All My Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

imagine what that’s going to be like. The prospect of no contact with friends or family bothers me far less. Right now, I’ve got
nothing to say to anyone. Except Gavin of course.
    We power along for another few minutes. I keep my eyes on the murky water ahead. At last, the island comes into view. The pictures in the Lightsea brochure must have been taken when the sun was
shining and the sea sparkling. On this grey day, everything looks stark and barren – a load of old rocks.
    ‘I guess the trees we saw in the pictures must be further along the coast,’ Andrew muses.
    I shrug. Who cares where the trees are? The whole place sucks.
    It drizzles for a minute or two as we draw close to the island, making everything even duller and greyer than before. We’re at the south-east tip of Lightsea, Andrew explains, where the
island is at its narrowest. All I can see is an endless stone beach and the edge of a wooden jetty.
    ‘There’s a boathouse along the rocks, I think,’ Andrew drones on.
    ‘Wow,’ I say. ‘Fascinating.’
    Andrew sighs. For a second, my throat pinches with guilt at being mean, then I shake myself. Andrew has lied and lied to me all my life. Even now, he has only given me the minimum possible
information about Irina. He doesn’t understand me at all. Goodness knows what
she
ever saw in him.
    The motorboat slows as we reach the empty jetty. The drizzle stops completely as the fisherman moors us to a wooden rail.
    ‘l’ll be leaving again in five minutes,’ he mutters, his accent so thick I can barely make out what he’s saying.
    ‘Thank you,’ Andrew says.
    We walk onto the jetty, carrying my big rucksack between us. A woman appears out of the trees. She strides towards us, about Andrew and Janet’s age, and slim and muscular with neatly
bobbed hair. She’s wearing dark green, soldier-style combat trousers. There’s a big smile on her face, but she looks seriously tough.
    ‘Ah, here’s someone,’ Andrew says approvingly, setting down my rucksack.
    I say nothing, but my legs suddenly feel like jelly. The woman reaches us.
    ‘Evie Brown?’ she asks. The smile is still there, but her eyes pierce through me. At least she has an entirely understandable northern accent.
    I nod. Not for the first time I imagine what it would be like to have my mother’s name: Galloway. Brown is Andrew’s name, of course, though he and Irina weren’t married.
It’s solid and conventional, just like him.
    ‘I’m very sorry we’re late; the car broke down as I explained when I called. I’m sorry if we’ve inconvenienced you,’ Andrew says.
    ‘It’s fine. I’m Miss Bunnock.’ The woman purses her lips, her eyes lingering on my hair. It’s loose, right down my back. The Lightsea regulations – as Janet
reminded me ten times before we left the house – insist that long hair must be tied back at all times. I bite my lip, expecting Miss Bunnock to make some comment, but instead she turns to
Andrew.
    ‘I would offer to show you around, Mr Brown, but your boat won’t wait and I’m sure you’re keen to get home.’ It isn’t a question. Andrew nods. He looks at
me.
    ‘You’ll be OK here, Evie.’
    That isn’t a question either.
    I press my lips tightly together. For some stupid reason, I feel like crying. For a second, I actually want to throw my arms around Andrew and beg him to take me home. But the bigger part of me
is too proud to show him I care.
    ‘Bye,’ I mumble.
    Andrew turns to Miss Bunnock. ‘I know you said no communication, but . . .’
    ‘You can call the office if you wish for an update,’ Miss Bunnock says crisply. ‘And obviously we’ll contact you in case of an emergency, should there be such a
thing.’ She makes it sound as if she’d be astonished if an emergency dared to happen anywhere near her or Lightsea Island.
    ‘Right.’ Andrew hesitates.
    ‘All those who’re coming, be coming,’ the fisherman calls out.
    ‘Bye then, sweetheart.’ Andrew leans