Page 71 of The Wedding Cake Wish
Suffice to say, we madeexcellentuse of it. Andafterwards, I decided it would always have a special place in my heart, so Robsuggested we should keep it so we’d always remember that we needed to sharethings with each other...
We fell asleep on the sofa and I woke up with Rob’s armswrapped around me, feeling that nip of autumn in the air and looking at abeautiful blue-skied dawn through the curtainless window.
We kissed at the gate and drove off in our separate cars,and I realised how early it was still: just after five-thirty. And now, lookingforward to languishing in a hot bath with bubbles, I park at the back and creepinside the quiet house. The last thing I want to do is wake up Mum...
‘Fen? Is that you?’ Her voice, emanating from the kitchen,takes me completely by surprise.
She’s downstairs.
‘Mum?’ I dash into the kitchen and there she is, in hercomfy old plush purple dressing-gown, sitting at the big wooden kitchen table,a pot of tea and her favourite floral cup and saucer in front of her. ‘How areyou?’
She looks exhausted but she manages a smile. ‘Better.’
‘Thank goodness. We’ve all been so worried about you. Lotsof your friends have phoned Dad to check how you are.’
She sighs. ‘I felt so bad disappearing off to my room andavoiding everyone. But I just needed the time to myself to think thingsthrough. You know...?’
‘Of course.’ I nod, plopping down into the seat opposite.‘It must have been such a shock when Rory barged in on the dinner party likethat, in front of all your guests.’
‘I suppose it was.’ She looks down into her cup with a sadlittle smile. ‘But then again...it was nothing that I didn’twhole-heartedly deserve.’
My stomach shifts uneasily.
She looks up at my hesitation. ‘I didn’t start the fire,Fen.’
‘You didn’t? Oh, Mum.’ Relief floods through me. ‘I knew youcould never have done anything like that. I knew it. You just wouldn’t.’
‘Fen, I’m still guilty.’ She shakes her head wearily. ‘I maynot have struck the match and started the blaze, but I’m as guilty asStephanie, who did.
‘Stephaniestarted the fire?’
She nods.
I think back to when we challenged Stephanie at AmberleyGardens and she denied having anything to do with the blaze. It’s clear nowthat she was lying. ‘I can’t say I’m surprised, Mum, to be honest. She soundshorrible.’
‘You’ve met her?’
I shake my head and explain all about how Hudson and Rubywent looking for Rory and found him working for Stephanie, and how he wreakedhavoc with the opening ceremony at the gardens.
She listens in amazement, and when I retell Ruby’s accountof how Stephanie was screaming at the out-of-control water jets and getting aproper soaking, Mum’s mouth opens into an ‘O’ of horror that’s mixed withamusement. She shakes her head. ‘I shouldn’t laugh. I’ve been on the receivingend of Rory’s fury and it wasn’t pleasant. But oh, Fen, IhatedStephanie. So did Rachel.’
‘So the three of you weren’t best friends, then?’ My browsshoot up in surprise and she shakes her head.
‘No, no. Never. Stephanie was a thug and a bully in thosedays. Sounds like she still is. Everyone at school was really scared of herbecause she could be violent if you crossed her. I remember she beat up thisone girl outside the school gates, just because she’d had the nerve to chat tothe boy Stephanie had her eye on. She tore the sleepers from the poor girl’sears.’ Mum shudders, remembering.
I shake my head. ‘She sounds like a proper witch.’
‘She was. No, it was Rachel and I who were close.’
‘So what happened that night?’ I murmur, half-expecting herto shut down and refuse to discuss it. But this time, she takes a deep breath.And she starts talking.
‘I was out with Rachel that night. I’d sneaked out,actually, because my mother and father hated the idea of me socialising withthe kids from the Carlton Estate and they’d forbidden me from seeing Rachel. Wewere just messing about, talking to some boys down by the river. But thenStephanie appeared. She was in a dangerous mood, I remember. Her boyfriend haddumped her and she was upset and raging. I clearly remember her hurling rocksinto the river and the boys laughing at her. Looking back, that probably madeher even more furious. It was probably what gave her the urge to take out heranger on someone else.’
There’s a brief silence as she frowns into the distance,reliving it all, and I wait for her to continue.
‘Anyway.’ She gives her head a little shake. ‘When Stephaniedecided she wanted to hang out with Rachel and me, we didn’t argue. No oneargued with Stephanie. Or if they did, they knew they’d be in for it. She daredus to go into the garden of Starlight Cottage, one at a time, and steal a peareach from the tree.’
‘Starlight Cottage?’
