Page 4 of The Perfect Guests
Nina put on a disapproving voice. “Wouldn’t even come in for a cup of tea.” She sounded so much like Leonora, I felt my mouth twitch despite myself.
“Exactly,” I said. “Your parents’ inviting me here is like Caroline’s dream come true—she can stop coming up with excuses now. She’ll be driving home with a clear conscience.”
“No more niece locked up in an orphanage.” Nina tilted her head. “Is it really that bad there? What’s it like?”
I searched her expression. Did she really want to know?
“They try to make it nice.” I sighed. “Some of the adults are lovely. But you can never relax for long; there’s always someone doing something...”
Nina shifted on the bed. “Like what?”
“Like—” I shook my head. “Like, there’s this boy who gets to visit his mum once a week—she’s like a drug addict or something. And when he comes back, he’s always really angry, yelling at us for tiny things. And we try to be understanding, you know, because it’s not his fault, but then he takes it too far. He smashes something, or last week he shoved his swivel chair out of his room, and it went down the stairs and hurt another kid. So they called the police, and he spent the night in a cell, and he’s younger than me...”
“Oh, Beth.” Nina squeezed my hand. “Don’t cry. I’m sorry.”
I swiped at my eyes. “Bet you wish you hadn’t asked now, hey?”
But Nina looked stern. “No, not at all. You can tell me anything. We’re going to be best friends, aren’t we?”
I blinked at her. “Really?”
“Really.” A second later, she was back on her feet. “Come on. I know what’ll cheer you up. Follow me.”
She was at the door before my mind had caught up. I glanced at my bags—shouldn’t I unpack first? But Nina had said we were goingto be best friends, and I wanted to hold on to that promise. I scrambled up and followed her.
There was no sign of Leonora or Markus on our way out of the house, and I supposed that wasn’t surprising, considering how vast a mansion it was. I hurried to keep up with Nina, trotting across the gravel and down the grassy slope, until we reached a wooden dock and a little boathouse half-hidden among the reeds. Nina sprang down into a small blue-painted rowing boat, and it rocked alarmingly on the otherwise placid water. She looked up to where I hesitated on the dock, and she gave me an encouraging smile.
“It’s perfectly safe,” she said. “Here, you sit at this end, and I’ll row first.”
I glanced back at the house—were we allowed to do this without adult supervision?
“Comeon, Beth.” There was a crack of impatience in her voice.
I did as she instructed, and within seconds she was unhooking us and pulling on the oars, and we were leaving the reeds behind us, carving our way through the glassy water. At the center of the lake was a small island, dense with brambles and stunted-looking trees. Halfway across to it, Nina made me swap seats, and she showed me how to dip the oars into the water, and how to synchronize my arms to keep us moving steadily toward the island’s stony shore.
“You see?” she said. “You’re getting the hang of it already.”
By the time we scrambled out into the island’s shallows, I was ready for a rest. We sprawled in the shade with our feet pointing at the water, and I gazed up at the cloudless blue between the branches and remembered that this was the first day of the summer holidays. Would I still be here on the last day, in six weeks’ time? I had no idea whether the adults had a specific time period in mind for my stay atRaven Hall, but I knew I’d rather be here than tiptoeing around Caroline’s apartment, or stuck back at the children’s home.
I turned my head and squinted at Nina. Her arm was draped over her face, but she chose that moment to lift it off and look straight back at me.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
I was hot and sweaty, and had no energy left to skirt around the truth. “I was wondering why your parents pickedme.”
She said nothing, just watched me, waiting for more.
“And,” I said, “I was wondering why you need a companion, anyway. What about your school friends? What about the kids in the village?” I’d spotted a group of teenagers messing around in the park in the last village we drove through before reaching Raven Hall. It could have been only a couple of miles away, not far to cycle.
“I don’t go to school.” Nina allowed that to sink in, and then she added, “Not at the moment, anyway. I used to. And I might try it again, one day.”
“Are you sick?”
She grinned. “No. I just didn’t like the school much, so I talked Mum into letting me learn stuff from books at home instead. She treats me like I’m sick, half the time, so it didn’t take much persuasion.” Her face became serious. “I’m sorry; that was tactless. You said your brother was ill?”
“Yeah, Ricky. He had cystic fibrosis.” I turned my head away. I didn’t want to talk about my family. “So, what about friends in the village?”
Nina took her time replying. “I do know one boy, but he’s always busy in term time. He’ll come over this week, though, now he’s off school—you’ll see. Why are you frowning? Are you wishing you hadn’t come here?”
