Isabella's Heiress (41 page)

Emma's legs were frozen and it took a monumental effort to get them moving again but by now the crowd and the other horsemen were nearly on them. She could feel the breath of the mob on the back of her neck but she was nearly there. They only just reached the sanctuary gate as the first of them got within touching distance.

As first Emma then Aithne threw themselves into the sanctuary garden, screams of pain followed her as the arms of those that tried to enter were burnt when they hit the gateway. They pulled back and looked at her with wild, desperate eyes, all of them knowing that their one hope of salvation had just slipped through their fingers.

Emma breathed hard and, for a second, just sat there looking back but then the crowd started to move as their attention was diverted behind them by people scattering left and right. The two horsemen were forcing their way to the front and they only stopped when they reached the gate. An anguished groan came from one of them and Emma kicked backwards with her feet as she forced herself to get up.

Her fear of them was only tempered by the fact that she knew they could not come any further. She was safe for now but she knew that it wouldn't last. Aithne pushed the door of the sanctuary open and they walked in. Emma knew straight away that something wasn't right. It was only midday; there should have been initiates in the hall, busy with their guides or talking amongst themselves. Instead the only person there was Sister Ignacia and the look on her face did not bode well.

It had been fifteen minutes since Emma had pulled away from the club with the only noise being from the occasional sniff coming from the back seat. Emma's glares in to the rear view mirror were the only communications between her and Lisa. For her part, Taryn was staring intently out of the windscreen. It didn't matter how many times Lisa tried to get her attention, hoping for some encouragement or at least some sympathy, her eyes were firmly fixed on the road ahead.

If it had been possible, Lisa would have burrowed into the boot but instead she had to settle for the corner of the car behind the drivers seat, it was the only place that afforded her any shelter from Emma's accusing eyes.

It was raining now,
perfect
thought Lisa,
the icing on the cake.
Her mind was a kaleidoscope of images, smells and sounds, but none seemed to stay in one place for more than a few seconds before making way for the next. The only thing that seemed to stay was the taste of Jack Daniel's, which was returning with alarming regularity. And then there was Simon. Simon, Simon, Simon how could she have been so stupid? Her senses had cleared just enough for the first tinges of guilt to start working their way through but they came married to a sudden feeling
of nausea which ebbed and flowed depending on the state of the road below them.

As Lisa suppressed yet another assault from her stomach, she started to feel a low pulsing sensation at the back of her head. In a matter of seconds, it all became too much.

“I'm going to be sick.”

“Not in this car you're not!” The statement was accompanied by a sudden swerve in the car that nearly tipped Lisa over the edge. They came to a screeching halt and Emma flew round to face younger sister. “Get out, there's bushes over there.”

“Emma…” Taryn was looking at Lisa uneasily as she opened the door to let her out.

“Leave her, she'll be fine, we can see her from here.”

Taryn pulled the passenger seat forward and made way for Lisa who was moving unsteadily across the back seat, careful to avoid her sister's gaze. On exiting the car, she grabbed a lungful of fresh air, which, for a second, helped force the nausea back down. She looked ruefully at Taryn, who gave her a weak smile in return, before nodding towards the bushes just across the pavement. The area was coarse heath land and the nearest house was well over a hundred metres away. The rain was coming down harder now and every droplet felt like a shard of ice as it hit Lisa's cowed figure. Her clothes had become one with her body and she was starting to violently shiver.

The sudden cold brought clarity to the night's event and Lisa dropped to her knees before throwing up what felt like a litre of Jack Daniel's and Coke. Along with it came stuff that Lisa couldn't identify and definitely didn't look like anything she might have eaten. The initial relief brought on by the sudden purging was short lived as the process was repeated again and again and again, until she
fell to one side just as a set of arms stopped her from falling into her own vomit.

Taryn had walked up behind her as she threw up and now, got her to her feet, “How ya feeling, kiddo?”

The nausea was gone but had been replaced by a splitting headache and the sting of hot tears as they ran down her cheek, mingling with the rain. Her breath came in sharp gasps as the sobs exploded from her chest “I want to go home!” Every word was a struggle and it seemed that with each one the strength drained further from her body as she was half-walked, half-dragged back to the car, oblivious to her sisters contemptuous looks.

Emma listened to the retching coming from the direction of her sister. She had to peel her hands off the steering wheel from where she had been gripping it so hard and even now, as she listened to Lisa's pathetic sobs, the anger refused to give way. Taryn had gone to pick her up from the grass and Emma knew it should have been her but there was no way she wanted to be anywhere near her sister right now and she was seriously considering leaving her there.

Lisa's sobs announced their imminent arrival and Emma groaned, much as she wanted to leave her in the rain to think about what she had done, she knew she couldn't. She turned to see a bedraggled and shivering girl who bore little resemblance to her sister being carried to the car by Taryn, who was herself soaked through by the hard rain. Emma waited for them to get into the car before starting the engine. The rain was pounding the windscreen and the street lamps passed by in prisms
of streaked light. The roads were empty apart from the occasional car but Emma was in no hurry to get home. Explaining all of this was not something she was looking forward to, so the longer it took before she had to face that, the happier she was, besides all the time Lisa was shivering in the back the longer she had to think about what she had done.

Lisa's sobs filled the car and Emma just wished she would shut up with the self-pitying crap. Wasn't it enough that she humiliated her in front of everybody she knew? It wasn't her that was the hurt party here. At the M25 turn off, they left the last street lights behind them and Emma only had the reflection of her headlights on the tarmac in front for company. She found herself drifting off into their seductive glow as the miles stretched on, and she opened her window to combat the yawns that were starting to encroach on her anger. Behind her she heard Lisa shift as the sudden influx of chilled night air dropped the temperature in the car with a speed that snapped her senses back in to play. The rippling of rubber on tarmac and spatter of rain on skin now had a immediacy to them that forced Emma to concentrate on the road ahead.

“It's cold, can you close the window, please?” The voice was weak and seemed to blow away on the squalls that slipped in through the opening. Lisa shifted in the seat behind Emma and moved into view in the rear view mirror as she slid across to the other side of the car, her coat lapels scrunched around her shoulder.

“No.” Emma didn't realise it was possible to annunciate a one syllable word with such venom until then and the effect it had on Lisa was visible as her sister shrunk into the back seat before descending into tears again.

“Emma…” Taryn's voice matched her eyes as Emma looked to her left to see a look that seemed to sit somewhere
between ‘don't be so mean' and ‘she's not the only one that's freezing.'

Emma closed the window but made a point of doing it slowly whilst studiously avoiding her idiot sister in the back.

As she shivered, Lisa looked over at Emma but couldn't make contact. Her sister was looking straight ahead and Lisa knew that it was no accident that Taryn had been the one to come to her aid.

Pulling her, now saturated, coat tightly around her, Lisa sat huddled in her misery. She tried to think of anything but what had happened but all she could think of was Simon and the way he tasted when he kissed her. It was so different to what she expected, all a blur of heartbeats and hands and now it all seemed to mix into a fusion of emotions that defied a rational explanation. She knew she shouldn't have done it but a part of her refused to regret her actions, even though that caused another part to rail against the thought that messing around with her sister's ex-boyfriend was in any way acceptable.

Lisa scolded herself, knowing it was wrong, but she could say that now couldn't she? At the time, it hadn't felt that way, she had been swept up in the moment, Simon's dark brown eyes had burrowed deep holes in to her insecurities, making her feel wanted. How was she to know that he was using her to get back at Emma? That thought hurt most all, more than the knowledge of the pain she had caused her sister. Her first kiss had been for someone else. Even if it had been designed to hurt that person, it wasn't for her. And then, when she remembered him placing her hand on his…urgh, Lisa grimaced at that thought. But all that faded away when she saw the silent tears rolling
down Emma's cheeks, they were tears weren't they? It could have been the rain but the windows were closed.

The regular strobe of the motorway lights gave way to the staccato sweep of the street lamps as they turned off the south circular and onto the last stretch towards home. There was a mugginess in the car now, where the dampness of their bodies was being converted to heat and the windows began to steam up as Lisa started to feel the sweat tickle her back. Her sister's tears stung her with each drop and she suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to make everything right between them. It didn't matter that she had no idea how that could be done, she just felt like she had to do or say something. She settled for the latter as she watched the last of the street lamps give way to the darkness of a small wooded area by Dulwich Park.

“I'm sorry.” They were the first words that had been spoken in the car for nearly fifteen minutes and Lisa waited for a response.

There was nothing, just silence, Emma was looking straight ahead and the only noise Lisa could hear was the drumming of the rain and the methodical swish thump of the wipers.

“Em, please say something. I'm sorry, I really am. If I could take it back, I would honestly. I mean, it's not as if I meant to do it…” As she said it, Lisa knew that her words had only compounded the mistakes she'd made earlier in the evening. If she hadn't realised it then, the groan from Taryn was enough to set her straight.

Emma's breath caught in the back of her throat as she heard her sister's words. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel to the point where any movement would have
been translated to a sharp exit off the road.

Emma fought to keep it under control but all the humiliation of earlier came back afresh and she looked at her sister in the rear view mirror through eyes of cold steel.

“Didn't mean to do it? You mean in the same way that you didn't mean to grope his cock? Do you think I'm completely fucking stupid?”

Lisa blanched and visibly shrunk at these words but Emma wasn't going to let her get off that easily.

“Why didn't you just drop to your knees and suck him off whilst you were at it? You practically had it out of his jeans!”

The tears were running down the cheeks of both girls now and Emma could see Lisa trying to respond but all that came out were gasps and snatched words.

“I can't believe you'd betray me like that! You're my sister!”

“Em, I'm sorry..”

Emma turned to Lisa, her eyes down to narrow slits.

“Don't keep saying you're fucking sorry! Don't you realise that everybody'll know about this by Monday! I'm going to be the fucking laughing stock of the school. My ugly sister copping hold of my ex-boyfriend!”

“Em, slow down, you're going too fast for the bend!” The voice was Taryn's but the warning had come too late. Had it not been so stormy, then there might have been a chance to keep the car under control but as it was, when Emma braked, the wheels locked up and skidded on the newly wet tarmac. The tyres would have done their job in channeling the standing water away had they been a little less worn, but instead the rubber tread was swamped in seconds and lost any grip it might have had on the road beneath it.