‘I don’t believe you!’ Finn shouted. ‘You do classes in the cabin not in the kitchen and you were about to kiss that man. I saw you.’
‘Kissing?’ Isla squealed. ‘Mummy, I think he’s the bad prince. He looks mean and scary!’
I turned to Jonah, Isla clinging to me like an overheated baby koala as she whimpered, her nightie damp under my hand.Finn had rummaged through a random drawer and was now brandishing a potato masher.
‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Jonah managed a polite smile. ‘Thanks for the class, it’s been extremely informative.’
‘Hang on!’ He was almost at the front door when I hurried after him, Isla bouncing against my midriff. ‘I have to ask you something.’
Jonah turned, one hand on the doorknob, which seemed like a sensible move given that I was angling my hip to prevent Finn, now holding a ladle in his other hand, from pushing past me.
‘What job do you do?’ I asked, feeling as ridiculous as I must have sounded.
‘Um. I teach at Charis House.’
‘You’re ateacher?’
Charis House was another one of those rare, magical places, like the Green House, that welcomed young people who’d otherwise run out of options. It was infamous for helping lost, angry teenagers to uncover their passion, decide on a purpose and then develop the skills, training and self-belief to have a go at it. A good few of my foster siblings had spent time there, studying textiles, catering or construction.
‘How?’
Jonah nodded at the limpet clinging to my neck. ‘You want to talk about this now?’
‘No! Not now. Not ever!’ Finn yelled, stretching up on tiptoes to glare over my shoulder.
‘No. I’m sorry…’ I risked holding Isla with one arm so I could reach back and put the other one around Finn. I’ll message you, I mouthed. Sorry.
Jonah’s eyes met mine for one heart-faltering moment, he gave the smallest of nods, and was gone.
It was too late to message Jonah by the time I’d put the weapons back in the utensil drawer, changed both Isla and her bed and settled the children back to sleep, only managing to ease their anxiety by explaining that Jonah had once been my foster brother ‘Auntie Nicky used to call him Bronah!’ I laughed, ignoring the boulder of guilt as I presented a highly filtered account of why this strange man was in my house in what to them was the middle of the night.
‘Is he going to start sleeping here, like Toby?’ Isla asked, causing all sorts of images to tumble through my head.
‘No! Why would you ask that?’ I tucked the clean duvet up around her shoulders.
‘Well, if his sister can’t look after her baby then maybe he could live here, too. Like Toby and Hazel.’
‘Jonah has his own house to live in. He’ll take care of his sister and her baby, if she’s not better by then.’
‘That’s nice.’ She nuzzled down even deeper. ‘I think he might be a good prince. In disguise as a bad one. A bit like the Beast.’ It took me a second to realise she was talking about the Disney animation.
‘Well, actually he’s a teacher.’ A teacher! I still couldn’t believe it. ‘But otherwise, you might be right.’
28
THEN
For the couple of weeks after I’d been in Jonah’s bedroom, I barely saw him. Every few days I left another note with a silly reason to stay alive in his bag, but Mum had stopped driving us to school, deciding the exercise would do us good, so I’d no idea if he’d added any new songs to the playlist. The countdown to exams was like a timebomb ticking in the background as I struggled with practice test papers and daydreamed through revision lessons, from which he was noticeably absent.
Then, one lunchtime, I was walking down the busy school corridor to meet my friends when, out of nowhere, a boy called Davis Hammond appeared right in front of me. I tried to keep moving, but he reached out and put his hand against the wall, blocking my path.
‘Libby.’
‘What?’ I tried to sound bored and impatient. Davis was a genuine creep, and not in a hot way. After being paired up with him on a science project in the autumn, I’d occasionally caught him staring at me in lessons but had tried to convince myself he did that to everyone. Even when Katie and Alicia assured me otherwise.
‘Come to prom with me.’
I pulled back in shock. I’d done nothing to give the impression that I’d be interested in going anywhere with him, let alone prom.
