Ciarán dropped me off at the vicarage. I floated through the front door, lips throbbing from this newly discovered use. My heart fluttered just remembering his kisses, his hands on my skin. I had a big stupid grin on my face that wouldn't be folded up and put away. Amy glanced at me, did a double take, and then asked if I’d been given a big bag of drugs at the hospital. I laughed and hugged her. I would tell her everything. Just not yet. Not while it was so new. I wanted to hug it to myself.
A delicious secret.
I was brought down to earth with a bump when Grace walked into the kitchen. Her sherry-coloured eyes had a calculating gleam in them. All of my problems had not evaporated with that first kiss. Or the ones that followed it, no matter how much I wished they had.
"Feeling better?" Her tone was mocking and I bristled.
"Yes th-thanks." I missed the cool tone I'd been aiming for and hit sub-zero.
"It was a good plan, Gremlin. Clever. Didn't think you had it in you." Her smile was sweet and spiteful.
"W-what plan? What do you m-mean?"
"Playing the damsel in distress card. Hurting yourself and then having Ciarán pick you up from hospital. It's ingenious. We knew he was the white knight type." Grace looked me up and down. "Somehow I never thought you were that conniving."
Damsel in distress? After Ciarán had carried her, limp and fainting, back to the vicarage twice this week? And with Grace getting him alone to ask him to dinner? I was the conniving one? Really? I itched to slap that smug look off her face. Amy read the emotional weather in my face and jumped up.
"Come on, Emlynn. I bet you'd like to get changed out of those muddy jeans." She tugged me towards the stairs.
"Yes, I wonder how they did get muddy." Grace's voice floated after us.
I spun back towards her but Amy grabbed me and shook her head. I'd gone from cloud-hoppingly happy to incandescent with rage. I remembered Grace's blank and lovely face as Haze broke my arm. I wanted to punch her.
Bitch, I seethed to myself. Heading upstairs with Amy trailing behind, I didn't feel like being fair.
So what if Kate was squatting inside Grace like a toad, using all her worst feelings, speaking all her most hurtful thoughts. I wanted to blame Grace and then dish some of it back in spades. Black spots swam before my eyes. I steadied myself against the wall and took several deep breaths. Calm down, calm. This isn't you either. That thought sobered me up. It wasn't just my anger I was feeling. I was an amplifier for all the negative feelings bound up in the Pattern. All that rage and bitterness.
I glanced to the side. Just passing the cold spot. If there was anywhere in this house that Helen lingered, it was here. Just as she had in life, eavesdropping. She’d had good reason to dislike Kate. An anger without outlet and focus. I couldn't trust Helen.
But…but Haze had warned her not to talk to me, so Helen must know something. There must be more that she could tell me…more I needed to know. I weighed it up. Mrs Cranford now or try and make Helen talk to me first? On one hand shouldn’t I be keeping Mrs Cranford updated?
Or I could make Helen talk to me and go to Mrs Cranford with the full picture. As tempting as the thought of running into Ciarán again so soon was, I decided to try Helen first. I wanted this mission over with. The sooner I got to the bottom of it, the better.
I Belong to the Earth (Unveiled Book 1) Page 42