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He looks impatiently at his watch.
“Archie, I really need to go,” he says to Dad. “Can we just—”
“Emerald, listen,” Ben calls, the swan wobbling dangerously as he tries to stand up again. “This is important. We really need to talk. I need to—”
“Are you deaf?” Jack interrupts. “She’s not talking to you. She’s coming home with me, and we’re going right now. Archie?”
“She can speak for herself, you know,” says Ben, unexpectedly. “Or are you not even going to give her a chance?”
“Excuse me?” Jack takes a step towards the edge of the boat, and I find my voice at last.
“Jack, wait,” I say, reaching out to put a hand on his arm. “Don’t you think we should hear him out? Aren’t you even the tiniest bit curious about what he has to say?”
Because I am. Now that the initial shock of seeing him here — on the back of a swan, no less — is starting to pass, I have approximately five thousand and thirty-one questions for Ben. Well, okay, three:
Where have you been?
What did you do with all my money, you absolute shit?
What do you know about Jack that made you decide that sending me a string of anonymous messages claiming he’s a liar was a good idea?
In time, I’ll probably want to add “What’s Rose got to do with all of this?” to my list, but, for now at least, those are my Big Three. And there’s no way I’m going to turn around and meekly follow Jack back home without finding out the answers.
Jack, however, has other ideas.
“Emerald, I don’t have time for this,” he groans, putting a hand over his eyes in exasperation. “I told you, I need to get back. And I promise you, wewilltalk about this, and we will find out what this asshole is doing here; we just can’t do it right this second, is all.”
“What if Iwantto do it right this second, though?” I reply stubbornly. “What if I don’twantto wait until you finish whatever it is you have to do that’s so much more important than me finally getting to find out what happened to my money? Or is that just more ‘drama’ as far as you’re concerned?”
“I didn’t say that—” begins Jack, but Ben jumps in before he can continue.
“He’s lying, Emerald,” he says eagerly. “He doesn’t have to be anywhere this urgently. He’s just trying to get you out of here so you don’t hear what I have to say.”
“How dare you?” Jack is almost spitting with anger now. “You don’t know me. You know nothing about me. Maybe you should take a look at yourself before you go calling anyone a liar.”
“Don’t I?” says Ben mildly. “I think you’ll find I know a lot more than you think. But Emerald’s the one I’m going to tell, not you. Emerald?”
I look from him to Jack, then back again, feeling ridiculously torn.
Jack did tell us this morning that he wouldn’t be able to stay long tonight. And he’s been saying he had to leave since before Ben even showed up, which suggests that the sudden appearance of my exisn’tthe reason he’s trying to bring this surreal conversation to a close.
On the other hand, though, I really want to know the answers to my Big Three questions; and I can’t believe Jack’s trying to stop me from getting them.
“Jack, I believe you,” I say at last, turning to look up at him. “I really do. But I need to hear what he’s got to say. Surely you can understand that?”
As I say this, it occurs to me that I’m not just asking if he gets why I need to speak to Ben; I’m asking if he getsme. Because Jack knows better than anyone the effect Ben’s sudden disappearance had on me; or heshouldknow, anyway, because God knows, we’ve talked about it enough. He even offered to pay someone to track Ben down for me at one point: I refused, because I didn’t want to take his money, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t always wondered — and it doesn’t mean I’m not still furious about the mess my ex left me in.
And now I finally have the chance to find out why he did it.
If Jack would just stop trying to get in the way, that is.
“Of course I understand,” he says now. “I’m not saying you can’teverspeak to him, Emerald—”
“Sounds that way to me,” puts in Ben, unhelpfully.
“—I’m just asking you to wait until I can be there too,” Jack goes on, ignoring him. “Because I really do have somewhere I need to be right now.”
“Oh? And where’s that?” says Ben, who really hasn’t taken the hint. “I’m sure Emerald would love to know, too.”
