The Rescue of Ravenwood by Natasha Farrant
Author:Natasha Farrant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2023-05-15T00:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
âDarling!â Ingrid, in a crisp white dress, was sitting at a dressing table applying mascara. âHow pretty you look! Isnât it absolute heaven to be properly clean again? That little shower on the Carolina just didnât quite cut it, did it?â
Bea sat down on the edge of the bed with her hands beneath her thighs.
âI need to tell you something.â She looked around. âAnd Dad.â
Ingrid put down her mascara, picked up a tube of lipstick, then put that down too.
âOf course. Heâs just getting dressed. Alex, darling! Beaâs here.â
She picked up the lipstick again and applied the colour to her lips. Alex, freshly showered and in clean clothes, came out of the bathroom.
Beaâs parentsâ eyes met in the mirror. A tiny nod, and just before Ingrid spoke again, Bea remembered that other nod in the restaurant last night, after Alex had spoken to Leo, and how all evening her hands had never stopped moving â¦
Suddenly, despite the heat of the day, she felt cold.
âActually, Bea, darling â¦â Ingrid stopped to collect herself. Alex crossed the room to stand beside her. Ingrid took a deep breath.
Bea wrapped her arms around herself with a sense of creeping dread.
âActually, Bea, darling, thereâs something we need to ask you,â Ingrid said. âDo you mind if we go first?â
She rushed on without waiting for an answer.
âI expect you have been wondering, darling, why we asked you on holiday.â
âI â¦â Bea didnât know what to say. She had wondered, of course, especially at the beginning. And if she hadnât felt this new need for home, she might be pleased to know. Now though, the question felt like a distraction. âMaybe a bit â¦â
Ingrid ploughed on.
âWe have been thinking about ⦠No, we have decided ⦠What I mean is, itâs not really a question any more, itâs ⦠Bea, darling, youâre going to come and live with us!â
Shock does strange things to a person.
Beaâs head swam, her vision grew blurry and her ears rang. She pressed her hands into the bed, her fingers curling into the embroidered flowers of the coverlet as if this could stop the sense of falling.
Breathe, she told herself, the way Martha had taught her once after she fell down the steps on the terrace. Breathe.
This was good, wasnât it? Astonishing, also, and unexpected, but good â no? It meant her parents wanted her. They loved her! Bea had made things right.
Why, then, did it feel so wrong?
âYouâre about to start secondary school,â Ingrid was gabbling. âThereâs a really good one near us.â
A new school? thought Bea, bewildered. âBut Iâm going to Meadowbanks next year with Raffy.â
Ingrid looked pleadingly at Alex.
âThis is a much better school than Meadowbanks,â he said, as if this somehow made sense. âThey have really excellent facilities, and terrific results. We spoke to the head teacher before coming away and she says they have a space for you.â
Wrong, thought Bea, wrong, wrong, wrong.
âYou spoke to the head teacher before coming away?â she stammered. âBut why didnât you tell me?â
Too late, Alex realised his mistake.
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