The Au Pair by Jane Renshaw

Author:Jane Renshaw [Renshaw, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

25

ALICE - 19 JULY

Alice knew Tess wanted to talk to her.

In a way that was completely out of character, she’d been following Alice around all day, helping with the chores and just hanging out. While Alice was ironing in the laundry room, Tess would be sorting the clothes into coloureds and whites. While Alice was cooking, Tess would be going through the contents of the fridge and deciding whether stuff was far enough past its date that it should go in the trash. Not that anything went in the actual trash here – or as little as possible, as Tess sternly pointed out when Alice casually threw a tub of mouldy coleslaw into the big enamel trash can by the door.

Tess retrieved it, emptied the contents into the little green pail under the sink that Alice had kind of been ignoring, washed the tub and took it to the plastic recycling box in the utility room.

When she came back, Alice said, ‘How about a break and a snack? I think we’ve earned it, don’t you?’

They had strawberry jam on Alice’s home-made bread and milkshakes. While Alice chattered on, Tess remained mainly silent, sitting opposite her at the table and tackling her bread and jam and her milkshake with her usual quiet efficiency, as if she were at a fuel stop and had to get it all onboard asap. But as she ate, she stared at Alice in a way Alice began to find a little trying.

‘Well, spit it out!’ she said at last.

Tess stopped mid-chew.

‘Not literally,’ Alice added, and that made Tess smile. Alice touched the back of her hand briefly. ‘I get the feeling you’ve got something on your mind.’

‘No. I don’t.’

‘Oh, okay. But if there was something you wanted to talk over, you know I’m always here to listen? I would try to help if I could.’

Alice changed the subject, and they ended up talking about Isabel and her obsession with the pigeon books.

‘She’s too old for them,’ said Tess.

‘Well, I like them, and I’m eighteen!’

Tess shrugged. Then she said, out of nowhere, ‘Sometimes I hear things.’

Oh my goodness! She was hearing voices?

‘At night, usually.’

‘That sounds like you’ve been having some bad nightmares.’

Tess shook her head. ‘I wasn’t asleep. Uncle Gray says I’m… uncanny. The kind of person who could tap into another dimension.’

‘Oh, honey! That’s nonsense!’

‘A few times, I’ve heard these banging noises, like a… a poltergeist. And this other time at night, I was woken up by someone screaming. I thought it was Mum or Christina. But when I went out into the corridor, everything was really quiet, and it was really cold, even though it was the middle of summer. I checked on Christina, and she was asleep. And so was Mum. Dad said it was probably a fox.’ She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

‘Well, could it have been?’

‘No! It was a woman screaming.’ Her gaze was fixed on Alice, as if Alice was the one person who could help. ‘If there really is some

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