Scarlet by J.T. Brindle

Author:J.T. Brindle [Brindle, J.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781859919
Publisher: Head of Zeus

Scarlet woke with a muffled gasp. Someone was trying the attic door! She trembled in the sticky clinging heat, hugging herself and waiting for the inevitable. He had returned. She waited for his eerie voice. ‘His name,’ it would ask, ‘tell me his name.’ And, as before, she would remain silent, praying that he would go away.

Scarlet had no idea how long she had been in the attic. She only knew that her throat was raw and parched as the dry earth, and her bones were stiff with cramp. The heat was stifling. Scarlet wondered whether she might die, here in this attic that she knew so well. Here, where the tiny window, which had once given her light, was now boarded over. As a child she had often imagined that one day these four walls would make her a splendid coffin. Now he was here to finish it. She waited. What was he up to? Why was he at the door, if not to demand that she must give up the name or starve to death?

‘Scarlet!’ The urgent whisper was a shock. Slowly, agonisingly slowly, Scarlet inched her aching body along the floorboards. At long last her energy was spent. In the pitch blackness she was directed by her instincts, and by the long, ingrained memories which had mapped out every inch of her prison. It surprised her to find that time never dimmed the painful engravings in her mind. The attic was a part of her. It must stay with her for ever, draining her life until it possessed her completely. One day, if not now, there would be death in this attic. She felt that it was destined to be. And she was not afraid.

‘Scarlet!’ The whisper was distorted, urgent and shaped by fear. ‘Are you alright?… answer me.’

Scarlet recognised the voice. It was Shelagh! She put her hand flat against the door. ‘Oh, Shelagh.’ Tears of relief trickled down her face. ‘I’m afraid for my baby,’ she said, the words issuing painfully between cracked and swollen lips, ‘my baby… please.’

‘You’ve been locked up for three days! Tell him what he wants to know… you must tell him!’

‘I’ll never tell him. Never!’ Scarlet had not expected Shelagh to understand the unique and destructive relationship that had evolved between her and her father, a terrible and inescapable bond that was corrupt and evil beyond imagination. The issue was not about her telling him a name, but of her refusing to submit. She would not gratify him, never again, in any way!

‘You must tell him, Scarlet, you must!’ Shelagh still insisted, and Scarlet forgave her because she was a stranger to Greystone House. She could not know.

‘Very well. I have a plan… trust me.’ There was a pause, then, ‘Put your hand to the bottom of the door. Quickly… he’s climbing the stairs!’ Scarlet did as she was told. Her fingers touched something cold. ‘It’s the best I can do… he watches me constantly. He’s even closed the smithy so as not to be drawn from the house.

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