The Island Read Free

soon.”
    I nod grudgingly. “Once I’m ready to get married I’ll come back. And not a moment sooner.”
    My mother looks from me to Mara and back. “Tell me – is Saul still running the show in the manor house? He never signs his newsletters.”
    “Yes,” Mara replies, pulling an appalled face. “Together with Ben.”
    Mother frowns with worry. “So it’s true.”
    “What is ?” I ask.
    She looks at me seriously. “Honey, Saul is twenty-one. He should have left a long time ago. Something’s not right.”
    Twenty-one? The oldest age at which someone leaves the manor house is nineteen, and even that is more the exception than the rule. Puzzled, I shake my head.
    “It’s time for an intervention from Newexter,” my mother continues. “I will tell the Eldest.”
    “What?” I erupt. “An intervention? No way!” The Eldest may be of high standing because he survived the longest, but that doesn’t give him the right to decide things for us over here.
    “We only want to help you.”
    I scoff disdainfully. “We don’t need your help. We can take care of ourselves.” Before she can spout more nonsense, I push open the gate and pull Mara along. Inside, I’m boiling with rage. If Saul is indeed too old to stay here, we will call him out on it. The parents in Newexter should stay in Newexter and let us handle it.
    And t hen I suddenly think of her again. Mother. She looked so lonely and pale. Was she really worried about me and Colin? Why would she?
    Hesitantly, I glance back, but I don’t see her standing at the gate anymore.
     
    ***
     
    Saul is standing in front of the house when we walk up the path to the side entrance. His strong hands are handling a knife he’s using to cut a new arrow shaft. He’s not looking at us, but my heart starts beating faster when we approach. I can sense his eyes on us somehow. He knows we’re there.
    Just as we are about to step onto the terrace next to the mano r, he takes a deep breath. “Hold it,” he says quietly.
    I stop in my tracks. Mara glances sideways and the blood drains from her face when Saul turns around and puts his knife away. His dark eyes, dark hair and dark clothes look like a stain of ink against the backdrop of the white manor wall.
    We stand there, like a pair of deer waiting for the wild hound to pounce. Trapped in Saul’s black stare. One corner of his mouth curls up in a smile.
    “You should probably make yourself useful,” he tells Mara, still in a voice so quiet it is almost drowned out by the blood pounding in my ears.
    “Use… useful?” she chokes.
    “More useful than you were to my brother,” he explains, that creepy smile still lingering on his face. “If you can’t perform a woman’s most important duty, maybe you should just stick to other tasks like doing the laundry. I happen to know there’s a whole lot to be done. I expect it to be clean by tonight.”
    “Okay,” Mara whispers, staring at her feet. “I’ll get to it.”
    “You do that.” Saul’s gaze swerves to me. I wish I could stare at my feet too, but a belligerent part of me makes me meet his eyes without flinching. From the corner of my eye, I see Mara walking away. I’m left to my own devices.
    “Leia.” Saul fixes me with his stare. “You look a bit pale. Anything wrong?”
    “No. I’m fine.”
    He shakes his head incredulously. “Didn’t it upset you to see your mother?”
    He saw us? I gasp for breath.
    “Why would it?” I snap.
    He takes a step forward, coming so close I can smell his breath. “Why did she come here?” he whispers.
    I don’t think it was because she wanted me to know father had died. Maybe she just wanted to see me. I’m a part of him that she misses.
    “To deliver a newsletter, I suppose,” I mumble, feeling increasingly alarmed by his proximity.
    He lets out a little laugh. “Oh, yes. The news. In the last newsletter, I read your father passed away.”
    The bile in his voice gets to me. All of a sudden, I blink back a