Tell Me No Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

know.’ His face is concerned. ‘But unless she’s had a personality transplant, I think that anything is possible.’
    It’s not what I want to hear and I slump back in my seat. ‘So what should I do?’
    â€˜Act friendly. Find out what she wants.’
    â€˜Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?’
    â€˜Exactly.’
    â€˜You really think she might be my enemy?’
    â€˜Think about it. Think about how she used to behave.’
    I think about it. ‘She wasn’t all bad.’
    â€˜She had you dancing to her tune.’
    â€˜Not always,’ I say slowly. ‘Sometimes it felt like a tug of war between the two of—’
    The boards in the hall creak and we both look towards them. Somehow Tom has managed to come down the garden and through the door without either of us noticing. His feet are bare and he’s scratching his crotch.
    â€˜Grace, I’m not well.’
    â€˜Poor you.’ I give him a sympathetic look. ‘Feeling rotten still?’
    â€˜I’m a bit better.’ He squints at me. ‘It’s too sunny outside.’
    â€˜Spoken like a true Scotsman! Do you want to sleep down here?’
    â€˜Is that okay, Dad? It’s lonely in the house.’
    â€˜Sure.’ Euan claps him on the back and I walk him through to the bedroom. The bed is already made up and I pull back the covers.
    â€˜Climb in, laddie,’ I say, adopting a nurse’s jollity. ‘Sleep is the best medicine.’
    â€˜It’s a shame this bed never gets used.’ He throws himself on to it, grabs a pillow to hug. ‘Whenever we have guests they always sleep up at the house. I’m hoping Dad’s going to let me have the cabin as a bachelor pad when I’m eighteen. There’s enough light for him to work in the two rooms at the top of the house.’ He opens one eye. ‘And you too, Grace. You see, I’ll be needing my own space by then because I’ll be coming in late and stuff like that.’
    â€˜You might find Sarah trying to beat you to it, Tom. She has two years on you.’
    â€˜She’s not going to hang around at home. She’ll be straight off to uni.’ He gives a yawn. ‘Mum gets on her nerves.’
    â€˜Well, being a mother isn’t easy,’ I say, tucking the covers around him. I think of Ella and an extra weight is added to my chest as I breathe in. ‘Sometimes you can’t do right for doing wrong.’
    â€˜I feel really hungry.’
    â€˜It’s a bit soon for food. I’ll make you some lunch when you wake, I promise.’
    â€˜Thanks, Grace. You’re wicked.’
    I stroke the top of his hair flat. His lashes are long and rest on the crest of his cheeks, freckles scatter across his nose and his mouth is wide and tilts upward in a permanent smile. He looks so much like Euan did at thirteen that it makes my heart ache.
    I arrive home after the girls. They are in the living room. Ella is lying on her front on the sofa, her eyes closed, her face resting sideways on a textbook. One hand hangs down near the floor and reaches for Murphy as he pushes into the room ahead of me; the other is twisting her hair around her index finger. Daisy sits sideways in one of the easy chairs, her legs dangling over the end of the armrest, a science book on her lap, and when I come into the room she looks up at me.
    â€˜Mum, did you know that a chemist called Antoine Lavoisier was guillotined during the French revolution and he told friends that he would keep blinking for as long as possible after being killed?’ She looks back at the book. ‘His last blink was fifteen seconds after decapitation.’
    â€˜Astonishing!’ I smile. ‘Painful too, I should imagine.’ I rub my hands together. ‘Changing the subject, girls! I thought this might be a good time for the three of us to have a chat.’
    â€˜Sure.’ Daisy closes her