Page 34 of The Perfect Guests
He sighed. “Okay. So—what then? Are you going to invite me in? First time for everything.”
It took a moment for the significance of his words to sink in.
“You mean you’ve never been inside the house?”
He shrugged. “Nope.”
“That’s weird.”
“Well, yeah. But it’s probably the least weird thing about this place, don’t you think?” He searched my gaze. “C’mon, Beth. What wouldyoulike to do? Don’t you fancy getting away for a bit?”
“I—” I shook my head. How could I tell him the truth? That I was scared to break the rules, too frightened of what Leonora might say if she discovered I’d snuck off into the village as soon as her back was turned. “Actually, I—my head doesn’t feel that great...”
Jonas’s gaze slid past me to the shadowy interior of the hall, and he took a step back. “Okay. Well, it’s up to you.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve wasted your time.”
“You know what I think?” His expression was tight. “This isn’t right. Not being allowed to go anywhere or see anyone. I think you should ring your aunt Caroline and ask her to take you away from here, find somewhere more normal to live. That’s what I think.”
“Wait.” I followed him down the steps and across the gravel to his bike. “I know what you’re saying, Jonas, but they’re still nice people. I like it here. It’s my home, now. So I have to follow their rules, you know? Does that make sense?”
He scowled. “Yeah. I get it.”
“Look, why don’t you come in? I’ll make us a drink. We can sit in the garden...”
For a moment, I thought he might say yes. We leaned toward each other, and we kissed with his bike jammed between us. But he’d already made up his mind.
“I’m just not sure I can keep doing this.” He frowned down at his handlebars. “You won’t tell Nina about us. You’re not allowed to come round to my house. Every time I come up here, I’ve got to pretend we’re just...” He bit back the rest of his sentence. “It’s not really working, is it?” He swung himself onto his saddle and put one foot on a pedal.
“But—” I said. “You’ll still come back, won’t you? You’ll come swimming with us...”
“I don’t know, Beth.” He squinted at me. “Just ring me, okay? If anything happens. If you need me. For anything.”
I returned slowly to the top step and watched him cycle away until he was out of sight. Then, with a sense of wounded irony, I went back inside to find some painkillers—I really did have a headache now. I couldn’t see a way of keeping everyone happy. Leonora, Markus, Nina, Jonas. And as much as I liked Jonas, Ihadto keep Nina and Leonora happy if I didn’t want to jeopardize my position at Raven Hall.
So Nina and I swam without Jonas that summer, and whenever she grumbled about his absence, I tried to look innocent and changed the subject. And unsurprisingly, Nina invented new ways of entertaining us. She decided she would throw a party for me at the end of the holiday, to belatedly celebrate the anniversary of my arrival at Raven Hall.
To my surprise, Leonora agreed to the plan, and it kept Nina and me busy for a couple of weeks. We drew up a guest list of schoolfriends for Leonora’s approval, and we baked a huge cake and ordered sparklers, and we arranged for an up-and-coming band from London to perform in the garden. On the evening of the party, Jonas joined us for a while, and he pecked me on the cheek in front of the other guests, which made me blush. But when I looked for him a while later, hoping to grab a few minutes alone with him, he’d already set off on his bike for home.
September, and the new school year, came around quickly, and my sadness about the situation with Jonas was replaced with worries about coursework and exams. In the middle of October, Markus went off to Malaysia on a six-week diving trip, and not long after this, Leonora called Nina and me into the drawing room one evening with a glint of excitement in her eyes.
“I was thinking,” she said, “now you’re both getting older, maybe I should take you on a shopping trip. We could go into London next Saturday, have a day of trying on clothes—what do you say?”
Nina and I were thrilled. Up until now, Leonora had ordered all our clothes for us from a catalog, but my jeans were becoming too short, and I fancied something a little more elegant anyway. In the end, not only did we go on a huge and successful shopping spree; I also got my hair cut at a posh salon, and Nina persuaded Leonora to let her have her ears pierced. I knew we were being spoiled, but there was no point resisting it, and both Nina and I were very pleased with the outcome: we felt much more grown up.
It was only days later that Jonas paid us a surprise visit at Raven Hall. He greeted both Nina and me with equal friendliness, and he asked us casually—out of earshot of Leonora—whether we fancied sneaking out that weekend, to go to a party in the village with him. I kept my expression neutral, and he didn’t stay long—he said he’d leave us to talk it over.
“Oh, go on,” I begged Nina, after we’d gone up to her turretbedroom to discuss it in private. “What harm can it do? Your mum’ll be none the wiser, and we’ll have a great time.” I was already imagining myself wrapped in Jonas’s arms, swaying to dreamy music, with Nina conveniently distracted by some other good-looking village boy.
But Nina gnawed at her fingernail. “I just don’t think we can, when my dad’s not here. If Mumdidrealize we were missing, and she was here all by herself...”
I flexed my fingers, frustrated. “How’s that different from both of them finding us missing? And she’d guess what we were doing, wouldn’t she? It’s hardly the crime of the century, is it? It’s just a party.”
But Nina shook her head. “If Dad was here, he’d come into the village to look for us, but Mum by herself... She’d be distraught. I can’t risk it.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” I glared at her. “This is ridiculous. I’ll go by myself then.”
“You won’t.” Her eyes glittered. “You wouldn’t dare.”
