Deceit Read Online Free Page A

me. Mum’s so terrified of spiders she’d never have dared look for it in the attic. Then she wouldn’t have been able to sell it to Robert when he first appeared in their lives over two years ago and the whole terrible chain of events would never have started. But maybe I’m just being paranoid. Maybe it’s the stress of Matthew’s abduction that’s messing with my brain… the casket isn’t in danger or Jacalyn would know. The guardian’s ring would tell her, wouldn’t it? Just like mine would tell me. And surely there would be another epidemic spreading across London. Like the Great Plague of 1665 in Margrat’s time – and the bird flu outbreak two years ago. People had died both times. Lots of people. Please God that wouldn’t ever happen again
.
    So what if a few cases of a rare and deadly form of tuberculosis had been reported at Newham University Hospital. That was in east London and miles from Grandma’s house – their house – and there had been no other reports of any other sort of sickness anywhere. She wouldn’t even have known about the TB if she hadn’t overheard Lindsay talking to Dad about it. And no one seemed worried it was going to get out of hand.The Chief Medical Officer hadn’t been on TV broadcasting a warning about it… not like last time with the bird flu.
    Still it made Claire wonder if Jacalyn had been right when
she’d
refused to take the casket with her to France, saying it must stay with Claire until all the spells had been reunited.
    “But how’s
that
going to happen now?” Claire had asked her. “Robert had the spells with him when he fell, so how will we ever find them?”
    Jacalyn had sighed. “We wait, Claire. The spells will find
us
.”
    And on top of the nightmare she was already living, Joe was starting to distance himself from her. She could feel it and it added to her sense that everything in her life was spinning out of control. He denied he was doing it.
    When she asked if he still loved her he said, “’
Course I do
.” But he hadn’t asked for all this mess to drop on him. He had exams coming up. Life-changing ones. His mum and dad were lovely, but ambitious for their son and they wouldn’t want him to be distracted. They would put pressure on him to concentrate on his work and not on his relationship with Claire. Maybe even to finish with her.
    When she said that he’d got
very
cross. “I’d have to be a real bastard to dump you now wouldn’t I?” But she knew how much he cared about what his parents thought.
    Besides, he must be losing patience,
she thought
, with a girlfriend whose little sister was always there. Whose house was like a fortress. Whose mother had lost the plot. And whose little brother was missing and was probably dead. Or worse
.
    They never had time to themselves. If they went to Joe’s house, his mum and dad were embarrassed and didn’t know what to say to Claire. What can you say to someone who has had her brother kidnapped and whose family has fallen apart and had all their intimate details aired in the tabloid press? So they avoided going there. And if they stayed at her place Micky was never far away. Claire would hiss, “
get lost
” at her and she’d run, but Claire would know that Micky’d be crying and then she’d feel really bad. She and Joe had tried going out, but her mum was paranoid about letting her out of her sight.
    The only time they had together was at school and school was a nightmare. The whispering and the pitying looks and the teachers cutting Claireslack when she didn’t deserve it, when she should have been working hard for her exams. And the elephant in the room… Matthew’s abduction… which was never mentioned, but always there.

    She started to avoid school. And that made Joe mad. He’d been brought up to believe that getting a good education and working hard was everything. So they’d argued about her bunking off. She hadn’t seen him like that before… all goody goody… and she