Page 40 of Hazard a Guest
The ghost of that moment was like to haunt her for the rest of her life.
The door opened, swinging so rapidly on its hinges that it released a little high note of alarm. It made her eyes pop open.
She sat up, expecting Hannah or perhaps Merryn, and instead found the disheveled face of Freddy Hightower, looking around the room like he’d never been indoors before.
“Freddy?” she mumbled, rubbing at her eyes with the heel of her wrist. “The devil are you doing?”
“Where the hellis everyone?!”Freddy demanded in a hushed panic, slipping inside and clicking the door shut behind him. “I’ve been all around the house today and no one is about! There’s still food, but that’s it! Did someone die?!”
She began to laugh, a bone-deep relief at this distraction seeping into her skin like warmth after cold water. “No one has diedyet,” she assured him, scooting over and allowing him to cross the room and collapse on the edge of her bed. “Something rotten was in the food last night. Half the house is bedridden with it.”
“Oh!” he said, obviously relieved as he sank into the mattress. “Is that all?”
“That’s all,” she assured him. “And I’m just fine. Thank you for asking.”
He smirked at her but did have the grace to look a little chastened. “You’re always fine,” he said with a flippant little shrug, performative to the last.
“You can’t just barge in here, you know,” she said, drawing her knees up under her chin. “What if Hannah had been here instead of me?”
“She’s in the breakfast room,” he said immediately. “That’s how I knew to come look for you.”
“With her father? I thought you said no one was about.”
“No one is about that I can demand answers from,” he corrected with a sigh. “Her father was there, yes, and Mr. Beck. She was eating at him, and he looked deeply uncomfortable. Her father was oblivious. It was awful.”
“That sounds awful, yes,” she agreed with a little frown. “I told her to stay away from Beck.”
“Did you?” Freddy laughed, looking surprised. “Because that always drives a young girl off a mark, doesn’t it?”
She flashed her teeth at him in alarm. “Oh, feck,” she managed. “You’re right.”
“I am?” He looked unsettled, then, after a breath, delighted. “I am!”
“You are,” she agreed, and laughed again. “I’ll have to change tack.”
He nodded, giving the room one more visual scan, like he was making an accounting of any comforts in Ember’s space that he might want for his own, and then sighed. “Sorry to barge in,” he told her with half a smile. “Thanks for humoring me.”
“Wait,” she said suddenly, lurching up and grabbing his shoulder before he could depart. “Joe kissed me.”
He froze, turning back to her with wide eyes. “He never did.”
“I promise you it happened,” she insisted, releasing him and sinking back down. “I’m very confused.”
He watched her, wrinkling his brow. “Why are you confused?”
“You’re not?” she shot back, perhaps unkindly.
“Only that he did it and not you,” Freddy said with a shrug. “You didn’t like it? Or something odd happened?”
She blinked at him, wondering if the silence that settled in the aftermath of his question might be a dear and come crush him into pebbles. “Forget it.” She sighed, throwing her hands up and looking away.
He sighed heavily, a little grin of affection finding its way onto his face as he reached out and turned her chin back to facing him. “Ember,” he said in a voice that was all too steady for the likes of Freddy, “you like him, don’t you? You actually really, genuinely like him.”
“Everyone likes him,” she snapped back, knowing how defensive she sounded.
“You’re not everyone,” he replied, dropping his hands into his lap and really taking a moment to regard her. “You’re frightened.”
“Get out,” she said without any real heat, setting her jaw. “Get out of here.”
