Flynn had told Elinor that at weekends and between his university classes, he helped his cousin out at the music shop. She surmises that with Heath having quit his job, Flynn, kind, generous Flynn, would step in and offer a hand. Knowing there’s a good chance he’ll be there now, she makes her way through town towards it. If she’s wrong, Elinor will ask Sofia to pass on a message or to lend her a phone so she can call him herself. She is nervous. So nervous, her stomach turns over.
She hovers at the end of the street. She’s just worked up the courage to go inside when she sees Flynn leaving the shop. He is locking up and he is alone. Sensing her gaze on him, he looks up. Surprise darts across his face. She wants to run to him, to have his arms wrapped around her, but she is rooted to the spot, fearful of rejection. She drags cold air into her lungs and walks towards him on trembling legs. She tries to smile but it is strained. His brow furrows. ‘What’re you doing here?’
‘I missed you.’
His face softens and she closes the gap between them but he backs away, pocketing his keys. If he notices the red mark on her face, he doesn’t say so. She is not his problem anymore. ‘Go home, Elinor.’
She wants to tell him she doesn’t have a home. That it is as rotten as the corpse she helped put in the frozen earth. That Ledbury Hall feels like a stomach that is slowly digesting her, melting the flesh from her bones, dissolving her until she is nothing. She wants to crawl from its belly while she still has the strength, but only if he can help her to do it. The look on his face – stern and unyielding – makes her breath catch. He turns and starts walking away. She stumbles after him, knowing she must try because without Heath, Flynn is all she has left. ‘What about South Africa?’ she calls. ‘I want to come with you.’
He stops. She stares at the back of his head, willing him to turn around. He does.
‘You can’t come with me.’
His words are like knives. She closes her eyes against the pain and searches for a way to fix it. ‘Heath lied,’ she tells him. ‘I’m not fifteen. He was lying.’
A shadow crosses his face. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Doesn’t it?’
‘No.’ He exhales. ‘Heath came to see me after he caught us together. He warned me if I ever came near you again, he’d kill me. And I believe him.’
For a moment, she imagines Flynn’s body on the study floor, eyes unseeing, blood covering his torso, ripped open and sticky with blood, and a scream pinches her throat. She reaches for him, wanting to feel his heart beat beneath her fingers, to reassure herself, but he knocks her hand away.
‘Don’t come looking for me again. Don’t call me. Don’t even think of me.’ He is as cold as the frost that glitters on the cobbled stones beneath her boots. ‘OK?’
She feels adrift in despair, as if there is a bottomless ocean of misery raging beneath her and she is in a tiny yacht with no sails. ‘Flynn …’
Stiffly, he turns from her. Tears run rivers down her cheeks. She folds her arms across her chest and holds herself. The pain of losing her brother, of losing Flynn too, is physical.
He is getting further and further away, smaller and smaller. She opens her mouth to call him back but all that escapes is a strangled cry. Then, to her disbelief, he stops walking. He turns and makes his way back to her. The relief is absolute. She runs to him and then she is in his arms, sobbing into his chest. He holds her, squeezing her tightly. She clings to him, breathing him in. She is warm again. For the first time in weeks, she is warm. Once she has calmed, he pulls back and examines her face. With gentle fingers, he pushes her hair away from her tear-damp cheeks.
‘Listen to me, Elinor,’ he whispers. ‘I meant it when I said we can never see each other again.’
She looks at him. Really looks at him. He is serious. Hope leaves her, like a light being snuffed out, plunging her into darkness.
‘But … if there’s one piece of advice I can give you, it’s to get out of that house and away from Heath.’ His fingers press into her shoulders. ‘I know you think he won’t hurt you, but you’re wrong. He’s dangerous, Elinor. You aren’t safe with him.’