Dark Heart Surrender (33 page)
Read Dark Heart Surrender Online
Authors: Lee Monroe
Luca didn’t look at me as he replied. ‘It was an accident. Someone lit a match and that place just erupted in flames. They couldn’t have known the danger they were in.’
Lydia nodded and suddenly her eyes filled with tears. ‘I’m so glad my father didn’t know – it would have broken his heart. But at least … at least there is comfort in them all being buried together. The family together.’
‘Yes,’ I said lamely. The truth was beating against the sides of my brain. That terrible night, with Luca barely conscious. But just conscious enough to tell us what to do.
We had waited until the rain stopped. Thankfully it didn’t last long. It took Dalya and me to carry Luca to a safe distance, with Olivia sobbing behind us, and Ulfred running back with the last of the matches. He found a large plastic petrol container in the back of one of those horrible dank huts – just as Luca had said he would. And then … well, he made sure that the Vulpecula and the ghost-filled old grounds died together.
Strangely, tests revealed human DNA.
It had turned out easier than I thought to convince the police of our story. That it had all been just a harmless prank, but it went horribly wrong.
‘I’m so sorry,’ I whispered, as bearers carried three coffins past us, on their way to their burial plots. ‘You have lost so much.’
And she had. Olivia had yet to tell her aunt that Lydia’s beloved little sister, Eva, was dead. We all figured she wouldn’t be able to handle that. Not now. And Olivia needed time to grieve herself. For the mother she never knew – and never found.
We would have to wait until Eva’s body was discovered, if it ever was. Olivia knew everything now. Though she was freaked out, she understood that we would have to keep silent.
Olivia was the last to come out of the church – a slight girl with huge eyes; pretty, a strange combination of innocence and worldliness. She had been through so much in her life. No wonder nothing really surprised her any more.
She approached us, nodding shyly at Lydia’s husband. She stopped next to Lydia, whose face lit up at the sight of her.
‘Olivia,’ Lydia said softly, taking her in her arms and holding her tight, ‘I’m so glad we have you back – at last.’
Olivia hugged her back, trembling a little. She had finally found her family. At least something good had come out of this.
I turned to Luca, gesturing with my eyes for us to leave Lydia and her niece to grieve together. Smiling sadly at me, he put his arm around my waist and we walked slowly out of the church grounds, leaving that grisly funeral behind.
‘Want to sit down?’ He nodded at the ancient old bench by the gates.
As we sat, I nestled my head into his neck, holding tightly on to his hand.
‘You’re gripping my hand as though you never want to let go,’ he whispered into my hair, and I knew he was smiling.
‘I don’t,’ I said seriously, squeezing it even tighter. ‘And I’m never going to.’ I sat up, moving subtly away from him. ‘I’m going to become one of those intense stalker girlfriends who keeps tabs on your every move.’ I grinned sheepishly, feeling all over again that the two of us had only just met. The air around us seemed to crackle with tension. But good tension.
‘You know what, Jane Jonas?’ He looked straight into my eyes. ‘I’m never letting you go either. And as long as time allows us to I will spend the rest of my life with you making you happy. And safe. And loved.’
It must have been sheer relief that our ordeal was over, along with Luca’s words, but it was my turn to cry now. And once I started, I felt I couldn’t stop.
‘I would go through all that again, in a heartbeat,’ I said. ‘Everything. Anything.’ I kissed his hand through my tears.
In that moment I knew – call it an instinct – that Luca and I were simply fated to be together. From the moment he had appeared in my dreams, it had been written into our destinies.
That our hearts were entwined through darkness and light.
WHO WOULD BE YOUR DREAM CAST IF THE DARK HEART BOOKS WERE MADE INTO A FILM?
Eddie Redmayne as Luca and Jessica brown findlay as Jane.
WHICH SONGS WOULD BE ON
THE DARK HEART SURRENDER
SOUNDTRACK?
A mix of melancholia and pop:
Last night I Dreamt somebody Loved Me
(The smiths); a bit of The Donnas; some classical piano from satie;
Who Knew
by Pink;
English Rose
(The Jam);
A nice Day for a white wedding
(billy idol) amongst others…
IS JANE BASED ON ANYONE IN PARTICULAR?
Jane is every girl. confident but a little uncertain too. Beautiful but oblivious to it … passionate but practical … I don’t know anyone exactly like Jane. I wanted her to be a blank canvas, but a girl the readers would warm to, and want to be perhaps …
IF YOU COULD BE FROM NISSILUM, WHICH SUPERNATURAL CREATURE WOULD YOU BE?
Easy, I would be Vanya! Glamorous and deadly …
IF YOU COULD INVITE FIVE PEOPLE TO DINNER WHO WOULD YOU INVITE?
Mary Portas, Lily Allen, Woody Allen, Jon slattery and James Gandolfini.
WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE AUTHOR AND WHY?
I don’t have one favourite, but an author i absolutely love is Elizabeth Taylor, who wrote most of her novels in the period from 1950 to 1970. She was so insightful about the human condition – razor sharp in her wit but empathetic and kind. She wrote a book called
Angel
all about a somewhat delusional teenage author … Very funny and poignant too.
WHAT BOOK DO YOU WISH YOU HAD WRITTEN?
Well,
Angel
… obviously. But also
She’s Come Undone
by Wally Lamb.
TELL US ONE THING YOUR READERS WON’T ALREADY KNOW ABOUT YOU.
When I was thirteen my father moved our family to live on a Thames Barge in Essex where I lived until I was eighteen. It had its ups and downs but most surreal was when my bedroom travelled with me on holiday.
WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NEXT?
It’s a bit of a departure – my next novel will be very much rooted in reality, though it will most definitely be a ‘fated love’ story.
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