Resolutions Read Online Free PDF

he knows you far better that you give him credit for. George loves you, is grateful to you, but is under no illusions. He knows what you are.’
    â€˜And what am I, Rina?’
    â€˜I believe the technical term is sociopath.’
    â€˜Really. Not a psycho, then?’
    Rina smiled, chuckled softly. ‘You know better than that, sweetheart. What were you studying? Psychology, wasn’t it? No, a true psychopath has no ability to empathize, and I know, Karen dear, that your problem in some ways is that you have empathized too much.’
    â€˜You have to defend your own.’ Karen shrugged lightly. The cup and saucer rattled.
    â€˜There are ways and ways of defending.’
    â€˜Are there? Rina, I know you mean well; you always do. I know you believe every word you’re saying, but I want to see George and I want to take him with me. He belongs with what’s left of his family. I should never have left him behind, but I can put that right now.’
    â€˜And if he doesn’t want to go?’
    Karen’s laughter was genuinely disbelieving. ‘Of course he’ll want to go,’ she said. ‘What is there to keep him here?’
    â€˜Oh, you’d be surprised,’ Rina said. ‘I really think you would.’
    As it happened, there was a great deal to keep George in Frantham. While Hill House might not exactly be most people’s first choice of home, events had conspired to make sure George felt it was his. He’d made friends there, he’d earned kudos by defending both his home and his carer, saving her life when she’d been brutally attacked, and, more than all of that, he’d now spent more time there than he’d spent in any place for a very long time.
    He had a room of his own. He had stuff of his own that he could be fairly certain would not have to be abandoned when the family did another night-time flit, and he had a best friend who might actually, tentatively, delicately, be thought of as his girlfriend. Not that he’d yet risked calling Ursula that, but everyone else at Hill House and at school thought of them as an item, even if he’d not yet had the nerve to own the phrase himself.
    He certainly didn’t want to be going anywhere.
    Damn, even his school work was OK these days, largely due to Ursula, of course, but also down to the fact that he was settled and calm and actually enjoying school – most of the time at least.
    Rina’s call came just a few minutes after the minibus had dropped them all after school. It wasn’t unusual for Rina to ring Hill House for either himself or Ursula, but her timing was unusual. She usually waited until he’d been home for a while, knowing that they’d then have time for a proper chat.
    George knew at once that something must be wrong.
    â€˜What’s up?’ he asked, his absence of preamble a habit picked up from his older mentor.
    â€˜Does anything have to be up?’
    â€˜Doesn’t have to be, but it is. I can hear it in your voice.’
    Rina sighed. ‘It’s Karen,’ she said.
    â€˜Karen? Nothing happened to her, did it?’ It occurred to him to wonder how Rina would know.
    â€˜She’s fine, George. In fact, I suspect she’s more than fine. It’s just . . . George, she turned up here. This afternoon. She wants to see you. No, more than that, she wants you to go with her. She wants you to leave, George.’
    There was silence on both ends of the line. George found that his chest had tightened. He held his breath, as though waiting for the next blow to fall.
    â€˜George?’ Rina sounded concerned, well aware that on occasion she lacked finesse. ‘I’m sorry, love. Are you all right?’
    â€˜She’s here?’ George felt he could only take in so much of what Rina said. ‘No, Rina, she can’t be here. What if Mac sees her?’
    â€˜Mac left this morning. He’s gone up north for a