‘What’s the matter?’ Jacinta demanded in the middle of the velvet green lawn. ‘A week ago, you were holding my hand and telling me how glad you were that we’d be able to spend time together at rehearsals and this week you haven’t come to any of them. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were doing your best to avoid me, Lucas. Miss Crowley probably won’t even let you sing with us at the festival, you know.’
‘Oooh,’ George Figworth teased from above. ‘Trouble in paradise.’
Jacinta and Lucas gazed up to find they’d attracted quite the audience, with several boys lining the upstairs windows of the Fayle boarding house.
‘Put a sock in it, Figgy!’ Jacinta scowled and threw the lad a rude gesture.
‘Jacinta,’ Lucas chided. ‘You’ll get thrown off campus if anyone sees you doing that.’ Then he looked up at the window and shouted, ‘Get lost, Figgy, and take your mates with you!’
Jacinta shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. ‘I don’t care if someone throws me out. I want to know why you’re acting like this.’
‘I’m just trying to protect you, that’s all,’ Lucas said quietly.
‘I knew it! You’re leaving and going to live in New York, aren’t you?’ she said, folding her arms tightly.
The boy sighed. ‘No, I’m not. Well, not now, anyway. I might when I’m a bit older, but I’d talk to you before I made a decision. I’ve been thinking that we should do an exchange at the same time, but it would be better if we were in our second-last year, when we’ll have loads more freedom.’
Jacinta felt her muscles begin to relax and the blood start flowing again. ‘That would be … amazing,’ she said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. ‘Well, if it’s not that, then what?’
‘Come with me.’ Lucas took her by the hand and guided her to a garden seat around the side of the building. At least it afforded them some privacy, out of sight of the boys’ prying eyes. Jacinta sat on the bench and rubbed her palms on the tops of her thighs. The two of them faced out towards the garden. ‘I saw your father last weekend in the village.’
‘So?’ she said, touching her delicate gold necklace.
Lucas turned to her and took her hands in his. ‘Jacinta, I think he wants to get back together with your mum and I’m not sure his motives are entirely pure.’
Jacinta raised an eyebrow and laughed. ‘You sound like some knight from the Middle Ages, Lucas. Please, just say what you mean.’
‘Your father needs to get back with your mother because of some business deal. He’s planning on them moving to the city and then, when the deal is done, he’s going to dump her again,’ Lucas said.
Jacinta snatched her hands away, her forehead puckering. ‘No, he’s not. You’re just saying that because your mother’s getting married and you don’t like the guy.’
‘But I do,’ Lucas said. ‘Jacinta, I wasn’t sure whether to tell you this or not because I didn’t want to upset you, but I promise I heard your father talking on the phone and I’m not making it up. Why would I?’
Jacinta stood up. ‘It’s not true, Lucas,’ she insisted. ‘Why would you say such a horrible thing?’
She turned and ran, her feet pounding grass and pavement all the way to Rosebud Lane. She sped past her father’s car parked in the driveway and around the back of the house but stopped short when she saw her parents through the glass doors. They were standing in the kitchen, looking at each other. Her father stepped towards her mother and touched her cheek, then he kissed her – and it wasn’t a peck either. This was a proper kiss, like in romantic comedies when the two people realise they truly love each other. Jacinta knew that Lucas was wrong. He had to be, or else her father was nothing short of a monster.