‘What on earth made you think that? We’re the masters of it. Sweeping things under the carpet is our speciality.’
‘What kind of things?’
She shook her head like she didn’t want to talk about it.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked. She seemed even more tense than Jasmine had when I’d first come downstairs. I attempted to put my hands on her shoulders, but she shook me off.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m still recovering from last night. And I’m embarrassed you had to witness all of that.’ She pinched the bridge of her nose between forefinger and thumb. ‘Sometimes they make me feel like I’m drowning.’
‘We could go home. Or go to Edinburgh, find a hotel.’
‘You know I can’t do that.’
I wanted to ask her about the thing Lewis had said.All the truths we could have told. I wanted to tell her about the overheard conversation, too. But at that moment, Miranda came into the room. She had a little more colour in her cheeks now, but she was obviously unhappy again, holding her phone in her hand and waving it at Holly.
‘Zack just texted me. He and dad will be home late this afternoon. They haven’t managed to “bag” anything yet.’
‘Maybe they should have taken Avril with them,’ I said.
Miranda grunted.
Then Jasmine appeared, with Lewis behind her. She was dressed in outdoor gear: walking boots, waterproof trousers, beanie hat and gloves, plus a big orange North Face jacket with a furry hood.
Miranda and Holly stared at her, mouths agape. I had expected Miranda to apologize to Jasmine, but it was clear from her expression that that was no longer going to happen.
‘What the hell are you wearing?’ Miranda demanded.
Lewis answered for her. ‘Yes, it’s Mum’s old stuff. I found it in a box in the basement. It fits Jasmine perfectly, don’t you think?’
Holly, sitting at the kitchen table beside me, had her hands on either side of her face like the figure in thatScreampainting. She had gone white. Miranda, who was standing, made a moaning noise.
‘This is getting worse and worse,’ she said. Then, to my surprise, she marched up to Jasmine and grabbed the front of the coat. ‘Take it off.’
Shocked, Jasmine stepped back, almost into Lewis’s arms. Miranda pursued her, her voice an octave higher than normal. ‘You can’t wear that. It was my mum’s, not yours. Lewis, what the fuck were you thinking?’
She tried to get hold of the zip on the front of the coat, but Lewis moved around Jasmine, who had frozen, and grasped Miranda’s upper arms, pushing her back. Holly had jumped to her feet, too, but, like me, she didn’t know what to do or how to intervene.
Miranda was close to hyperventilating. ‘You are not our mother. You are Not. Our.Mother!’
Jasmine, a few feet away from Miranda, who fought toescape Lewis’s grip, unzipped the coat and threw it on to the sofa. She had already taken off the gloves and now pulled off the hat.
‘The boots, too!’ Miranda almost screeched it.
Jasmine crouched and pulled off the boots, casting them aside and getting to her feet. She stood there in her socks, dressed in her jeans and sweater. She hugged herself, trembling, while Miranda broke free from Lewis and scooped up the coat, clutching it to her chest and burying her nose in the furry hood, inhaling any traces of her mother’s scent that might still linger there.
‘What the fuck?’ Lewis said to Miranda.
‘What do you mean, what the fuck? You’re the one who gave her Mum’s clothes. How dare you!’
‘We need to talk,’ Jasmine interrupted. Her voice was remarkably calm. ‘All of us. Before Charles gets back. There are things you need to hear.’
‘What things?’ Holly asked.
‘Not here. I want to have this conversation somewhere public, where I’ll be safe.’
‘Safe? You don’t really think we’ll try to hurt you, do you?’
‘Miranda literally just attacked me.’
