gone AWOL without telling anyone. But the police are convinced he and Terri are a couple again and planned it together.’
‘Yeah, well, it’s looking like it at the moment,’ admits Ruby. ‘Sorry. I don’t mean to make it worse, but you have to face up to it, Amber. It doesn’t look good.’
‘No, I know it doesn’t. But he was my best friend. I completely trusted him; we used to say we’d walk through fire for each other. I can’t understand … I mean, why? Am I the bitch from hell? Did I deserve this?’
‘Of course not,’ Ruby says. ‘I don’t know Seth very well, but I do know how much you mean to each other. You once told me that if you hadn’t been with George and Seth hadn’t been gay, you’d have married him like a shot.’
‘Yes, that’s true, I would have.’ Amber puts her head in her hands, speaking through her fingers. ‘I just have to hold onto the fact that he really loves Mabel. He’s so good with her. He might hate me, but I don’t think he would harm her or let Terri do anything bad.’ The tears start to flood out of her. ‘But I’m so scared! It’s almost worse knowing they’ve got her but not where they are. We’re so near and yet so far.’
Ruby gets up and crouches down in front of her sister. ‘Hey, come here, it’s okay.’ She holds her firmly but gently, like she’s trying to save a cracked egg from breaking. ‘Just let it out … feel it …’
‘I hope Lewis is going to be all right,’ Amber sobs. ‘I don’t want him to die. I know George attacked him, but I feel like it was my fault.’
‘Lewis is in good hands,’ Ruby soothes. ‘The doctor thinks there’s been a very slight improvement, though it’s too early to know if that means anything.’ She strokes Amber’s back. ‘There’s nothing we can do now apart from wait. As for Seth and Terri, the police will track them down. It’s good news, hon, really it is. Mabel’s alive and well; she’s going to be back with us very soon. You’ve got to hold onto that.’
Ruby raids the drinks cupboard in the kitchen and finds a bottle of Armagnac. She pours two glasses and takes them to the sitting room. Amber drinks hers, spluttering through her tears, and then downs another one.
‘Will you stay tonight, Rubes?’ she asks. ‘Please? We can share my bed, like we used to when we were kids. I don’t want to be on my own.’
‘Of course I’ll stay,’ Ruby replies, although she can’t remember a time when she and Amber ever shared a bed. On holiday perhaps, when there was only a double available, or when staying with relatives? But no, not even then. They always had separate bedrooms at home, and Ruby wasn’t allowed to enter Amber’s room without knocking first. She was never invited to cosy up in bed, giggling and whispering secrets, or eating popcorn while watching videos of Friends. That was what other big sisters did with their younger siblings, but never Amber. She didn’t teach Ruby how to put make-up on, or help her with homework, or give her advice about boyfriends. But it doesn’t matter. Let her rewrite history if that’s what she needs.
It’s gone midnight and both of them are shattered. They go upstairs to the loft room, taking it in turns to use the bathroom. Ruby undresses and puts on a pair of borrowed silky pyjamas.
‘We probably won’t sleep,’ says Amber, getting into her side of the bed. ‘I’ve almost given up trying.’
‘No, I think we will.’ Ruby pulls the duvet over them and lies down. Amber turns out the light. The sheets are cold and the bed is so large that she has to shuffle across to reach Amber, who is lying on her side, facing away from her. Ruby snuggles in, curled against her sister’s back. If only they had been as close as this when they were children. It shouldn’t have taken this tragedy to bring them together.
Amber, for all her doubts, is already drifting off, her breathing gradually slowing. Ruby closes her eyes and fills the darkness of her mind with a vision of Mabel, smiling and laughing as they play peekaboo. She feels herself sinking, sinking. The sisters are utterly exhausted, more tired than they have ever been in their lives, but a long night of deep slumber beckons for them at last.