Midnight Girls Read Online Free PDF

battlements, and beyond that was the sparkling loch and nothing else to be seen for miles and miles except soft Scottish hills melting into the horizon. And there, sitting on the rug in front of an enormous hearth, was a pretty blonde girl, her skinny limbs emerging from a T-shirt and some denim shorts, playing with a grey kitten.
    ‘This is Allegra,’ her mother’s friend said cheerfully. ‘Allegra darling, get up and say hello to Imogen. She’s just your age and I’m sure you’re going to be great friends.’
    Imogen stood awkwardly on the edge of the rug while Allegra got slowly to her feet, her face impassive and her dark-blue eyes watchful and cool.
    ‘Take her up to the nursery, darling, and show her your things. I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time together. Take Zaza with you.’
    Allegra tucked the grey kitten against her chest and padded towards the door without giving Imogen another glance.
    ‘Go on, Imogen,’ said her mother, obviously eager to sit down for a good chat with her friend, ‘off you go with Allegra.’
    So she’d gone after her, following in her footsteps and feeling silly in the smart tartan pinafore and patent Mary Janes that her mother had put her in for the visit. Allegra’s clothes, although they were nothing special, seemed a million times more stylish and desirable. On that first visit she barely said a word to Imogen for the first hour. Up in the nursery, she put a cassette tape into a player and they listened to rock music at top volume while Allegra played with Zaza the kitten and Imogen lost herself in the nursery bookcase, which was crammed with Enid Blytons that she hadn’t yet added to her collection. After an hour or so they went back downstairs and Allegra took her to the kitchen where the housekeeper gave them each a glass of orange squash and some digestive biscuits.
    ‘Do you like Nirvana?’ Allegra said at last, as they munched their biscuits.
    ‘Mmm, yes.’ Imogen nodded. That must be what they’d been listening to. She’d never heard of them. They were certainly loud, and seemed very het up about things.
    ‘I fucking adore them,’ Allegra announced. Imogen’s eyes widened with surprise at the extremely naughty word she had just heard. ‘I’m going to marry Kurt Cobain when I grow up.’ She stared at Imogen. ‘Who are you going to marry?’
    Imogen didn’t know whether to tell the truth about who she wanted to marry, but she had been brought up to be honest and wanted to be like this glamorous girl, so she swallowed her biscuit and said in a quiet voice, ‘Kevin fucking Costner.’
    Allegra laughed so hard she squirted orange squash all over the table. Imogen started giggling too, and the next minute they were squealing hysterically, with Allegra rolling on the floor holding her stomach, until the housekeeper came to find out what on earth all the fuss was about.
    After that, they were friends.
    Back home, Imogen’s mother couldn’t stop talking excitedly about Selina’s life, her marriage into the aristocracy, her beautiful children, and her amazing house.
    ‘Who would have thought it?’ she kept marvelling. ‘Selina Garrett. Well, well, well. Of course, it can’t all be a picnic. Ivo’s been married twice before and poor Selina’s got three stepchildren to cope with, as well as her own two, and her boy Xander won’t inherit a thing. And her grim old father-in-law still rules the roost, but still … Perhaps it’s not too high a price to pay for everything she’s got.’
    Imogen wondered if her mother was drawn to her old friend and her impressive home because it was a life that perhaps she herself could have had. After all, they had both started out in the same place, as schoolgirls at Westfield, but where Selina Garrett now had a title and a castle to live in, Jeannie Heath had ended up in an average suburban house, with a decent but ordinary husband who ran his own Edinburgh law practice, living an uneventful life.
    No matter what