All My Secrets (8 page)

Read All My Secrets Online

Authors: Sophie McKenzie

BOOK: All My Secrets
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‘Samuel?’ I call once more.

No reply. The sun dips out of sight, plunging the area into shadow. The place suddenly feels spooky. I hurry across the rock. My boots keep me steady, though I can feel the ground beneath my
feet getting smoother and slippier. I reach the tall stone. Peer around it. It falls away sharply to the sea below. Waves pound against the crags that stick up from the sea. There’s no one
here. No way anyone could hide here after all.

And then footsteps sound behind me. I spin around. Too fast. I lose my footing. Stumble back, almost to the edge. The sea smashes against the rocks, loud in my ears.

As I fall, a hand grabs my arm.

Ten

I look up into Kit’s hazel eyes. He hauls me to my feet with an angry hiss.

‘What are you doing out here?’ he demands, letting go of my arm. ‘You could have fallen into the water and drowned . . . or been crushed to death on the rocks.’

I glance down to where the grey stone falls away, sheer to the sea, just centimetres away. It was stupid to run over here – and of all the people I don’t want to see me being
stupid, Kit is currently at the top of the list. The thought that he did see – and is now telling me off because of it – makes me hot with embarrassment.

‘I only fell because you startled me. I was trying to find Samuel.’ I back away from the edge, my legs trembling. ‘I . . . I thought I saw someone creeping through the trees .
. . that maybe they came this way. Did you see anyone? Was it you?’

But even as I ask I know it wasn’t. Kit is wearing the same clothes as earlier – a white T-shirt over grey sweatpants. Definitely not a black coat or a red hat. Unless he put them on
and took them off again.

‘No, it wasn’t me,’ Kit says with an angry snort. ‘I only saw
you
creeping through the trees. Which by the way they told us not to do.
And
they
specifically
said not to go on the rocks.’

Irritation rises inside me as the shock of my fall and Kit’s sudden appearance wears off. He might be the hottest boy I’ve ever met, but that doesn’t give him the right to
order me about.

‘I don’t see how what I do is any of your business,’ I snap. ‘Just because you always do what you’re told.’

‘I don’t.’ Kit’s face flushes a deep red. ‘I wouldn’t be here if I did, would I? Look, if you’re not coming back to the house then I’ll see you
later.’ He turns away.

‘Wait.’

Kit turns back. The setting sun behind me is shining on his face. He holds his hand up to shield his eyes. ‘What?’

I hesitate, my throat dry. ‘What
are
you doing out here?’

There’s a long pause. The wind dies down though the waves still crash against the rocks. When Kit speaks, I can only just hear him above the swell and slap of the water.

‘I came to find you,’ he says. ‘I’d just finished in the kitchen and I saw you and the others through the window when you were going into the trees so I came to look for
you.’

‘Oh.’ We stare at each other, then Kit moves slightly closer. My heart hammers. My insides cartwheel madly. Kit’s strong, square-jawed face is all I can see.

And then he turns away and looks out to sea.

I gulp, feeling confused. What is he thinking? Is he still mad at me?

‘I just wanted to help find Samuel and then, when I was in the wood, I thought I saw him coming this way,’ I gabble, eager to explain why I ventured onto the rock. ‘The same
thing happened earlier on the way here. That is, I think I saw something . . . someone . . . in the trees. Miss Bunnock said it was a trick of the light, but it kind of freaked me out.’

‘It
was
probably the light,’ Kit says. ‘Look.’

I follow his gaze out to sea where the water is calm and the sun, almost at the horizon, is a pure disc of gold. Its light shimmers across the water like a gleaming sheet of yellow silk.

‘Oh wow, it’s beautiful,’ I say, transfixed.

As the sun slowly sets, the tips of the rocks rising up from the sea gleam like needles of bright light. Kit and I stand, side by side, as the sky shifts around us: pearly pinks and soft oranges
weaving in and out of the burnished gold.

‘It’s amazing,’ I breathe.

‘You can see why the place is called Lightsea.’ Kit turns to me, his eyes glowing. ‘Evie . . .?’

I wait for him to carry on, but his jaw clenches and he frowns.

‘What is it?’

‘We should go back to the house before it gets dark.’

I’m certain that isn’t what he’d been going to say, but I don’t know how to explain that so I just nod, then follow Kit off the rock.

We walk through the trees and back to the house in silence. I have no idea where Josh and Pepper have got to or if Samuel has been found. To be honest, I don’t give either thought much
consideration. The way Kit looked at me as he moved closer keeps whirling around my head. It was as if he’d been about to kiss me then thought better of it.

Nobody is outside the house as we let ourselves in and hurry to the library. Anna is curled up on one of the sofas. She’s alone, a large leather-bound book in her lap. Her eyes light up as
she sees Kit.

‘Hi there,’ she says.

‘Hi, Anna,’ Kit says. ‘Where is everyone?’

‘I don’t know.’ Anna blushes, a shy smile on her lips. ‘I think Mrs Moncrieff must still be upstairs. I haven’t seen anyone else since I came out of the kitchen.
Where’ve you been?’

‘Just looking around,’ Kit says vaguely. He wanders over to the bookshelves. Anna watches him for a moment, then turns to me. She holds up her book. The title is embossed across the
front:
The Haunting of Lightsea
.

‘I’ve been reading about the house being haunted,’ she says. ‘Apparently, the legends about ghosts began when it was an insane asylum, but this book reckons most of the
people here weren’t even mentally ill, just different, the sort of people who, with a bit of care and the right meds, would be totally fine today.’

Kit turns around from the bookshelf he’s examining. ‘That happened a lot in the old days.’

‘Does it say anything about the hauntings?’ I ask.

‘Yeah, it does actually.’ Anna tucks her hair behind her ears. She holds out the book to me. ‘It was written just after the original Mr Lomax took over the island and set up
the Lightsea Institute instead of the old insane asylum that had been here since Victorian times. The old stories said that it’s the island that draws the ghosts, like some portal between
this life and the next – but the scientists who examined the claims said it was all just a trick of the light. There’s a photocopy of a slightly more recent newspaper cutting in the
back though, about something from fourteen or fifteen years ago, before the Mr Lomax who’s here now took over. Take a look.’

I sit down by the empty fireplace and open the book. It’s heavy and smells of damp. The photocopy of the newspaper article is tucked inside the front cover. I glance at it idly, then
gasp.

The article features a blurry photograph of a woman in a red wool hat and a long dark coat. The collar of the coat is turned up and the hat pulled down so low that it’s impossible to see
her face. My heart thuds in my chest. The colour of the hat looks similar to the flash of red I saw earlier. And the swish of the black coat I caught sight of could easily have been made by the
coat in the picture. Was
this
who I saw running through the trees? I snatch up the article and read:

An unknown woman is reported to have been pushed – almost certainly to her death – in the early hours of this morning on Lightsea Island, our correspondent
writes.

The woman’s outer clothes (pictured here on a model) were found on Easter Rock, a lethal promontory that occupies the eastern end of the island. Alan Lomax, head of the Lightsea
Institute mental-health facility, claims to have no knowledge of the woman or her presence on the island. The alleged incident was reported by a visitor to the Institute. He remains the only
witness, but was only able to give the police a general description of the alleged attacker and the woman who fell. The attacker is believed to be tall with dark hair while the woman was
described as fair-haired and of slightly lower than average height and build.

My skin erupts in goosebumps. The woman sounds like Irina. I shake myself. Lots of women could be described in the same way.

This is not the first time tragedy has struck on this particular part of Lightsea Island. Easter Rock was a commonly used suicide spot for inmates of the Asylum that
used to stand on the site of the present Institute.

Police are appealing for information from anyone who thinks they may have seen the woman or her attacker in the local area . . .

Heart still racing, I scan to the date of the incident. All the air seems to be sucked out of the room as my brain tries to process what it is seeing.

It is the date of Irina’s death.

Eleven

‘Evie?
Evie?

I’m dimly aware that someone is saying my name, but all I can think is that the woman in the article might be Irina – except of course she can’t be. Uncle Gavin would
definitely have said if Irina had died on the island. He told me – as did Andrew – that she was run over by a lorry one evening in Nottingham. All the information I found online said so
too.


Evie?
’ Kit shakes my arm. ‘Are you OK? You look really pale.’

I force myself to look at him as he sits down beside me, his eyes full of concern.

‘I’m fine,’ I lie. ‘It’s just . . . this article is a bit weird.’

‘Yeah, I thought so too,’ Anna says. She twists her hair around her finger. ‘I mean, how come nobody apart from that one guy saw the woman?’

‘What woman?’ Kit asks.

I pass him the article. He reads it, then gives it back. ‘I don’t get it,’ he says. ‘Why is some random woman going missing fifteen years ago upsetting you?’

I pocket the article, avoiding looking directly at his handsome face. I feel too vulnerable to tell him the woman sounds like Irina, but perhaps I can explain just a little bit.

‘I think I might have seen her ghost,’ I stammer. ‘Outside, in the trees . . . running down to the rocks.’

Kit wrinkles his nose. ‘Ghosts aren’t real, Evie,’ he says. ‘They’re just a stupid, made-up thing to frighten people with.’

‘You don’t know that,’ Anna says. She sits bolt upright, her cheeks flushing bright pink. ‘I . . . I believe in ghosts. When I was younger, I was certain my mum was
watching over me.’

Our eyes meet. Anna looks self-conscious but defiant, as if she’s used to people being sceptical.

‘I can understand that,’ I say.

Anna nods.

‘What exactly did you see, Evie?’ Kit asks.

I tell them both about the figure I saw outside, though I still can’t bring myself to explain that I think it might have been Irina.

Kit shakes his head, but Anna leans forward, her eyes round with alarm. ‘It sounds just like the woman in the article,’ she says. ‘Wow, Evie, you’re being haunted;
that’s so cool.’

Am I? A chill creeps down my spine.

I really want to explain to her about the connection with Irina, but, before I can find the words to do so, Pepper and Josh rush in, laughing, their faces glowing from the cold air outside.

‘Oh my days, we saw Buttockbreath on the way back, had to run the long way round to get here without her seeing,’ Pepper gasps.

‘She’s quite the speedster,’ Josh says admiringly, pointing at Pepper.

In spite of my anxieties, I can’t help wondering if Josh likes her. It’s easy to see why a boy might. I’ve never met anyone quite like Pepper before: so open and forthright, so
completely unconcerned with what people think of her.

‘What happened to you, Evie?’ she asks, flopping elegantly onto the sofa next to me. ‘One minute you were right behind us, the next you’d vanished.’

‘Yeah, we were worried you’d been taken by the same bogeyman who’s got Samuel,’ Josh adds with a chuckle.

‘It’s not funny,’ Kit says with a frown. ‘Samuel could be hurt.’

‘I thought maybe I saw him out on a rock past the trees, so I went to take a look.’ I avoid Kit’s gaze, but I can sense him looking at me. For some reason, I really don’t
want to tell Pepper and Josh that Kit followed me, that we were out there together.

‘Oooh, not the dangerous rocks.’ Pepper widens her eyes theatrically. ‘Very daring, Evie.’

‘Well, we needn’t have worried, none of us,’ Josh says with a sigh. ‘We saw Samuel with Mr Lomax down by this big wooden hut thing at the other end of the
island.’

‘That must be the boathouse,’ Kit says.

‘Yeah,’ Pepper says. ‘It’s like a smaller version of the one in our holiday home.’

‘You have a holiday home?’ Anna sounds awestruck.

‘My dad’s seriously rich,’ Pepper says in a bored, matter-of-fact voice. ‘He’s still an arse.’

She sounds defiant, but I wonder if she really feels as unbothered as she’s making out. Even though I’m angry with Andrew, I don’t feel like Pepper clearly does. I can’t
imagine what it must be like to despise your own father.

‘Was Samuel OK?’ Kit asks.

Pepper shrugs. ‘He looked fine to us, but we didn’t hang around.’

‘Yeah, couldn’t wait to get back,’ Josh adds sarcastically.

Outside the twilight deepens, the darkening sky spread with silver and orange swirls. After about half an hour, Miss Bunnock appears. She reassures us all that Samuel is fine after accidentally
wandering too far from the house and getting lost and that he has been sent up to bed. It suddenly strikes me that maybe Samuel saw the same figure as me . . . that perhaps it spooked him into
running off.

‘Is he really OK?’ I ask. ‘Can we see him?’

Miss Bunnock frowns. ‘You’ll see him in the morning.’

‘He’ll be glad to know you care, Evie.’ Pepper grins.

‘It’s not that,’ I mumble, feeling embarrassed.

‘Anyway, it’s bedtime now,’ Miss Bunnock says.

‘No way.’ The grin falls from Pepper’s face. ‘Seriously, it’s not even properly
dark
yet.’

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