The Last Witness Read Online Free PDF

detach herself from that thought, but it was difficult.
      Lorena’s English was near-perfect, though still with a distinct Eastern-European accent, its edges now smoothed by a gentle Dorset lilt. The combination was quite cute and endearing.          
    They’d hugged enthusiastically on greeting, and Elena felt reluctant to part, clinging on to Lorena’s hands a moment longer as Lorena asked if she got the photos, and she in turn commented that Lorena had grown and asked how she was. But it became quickly, painfully obvious that there were few safe footholds without getting to the business at hand, so Elena made the introductions and offered some encouragement – ‘Nadine’s here to help you. Just tell her everything in your own words, in your own time’ – then let Nadine take over.
      Nadine started with the softer ground covered earlier with the Ryalls – friends at school or from outside, how she was settling in generally, problems with her history essays – before zeroing in with questions about problems at home. But it seemed to have served little purpose; Lorena was still edgy, ill at ease.
      Nadine was uncertain whether to ease back and circle slowly in again, or to be more direct. She glanced at Elena, whose frustration and impatience was painfully evident. The risk with a direct blast was that Lorena could clam-up completely; but there was probably little to lose, she certainly wasn’t getting anywhere with the soft approach. 
      ‘When you phoned Elena, you mentioned that Mr Ryall was coming to your bedside late at night, and that this disturbed you. Why did this disturb you?’
      ‘It just did, that’s all.’ Lorena looked down for a second. ‘He used to come to read me bed-time stories, but I told him I was too old for that now.’
      ‘But has he still continued to come?’
      ‘Yes, but less now. Now it’s more for when I have the dreams than to read me stories.’
      ‘The dreams?’
      ‘Yes, I…’ Lorena glanced towards Elena. ‘I used to have bad dreams that I was underground, trapped… couldn’t breathe.’ She put one hand up dramatically to her throat. ‘They stopped finally, but not long ago, maybe six or seven months, they come back again.’
      Elena could see that Nadine was still grappling for a full picture, and cut in. ‘Lorena lived rough on the streets of Bucharest for almost a year after the first orphanage closed. In the winter, to keep warm, this often meant them making their beds and sleeping underground in the sewers. For a while afterwards at the second orphanage, before she came to England , she was plagued by nightmares about that.’
      ‘I see.’ Nadine nodded. ‘And when Mr Ryall comes to your bedside over those dreams, does anything else happen? Anything that might disturb you?’
      Lorena’s brow knitted. ‘In what way?’
      Nadine swallowed imperceptibly and stayed staring steadily at Lorena. ‘Has there ever been any physical contact?’
      Lorena blinked slowly, absorbing the weight of the question. ‘No, well… only him soothing me, stroking my head, you know, to calm me.’
      ‘Nothing else?’
      Lorena shook her head. ‘No, nothing.’
      Elena remembered many a night soothing Lorena’s brow at the Cerneit orphanage, and now Cameron Ryall had taken her place. Elena noticed the dark, fearful shadows return to Lorena’s eyes with talk about the dreams, but did something else lay behind those shadows? Natural discomfort of a young woman fast growing-up with a man visiting her bedroom late at night, or was something more worrying going on? Was this a safe and secure, loving home – everything Lorena had always dreamed of and more – or a gilded prison?
      Lorena would have grown up quicker than most, Elena reminded herself: she’d have had to think and act like an adult just to survive on the streets of Bucharest . She’d had so little real childhood. And perhaps, as a result, she just couldn’t relate