, inwards rather than along the main thoroughfare.
    “We can go to St Mark’s Square if you want. It’s just west of here,” Rob suggested, looking at the map Gisela had given him. “Look here it is, the Piazza San Marco .”
    Louise shrugged. “Maybe tomorrow. Let’s walk the alleys around here tonight.”
    “Like a couple of tramps, you mean?”
    “In your case, darling, not mine.”
    “Oh, I don’t know, Lou, the way you were acting in the hotel room earlier.”
    Louise came to a halt. “Are you calling me a tramp?”
    “Erm… I was joking.”
    “A joke’s funny, right? That wasn’t. It’s perfectly okay for a woman to have a sexual appetite, to take the lead now and then. These are modern times, not the dark ages.”
    “No, I realise—”
    “Then why say such a thing?”
    Rob looked far from impressed by her outburst. “Louise, back off okay? It was a joke, just a joke. What happened up there, in the hotel room, I loved it. I hope there’s more of it to come. It’s… you know, it’s been a while since it’s been like that between us.”
    For the second time that evening Louise had to consider her reply. He was right, what had happened was a good thing, it had been a while, a long while, and she knew he was joking, of course he was. Why had she got so riled about it?
    She decided to change tack. Adopting a coy smile, she asked, “So you loved it?”
    “You know I did.”
    “And you want more?”
    “Lots more. Please act like a tramp again when we get back.”
    With peace restored, Louise burst out laughing. “Buy me a posh dinner and I might.”
    As she fell into step beside him, Rob pulled a face. “Posh? No, no, no, Louise, real Italian cooking is honest; it’s down-to-earth, it’s real. We need to find where the locals go.”
    If there was one thing Rob was passionate about, besides architecture and sex, it was food. He adored cooking, often dominating the kitchen at home with his bold and brave recipes. Italian cookery was one of his favourites, if not his utmost favourite, and she agreed with him. It was more authentic dishes she wanted to eat too, not fodder for the masses. They’d managed to find some superb restaurants in the other cities they’d visited – she never knew a simple ragu could taste so good – and hopefully they’d manage to find more of the same here. But first the passages of Venice waited. They were more of a maze than she’d expected. They were dark too, only barely lit by ornate lanterns attached to the many and beautiful buildings that lined the waterways. Quiet was another way to describe them. Away from the Grand Canal, and despite their hotel being in the popular San Marco district, the silence on corner after empty corner was almost preternatural.
    “It’s as though Venice belongs to us and us alone,” Rob marvelled.
    “I know. Where is everyone? One minute you see them and the next you don’t. It’s like they’ve been spirited away, gone up in a puff of smoke.”
    As they continued to wander, their footsteps the only sound to accompany them, a thought struck her. “How are we going to find our way back? I’m lost already.”
    “Simple, we make our way to the Grand Canal and follow it home.”
    She stopped, took the map from him and began to study it. Between the lack of light and the tiny writing she couldn’t read a thing. Unease shoved excitement aside. “We’d better not stray too far. It’ll be easier to get our bearings tomorrow.”
    “Rubbish,” Rob protested. “We’re not going to get lost, besides which, I want to go over the Rialto Bridge, into the San Polo area that Gisela was telling me about. It’s the most ancient part of Venice apparently, where the fish market