Ravensborough (23 page)

We went outside and sat side by side on the stairs. I was uncomfortably aware that this was similar to the way that I had sat beside Gethan the night before. Or that morning to be more accurate.

‘So, you’re seventeen now. It’s your last birthday before you are officially an adult.’

‘That’s true!’ I smiled at him.

‘And of course, it’s the first and last birthday you’ll be spending in Avalonia,’ said Sam.

‘I don’t know,’ I countered. ‘I might stay. I’ll see how it goes.’

He looked confused. ‘But we agreed before you came away that after you finished school you’d come back and go to college in Ireland. It’s part of our plan.’

‘I know, but…’ I struggled to find the words. ‘I’ve started doing some digging here, and Nick says I have potential. His university is one of the best places in Europe to study archaeology. Plus, I don’t want to leave Mum.’

‘Oh, come on! She has Rupert to keep her company, she’ll be fine if you leave.’

‘But maybe I don’t want to leave her. Did you think about that?’

‘But what about us?’ he asked, running an agitated hand through his hair. ‘I think you’re being a little bit selfish here, to be honest.’

‘I’m being selfish? What’s stopping you going to the University of Ravensborough with me?’

‘Oh come on Scarlett, you know I couldn’t leave the band!’

A red hot fury overtook me. ‘Oh, ok, so you are allowed to put your ambitions before mine, but I’m not allowed to put mine before yours?’

‘It’s different for you. You’ve only just arrived here. You aren’t rooted to this place as much as I am to Dublin.’

‘Yeah, it is different for me Sam, it’s
harder
for me,’ I hissed. ‘I’ve had to leave one life behind and make a new one here. It’s been really difficult. And you think it’s reasonable to ask me to leave here, just when I’ve started to put down roots and start all over again?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Sam said scornfully. ‘You wouldn’t be starting all over again, you have friends in Ireland. You’re being overly dramatic. What’s with you, Scarlett? You’ve been cagey ever since I arrived. There’s something on your mind that you’re not telling me.’

‘No there isn’t, I’m fine.’ I protested.

‘There is something wrong with you, Scarlett,’ he said grimly. ‘I’m not an idiot. You haven’t wanted me to touch you since I arrived.’

‘That’s not true!’ I protested.

‘Yes it is true, and you know it.’

I was shocked into silence. He was more observant than I’d given him credit for. I’d assumed that he hadn’t noticed how preoccupied I’d been over the past few days.

He leaned out and gripped my hand tightly. He moved his face close to mine and whispered, ‘I know there’s something wrong, Scarlett.’ He spoke softly to me then. ‘It’s ok, you know. You can tell me what it is.’

Just then I heard my mother’s key crunch into the lock. I pulled my hand gently out of Sam’s grasp, stood up and walked down the stairs. By the time she opened the door I was at the end of the stairs.

‘Hi love, happy birthday!’ Mum said, putting an arm around me. ‘Sorry I didn’t see you this morning; I had an early meeting.’

‘It’s fine, don’t worry about it.’

‘Hi Sam. So Scarlett do you want to start getting ready? We haven’t got that much time, you know. You go and get dressed. We’ll do the presents when you come down.’

I smiled and ran up the stairs lightly, passing Sam who was still sitting on the stairs. I was glad of the chance to dodge the conversation that we’d been having. Mum had come home at exactly the right time.

I went and had a hot shower, trying to let my anger at Sam ebb away with the water. Just who did he think he was? The hot water eased the tenseness in my muscles and I started to calm down. I dried my hair and curled it into loose ringlets. I put on a deep purple dress that complimented my hair. Unfortunately the neckline of the dress was kind of low, meaning that I couldn’t wear my locket without it being seen. And I couldn’t wear the locket if it was going to be seen, my Rationalist friends would go crazy. I was afraid not to wear it though, especially now that I knew it worked. I took it from around my neck and fastened it instead around my ankle, wrapping the chain around a few times. I pulled some high heeled boots on over it. The boot was slightly tight on my left ankle but I could still manage to walk in them.

I went downstairs and into the kitchen where Mum, Rupert and Sam were gathered around the table. In the middle of the table were my presents.

‘Ah presents, the best thing about birthdays’ I said as I walked over to them. ‘Please tell me that I get to open them now.’

‘You’re so impatient!’ Mum laughed. ‘But yes, you can open them now.’

‘Here you go Scarlett,’ Sam held out a package to me. ‘Happy birthday from me.’

‘Thanks Sam!’ I opened up the wrapping paper and eased the present out. The present was an album. I flipped the CD case over to see the title and it was by Hours of Lead. Sam’s band.

‘It’s a demo CD we recorded a few weeks back. Sorry it’s such a small present, just with the airfare and everything, I couldn’t really afford anything else.’

I kissed him on the cheek. ‘Don’t be sorry. It’s a wonderful present.’

‘Ok, our turn now. This is from Roo and me.’ Mum handed me a large present. Inside was a gorgeous fitted leather jacket that I’d coveted from an exclusive store in King’s Quarter. No doubt about it, there were pluses to having a wealthy step-father.

‘Thank you both, I love it!’ I shrugged it on over my party dress. ‘And it’s a perfect fit, thank you!’

‘This is from Nick’, Rupert said to me handing me a book on famous Avalonian archaeological excavations. ‘I mentioned it was your birthday this week and he gave me this for you. He apologised for not wrapping it. Presentation isn’t his particular forte, I’m afraid.’

‘That doesn’t matter; it was lovely of him to think of getting me a present at all. It was really thoughtful of him.’ I smiled.

Mum picked another present up off the table. ‘I found this present in your room, so I decided to put it with all the others. I don’t know who it’s from though.’

She handed me the present. With everything that had been going on I had forgotten that Gethan had even given me a present. It was clumsily wrapped in shiny pink paper, and had a card stuck to the front at a rakish angle. I opened the present and there was a hard black box under the wrapping paper, the kind you usually get from a jewellery store. Imprinted in the top was the name of the store,
Black and Sons Blacksmith’s Forge, Specialists in Amulets and Protection Charms
. I opened the box, and there was a delicate silver bracelet inside. It was beautiful, but it looked just like an ordinary bracelet, not like the ones that Aradia and other Pagans seemed to wear. I picked it up and it had a dense, heavy feeling to it.

‘That’s beautiful, Scarlett!’ Mum said looking at it. ‘Put it on!’

I fastened it on my wrist, and took out the card. It was glossy and plain silver. Inside it read,

Dear Scarlett,

Happy birthday. I hope that it’s everything that you wish it could be.

This bracelet is made from silver and iron. It’s a protection bracelet. I knew you wouldn’t be able to wear it if it looked like it was obviously a Pagan charm, so I got this one custom made. I hope you like it, and that it protects you from all harm.

Gethan x

‘Who is it from?’ Mum asked.

‘Gethan, a guy from the archaeological dig’, I answered.

‘And Gethan guy knows you well enough to buy you a silver bracelet?’ Sam asked stonily. He looked decidedly pissed off.

I was saved from having to answer by the doorbell ringing. ‘Doorbell!’ I said unnecessarily, glad of the diversion. ‘I’ll just go and answer it.’

It was Jane, Karl and Adam from my biology class.

‘Wow’, said Jane. ‘This is some house.’

I nodded as they came in. ‘Our old house in Dublin was about a quarter of the size of this one. I can’t quite get used to all the space.’

‘And it’s decorated all pretty!’ she commented.

It was. Mum and Rupert had draped the inside of the house with tiny fairy lights and lamps. All the main lights were turned off, so the large rooms were shadowy and atmospheric. Sam and I had gone through all my music files last night and selected a great playlist which was playing in the background. Tables covered in dark red tablecloths lined one wall, with a selection of my favourite foods and a bowl of fruit punch.

I introduced my school friends to Mum, Rupert and Sam. The doorbell rang again. This time it was Mei and her brother.

‘This is Jian.’ She gestured to her older brother who was slouching against the porch. ‘He’s a complete pain, but he insisted on coming once he knew that he’d get a chance to bash away on some drums.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ Jian said holding out his hand and giving me a cheeky smile. ‘Don’t listen to my sister, I’m actually quite charming once you get to know me.’

‘I love your dress!’ I said to Mei as she shrugged out of her heavy jacket. It was pale blue and one shouldered, setting off her rich complexion perfectly. One wrist was accessorised with silver and black bangles. Like me, she was wearing boots, but instead of being high heeled and dressy like mine, hers were flat and chunky biker boots.

‘Thanks! Oooh that’s pretty!’ she picked up my wrist and examined my new bracelet. ‘Did Sam get you that?’

‘No. Gethan did.’

Mei shook her head and her glossy black hair rearranged itself around her shoulders. ‘You certainly like living dangerously.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Says the rock climber. Come on in, Jane, Adam and Karl are here.’

‘Oh cool.’

Despite my worries about nobody turning up, the place filled up pretty quickly. More of them had turned up then I’d imagined, probably because they were curious to see the inside of a Chesterfield mansion. Still, I was grateful to every single person who came and stopped my party being a flop. Around an hour after the party started, the ground floor of Rupert’s house was thronged with people. Jane and Adam got everyone up and dancing, which filled up the large empty spaces in the middle of the rooms. Mum and Rupert had gone out for the evening to give me some space, but they told me that they would be back at midnight, and that they expected the party to have completely wound down by then.

I tried to distance myself from Sam, who obviously wanted to question me about why another guy was buying me jewellery. I knew that I’d have to face him at the end of the night, but I just wasn’t ready for it right now.

Cat came in a red Spanish Flamenco dress, accessorized by her new boyfriend Alistair. She swished her skirts in every direction and at one point came dangerously close to tipping the bowl of punch all over the floor. She tried to do some Flamenco dancing, which was quite strange with music from Florence and the Machine blaring in the background.

I introduced Sam to some of my school friends that he hadn’t met, and they seemed really taken with him. It was little wonder. In typical Sam fashion he was unerringly polite to all of them, showing no sign of the stubborn, angry person that he’d been just a couple of hours beforehand. He could turn so easily. I spoke to Sam only when there were other people around, and avoided being cornered by him alone. He knew now that Gethan was close enough to me to buy me jewellery and he already knew that Gethan was a Pagan. Sam was no fool – there was something up and he wanted to know about what it was.

I walked over to Mei who was talking to Ben, Cat and Alistair.

‘Mei?’ I said to her in an undertone that only she could hear. ‘Whatever you do, stay beside me, ok?’

‘Why? What’s wrong?’ she whispered.

‘I’ll explain later, I just can’t be left on my own.’

Mei raised her eyebrows at me. ‘Scarlett, the house is packed to the rafters. I don’t think you could be on your own, even if you wanted to.’

‘Please?’ I asked her, making exaggerated puppy dog eyes at her. She giggled.

‘Alright,’ she agreed. ‘I’ll baby-sit you. I promise not to leave your side.’

‘You better not, otherwise I’ll think up a suitable punishment for you.’

‘Like what?’ she asked.

‘I’d make you wear Cat’s dress,’ I muttered.

Mei spluttered into her drink spraying it everywhere. Cat looked at her in astonishment as she laughed so hard that she began to cough.

‘Are you ok?’ Ben asked, a concerned look on his face.

‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ she said. It’s all Scarlett’s fault, blame her!’

‘It was not my fault!’ I protested with mock indignation. ‘Don’t blame me because you can’t control yourself.’

‘It was your fault! You with your catty comments. You’re a complete witch!’ Mei’s face froze as she realised what she had just said. Then the two of us started laughing hard.

‘O-K,’ said Cat giving us a strange look. ‘Have you been taking something?’

That set us off again.

‘They’re not always like this,’ she assured Alistair. ‘They’re usually quite normal.’

Mei and I made our way into the kitchen to calm down.

‘I’m really sorry for drawing attention to you like that,’ Mei apologised.

‘It’s ok,’ I replied, still smiling. ‘I don’t think that you’ve blown my cover!’

‘Why do you want me to stay beside you anyway?’ she asked. ‘You never said.’

‘Why? Are you saying that you don’t want to hang out with me?’ I joked.

Mei made a face.

‘Of course I’m not! I’m just wondering what’s up.’

‘Sam gave me some attitude earlier. To tell you the truth, we had a bit of an argument.’

‘What about?’ Mei asked.

‘Sam wants me to go back to Ireland after I finish school. I told him that I was considering going to the University of Ravensborough, and he completely flipped at me. He accused me of being selfish, because I want to stay here so badly that I’m putting it ahead of us both being together.’

‘Well couldn’t he come here?’

‘Mei, that’s the thing that really bugs me,’ I said. ‘He said that he can’t leave Ireland because of his band, but when I tell him that I don’t want to leave my mother, or leave a place when I’ve already been uprooted once, he tells me I’m being ridiculous!’