Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

to stop for a drink?’ said Miranda.
    ‘No, no,’ said Jules. ‘So, when should I come and collect Sylvie and Carl?’
    Miranda shrugged. ‘Whenever.’
    ‘About … eleven?’ Jules suggested tentatively.
    ‘Fine,’ said Miranda. ‘Or later.’
    We nodded at Jules and then followed Miranda indoors. Well,
I
followed Miranda. Carl was looking at the windows close up, very gently fingering the lead and stroking the glossy glass.
    ‘Carl!’ I hissed.
    Miranda stopped, her head on one side. Her eyes were screwed up, looking at Carl. ‘You like the windows? Come and see the ones in the conservatory.’
    We walked along the hall, through a huge quarry-tiled kitchen with a dresser full of matching china, all stylized orange flowers, andthen into a glass room of green palms and great fans of fern, with pink and purple orchids everywhere. The conservatory had a frieze of stained glass running right round it, wonderful flowers and plants in rich crimsons and chrome yellows and jade green. The French windows were stained glass too, with birds in each panel – bluebirds, canaries, finches, magpies, parrots.
    Carl stood on tiptoe, as if he was going to fly like a bird himself. I worried that he looked a little
too
enchanted. I didn’t want Miranda to think him totally weird. But it was OK. She was smiling at him.
    ‘Great, isn’t it?’ she said.
    ‘The flowers are original nineteen twenties,’ said Carl. ‘But the birds?’
    ‘They’re new. Ish. There used to be flowers in the door panes but there was a little accident. I slammed straight through them. I was riding this go-cart, you see, and I didn’t quite get to grips with the steering. So there I was, spouting blood like a scarlet fountain and my dad was just going “Oh God, my stained-glass window!”’
    ‘Quite right too,’ said Carl. ‘It’s much easier to mend you than a beautiful original window.’
    Miranda laughed. ‘Yeah. So he was going to get the door glass replaced at great expense and I was losing my allowance for the rest of my life, but then he saw these modern birds in the stained-glass guy’s studio and that was it, he had to have them – at even greater expense.’
    ‘How much is that?’ said Carl. I knew he was thinking of the Glass Hut.
    ‘Thousands,’ said Miranda.
    ‘Oh,’ said Carl.
    ‘When we get the film deal for the book,’ I said softly.
    ‘The book?’ said Miranda.
    ‘Yes. Well. We’re writing this book together,’ I said.
    I looked at Carl, wondering if he was cross with me. The book wasn’t exactly a secret but it wasn’t the sort of thing we talked about to other people.
    ‘What’s it about?’ said Miranda curiously.
    ‘It’s just kind of fantasy,’ I said vaguely.
    ‘Can I read it?’
    ‘Well—’
    ‘Certainly not,’ said Carl.
    ‘Why, are you worried it’s silly baby stuff?’ said Miranda. ‘Dragons and princesses and precious rings?’
    ‘On the contrary,’ said Carl. ‘It’s highly original and we’re not letting anyone read it in case they steal our ideas.’
    Miranda sighed. I was so impressed by the way Carl talked back at her. She made me feel incredibly tongue-tied, whereas Carl didn’t seem remotely in awe of her.
    ‘So where’s this party then?’ he said. He looked round. ‘Are we it?’
    ‘Wait and see,’ said Miranda. ‘Come along.’
    She beckoned with her finger, her black nailpolish gleaming. We followed her back through the kitchen to the hall. Someone switched on some music in one of the front rooms so I walked towards it.
    ‘No, no,’ said Miranda. ‘That’s Parentland. We’re downstairs.’ She opened another door with steps leading downwards.
    ‘You’re having a party in your cellar?’ said Carl.
    ‘Such larks,’ said Miranda. ‘We’ll take turns to lock each other up in the dark. My pet rats like to play this game too.’
    I blinked. She had to be joking, although with Miranda you could never quite tell.
    It wasn’t a cellar at all, thank goodness.