Wild Blue Yonder (The Ceruleans: Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the girl in the mirror made emotion
swell up again, but I was done with crying, so I busied myself exploring the
contents of the wardrobe and the chest of drawers. Both were packed with
clothes – underwear, nightwear, vests, t-shirts, knitwear, jeans. Whoever had
stocked them had a good sense of my style (if you could call jeans-tee-and-cardie
a style: Cara, my fashion-loving friend, certainly hadn’t), and everything
looked to be in my size. Jude, I thought. He’d gone to some trouble to make me
feel at home here. I hoped that hadn’t included going through my underwear
drawer back home to find my bra size.
    I chose a pair of soft white pyjamas from a drawer, then fetched
the towelling robe – lime, to match the room – from the bathroom and put that
on too. It was thick and fluffy, like wearing an enormous hug.
    Warm at last, I turned my attention to the next pressing
need: my stomach was complaining loudly that it had been a really long time
since that slice of welcome cake. I explored the contents of the mini-fridge:
covered cups of juice and creamy milk, a pot of yoghurt and a sandwich wrapped
in cling-film. In a cupboard next to the fridge I found tableware, cutlery, a
tray and more provisions: a tin of biscuits, a bowl of fruit and a box full of
herbal tea sachets. I made myself up a tray and took my meal to the bed.
    Turning on the television with the remote revealed no
channels – neither terrestrial nor satellite. Another reminder of how cut off
we were here. The prompt instructed me to insert a DVD, so I got back out of
bed and looked in the cupboard beneath the television where, in my earlier
hunt, I’d seen DVD box sets. I selected a Friends one, just plucking any
randomly from the box, and put it in the player.
    Back in bed, I worked my way through the jam sandwich, yoghurt
scattered with blueberries, a banana, three vanilla biscuits and a raspberry
tea. I tried to focus on Friends . It was the one where Joey accidentally
wins a twenty-two-foot sailboat at an auction.
    I thought about the jetty I’d seen out on my walk with Jude.
I thought about the little dinghy I’d seen bobbing about beside that jetty. I
thought about trying to creep out and pilot the little dinghy home – home to
Luke.
    Then I thought about Jude, right through the wall. There if
I needed him. There to guard me?
    Later, when I turned off the television and dimmed the
lights and I lay curled under the thick eiderdown, I thought again of that song
Luke had played, and I ran the end of the second verse over and over in my
mind. And I wondered whether the boy in the next room could be more than
someone to watch over me. I wondered whether, if I trod carefully, wisely, he
could be the someone who brought me back to Luke.
     
     

6: SERVIAM
     
    The next day dawned grey and drizzly. I was washed and
dressed and waiting impatiently on the sofa when Jude knocked for me. When I
opened the door, he looked nervous.
    ‘Morning,’ he said. ‘How are you? Did you sleep okay?’
    ‘No’ was the truthful answer. I’d tossed and turned, and
when sleep did come, it brought with it dreams of tigers and storms and fires
and Luke curled up in his bed, crying. But there was little point dragging Jude
into all that. I wanted him relaxed. I wanted him on side. There was something
I needed him to do.
    ‘I feel better today,’ I told him.
    ‘Good.’ He smiled tentatively. ‘Hungry?’
    ‘Ravenous.’
    ‘Are you up for breakfast downstairs?’
    He didn’t add ‘with the others’, but I caught his drift.
    ‘Yes,’ I said firmly. ‘But first, we need to talk.’
    I stood back and ushered him in and then shut the door
firmly behind him. He stood right inside the door, looking at me. There was
dread on his face.
    ‘Luke,’ I said simply.
    He looked a little relieved that I wasn’t shouting or crying
or asking more questions.
    ‘You promised,’ I reminded him. ‘That you’d go back – just
once – to tell him I was okay. He’ll be