Dear Scarlett Read Online Free PDF

tried to offer us another film, a 12 this time, but Ellie wasn’t going to be bought off that easily. I really want him to go away but he can’t sit down now, it’s like he’s got popping candy in his pants. He keeps clicking the top of his stopwatch, in, out, in, out, in, out. “What d’you know about your dad, Scarlett?” He jogs from one foot to the other.
    “He went to prison,” I mutter.
    “That’s it? That’s all you know? You’ve never been told anything else, by anyone? Not even yourmum? So you’ve just grown up thinking your dad was a criminal?”
    I nod.
    “Oh – that’s fine, then,” he says.
    What’s he getting at?
    “Well – she has told me other things,” I say, trying to sound cautious and knowing at the same time.
    “Like?” he asks.
    I nod towards Ellie, as if there’s some huge secret I know but that she shouldn’t, and comb the past for any scrap that might make Uncle Derek think I know everything about Dad. What has Mum told me? “She’s told me he wasn’t all bad, that he didn’t
just
burgle…” I say it as significantly as I can.
    “OK, fine.” He sits back in the chair.
    There’s a silence while Uncle Derek clicks his stopwatch again. Did he believe me? I gaze at my fingernails, waiting.
    “So are these something to do with being a burglar?” Ellie asks, prodding the tools.
    Uncle Derek nods. “Yes, love, they’re for lock-picking . Scarlett’s dad probably had several sets. They were the tools of his trade. Sort of.”
    “What do you mean – sort of?” asks Ellie.
    “Nothing – nothing – I was just surprised to see them there – that’s all.” But I can see he’s got something else he’s dying to say.
    I stare at the rug to stop myself speaking. I do the full-on stare, the one that would melt steel if the rug was made of steel. It helps. I manage not to say anything.
    “Well, there
is
another little thing, Ellie; but wouldn’t you rather wait until your mum gets back, Scarlett?”
    I shake my head. Ellie shakes hers. “It’s fine, you can say it in front of Ellie,” I say, still giving the rug my full attention. Uncle Derek may be really annoying, but just this once, I’m ready to listen to him. He might actually be about to tell me something interesting about my dad.
    He doesn’t speak, so I risk looking up. He’s dangling by his fingernails from the door frame. “Really?” he says.
    I nod.
    “Come on, Dad,” says Ellie. “I want to know what Scarlett knows, what you know.”
    Uncle Derek rubs his hands over his belly, only he hasn’t got a belly, he’s got a toast rack. He’slooking at his stopwatch again. Perhaps he’s timing the conversation.
    He sits down. “So your mum’s told you everything, then?” he says.
    I try to look bored. I daren’t speak in case I say the wrong thing, so instead, I heave a long sigh.
    “Did her dad do something really awful?” asks Ellie. “Like murder someone?”
    Uncle Derek’s head whips round to look at Ellie. “NO – nothing like that. Quite the opposite, actually. He saved lives, all over the place.”
    Saved lives?
    I say nothing and keep staring at the pattern on the rug. I can feel my ears turning red.
    “How come?” says Ellie.
    I shrug. “You can tell her,” I say, struggling to keep the excitement out of my voice.
    “Have you ever heard of the Official Secrets Act, Ellie, love?”
    “Isn’t it about keeping quiet about government things?”
    Uncle Derek sighs. “Loosely, yes. It means that years after something has happened that the government might want to keep secret, lots of people that worked for the government or wholived with people who worked for the government are bound to silence.” He looks at me. “Scarlett’s mum’s one of them.”
    “Are you?” asks Ellie.
    Uncle Derek screws up his face. “Sort of.”
    I glance up from the rug. Ellie’s staring at her dad.
    “So what did Scarlett’s dad do? Work for the government?”
    Uncle Derek nods. “Very much