hard to ignore had suddenly refused to be ignored a moment longer.
‘What the hell’s going on with Megan?’Jim asked, and she laid a hand on her husband’s arm to stop him getting up. His heart was so bad. He mustn’t get upset.
‘Hush. I’ll go and see.’
‘It’s not that boy?’ Jim rolled over in the dark and stared bleakly at his wife in the moonlight streaming in through the dust-streaked window. ‘He wasn’t at the rodeo, was he? If he’s been seeing her again…If he’s hurt her…’
‘I’m sure he wasn’t there,’ Honey said soothingly. ‘You know Megan promised she wouldn’t see him again. I’m sure she meant it and I’m sure he hasn’t tried to see her. Hush. I’ll go and see what’s wrong.’
But now she stood outside the locked bathroom door and she knew that there was no quick fix available here. Megan’s sobs were truly frightening. Megan, who’d held the family together. She’d leaned on her far too much, Honey thought as she asked again that her daughter unlock the door. But what choice did she have?
Megan was nineteen and clever and she’d ached to go to university—but if she’d gone then the hard work here would have killed Jim. So Honey had pressured her to stay. Megan had worked and worked, even after that boy…
‘Megan, love, you need to unlock the door.’
‘I’m fine.’The words were spoken on a hiccuping sob. ‘Go away. I’m fine.’
‘You’re not fine and I’m not going away until you open the door. Please, Megan. Your father’s worried.’
Your father’s worried. Your father’s sick. Your father needs you. Here it was again, Honey thought. Emotional blackmail. But it was all she had.
And it worked now as it had worked before. There was a ragged gasp, a scuffle—sounds of cleaning up?—and then the door was opened a crack.
‘I’m fine,’ Megan said again, harshly into the stillness of the darkened house. ‘Tell Dad he doesn’t have to worry.’
‘Come into your room and we’ll talk about it.’She was still whispering. Jim mustn’t hear.
‘Why?’ Megan whispered back, just as fiercely. ‘There’s nothing to talk about.’
She turned, and as she did, Honey gasped.
Megan was wearing a faded chenille dressing-gown, the sort of shapeless garment she’d been wearing for months. But as she turned against the moonlight streaming in from the window at the end of the passage, Honey had caught her profile.
For months she’d been looking at that profile, thinking no, surely not, that would be the one thing that would kill Jim, please no. It was just weight gain. Megan had been overeating. It had to be the reason.
And now…
‘Oh, God, you’ve lost it,’ she whispered. ‘Meg, you’ve lost the baby.’
‘What baby?’
‘You were pregnant.’
‘So what?’ Megan said wearily, and Honey grabbed her shoulders and propelled her back into her room and shut the door behind her.
‘You really were.’
‘Yeah, but I’m not any more.’ The girl’s voice sounded exhausted. Defeated.
‘What…what happened?’
‘It was dead,’ Megan whispered, still in that awful, inhuman voice. ‘It came early and it was dead. A miscarriage. I miscarried a baby and now it’s over. So you don’t have to worry. I’m fine.’
‘Oh, my dear…’ Honey reached out to hug her daughter but Megan flinched away.
‘Leave me alone,’she said dully. ‘Go back to Dad. Tell him there’s no need to worry. I’ll go on being his good little girl and he doesn’t have to have a heart attack.’
‘Megan, that’s not fair.’
‘My baby’s dead,’ Megan flashed at her. ‘Is that fair?’ Then she crumpled back onto the bed, sinking her face into her hands. ‘Nothing’s fair. The whole world isn’t fair.’
‘I’ll take you to the hospital,’ Honey said uncertainly, and Megan’s hands dropped from her face so she could stare at her mother in fury.
‘You think I shut up for all these months for you to tell Dad now?’she snapped. ‘Protect Dad at all costs? Well, I have and there’s nothing to do now but go to bed and forget about it.’
‘You’ll need to be checked.’
‘I’m fine.’
‘Love…’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’Megan whispered. ‘I’m not doing anything. You tell anyone and I’ll deny it absolutely. The whole thing is over, Mum. Go back to bed.’
She sat, rigid and unmoving, waiting for Honey to leave. Waiting to be alone again. Waiting.
Honey was left with nothing to do. With nowhere to go.
She stared down at her daughter for a long, long minute and Megan glared back, unflinching.
‘The baby’s dead and it’s over,’she whispered. ‘There’s an end to it. An end to everything.’
‘Oh, my love…’
‘There’s no love about it, ’Megan said bleakly. ‘Leave me be. ’
‘Honey?’
It was Jim’s voice calling from down the hall, and with a last desperate glance at her daughter Honey turned away.
Megan flinched again.
But she sat unmoving. Then, as the door finally closed behind her mother, the girl hauled herself under the covers—and she started to shake.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив
