He stared at her. His face expressionless.
‘That’s my mom’s room,’ he said.
‘I know but she’s not here and I’m sure she’d be happy to share it with me while I help your dad with the book.’
‘He’s not my dad,’ Myles said.
‘Okay.’
They were both silent for a moment.
‘I’m off to bed,’ she said and she opened the door.
‘Night,’ she said.
‘Fuck off,’ he answered and Eve was thankful he didn’t see her mouth open in shock at his rudeness.
He might not be Edward’s son but he sure had the same temper, she thought, and she went to bed, with ‘After Midnight’ playing in her head.
13
Eve couldn’t sleep after she met Myles.
The first thing she wanted to ask Edward was if he realised, when naming Flora, that the children would have the same names as the children inThe Turn of the Screw.
The second was, why the hell was a child being held in a tower?
Why wasn’t he with the family? It put the funk in dysfunctional, she thought as she tried to get the child’s face out of her head.
There was no way her mum would let one of the boys stay up all night and not be a part of the family; but then again, she wasn’t sure that Amber Priest and Donna Pilkins had the same sort of approach to parenting.
She checked her phone and saw it was nearly two o’clock. She had to sleep, she told herself, and she closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind until the image of Myles had faded. Since she didn’t hear anything coming from the tower, she felt her body relax until she fell asleep.
*
The first thing Eve did when she woke at six was call her mum. She knew she would be up; she would be already on her way to work.
‘The thing is, my love, we don’t always know what’s happening in other people’s families. That boy might not want to be a part of the family, so having him stay in the tower is better than having him run away and end up on the streets.’
Eve knew her mother was right, but it was still upsetting to think of him alone up there.
‘It’s not like he’s been held against his will is it? What was the book where the young prince was in the tower?’
‘The Man in the Iron Mask,’ Eve said.
‘He wasn’t wearing a mask was he?’ asked her mum.
‘No, Mum,’ she said. ‘Don’t pretend this isn’t serious.’
‘And don’t you jump to conclusions, Eve,’ Donna said. ‘Why don’t you ask your author and his family if he wants to come for Christmas?’
‘What?’ Eve was confused.
‘You said you couldn’t come but if I invite the lot of you, then he has to come.’ Donna sounded pleased with her plan.
‘I’m not sure it works like that,’ she said. ‘And they don’t even have any Christmas decorations up.’
‘Maybe he’s Jewish,’ Donna reasoned.
