Burning Secrets Read Online Free PDF

you. He gave her neck a reassuring squeeze as she bristled.
    â€œHere we are,” said a triumphant voice and the woman reappeared brandishing two dusty bottles of budget brand cola, their labels faded to pink. “Found them!” They were warm to the touch and didn’t look very appetising, but Daniel didn’t want to hurt her feelings by refusing. He held out a palm full of coins, but the woman waved it away. “I won’t charge you,” she said, “seeing as they’re a bit old.”
    They mumbled their thanks and turned to leave, a dozen or more pairs of eyes boring into them with undisguised curiosity, as they threaded their way between the tables.
    At the exit Louie stopped, suddenly made confident by the prospect of their departure. “Do you mind?” she addressed the room. “It is actually quite rude to stare.”
    Daniel bundled her out of the door on to the pavement, sweating with embarrassment. “What did you want to go and do that for?” he demanded. “Now we’ll never be able to go back in there!”
    â€œLike we want to go back to a café that only sells water!” Louie retorted. “Or flat, warm hundred-year-old Coke.” She blew the fluff off her bottle and opened the lid – it surrendered its last remaining bubble of gas with a faint sigh. “Oh, gross. I’m not drinking that,” she said, pouring it into the gutter. Immediately half a dozen wasps materialised from nowhere.
    â€œShe was only trying to be nice.”
    â€œI don’t like being gawped at,” snapped Louie.
    â€œWell, stop being so loud and lairy then,” Daniel hissed, bending down to untie Chet. He’d been brought a plastic dish of water and he was drinking noisily.
    Daniel looked around for someone to thank, at which point one of the girls drinking coffee at the picnic tables detached herself from the group as if taking up a dare and sauntered over, chewing. She had blonde hair done up in plaits and was wearing a dazzling white shirt and shorts. She had blue eyes and peachy skin, and if she was wearing any make-up it was too subtle for Daniel to notice. She looked – the word leapt to his mind – clean .
    â€œHello,” she said, turning from him to Louie as if to share herself out evenly. “You’re new, aren’t you?”
    â€œWe’re new to here,” Daniel replied.
    â€œI’m Ramsay Arkin,” said the girl, holding out a hand to shake.
    Daniel tugged her hand with its neat oval fingernails, so different from Louie’s sore nibbled stumps which she was now doing her best to conceal.
    â€œI live over there.” She pointed vaguely in the direction they’d come from. “We’re having a sort of end-of-the-holidays barbecue tomorrow night. Come if you want.”
    â€œWho’s we?” asked Daniel.
    â€œA bunch of us from school. That lot.” She indicated her friends on the green. “Plus a few others. We’ll just cook sausages and play volleyball on the beach. No big deal.”
    â€œWhat beach?” Daniel asked, although he’d already decided he wouldn’t go.
    â€œJoff Bay.”
    Daniel shook his head. “I don’t know it.”
    â€œWell, you were walking on it yesterday afternoon.” She bit her bottom lip to stop herself smiling at this admission.
    â€œOh.” Daniel was taken aback. He tried to remember whether he’d done anything embarrassing, apart from rooting around in a bin. “I never saw you.”
    â€œI was up on the cliff with my sister.”
    â€œI didn’t realise it was called Joff Bay. We only got here—”
    â€œI know. You only got here yesterday. You’re from London, and you’re staying at The Brow.”
    â€œYou seem to know a lot about us,” Louie said, bridling. “Are we under surveillance?”
    She gave a tinkly laugh, revealing teeth stained bright green. Daniel