I Lie in Wait by Amanda Brittany

Author:Amanda Brittany
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780008362874
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-08-27T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

Present Day

Amelia

Finn is in bits, his eyes wild, his body shaking, as he struggles to take off his coat. Dad arrived back moments after I told Finn about his mum. And at Finn’s insistence, he took him to see Ruth’s body.

‘What the hell was she wearing?’ Finn says now, as though that’s important.

I jump to my feet and take his arm, lead him to the sofa, and sit down beside him. ‘I’m so sorry, Finn,’ I say, as he thrusts his head into his hands and sobs. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’

Eventually, like a lost child, his sobs slow to small jolts of sadness, and he lays his head on my shoulder.

Tears burn my eyes. I’m devastated for Finn. But I’m afraid for us all.

*

It’s gone midnight, and the wind howls around the cottage, rattling windows. There’s still no power, and the wood burner and candles have almost burned out. The silence is unbearable. We have no answers to Elise’s disappearance or Ruth’s death. The only comfort I hold on to is that we are together – safe, for now.

Dad is sitting on the floor, his back to the wall. ‘Tomorrow we’ll start again,’ he whispers into the silent room.

We haven’t seen Rosamund since she went up to bed earlier. She must have been exhausted, and I remember how tiring pregnancy can be. Better she sleeps, than lie awake, her mind whirring with worry about Elise, when there’s nothing any of us can do.

‘Goodnight,’ Thomas says, raising his hand, as Maddie pushes his wheelchair into the downstairs bedroom. She closes the door on him, and heads upstairs to her own room without a word.

Finn is sleeping next to me on the sofa, and I rise, grab a blanket from a pile Maddie got from the airing cupboard earlier, and move to one of the armchairs. Dad gets to his feet and drops into the chair Maddie vacated. ‘I’m knackered,’ he says, closing his eyes.

I wonder, once we are all settled, whether I will actually sleep. My head feels thick and heavy, as though I’m carrying rocks inside my skull. They bump against my thoughts and worries, bruising them.

The candles snuff out one by one, and eventually the fire is nothing more than red embers. Dad and Finn snuffle and snore, and as the wind cries, whipping around the cottage like a phantom, my eyelids finally fall heavy over my eyes.

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