Page 5 of The Perfect Guests
“No!” I gave her an earnest look. “Honest, I’m not. I’m just—it was so nice of your parents to ask me; I guess I just wasn’t expecting it. Caroline says they were looking for a companion for you, and she’s going to sort out my going to live with her in the longer term, but—” I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat. “The thing is, I don’t think Caroline’ll ever be ready to take me on permanently. So...”
“Then you can stay here as long as you like.”
“But you don’t even know me yet.”
Nina pulled a face, considering. “I know. But I’ve got a good feeling about you, Beth. Do you know what?”
I shook my head mutely.
Nina grinned. “We should swim.”
And just like that, the conversation was over. She sprang up, slipped out of her shorts, and splashed into the shallows. The bottom of the lake fell away steeply, and within seconds she was swimming, heading away from me, before curving around and calling out my name. I hauled myself up and hovered at the very edge of the water, flinching as it lapped over my toes, sending goose bumps up my limbs.
“It’s so cold!” I shouted.
“Only at the start,” she called back. “Oh, comeon, Beth. It’s amazing once you’re in.”
And again, in response to that note of impatience, I gave in. I copied her by discarding my shorts, and then I waded into the weedy water, only just suppressing a shriek as the biting chill crept up my legs. And I discovered Nina was right. Despite the shock of the cold, itwasinvigorating to wash the sticky sweat from my skin—to hurl myself forward and feel the tingle of lake water on my shoulders, my face, my scalp, tugging at my hair and snatching my breath away.
Gradually, my muscles warmed as we raced each other out into deeper water and back to the shallows. It was nothing like the chlorine-fumed swimming pool my dad used to take me to on Saturday mornings; this was slimy underfoot and smelled of swampy wildness. It was exhilarating.
We stayed in until our fingertips wrinkled and the cold of the lake seeped into our bones. Then we pulled on our shorts and rowed back to the dock. The sun was already drying our hair and our T-shirts, and by the time we’d strolled back to the house, we’d warmed up again. When we reached the front door, Nina caught hold of my wrist.
“Probably best not to talk about swimming at dinner.”
I was surprised. “Why not?”
“Oh, Mum’s a bit overprotective—she worries about me getting ill, you know. It’s ridiculous.”
I pressed my hand over my stomach, remembering the mouthful of chilly water I’d accidentally swallowed. “Is the lake water dangerous?”
Nina laughed. “No, it’s fine. Honest. It’s just—it’s easier not to mention it. Come on, I want to show youmybedroom. Best room in the house.”
Again, there was no sign of Leonora and Markus as we jogged upstairs, and I hoped the faint damp patches we left on the hall floor would dry quickly. This time, Nina turned the other way on the landing, and she led me to a door at the very end of the corridor which opened onto another staircase. This rose in a spiral, and I realized we were inside the turret. At the top, she pushed open a heavy wooden door, and we stepped into a bright circular room.
A high double bed with a curved headboard nestled against the opposite wall; its sheets and blankets were rumpled, scattered with ornately embroidered cushions. Clothing was strewn over thefurniture, and books were piled everywhere, but something in my peripheral vision made me turn slowly, and I found myself gazing at row upon row of eerie faces, all staring unblinkingly back at me.
They were like dolls, but animals. Furry heads with colored-glass eyes, their necks disappearing into the collars of waistcoats and ball gowns. A fox, a leopard, a badger, a walrus—there must have been two dozen of them at least, and every single one made the hairs on my arms stand on end. How did Nina sleep with all these unearthly creatures watching her?
“My dad brings them back for me,” Nina said casually, “when he goes traveling. He goes diving sometimes, or climbing mountains. When I’m older, I’m going to go with him.”
I turned my back on the nightmarish faces. “What about your mum?” I wasn’t sure myself whether I was asking if she went on her own travels or if she went with him.
Nina shrugged. “She’d rather stay here. She says it’s a precious gift, this house. She doesn’t like to go away even for one night.”
“Huh.” I strolled from one of the four tall, arched windows to the next, pretending to admire the views of fields and drainage channels and the walled back garden. Really, I was buying time, puzzling through my feelings about this strange house and the intriguing, lonely-seeming girl behind me. No school friends, an overprotective mother, a sometimes-absent father—I could see why she might want a companion.
“Beth?”
I swung around. “Yes?”
“Do you believe in fate?”
I frowned, thinking of my parents and my brother; thinking of the lorry that had just happened to be crossing the junction when they shot through the red light.
“No,” I said shortly.
But Nina scrambled up from her bed and came to stand directly in front of me, and she caught hold of one of my hands.
