No Going Back Read Online Free PDF Page B

as I left. A tractor rumbled up the road and Uncle Pete leaned out of the cab and waved. I waved back but could only manage half a smile. Once or twice I thought that I heard steps behind me. I stopped, took off my flip-flops and pretended to dust somegrit from the bottom of my feet while quickly glancing back. There were just a couple of elderly ladies chatting in the distance. Nothing to get uptight about.
    â€œIt’s lack of sleep,” I said to myself. “You’re imagining things.”
    All the same I walked to Liberty’s as fast as I could without risking looking stupid by breaking into a run.
    â€œSave me!” I shrieked, flinging my arms around her as soon as she opened the front door.
    She staggered backwards. Her hair smelled of coconut and was like a ribbon of flaxen silk against my cheek. How I longed for hair like that instead of my tangle of mouse-brown curls.
    â€œGran’s already having a go at me. I need a sanctuary.”
    She stiffened slightly, not laughing as I expected.
    â€œUh, okay,” she said, not sounding entirely welcoming as she extricated herself from my hug. “So have you totally had enough already then?”
    â€œThere’s no point whingeing,” I replied. “We’re here now. Besides, I’m working on my positive thinking…”
    I paused, waited for her to groan and say,“Not again.” But she didn’t. Instead she just stood there looking stony.
    â€œAre you okay, Lib?” I asked.
    â€œFine. You didn’t text to let me know you were coming.”
    â€œSorry, are you going out?”
    â€œNo. I can’t. I’m babysitting the boys again . I thought that now you were here Mum wouldn’t be so tied up and I’d get a bit of time to myself.” She sounded really put out and she wasn’t looking at me, just using her hair as a shield.
    I was a bit thrown for a moment. “I can come back later if you like. I was going to help my mum sort things out but Gran was being a bit awkward and…” I shrugged. “Well, as I said, I can come back later.”
    Liberty turned on her heel and strode down the dark, quarry-tiled hall.
    â€œYou’re here now, aren’t you?” She called over her shoulder.
    I hesitated on the doorstep, wondering whether to follow her or to leave her to stew. Before I could make my mind up a gust of wind hit me hardbetween the shoulder blades, propelling me straight over the doormat. I crashed into the umbrella stand and was still getting my breath back when the front door slammed closed behind me. Liberty’s heart-shaped face appeared around the door frame to the kitchen.
    â€œWe’ve only just had that painted. Mum’ll go berserk if it’s chipped.”
    â€œSorry,” I said. “It was the wind.”
    â€œWhat wind?”
    I followed her into the kitchen and looked out of the window. The leaves on the trees were completely still.
    â€œDunno,” I said. “There was this gust. It came from nowhere. It was weird.”
    Liberty plonked herself down on the sofa and picked up a pot of electric-blue polish from the coffee table. She stroked a slick of blue onto her thumbnail.
    â€œWelcome to Derbyshire,” she said. “The weather’s different up here. It can be bright sunshine one minute and pouring with rain five minutes later.”
    â€œI do know that,” I said, laughing. “I have been here before, duh!”
    It was an attempt to lighten the atmosphere, whichwas still as chilly as those snowbound days they get in the Peak District in winter.
    â€œI suppose you’re going to find loads of things are different from now on,” she said. There was an edge to her voice that I’d never heard before.
    I felt something in my chest, like a trickle of iced water running down behind my breastbone. “What do you mean?”
    She didn’t look up, just concentrated on covering those long,