AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘They like each other?’ I say. ‘He’s thirty-what? Thirty-one? He’s?—’
‘Oh, Frances, come on. They like each other. Get over it.’
I gawp. ‘You think that’s okay? You think someone twice her age is a suitable – and you…’ I remember the line I’ve just read in Jenna’s diary involving something that happened before the diary began: Ever since Bob Dylan he’s been so nice to me. Was that a concert my brother had taken her to? They’d been to a few. When was it? Surely I’d remember Dylan?
I rub my eyes. ‘For how long exactly? Because she’s only sixteen, and when was it that you took her to see Bob Dylan?’
Tristan goes quiet. ‘Okay, yes, she was a bit young then and things got out of hand, but I had a talk with the boy and since then he’s been nothing but a gentleman.’
How young? What happened at the concert? Then my stomach drops even further. I remember one concert in particular. She stayed home from school with a stomach-ache for two days after. She was fourteen.
A gentleman? The boy? Theo is a grown man.
What happened at that concert?
And then: Will she ever get a chance to tell me?
Because she isn’t here. And there’s a lot of blood. And the wall says…
I double over and clutch my thigh till I feel all of the cuts tear open and I scrunch my eyes and mouth shut to stop the pain from escaping. I feel like I’m being turned inside out but I tell myself to lock it all away.
I open my eyes again and look up.
My brother’s forehead creases. ‘How could you think it was me?’
I stare at him, his handsome face with those charming eyes and the scar that evokes both fear and sympathy. He looks so hurt. So truly, utterly gutted that we could have believed he was capable of such a thing.
But I believed it because I’ve never known what really happened that afternoon with Miss Smith. Because I believe he’s capable of anything.
79
BEFORE
Jenna’s lips quivered and stretched. As she pulled herself up, her eyelids dragged themselves open and dropped shut over and over again. ‘Wha?’
‘Oh my God, Jenna.’ Rose dropped down and hugged her. ‘You stupid, stupid, stupid – I love you.’
‘She didn’t get the artery,’ Lydia said. ‘She probably just fainted.’
Relief picked me up and I felt like I was flying high above Trevethan House then zooming back in through the open window. ‘Oh, thank God,’ I said, over and over. I felt sick.
Everything was out of control. Jenna was hurt and I needed to start thinking properly. ‘We have to call an ambulance. And your mother,’ I said.
Rose fell back as Jenna pushed her, shaking her head.
‘You need an ambulance,’ I said.
‘No,’ said Jenna.
Lydia knelt and put her arms round both girls. ‘You might want some stiches,’ Lydia said.
‘Can’t you do it?’ asked Jenna.
Lydia pulled back and made a disapproving face.
‘Oh my God,’ said Rose, still crying. She hit Jenna in the chest. ‘How could you do it? How could you do this?’
‘Jenna, I’m calling an ambulance and your mum, right now.’ I patted my pocket but realised I’d left my phone in the car. How would I explain her being here, in this house?
