Page 38 of On Circus Lane

“Was he hoping you’d fall out?” Tom asks sweetly.

Steven rolls his eyes and shoots him the middle finger.

Jack falls into the chair opposite us. He looks knackered already. “What do you fancy doing today?” he asks with his usual sweet smile.

Tom eyes him for a few seconds, obviously cataloguing how Jack’s feeling. Tom, Jack, and Freddy are very close. Like me and Ivy, they finish each other’s sentences and look out for each other fiercely.

“Earth to Tom,” Jack says drily.

“Oh,” Tom says, straightening. “The others want to go to the castle.”

“Oh, that’s good,” I say, leaning forward.

Tom eyes me. “Is it?”

I nod. “Oh yes. It’s a very interesting place. There was originally an Iron Age fort on the site, and the castle has been a royal residence and a prison.Whata combination.” I lever my hips up and pull out my piece of paper from the back pocket of my jeans. Looking over, I find Tom watching me, his eyes dark. “Hmm,” I say, adjusting my glasses. “If we were to go to the castle, that would take most of the morning because there’s so much to see. Then there’s the National Museum of Scotland, the National Gallery, and the Museum of Childhood.”

Tom’s eyes widen. “All that on oneday?”

I wave my paper at him. “I have plans for other days, too.”

“It’s like being on holiday with Napoleon,” he says.

I roll my eyes as Jack laughs. “That’s just me,” I say. “I like to get the most out of my holidays. I don’t get away much with my DPhil and everything. What do you all want to do?”

“Oh, I’ll do all that,” Tom says quickly. “It sounds fab.”

Jack coughs, but when I look over, he’s sitting quietly, his expression serene apart from one side of his mouth, which is twitching with humour. Tom reaches out and kicks Jack’s knee with his sock-clad foot, making him jerk. “Fab,” he echoes dutifully.

“What is fab?” Steven says, coming back into the room with his coat and scarf. “Don’t forget we still have to get your parents a Christmas present, Jack.”

“Didn’t you do that yesterday?” I ask.

“Nothing was quite right,” Jack says with a slightly weary air.

“What do you get the people who have everything?” Tom says, lounging back on the sofa and closing his eyes. “What about a whip for Barbara? She looks like she’d enjoy using it on Derek.”

Steven tuts despite Jack laughing, and Tom lifts his long legs and lays them across my lap. I blink as he settles in, lying happily in a patch of sun like a big cat. I consider him for a second, then rest my paper on his legs and go back to consulting my itinerary.

Steven shoots us a cool look. He’s chilled towards me since Tom and I started getting along. He tells Jack, “They’re going to be very hurt that we’re not going to them for Christmas.”

“You still can if you want,” Jack says. “I’m with Tom’s family this year.”

That must be nice, I think wistfully. It seems strange to think of everyone returning to their lives after the holiday.

Steven huffs. “No, I’m not doing that. I’ll go home instead. You don’t seem bothered at all by the fact that I’m going to be working in Switzerland for six months after Christmas, Jack.”

Tom opens one eye, obviously dying to respond to that comment. He restrains the impulse and says, “You’re at our house for Christmas, Jack?”

“Yes.”

“Great. You can sit next to Arlo, then.”

“No need to punish him,” Steven says.

Jack slants a disappointed glance at him.

Tom opens his eyes fully, and half sits up. “Are you suggesting it would be punishment to put Jack with mybrother?” he says in a deceptively even voice. “In my family home where you’ve always been treated well?”

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