Sylvie’s cheeks were flushed and her lips quivered with anger – this was so typical of his high-handedness. He regarded her with equal anger – she was the one being selfish.
‘Children don’t leave Stonewylde until they’re fourteen,’ he said stubbornly.
‘Then this will be the exception – and anyway, maybe they should. You’re always on about how we need to mix more with the Outside World and encourage more interaction. You can’t have it both ways. I shall tell Celandine in the morning and you’ll see how much it’ll mean to her. Think of that, if the idea upsets you so much – think of how she’ll love it.’
‘I don’t want you to go, Sylvie.’
His eyes were flashing dangerously and under normal circumstances she’d have backed down as she always did and let him have his own way. But that, she thought, was the problem – he’d been getting his own way for far too long.
‘I realise that but I’m still going.’
She stood up from the table and started to clear it, stacking the dishes on the trolley to wheel to the dumb waiter. The youngsters downstairs on work detail that night would deal with them. Yul rose too and took his glass and the bottle over to the sofa, where he flung himself down bad-temperedly. He watched her walking back and forth with the trolley and dishes. She was as gorgeous as ever, he thought moodily. Her silver hair swung down her back in a great silky swathe, almost brushing her buttocks. He surveyed those too, noticing how the material of her dress clung to every slim curve. He felt his desire for her growing by the second which only added to his fury. The clearing done, she stood before him watching as he drained his glass.
‘Are you intending to stay up here for a while or will you be disappearing downstairs?’
He shrugged.
‘Why not? Are you trying to banish me from this room as well as the bedroom?’
‘Not at all! I’d love you to stay here for the evening because—’
‘Well in that case I will. It makes a change to be wanted.’
‘—because then I can go downstairs and help with the quilts. We’re padding them tonight.’
He sprung up and took her by the shoulders, his eyes blazing into hers.
‘What’s the matter with you?’ he shouted. ‘Why are you treating me like this?’
‘I’m not! But I want to help the other women and I can’t leave the girls on their own.’
‘For goddess’ sake! You can rig up an intercom, the way I’ve suggested countless times. One of those baby alarm things they use in the Outside World.’
‘No I can’t! This is a huge house – even if I heard them crying it could take me ages to get up here and they’d be frightened in the meantime. You can’t leave young children on their own like that. Have you any idea how often Bluebell wakes up with nightmares? How she cries and needs comforting straight away, not in five minutes’ time when I’ve finally heard her and run half a mile to get here.’
‘You’ve spoilt her,’ he said coldly, dropping his hands and turning away. ‘You shouldn’t let her sleep in your … our bed.’
‘How do you know she does?’ She thought then of the footsteps and shadows in the dark and grabbed his arm. ‘Are you the one who comes into my room at night? Are you the one who sneaks about in the darkness and terrifies me?’
‘What? What are you talking about?’
She let go of him, unsure of herself.
‘Nothing – forget it.’
‘Has someone being coming into our bedroom at night?’
‘No! No, that’s not what I meant.’
He stared at her and she looked away and wouldn’t meet his eye. Maybe he’d been right all along – maybe there was somebody else. The thought, even though he knew it was irrational, stabbed him like a shard of glass.
‘I know Bluebell sleeps with you, Sylvie, because she told me. She said now I’ve gone to live downstairs she looks after you at night when you cry in your sleep.’
*
Several times over the next few days Sylvie almost gave in and cancelled the trip. It was such hard work standing up to Yul. But Celandine would’ve been devastated so Sylvie stuck to her intentions and at last the time came to leave. She and the little girl stood in the stone-flagged entrance hall with their overnight bag waiting for the car to come round. They were