Page 77 of A Good Heart is Hard to Find
I couldn’t blame him for being mad, but I was quite glad not to have to face him in one of his rages because he could be quite awesome, although he usually simmered down pretty quickly.
After that I’d have tried to catch a coupleof hours’ sleep if the great She-beast herself didn’t phone me up at last, sounding fraught and breathless, which is unusual for Jane.
‘Cass? Is that you? You’ve got to help me!’
‘I thought I already was, Jane: Pa and Gerald have both been on the phone wanting you, and neither was pleasedthat you wouldn’t come and speak to them. Pa’s flipped and sent you a biblical rant, and Gerald’s writtenyou an absolutely pathetic letter.’
‘You read it?’ she demanded, sounding more like her old self.
‘Gerald sent all your mail on and I read the lot,’ I said. ‘You read all mine when you were here, after all: fair’s fair.’
‘Well, never mind that now!’ she said. ‘Listen, Cass, you’ve got to help me get out of here! It’s dreadful: Clint lives in a bigtent.’
‘I’m told yurts are very comfortable,Jane. And weren’t you after a bit of the old back-to-nature?’
‘Not this natural! There’s a whole field of these yurts, and they live there like a lot of gypsies. And there’s nowhere to recharge my phone, and no proper toilet, and everything’s muddy. Now my Jimmy Choos have got dung on them – and Clint’s turned so jealous he won’t let me out of his sight!’ She paused, breathless.
It sounded tome like the excremental Choos were the last straw.
‘So he’s there now?’ I asked.
‘No, of course not! I’m at the pub – and I had to borrow the landlord’s own phone, because Clint’s hidden my bag with all my money and my credit cards, and I don’t know how to get away!’
She sounded desperate, but I expected the landlord was eating out of her hand.
‘So where is Clint at the moment?’
‘He’s goneto Penzance to sell some paintings. His friend Baz’s supposed to be keeping me company until he gets back, but he’s taken something,’ she said primly, ‘and he didn’t even blink when I got up and left.’
‘Get on the train and come here then, while the going’s good.’
‘Without money? And my suitcase, my clothes, and—’
‘Gerald – and possibly Pa, if the spirit moves him – are liable to come to Westeryin person at any minute, and insist you talk to them,’ I told her, which had the effect of a dash of icy water to the face.
‘Oh God, what if they come before I get back? And what if Clint comes back and finds me here? I’ll never get away, and—’
‘You can go to London. One of your letters was from George. He’s got to go abroad next week, and he wants you to keep Phily out of trouble until hercase comes up. What, by the way, is Phily’s old trouble?’
‘Shoplifting, only she can’t help it. It’s kleptomania.’
‘Of course, the nobility donotshoplift.’
‘George wanted me to go down?’
I could practically hear her weaselly little brain whirring.
‘Yes – and if I do that, he will have to promise to say I’ve been there all week. And London’s closer than you are, especially if I catch theExpress. But what do I do for money?’
‘Put the landlord on,’ I said resignedly, and when she did I gave him my bank card details and he advanced enough to my pathetic sister to get her to London, including a taxi to the station.
‘I want it back the minute you get your stuff,’ I warned. ‘Leave a message with the landlord for Clint, telling him to forward your belongings to London, or you’ll setthe police on his doped-up friends.’
‘Thank you, Cass,’ she said, the unaccustomed words coming with creaking reluctance. But she said them.
‘Get moving before he comes back,’ I advised her. ‘I’ll tell George to expect you.’
…at last he slept, coffined in marble, and she took the key from its hiding place and turned it slowly and carefully in the huge lock.
It grated slightly, and behindher in the darkness he stirred and began to wake as she frantically turned the handle and pulled open the heavy door.
She felt rather than heard him spring out and reach for her, but by then the first rays of sunshine barred the way between them.
She was free – until darkness fell once more.
