Tales from the Tower, Volume 2 (36 page)

I took a deep breath and tried to swallow the bitterness in my throat. He'd come to our house to find another girl, the owner of a
shoe
!

I watched as Reine leaned across and took the shoe from him and put it up against her big foot.

‘Well, I don't think so.' She gave a fake laugh. ‘Your turn, Skye!' I scowled as I took the beautiful little shoe and held it up next to my foot. Reine might be smart and tough but she could also be quite thick. Why draw attention to our huge ugly feet? She only had to look at that tiny thing to know it definitely wouldn't fit.

Cinders suddenly came in carrying a basket full of washing. It had started to rain and her hair was dragging all around her face and she was in faded old jeans and thongs. She nodded but hardly looked at us as she hurried through to the kitchen, dumping the washing basket on the table before heading towards the back door again.

‘What about her?' Josh asked as the door closed.

‘What about her?' I said sourly.

‘Maybe she could try it.'

‘But why? She wasn't even there.'

‘Just for the hell of it.'

‘Cinders!' I shouted. ‘Come here.'

She came back immediately, her face still partially covered by her hair. There was a hole in her T-shirt, I noticed with satisfaction, and there was grime over her jeans. Mum had told her to clean the oven that morning. At least her beauty wasn't quite as obvious as usual!

Josh held the shoe out to her.

‘Will you try this on?' he asked. Without raising her head, Cinders took the shoe and simply held it in her hand, turning it this way and that as though unsure what to do next. Josh took a step towards her, staring intently at her lowered head, as though trying to work something out.

‘Quickly,' I snarled, ‘he's in a hurry.'

She sat down on the arm of the chair, slipped off her thong and, wouldn't you know, the shoe fitted her foot perfectly! Joshua's mouth fell open and he moved closer, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

‘I've visited so many people,' he said quietly, ‘and not one other girl could get it on.' Cinders blushed, but she didn't raise her head, or smile or look at him. In fact, she looked distinctly uncomfortable. I glanced at Reine. Suddenly we both knew it was very important to get that girl out of the room.

‘Go and help Mum, will you,' I ordered, ‘she's making coffee.' On cue, Mum appeared in the doorway holding the tray of coffee cups and a plate of the delicious biscuits that Cinders had made the day before.

‘Where have you been, Ella?' she said unpleasantly. ‘I shouldn't have to do this.'

‘I was cleaning the oven, then it started to rain . . .' she protested softly and immediately slipped the shoe off.

‘Well, get back to it right now.'

Ella nodded and hurried from the room.

‘Hang on!' Josh stood up. ‘Please . . . don't go.'

But she had disappeared and Josh was left frowning deeply as he stared after her.

‘I guess she's shy,' he said quietly.

‘A personality bypass, more like it,' Reine chuckled.

‘Okay.' Joshua gulped down his tea and stood up. ‘Well, I'll get going now. I'll see you gals soon, eh?' He had a distracted expression, as though his mind was already elsewhere.

‘Dancing,' I said cheekily, ‘remember? You and me.'

‘Sure,' he said, and squeezed my hand. ‘That would be fun, Skye.' He smiled at Mum. ‘Your daughter is a fantastic dancer.'

‘Oh, I know.' Mum swooned under his charm. ‘She's always been a natural.'

Joshua looked at his watch again. ‘I'd better go.'

Once we'd closed the door on him, the three of us rushed back into the lounge to peer through the curtains and watch him leave. Out on the street he turned to the house and stood looking at it thoughtfully, hands deep in his pockets, then he shrugged and walked back to his car.

‘Just look at us,' I wailed in despair.

‘And this place,' Reine said furiously.

‘Doesn't matter,' Mum said smugly, ‘he likes you.'

Of course, we were really pissed off that he'd seen us at our worst. Still, Mum might be right, he was a nice guy and he'd been so friendly. With a bit of luck he wouldn't find the girl who owned the shoe and he'd ask me out instead. We talked at length about the pros and cons of sending him a gentle reminder if I didn't hear anything within the next week. But I couldn't stop thinking about it. Every time the phone rang my heart rose. Perhaps he'd only been shy in front of Mum and Reine . . . maybe . . . 

Reine seemed to grow increasingly uneasy as the afternoon continued, and when I tentatively suggested that things just might turn out okay, she wouldn't meet my eyes.

‘What is it?' I asked after a while. ‘What's on your mind?'

‘I've got a bad feeling about this,' was all she'd say.

‘Tell me.'

‘I need to think.'

There were no phone calls from him but we did get a few from girls who'd been at the party the night before.

Had we had a visit from Joshua yet?

Yes.

The shoe – did it fit either of us?

No.

So we began to make a few calls of our own.

Any idea who that chick was?

No, we thought you might know.

No.

Word got around that the shoe fitted no one who'd been at the party and no one knew anything about the mystery girl.

When there was no busy little Cinders getting the meal together at dinnertime, we were all puzzled.

‘Where is she?' Mum snapped. ‘Go get her. I'm hungry.'

I went to bang on her door.

‘You planning to cook something for dinner?'

‘No,' she called back.

The three of us looked at each other. Mum threw down the newspaper she'd been reading and stormed over to Cinders' door. ‘Get yourself out here right now, girl!'

But just then Jack walked in looking harried and worn out and wanted to know why we were all standing outside his daughter's room. Of course, we had to back off and make light of it.

‘I think she might be feeling
unwell
,'
Mum said quickly, changing her irate expression to one of concern. Jack pushed past her and gave a couple of sharp knocks.

‘Hey Ellie, are you coming out?' he asked.

‘No,' she said.

‘Are you ill?'

‘I'm tired,' she said.

Our faces dropped in fake concern behind his back and we mouthed,
‘
I'm tired
,' sarcastically and tried to suppress our giggles. He turned around and almost caught us out.

‘She's tired,' he said shortly.

‘Oh dear,' Mum said lightly, ‘so are we all, I'm afraid.'

‘Leave her be,' Jack said under his breath.

‘Of course, dear!' Mum said, smoothly magnanimous as she sensed his mood. ‘Everyone is entitled to drop their bundle occasionally.' She smiled. ‘What say we order in tonight?'

Jack gave a grunt before turning on the television.

We ate takeaway pizza and then watched a show. All the time I was thinking of Joshua. All those phone calls but not one from him.
Oh, why didn't I make myself look reasonable this morning? Perhaps I should have asked him out . . . 
Something was brewing in Reine, so I knew I couldn't talk to her about it. I had to wait. Even so . . .

‘What is it?' I said to her eventually.

‘Talk later,' she muttered.

‘Give me a hint.'

‘No.'

{
11
}

She made me wait until Mum and Jack were in bed.

‘Okay, we need to see what was in that box,' she said.

‘What box?'

‘The one that came yesterday, of course,' she snapped.

I'd forgotten all about that stupid woman arriving yesterday afternoon. It seemed such a long time ago.

We crept together up the little hallway and stood outside Cinders' room.

‘Are we going to wake her?'

Reign shook her head.

‘Not yet,' she whispered. ‘Let's just see.' She put her hand on the door and gently pushed it open and tiptoed into the room.

I hesitated, my heart beating fast. If Cinders woke with a start and made a noise, then her father would be out for sure and we'd have to explain ourselves. I had a gut feeling that he'd begun to see through Mum by this stage, and I had no wish to cross him. So I waited, hardly daring to breathe, listening to the noises of my sister rustling about in the room. Suddenly the light went on.
Oh no! She'll wake Cinders.
But when the door opened it was Reine.

‘She's not here!' she whispered furiously. ‘Quick, come in.' We closed the door behind us and stood looking blankly at Cinders' neat little empty bed.

‘So where is she?' I said stupidly. ‘It's nearly midnight.'

‘How would I know?' Reine was searching frantically under the bed and on top of the cupboard.

‘What are you looking for?'

‘The box.' She scrabbled through Cinders' clothes drawers, dumping the contents out onto the floor any old way. But there was no sign of the box or anything else to give us a clue. We stood looking at each other, not knowing what to make of the girl's disappearance. There was a sudden gust of wind from outside and a few leaves from the big gum tree fluttered in through the open window. As though suddenly deciding something, my sister pushed past me and climbed onto the sturdy little bookcase under the high window, peered through and gasped.

‘What?'

She turned back and held out her hand to me.

‘Come up.'

I scrambled up alongside her and we looked out Cinders' small high window into the backyard.

It took a while for my eyes to adjust, but the almost full moon and the bright fluorescent streetlight in the side lane gave enough light. Enough to see the trees near the back fence and the markings Jack had made for the foundations of the bungalow. Over to the left was the big dark shape of the shed and . . . I looked to where Reine was pointing.

Something was moving near the big gum tree. I clutched my sister's arm and held my breath as we watched the lone figure of a man walk out from behind the tree and stand in the exact place where we'd made the bonfire of all Cinders' notebooks. I squinted into the darkness. He was tall and young and . . . oh no! The realisation hit me hard.

‘Oh,' I whispered, wanting to crawl away and die, ‘it's . . . 
him.'

My sister gave a sour nod.

‘But not her . . . 
yet.
We've got to get to her first,' she whispered. ‘You know where any rope is?'

‘Rope?' I said stupidly.

‘We'll need to tie her up and gag her.'

‘But she's not here.'

‘She has to be somewhere.' Reine was frowning deeply, both hands to her temples, trying to think. ‘She'll be getting ready to meet him! Or . . .'

We both looked over at the old laundry at the end of the yard. Was that a faint yellow light coming from the window? It was hard to tell for sure because the moonlight was so bright. But without another word we clambered off the bookcase and quietly let ourselves out of the room.

I grabbed a spool of twine from the bottom drawer of the kitchen cabinet and went to the back door. I could see now that there definitely
was
a yellow light coming from the old laundry.

‘This way or he'll see us,' Reine whispered, grabbing my hand. We headed out the front door and then crept back down the side of the house. When we reached the backyard we waited until Josh's back was turned, then under the cover of trees ran over to the laundry.

We crept along between the laundry and the fence to the side window and peered in. There she was, dressed in the lovely cream dress from the night before, smiling dreamily as she stuffed a small bag with her clothes. Reine and I looked at each other. So, she was planning to run!
Elope?

She looked so unbelievably beautiful that a tiny part of me wanted to simply slide away, back to the house and into bed, because it seemed wrong somehow to disturb such loveliness.

But not Reine.

‘No noise,' Reine said under her breath, ‘we've got to surprise her.'

‘Okay.' I was still mesmerised by the sight of her.

‘Come on.' My sister nudged me sharply in the ribs. ‘Get around to the door. Once we're in there we bring her to the floor, gag her and then tie her up.'

‘Right. But what then?'

‘What do you mean,
what then
?'
she snapped viciously.

‘Where do we put her?'

My sister hesitated for only a moment.

‘We lock her in,' she said grimly. ‘A few hours lying on the cold floor will sort her out, and when she doesn't show up he'll go home.'

‘But . . .'

Reine gave me a hard look and I shut up.

But it was Cinders who surprised us. I'm not sure if she sensed anything, but just as we were about to creep around to the door, she suddenly stopped what she was doing and stood very still in her lovely dress as though listening for something. Then almost in one movement she had the door open and was peering out.

‘Now!' Reine said under her breath.

Without a word, Cinders understood our intentions as soon as she saw us, and made a dash for it. Reine managed to grab one arm and hauled her back for a moment, but the girl was lithe and supple, able to slither out of my sister's grasp like an eel. Lifting her lovely skirt, she sprinted towards the back fence. I dropped back instinctively. Josh was out there, not far away. How uncool to be seen struggling with another girl! But Reine had lost all sense. She ran after Cinders and actually managed to grab her, this time by the hair. Josh turned in time to see my sister trip Cinders and then fall on top of her, all the while trying to gag her with a scarf while she was on the ground. He yelled in surprise, rushed over and pushed my sister off.