Page 84 of The Sisters at the Last House Before the Sea

‘OK, I won’t.’ Isla pulled into the steep hill that led up to Rose Cottage. ‘But there’s always your stepmum.’

‘Caitlin won’t want me.’

‘I think you’re wrong about that.’

‘No, I’m not,’ said Maisie fiercely. ‘But I don’t want to talk about it. And don’t tell her about me chopping Connie’s logs or she’ll go all stressy about it not being safe.’

‘OK,’ Isla promised, although the thought of Maisie swinging a sharp axe around was not a comforting one. ‘What’s the matter with school, though? Can I ask about that at least?’

Maisie sat quietly for a moment, as the car climbed higher. Then she began to speak, the words tumbling out.

‘The thing is I played a stupid joke on a teacher so I’ve been suspended for a while and the staff hate me. And some girls in my class think I’m a troublemaker now, so they keep their distance. And the other girls, who encouraged me to do the joke in the first place, keep making comments about me in our WhatsApp group.’

‘Bitchy comments?’

‘A bit,’ said Maisie, gnawing at the inside of her cheek.

‘Do your dad and Caitlin know what’s going on?’

‘No, I can handle it. The girls will say I’m a crybaby if I go whining to them, and Dad and Caitlin are already upset about the practical joke thing.’

‘Can’t you just leave the WhatsApp group?’

‘That wouldn’t stop them posting stuff about me and I kind of need to know what they’re saying. If I don’t know, I just imagine worse.’

It was a circle of torment that Maisie didn’t appear able to break away from. Isla sighed. ‘They sound like a bad influence.’

‘And you sound just like Caitlin.’

‘Like I say, she cares about you.’

‘Yeah, whatever,’ said Maisie briskly. ‘Anyway, I expect the joke will all be forgotten by the time I go back to school.’ She went back to scrolling.

Isla had almost reached Rose Cottage when Maisie gave a strangled squeal.

‘Are you all right?’ Isla glanced at her passenger, who’d slumped in her seat. ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Are those girls saying things again? I wish you’d quit that WhatsApp group and—’

‘It’s nothing. Just drive!’ ordered Maisie. Her face crumpled into a scowl and the second the car came to a halt outside Rose Cottage, she leaped out and ran up to her bedroom.

‘How did it go?’ asked Caitlin, coming out of the kitchen with a flapjack in her hand. She glanced curiously up the stairs, at Maisie’s retreating figure. ‘Is Maisie all right? Is she upset about her dad and me?’

‘Probably, but we didn’t talk much about that. I think she’s having some issues with friends at school.’

‘Poor Maisie. Being a teenager is hard anyway, without all the extra angst her dad and I are throwing at her. Is this friends issue something I need to worry about?’

Caitlin seemed smaller, somehow, when she looked at Isla, her eyes filled with concern. She was losing weight – that was clear enough from the way her trousers were slipping down from the waist. But it wasn’t simply a physical diminishing. Her whole persona seemed to have shrunk as she dealt with life’s blows. And for once, Isla felt like the older sister, trying to protect her sibling from harm.

‘You’ve got quite enough to worry about right now so leave it with me. I’ll have a word with her,’ said Isla firmly.

‘If she’ll talk to you. She won’t speak to me. I wish she would. I really care about her, you know.’

‘I know you do.’

Before she could think better of it, Isla pulled Caitlin towards her into a hug and patted her awkwardly on the back. Her sister softened in her arms and the years fell away to a time when the girls had been a united force against a scary world.

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