But Joe doesn’t need any more of a hint. “I’ll go. I know the route.”
“No!” Sadie grabs his sleeve. “Actually, no, you’re the only one here I can rely on. You can’t leave me with that lot.” She jerks her head toward the house, picturing the four remaining guests—self-centered Everett, arrogant Mrs. Shrew, cowardly Zach, and indecisive Nazleen. And how would they describe me? she thinks, cringing inwardly. A pathetic, desperate actor who puts money before her own safety?
Joe searches her expression in the torchlight, frowning, and she waits for him to reassure her, to tell her she’s overreacting. But instead, he tilts his head as if more confused than ever.
“You know, it’s been niggling at me all evening,” he says. “You really do remind me of someone. Do you mind me asking—what’s your mother’s name?”
Beth
December 1989
Ihesitated at the top of the stairs, coughing with every other breath, blinded by the thick gray smoke.
“Where are you?” I shouted. “Where is everyone?”
Someone crashed into me in the gloom. It was Leonora. And she pulled a frightened-looking Nina behind her.
“Get downstairs!” Leonora said. “We need to get out.”
We stumbled down the stairs, and as Leonora yanked open the front door, Markus and Hendrik emerged from the smoke behind us. Markus’s eyes were red-rimmed and streaming. Hendrik, coughing and wheezing, was bent double, gripping Markus’s arm for support.
Leonora tugged Nina and me across the threshold, and we all gasped in lungfuls of cold, fresh air.
“I’ve shut the door on the flames,” Markus shouted. The smoke in the hall was thinning, now that the front door was open. “It’ll buy us some time; the fire’s contained. Did anyone ring 999?” When nobody answered, he peered around and reached for the phone. He dialed the number, then turned to Hendrik. “Get outside, Dad. Go with Leonora. I’ll follow in a second.”
I tried to move back into the hall, wanting to help Hendrik, who was struggling to breathe and pressing his fingers and thumb against his streaming eyes. But Leonora’s grip on my arm was strong, and she shoved Nina and me down the steps ahead of her, as if she couldn’t get away from Hendrik fast enough.
“Leave him. He’ll be fine.” Her voice was surprisingly bitter. “He always is.”
“What happened?” I said. “Where’s the fire?”
Leonora’s fierce stare made me shrink inside my skin. “It’s in your bedroom, Beth. Were you burning a candle in there?”
I shook my head, appalled. “No, I—”
“Did you leave something switched on? Your hair dryer?”
“No!”
Leonora made a sound of disgust, but she cut it off sharply and checked over her shoulder. Hendrik still hadn’t emerged from the house. Leonora glanced across to the stable block with a calculating expression on her face. It was dusk; in another few minutes, it would be completely dark.
“Go and sit on the wall,” she said, gesturing toward the shadowy end of the stable block. She dropped her voice to a hiss. “Whatever happens, he mustn’t see there are two of you.”
Wordlessly, Nina and I linked hands, and we stumbled away across the gravel together. My chest ached from the smoke I’d inhaled, but also from something else—this confirmation that the deception of Hendrik had never been a game at all. It was something far more serious.
Before Nina and I reached the stable block, a crash of shattering glass made us look up to see flames bursting out through my bedroom window. Clutching at Nina, I staggered backward, my heart racing. How had this happened? It wasn’t really my fault—was it?
When I turned away from the bright flames, the surroundings seemed even darker in comparison. I could just about make out Hendrik sitting on the gravel beyond the steps, batting away his chauffeur’s attempt to get him up on his feet, with one hand shielding his eyes. Leonora and Markus stood side by side a little closer to us, their upturned faces bathed in the angry red light from the flames at my bedroom window.
A sudden thought stopped my breath. They were going to blame me for this, weren’t they? It was my bedroom; of course they’d blame me. My throat tightened at the injustice of it; I dropped Nina’s arm and stepped away from her. It wasn’t my fault. I was sure it wasn’t my fault. But what difference would that make? I wasn’t really part of their family; I’d only ever been a guest.
Nina was still transfixed by the fire, and I took the opportunity to turn away and scan the frozen lake in the gloom, desperately hoping to catch a glimpse of Jonas. Might he have come over early? Might he already be waiting for me on the island? The idea of moving in with him and his mum was suddenly vastly more appealing.
I tried to creep away across the gravel, but before I reached the lakeshore, I heard Nina close behind me.
“What are you doing?” Her voice was heavy with bewildered hostility.
“I’m just—” I peered again toward the island, but dusk was rapidly giving way to night, and it was impossible to see more than hazy shapes. There was no gleam from a torch, no sign of Jonas.
“Did you start the fire?” Nina said. Her face was a smudge in the gloom, her dark eyes glittering. “Did you put something in my food to make me sick? Was it you?”
“No!” I stared at her, aghast. “How can you even say that?”
“Well, you think it was my mum—how can you even say that?”
“I don’t know, Nina. I don’t know!” I stepped onto the ice in the brand-new pixie boots I’d been so proud of yesterday. “Please. Just go back.”
Nina’s tone changed as she followed me onto the slippery surface. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to think. Don’t leave me, Beth, please. I need you.”
I turned to face her, skidding a little. “No, Nina. Go back to your parents.”
“I’m not supposed to show my face to my grandfather, remember?” She sounded close to tears. “Where are you going? You can’t leave me here.”
I shook my head and half walked, half slid away from her as fast as I could. A new, thin layer of powdery snow covered the ice, and I swung my arms as I plowed ahead, trying to generate some speed to widen the gap between us. But it wasn’t long before I realized she was still following me.
“Beth,” she sobbed, “please don’t go. I need you.” Her voice rose in pitch. “Take me with you.”
I almost laughed at that, and I swung around, unable to see her expression in the darkness now, even from just a few meters away.